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Tips on formatting floppy disks

Tips on formatting floppy disks

Based on details from this discord thread:

ISSUE:

Upon using the HEADER"name" command to format a floppy disk, you may run into this error message:

27, read error,09,37

 

RESOLUTION:

  • DD disks are recommended over HD disks

  • If you want to use HD disks, follow the steps in the “Format procedure for HD disks” section below.

  • If using a non CBM disk, you need to use the low level format with HEADER, so add ,I42

    • I.e., HEADER "name",I42

NOTE: If using HD disk, you may initially have success formatting your disk without the use of the floppy tool, be then you may find other problems will surface later on during disk usage.

Format procedure for HD disks

  • Assure that HD hole on this disk is open

  • Run the Floppy tool on your MEGA65

  • Select option 6. Wipe disk

  • After disk is wiped, then cover the HD hole with some black gaffa tape (so that the drive will treat it as a DD disk)

    • NOTE: Place the tape on the underside of the floppy disk (not on the top side!)

  • Then back in BASIC, perform the HEADER "name",I42 command to format the disk for use on your MEGA65

KiDra’s Alternate approach

  1. Do not cover the hole of the HD Floppy, so that the drive operates in HD Mode and run "6. Wipe disk" in floppytest.prg

  2. Cover the hole to make the drive recognize the floppy as DD and run "3. Test formatting of DD disk"

  3. After formatting run "2. Test all sectors on DD disk" to confirm the disk is good.

 

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