On 01/05/2024 00:27, Mike Katz via cctalk wrote:
Thank you.
My goal is not to use HD floppies on a drive not designed for them. I
saw some on ebay and amazon but I thought I would try here to see if
anybody had some they don't need. I would help keep them out of the
trash.
I have lots, but being in the UK its probably more expensive to post
them that to buy from E-Bay.
My recent experiences with real floppies leads me to believe that almost
all media and/or the drives are deteriorating and although I have
several drives and lots of disks obtaining reliable performance seems as
attainable as unicorn horns...
Thank you again.
Dave G4UGM
On 4/30/2024 6:15 PM, Wayne S wrote:
If it’s any help, i second the reformat completely a disk in a old
pc. I had some issues many years ago where disks formatted on an ibm
pc didn’t work correctly on a non- ibm pc. Reformatting and doing the
error checking by reading and writing all sections fixed it. A quick
format didn’t.
There are lotsa 720k diskette’s available for sale… prices vary. Even
Amazon has them!
Sent from my iPhone
On Apr 30, 2024, at 15:39, Mike Katz <bit...@12bitsbest.com> wrote:
Thank you. I didn't see any new procedures that I have already tried.
I do not have a problem with the drive or with trying to format a HD
disk with the HP-41 and therefore I was looking for a few DSDD disks
instead of DSHD disks.
On 4/30/2024 5:13 PM, Wayne S wrote:
There is also these 2 procedures to try…. From
https://literature.hpcalc.org/community/hp9114a-ms-en.pdf
TheHP9114Ausesdouble-sideddiscs.Dataiswrittenonboth sides of the
disc. Thus the normal formatting procedure is double- sided
formatting. Single-sided formatting is allowed for transferring
data from older systems. See the next section for single-sided
formatting.
Before a flexible disc can be used for the first time, it must be
formatted. Formatting establishes the directory and volume label as
wellasverifyingthatthemediaisnotdamaged.Shownnextare two ways to
format discs. Insert a blank disc into the disc drive.
From the P.A.M. display, pressing the “File Manager” (f2) softkey
gets you to a “Format” softkey. Press the key labeled ““Format”
(f5) and answer the next questions.
“Enter the disc to format”. The first disc drive is assigned the
letter C. Type C: and press return.
“Enter a volume label (optional).” The volume label is the name you
want to call the disc. This can be up to 11 characters. For
example, let’s call this disc “First”. Type First and press Return.
The information is displayed on the first two lines below the
cursor.PresstheStartFormatkey(f1)ifthesetwolinesarecorrect.
“Formatting Disc. Please wait.” appears on the display. Formatting
a disc takes about 1 1/2 minutes. The interleave used with this
formattingmethodis8,theoptimalforHP Portable/9114A operation.
After formatting is complete, pressing the “’Exit Format” (f8)
softkey returns you to the main File Manager display. To exit File
Manager press the “Exit File Manager” softkey. This ends the format
procedure.
ThesecondmethodofformattingdiscsistousetheMSDOS Format command.
From the initial P.A.M. display, tabbing over to the area called
“DOS Commands” and pressing “Return” allows you to use the DOS
command called Format. The interleave used inthiscommand
is8whichisoptimalforyourHP Portable/9114A system.
Type FORMAT C: and press Return.
“Press any key to begin formatting C:” is displayed. Press any key
on the keyboard. Formatting takes about 1 1/2 minutes.
After formatting is complete there is another prompt on the display
““Volume label (11 characters, Enter for none)?. *“Press “Return”if
you don’t want a label or enter the name and press “Return” if you
want to label the volume.
When completed “Format another (Y/N)?” appears on the display.
Typing “N” gets you back to entering MS DOS commands. Type “EXIT”
to return to P.A.M.
Formatting Single-sided
TheHPPortable/9114Asystemcanformatdouble-sideddiscsina single-sided
format. This is allowed for data compatability with other 3
1/2-inch disc systems. There is a utility called
“Format.Com”ontheutilitydiscsuppliedwithyourHP Portable
computer.Youmustloadthe“Format.Com”utilityintoyourHP Portable. Use
the following sequence.
PlacetheUtilitydiscintoyourHP9114A. TabovertotheDOS Command
blockandpressStartApplic.
From theMS DOS command displaytype: COPY C: FORMAT.COM A: and
press Return
This loads the utility and allows you to use the extra parameters
explainedinthefollowingFORMATcommand.
TheMS DOS command thatallowsthiscompatibilitywithits parameters
isshown next.
Format C:/W -Single-sided
/X -Double-sided with 256 byte sectors
/Y -Double-sided with 512 byte sectors /Z -Double-sided with 1024 byte
Sent from my iPhone
On Apr 30, 2024, at 14:39, Mike Katz <bit...@12bitsbest.com> wrote:
Thank you for your help.
That is the command I am using on the 41 to try and format the
disk. With a directory size of 60.
On 4/30/2024 4:22 PM, Wayne S via cctalk wrote:
Also this article refers to a set of commands for this drive. The
NEWM command formats a new disk.
Link is
https://www.hpmuseum.org/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/hpmuseum/articles.cgi?read=78
Sent from my iPhone
On Apr 30, 2024, at 14:07, Wayne S <wayne.su...@hotmail.com> wrote:
What kind of floppies did Hp recommend to use with this drive?
Sent from my iPhone
On Apr 30, 2024, at 13:55, Fred Cisin via cctalk
<cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:
On Tue, 30 Apr 2024, John Herron via cctalk wrote:
Yup, that's all I used to do. Some scotch tape over the floppy
disk hole to
make the system see it as DD. If it didn't automatically format
as 720, you
could specify size or sector count with format.com in dos.
Somemedia sensors are optical; use opaque taps.
I did hear folks say it wasn't always reliable (similar to 5.25
disks being
formated on a high density drive) but I never saw any problems in my
limited use.
3.5" are 600 VS 750 oersted;
5.25" are 300 vs 600 Oersted;
a low density 5.25 formatted as "high density" won't do well;
a high density 5.25" (1.2M) formatted as low density ("360K")
sill self erase VERY soon, sometimes before you can even get it
over to another machine. We had a college purchasing agent in
bed with "Roytype", who kept giving us "1.2M" floppies ofr out
TRS80s; they self erased very soon.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
