HDFORMAT - Format Disks with higher Capacity

LICENSE
-------

This program is a public-domain product for private and educational use. You
may freely copy and use it without any charge. You may feel free to send me
some money anyway.

This program must not be sold for profit. An adaequate fee may be requested
for copying, shipping and handling when redistributing this program.


COMMENTS AND PROBLEMS
---------------------

Comments, improvements, suggestions and problems may be sent to the Author

Christoph H. Hochsttter E-Mail: BITNET: HOCHSTAE@DMRHRZ11
Carl-Strehl-Strasse 20 INTERNET: HOCHSTAE%[email protected]
D-3550 Marburg UUCP: DMRHRZ11.BITNET!HOCHSTAE
West-Germany


PROGRAM USAGE
-------------

HDFORMAT formats Disks in many different MSDOS formats. It does the follwing
things.

1) Formatting of 720 kB Disks in an AT 1.2 MB drive
2) significantly increasing the storage of your diskettes (e.g. Using 1.44 MB
on HD-5"-Disks)

If you want to format a 720 kB Disk in an AT-drive, then type

HDFORMAT : T80 S9

If you want to increase the storage of your disks, then type

HDFORMAT : T41 S10 (for 360 kB-Drives)
HDFORMAT : T82 S10 (for 720 kB-Drives)
HDFORMAT : T82 S18 (for 1.2 MB-Drives)
HDFORMAT : T82 S21 (for 1.44 MB-Drives)

Always add a P at the end of the command, when using a PS/2 Computer. Some
Computers cannot use Disks with higher capacity without the TSR HDREAD
installed. If so, simply type the Command HDREAD before using HDFORMAT
or a Disk with higher Capacity. You may wish to add HDREAD to your
AUTOEXEC.BAT or CONFIG.SYS (DOS 4.00) File.

The exact description of the HDFORMAT Command Syntax is:

HDFORMAT : [options]

Options are:

Tnn : Format nn Tracks
Snn : Format nn Sectors per Track
Hn : Format n Heads
P : Special option for PS/2 Computers
V : Do not verify the diskette (and save 33% time)
Gnnn : Use a GAP-Length of nnn (*)
Inn : Use an interleave Factor of nn (*)
Bnnn : Use a BIOS-Disk-Descriptor Byte of nnn (not on XT) (*)
Cn : Use n sectors per Cluster (1 or 2) (*)
Dnnn : Use nnn Root Directory Entries (*)
Fnn : Shift sectors on adjacent tracks with a distance of nn sectors (*)

Options with (*) are adjusted to the best value automatically. You may
do some experimenting with it.

- Reducing the GAP-Length may speed up the disk perfomance
- Reducing the Root Directory Entries brings you additional storage


The following table shows you, what Options are correct for specified formats:

Options Storage on Disk Allowed in Disk-Drives
------------ --------------- -------------------------------
T40 S9 360 kByte 360 kB, 720 kB, 1.2 MB, 1.44 MB
T41 S10 410 kByte 360 kB, 720 kB, 1.2 MB, 1.44 MB
T80 S9 720 kByte 720 kB, 1.2 MB, 1.44 MB
T82 S10 820 kByte 720 kB, 1.2 MB, 1.44 MB
T82 S15 1.2 MByte 1.2 MB, 1.44 MB
T80 S18 1.44 MByte 1.2 MB(!), 1.44 MB
T82 S18 1.46 MByte 1.2 MB, 1.44 MB
T82 S21 1.76 MByte 1.44 MB

Have fun using this program.