Sophie: opencbm-0.4.2a-5mdv2010.0 i586

opencbm-0.4.2a-5mdv2010.0.i586.rpm

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<H2><A NAME="cbmformat"></A> 7.3 <A HREF="opencbm.html#toc7.3">cbmformat</A></H2>

<P><I>cbmformat</I> is a fast low-level disk formatter for the 1541 and compatible
devices (1570, 1571, third-party clones). A 1581 drive is not supported.</P>
<P>The drive routine was taken from the Star Commander ((C) Joe Forster/STA) and
highly improved.</P>
<P>There is also another, very similar tool, 
<A HREF="opencbm-19.html#cbmforng">cbmforng</A>.</P>

<H3><A NAME="invoking-cbmformat"></A> cbmformat invocation</H3>

<P>Synopsis: <CODE>cbmformat [OPTION]... DRIVE# NAME,ID</CODE></P>
<P><I>DRIVE#</I> has to be the drive number of the disc drive, <I>NAME</I> is a name
with up to 16 characters which will be the name of the disc after formatting,
<I>ID</I> is the 2-letter disc ID.</P>

<P>Note: Unlike the <I>N0</I> command of the drive, the ID must be given (thus,
no so-called "short format" is possible).</P>

<P>Here's a complete list of known options:</P>
<P>
<DL>
<DT><B>-h, --help</B><DD><P>Display help and exit.</P>

<DT><B>-V, --version</B><DD><P>Display version information and exit.</P>

<DT><B>-n, --no-bump</B><DD><P>Do not bump drive head at the beginning. Don't use this on eventually
misaligned drives.</P>

<DT><B>-x, --extended</B><DD><P>Format a 40 track disk, the BAM format is compatible to SpeedDOS.</P>

<DT><B>-c, --clear</B><DD><P>clear (demagnetize) this disc.
This is highly recommended if the disc is used for the first time,
or if it was previously formatted for another system (i.e., MS-DOS).
Note that this option takes much time.</P>

<DT><B>-v, --verify</B><DD><P>verify each track after it is written.
As this needs an extra round of the drive for each track, the formatting time
is almost doubled.</P>
<P>cf. 
<A HREF="#note-1571-cbmformat">cbmformat Notes for 1571 drives</A></P>

<DT><B>-o, --original</B><DD><P>Fill sectors with the original pattern (0x4b, 0x01, 0x01...) instead of zeroes.
The original pattern is probably due to a bug in the drive ROM, apart from
this, zeroing out unused sectors should give (slightly) better results for
compressed disk images.</P>
<P>cf. 
<A HREF="#note-1571-cbmformat">cbmformat Notes for 1571 drives</A></P>

<DT><B>-s, --status</B><DD><P>Display drive status after formatting. Normally, <I>cbmformat</I> exits after
executing the drive code. With this option turned on, <I>cbmformat</I> waits
until the drive has finished formatting and prints the drive status after
initializing the BAM on standard out.</P>

<DT><B>-p, --progress</B><DD><P>Display a hash mark ('#') for each formatted track. Slows formatting down a 
bit.</P>
</DL>
</P>

<H3><A NAME="note-1571-cbmformat"></A> cbmformat Notes for 1571 drives</H3>

<P>We encountered problems with decent revision/mechanics combinations of the
1571 disk drives when using cbmformat. We highly recommend to use
<I>--original</I> and <I>--verify</I> with 1571 drives. From our experience, with
<I>--original</I>, the problem does not occur; with <I>--verify</I>, the drive
tests each track after it was formatted and ensures that the failure condition
did not occur.</P>
<P>We did not encounter these problems with either of 1541 (1541-II, 1541C), 1570
or 1571CR (the drive which is part of the C128DCR) drives, only with original
1571 drives.</P>
<P>In the current state, cbmformat is not able to format double-sided discs on a
1571 drive.</P>

<H3><A NAME="cbmformat examples"></A> cbmformat Examples</H3>

<P>Format standard disk (35 tracks) in drive 8:
<HR>
<PRE>
cbmformat 8 GAMES,42
</PRE>
<HR>
</P>

<P>Format standard disk (35 tracks) in drive 9, use (buggy) 1541 sector pattern (for example, because this is a 1571 drive), show drive status when done:
<HR>
<PRE>
cbmformat -os 9 1571disc,71
</PRE>
<HR>
</P>

<P>SpeedDOS disk (40 tracks), show progress indicator, all sectors zeroed out,
no head banging:
<HR>
<PRE>
cbmformat -npx 8 "40 TRACKS,OK"
</PRE>
<HR>
</P>

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