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1541/1571 fast format routine

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Spiro Trikaliotis

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Apr 10, 2005, 9:35:45 AM4/10/05
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Hello,

does anyone here know a good 1541/1571 fast format routine with source
code? Reliability is more important than speed!

Ideally, this routine would be available with a GPL-compatible license
(GPL itself, LGPL, BSD, zlib, ... - there are many), but this is not
necessary.

Thank you,
Spiro.

--
Spiro R. Trikaliotis
http://www.trikaliotis.net/

r_u_...@mybluelight.com

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Apr 11, 2005, 1:11:24 AM4/11/05
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Spiro Trikaliotis wrote:

> does anyone here know a good 1541/1571 fast format routine
> with source code? Reliability is more important than speed!
>
> Ideally, this routine would be available with a
> GPL-compatible license (GPL itself, LGPL, BSD,
> zlib, ... - there are many), but this is not necessary.

The most reliable way to format a disk is to issue a NEW command to
the drive command channel. The way to do this on C64s & C128s is
to execute the following commands in immediate or program modes:

open15,(U),15,"n0:DISKNAME,ID";CLOSE 15

The capitol U can be a numerical variable or a constant,
usually with values between 8 and 11 inclusive.
DISKNAME is a string with a length less than or equal
16. ID is another string with length equal to 2.

Formatting 1571s in 1571 mode should be a speedy
operation, while formatting on a 1541 is painfully pokey.

If you need a program dedicated to disk formatting,
you may want to scan the COMPUTE GAZETTE index at:

http://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/gazette/index.html

COMPUTE GAZETTE type in programs can be found at:

ftp://arnold.c64.org/pub/magazines/

It is unlikely that such a utility would work with
anything except 1541s or 1571s in 1541 mode. You
may find something that works with 1541 clones.

Full fledged multi function disk
utilities can be downloaded from:

http://www.haddewig.de/nogames64/tools.html

MAVERICK and FAST HACKEM have many fans on COMP.SYS.CBM.
They probably have fast formatiing capabilities.

The MAVERICK archive contains 7 or 8 disk images and may be
combersome to manipulate on stock Commodore 5.25 inch drives.
You may want to break up the MAVERICK archive on a PC into
multiple archives containing a single disk image each.

I know of no open sourced programs for what you
want. The dedicated formatters from COMPUTE
GAZETTE may be the easiest to reverse engineer.

Spiro Trikaliotis

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Apr 11, 2005, 1:23:56 PM4/11/05
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Hello,

r_u_...@mybluelight.com wrote:

> Spiro Trikaliotis wrote:

>> does anyone here know a good 1541/1571 fast format routine with
>> source code? Reliability is more important than speed!

> The most reliable way to format a disk is to issue a NEW command to


> the drive command channel. The way to do this on C64s & C128s is to
> execute the following commands in immediate or program modes:

Thanks, this was already known to me.

[many links]

Thanks for the links, possibly, there is something interesting in there.

> I know of no open sourced programs for what you want.

This is not the best info.

Thank you,
Spiro.

--
Spiro R. Trikaliotis
http://www.trikaliotis.net/

http://cbm4win.sf.net/

Martin Brunner

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Apr 11, 2005, 5:47:55 PM4/11/05
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r_u_...@mybluelight.com schrieb:

>The most reliable way to format a disk is to issue a NEW command to
>the drive command channel. The way to do this on C64s & C128s is
>to execute the following commands in immediate or program modes:
>
>open15,(U),15,"n0:DISKNAME,ID";CLOSE 15

Are you sure this is most reliable? I didn't see that it was more
reliable than a fast format with the programm called "Der Hexer".

If the Hexer didn't work then this standard routine also didn't work.
And that happend mostly with DD-Diskes I used on the PC before.

The Doctor

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May 22, 2013, 8:17:46 AM5/22/13
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On Sun, 10 Apr 2005 15:35:45 +0200, Spiro Trikaliotis
<news-...@trikaliotis.net> wrote:

>Hello,
>
>does anyone here know a good 1541/1571 fast format routine with source
>code? Reliability is more important than speed!
>
>Ideally, this routine would be available with a GPL-compatible license
>(GPL itself, LGPL, BSD, zlib, ... - there are many), but this is not
>necessary.
>
>Thank you,
> Spiro.


Spiro, it's been 8 years. I hope you weren't in a hurry. Are you
still around?

Spiro Trikaliotis

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Jun 16, 2013, 2:16:05 PM6/16/13
to
Hello,

On 2013-05-22, The Doctor <no...@uhuh.com> wrote:
> On Sun, 10 Apr 2005 15:35:45 +0200, Spiro Trikaliotis
><news-...@trikaliotis.net> wrote:
>
>>Hello,
>>
>>does anyone here know a good 1541/1571 fast format routine with source
>>code? Reliability is more important than speed!
[...]

> Spiro, it's been 8 years. I hope you weren't in a hurry. Are you
> still around?

Indeed, I am still around.

In the meantime, some years ago, I wrote my own format routine
(cbmformat from OpenCBM) which Wolfgang Moser even improved (cbmforng
from OpenCBM).

Why do you ask? Do you have anything interesting to add?

Regards
Spiro
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