----- Original Message -----
From: "Fred Cisin (XenoSoft)" <cisin(a)xenosoft.com>
To: <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Monday, June 09, 2003 10:17 PM
Subject: Re: need 720k 3 1/2" disks
On Mon, 9 Jun 2003, Stuart Johnson wrote:
I realize that answering one's own post
isn't the best netiquette, but I
took time to try my suggestion and discovered that Windows XP Pro cannot
format a floppy EXCEPT as a 1.44. If you have a 720 floppy and need to
format it, you are SOL. This is in the XP documentation. This is an
IMPROVEMENT? :-(
It sucks. We must all do whatever it takes to turn Bill Gates into a
millionaire.
But,...
I HAVE DONE IT.
Since I didn't have my copy of the "resource Kit", I didn't know that
it
wasn't possible (The Wiley E. Coyote principle of software development)
If I were to have known that it wasn't possible, then it would have been a
lot more difficult.
XP dropped support of formatting 720K from the desktop, and from the
command line they dropped /F:720, and dropped /F:2. But they did NOT
eliminate:
FORMAT A: /T:80 /N:9
Note: I did it with a recent model Compaq; it is entirely possible that
the BIOS in some machines may pose other, additional problems. And in
future service packs, they make fix the "error" of having left in the /T
and /N.
Hmmmm. Is SETVER still present in XP? If so, then it would be possible to
use an older FORMAT without even having to patch it.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com