Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!sun-barr!rutgers!dptg!lzaz!hcj
From: hcj@lzaz.ATT.COM (HC Johnson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Flopfmt = HDfmt???
Summary: floppy format is not HD format
Message-ID: <771@lzaz.ATT.COM>
Date: 6 Sep 89 16:46:09 GMT
References: <111500028@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu>
Organization: AT&T ISL Lincroft NJ USA
Lines: 20

In article <111500028@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu>, sfn20715@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu writes:
> 
> I am writing a program to format hard drives using extended formats.
> My developers kit says the XBIOS function 10 (flopfmt) works for floppies.
> Does it work for hard drives too?  I assume all I have to do is change
> the device to 2 for drive C, 3 for D, etc, right?
> 

NO, floppy format requires setting up tracks and talking to the WD controller
chip.  It is done for you in XBIOS.

HD format is a high level SCSI operation and is done by the user application
program.  Generally two messages are required on the SCSI bus: set up parms,
and format disk. Then just sit back and wait for it to happen.


Howard C. Johnson
ATT Bell Labs
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