Corrected FDISK and FORMAT

[Petr]

I was confused about FDISK and FORMAT. Do you have an alternative for the MS-DOS format tool?

Just few replies above:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?s=&amp...st&p=582335

Petr

[PROBLEMCHYLD]

Does this means Q263044 is obselete?

I hate to quote myself but it seem like my post was ignored.

[soporific]

Does this means Q263044 is obselete?

MDGX and I think it is, and my updates list now reflects this (and I was reminded by the note on MDGX's site - thank the universe for MDGx!!!)

[patchworks]

I wanna suggest you to check the ROSapps: there are many interesting -GPL- tools (such as chkdsk) on the sysutils and cmsutils dirs.

I also think that Package manager (SVN dir) and fraginator could be useful too.

[erpdude8]

I still use it exclusively, whether I'm formatting a HD for Winders 98 or Winders XP.

speaking of formatting hard drives under XP, Andromeda43, WinXP's disk utilities can only format & partition FAT32 volumes up to 32 Gb. If you want to partition and format FAT32-based drives beyond 32 GB you must use FDISK and FORMAT tools from a Win98 or WinME boot disk.

see these articles on the limitations of FAT32 file system for XP:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/301340/en-us

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314463/en-us

[jaclaz]

If you want to partition and format FAT32-based drives beyond 32 GB you must use FDISK and FORMAT tools from a Win98 or WinME boot disk.

Yep, or use this FREEWARE OPEN SOURCE utility:

http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?fat32format.htm

Actually, looking back at the Microsoft comment, if I could format the volume myself, all would be OK. Fat32 is pretty simple, so it occured to me to write a fast format routine to do the job.

B)

jaclaz

[patchworks]

great points, Petr. Mr. "patchworks" here doesnt get it. Free FDISK is OUTDATED and cant support HDs beyond 128Gb, hence 48bit LBA support is barely non-existent (or at least buggy) in Free FDISK. And documentation on Free FDISK is kinda lame and does not mention full 48bit LBA support on large HDs.

More good reasons to upgrade it !

Yep, or use this FREEWARE OPEN SOURCE utility:

http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?fat32format.htm

Cool, never heard it.

Well, this inspired me an idea:

Does someone here remembers the good old 2M, FDFormat or 800 tools ? (check out here or on this dir)

It would be great to have an open source "super format" utility !

Edited December 3, 2006 by patchworks

[jaclaz]

It would be great to have an open source "super format" utility !

Well, if it's allright a FREEWARE (not "Open Source") one, we already have it:

http://users.pandora.be/jbosman/applications.html

http://users.pandora.be/jbosman/dcopy.zip

DCOPY is a fast disk copy program for DOS (does not run under Windows NT). It can copy, format, verify and compare floppy disks. It reads almost all disk formats (except XDM). It also supports non-DOS disks. You can also create disk images and automatically zip them.

Please note that due to HAL limitations in the NT structure, it is NOT possible to access tracks beyond 80 on floppy disks under NT/2K/XP/2003, so anything that uses more than that can only be read in DOS (possibly with fdread or other similar program will be needed) or in Linux.

See also this for more info on floppy formats and programs:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=81068

jaclaz

Edited December 4, 2006 by jaclaz

[patchworks]

Well, if it's allright a FREEWARE (not "Open Source") one, we already have it:

http://users.pandora.be/jbosman/applications.html

http://users.pandora.be/jbosman/dcopy.zip

Freeware IS NOT open source...

Btw, i don't think DCOPY can compete with 2M... no other program can !

Please note that due to HAL limitations in the NT structure, it is NOT possible to access tracks beyond 80 on floppy disks under NT/2K/XP/2003, so anything that uses more than that can only be read in DOS (possibly with fdread or other similar program will be needed) or in Linux.

Even if i really like multiplatform software, i hope to see the "super format" at least on ReactOS (has it the same HAL limits ?)...

[LLXX]

Please note that due to HAL limitations in the NT structure, it is NOT possible to access tracks beyond 80 on floppy disks under NT/2K/XP/2003, so anything that uses more than that can only be read in DOS (possibly with fdread or other similar program will be needed) or in Linux.

Do you have any more details on this? For some reason I think a one-byte patch might be all that's required to make it work... (yes, that's what I'm planning to do if it's an easy fix)

[jaclaz]

Do you have any more details on this? For some reason I think a one-byte patch might be all that's required to make it work... (yes, that's what I'm planning to do if it's an easy fix)

The problem should be within the Floppy Disk Driver, which, if I am not mistaken, is flpydisk.sys.

There is also the fdc.sys, maybe is this latter the culprit.

Have a look at this:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321697/en-us

The following registry override was provided to force Fdc.sys to physically probe the floppy drives to determine whether the floppy drives actually exist or whether they are only virtual drives. If they are virtual drives, it does not report them.

However, because of a bug in the Fdc.sys driver, this override value does not go into effect.

Therefore, it is not useful.

Basically you need to write a new (or patch the existing) driver.

Maybe you can have some ideas "peeking" in the Source code for the XP 1.44 unconditional formatter:

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

though I cannot say if it uses "low-level" instructions or not.

Another thing that might be an obstacle is WFP , cannot say if the driver is one of the protected files or not.

jaclaz

Edited December 6, 2006 by jaclaz

[LLXX]

Do you have any more details on this? For some reason I think a one-byte patch might be all that's required to make it work... (yes, that's what I'm planning to do if it's an easy fix)

The problem should be within the Floppy Disk Driver, which, if I am not mistaken, is flpydisk.sys.

There is also the fdc.sys, maybe is this latter the culprit.

Have a look at this:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321697/en-us

The following registry override was provided to force Fdc.sys to physically probe the floppy drives to determine whether the floppy drives actually exist or whether they are only virtual drives. If they are virtual drives, it does not report them.

However, because of a bug in the Fdc.sys driver, this override value does not go into effect.

Therefore, it is not useful.

Basically you need to write a new (or patch the existing) driver.

Maybe you can have some ideas "peeking" in the Source code for the XP 1.44 unconditional formatter:

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

though I cannot say if it uses "low-level" instructions or not.

Another thing that might be an obstacle is WFP , cannot say if the driver is one of the protected files or not.

jaclaz

WFP isn't anything near an obstacle. Maybe a slight annoyance.

I'll keep those filenames in mind.

[jaclaz]

@LLXX

On second thought, you can experiment with the ReactOS floppy disk driver, or try with the "installable" one that vizzini made:

http://www.reactos.org/pipermail/ros-kerne...rch/002778.html

jaclaz

[creopard]

Is there any chance of localizing the new fdisk and format files without an hexeditor?

[LLXX]

Is there any chance of localizing the new fdisk and format files without an hexeditor?

...why don't you learn how to use a hex editor. A lot more useful than you think. Edited December 9, 2006 by LLXX