Format floppy to 720 KB?

[Rudi1]

Hi!

I look for batch file or script which one they let me format floppy to 720 kb in windows xp.I need this 720 kb disk for some cnc machine.Can someone help me with this?

[Ctrl-X]

You Cannot Format 720 KB Floppy Disks in Windows XP

[Rudi1]

I'am read this article before,but I read also in some other forums that this is also posible maybae with correct command or script.

[staples]

You may be able to image your floppy with software.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=floppy+image

[bledd]

not used a floppy in years, but when i used to use them, the 720kb ones didn't have the 2nd hole in the top corner, try covering it up and see what it gets recognised as..

(put some tape over it)

[Rudi1]

Thx for your answers guys!In the mean time I find a litle exe file wich one can format floppy to 720 kb,but I must cover the empty hole and then work fine

If anyone need this utility can find it here and there is also utility to format 1.44 floppy.

http://www.denispetrov.com/?page_id=3

Cheers and take all of you!

[FAT64]

What's a floppy disk?

[jaclaz]

What's a floppy disk?

It's something that you CANNOT format on XP.

Besides the use highlighted in this thread, Denis Petrov has started it all by writing a program to allow XP to format PROPERLY even 1.44 Floppies

FORMAT144

I could not figure out how to format a demagnetized floppy in Windows XP. Its format functions — both GUI and command-line — just verify that the disk is readable, and if it is not, they give up and declare the diskette unusable instead of actually trying to format it. I don’t know what developers at Microsoft were thinking, but this is obviously a mistake. Or a bug. Or maybe it’s a conspiracy between diskette manufacturers and Microsoft to boost sales as people toss “not working” but still perfectly good floppies and order another box of brand new “working” ones! Just kidding.

http://www.denispetrov.com/?page_id=3

Besides, XP shares a limitation with all NT based systems, that it cannot format some "peculiar" formats, see these:

http://www.serverelements.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=64

http://www.winimage.com/wimushlp/wini1a1y.htm

jaclaz

Edited September 26, 2006 by jaclaz

[CoffeeFiend]

What's a floppy disk?

I would normally 100% agree with you on that point - old, obsolete legacy junk I don't want near any of my systems.

But it's a CNC machine. Lots of machine shop tools like that run plain old DOS on very old hardware (most of the time 486 and older, and a bit of "newer" P1's). Personally, I'd opt for upgrading the drive in the CNC controller if possible though - it's supported by BIOS, OS and all on the CNC machine (unlike say, using USB flash drives instead or such), and there's no need to downgrade your XP or look for specific software to write to older floppies and such (every PC with a floppy drive these days supports 'em). And you get twice the space on your floppies (transfer twice as much) and no need to scotch tape the other hole (what an annoyance).

[Rudi1]

What's a floppy disk?

I would normally 100% agree with you on that point - old, obsolete legacy junk I don't want near any of my systems.

But it's a CNC machine. Lots of machine shop tools like that run plain old DOS on very old hardware (most of the time 486 and older, and a bit of "newer" P1's). Personally, I'd opt for upgrading the drive in the CNC controller if possible though - it's supported by BIOS, OS and all on the CNC machine (unlike say, using USB flash drives instead or such), and there's no need to downgrade your XP or look for specific software to write to older floppies and such (every PC with a floppy drive these days supports 'em). And you get twice the space on your floppies (transfer twice as much) and no need to scotch tape the other hole (what an annoyance).

You are right about that!This is real old stuff,becouse today almost no one use floppy anymore,but I need this type of floppy at my work.I must format 1.44 floppy to 720 kb,becouse this CNC machine only accept this disk and I can't buy this type of disk anymore,so if I like to made a program for machine I need this format.

We are ask already the company which one is buils this machine for upgrade,but is allmost to expencive,the machine is 10 years old,so for now I must work like it is.

[CoffeeFiend]

You are right about that!This is real old stuff,becouse today almost no one use floppy anymore,but I need this type of floppy at my work.I must format 1.44 floppy to 720 kb,becouse this CNC machine only accept this disk and I can't buy this type of disk anymore,so if I like to made a program for machine I need this format.

We are ask already the company which one is buils this machine for upgrade,but is allmost to expencive,the machine is 10 years old,so for now I must work like it is.

I know - been there, done that. I did mechanics in my college days. I've done a fair amount of CNC and machining work, I've programmed countless PLCs and such, so I've seen and worked with such systems a lot. I'm even working on a hobby CNC machine (using atmels to drive the steppers - well, the H bridges, not a bad setup). I really, really like working with that kind of stuff.

[EchoNoise]

I still use 5.25 disks...

[LLXX]

I like to use a formatter called 'Fint13', it can do many different and even nonstandard formats (like 1.8M on a 1.44 floppy)