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Article #2361

the FORMATTER

#2361
From: Mike Vederman
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 1986 14:09
13 lines
1289 bytes
To answer several people's questions.

The Formatter does not modify the operating system in anyway.  It is a
stand-alone program which has the modified format code in it.  You can use
the formatted disks just as you would a normal disk.  TOS has no idea that the
disks are different, unless one is 80 and the other is 82 tracks.  You can do
disk copies or file copies of disks, assumming that the format size (tracks
and sectors) of the two disks are the same.

What the formatting algorithm does is this.  Bad sectors are placed at the
end of all the tracks formatted.  When the WD1772 hits a bad sector, BOOM!
the chip stops instantly with an error, and goes to the next track.  In this
way, the WD1772 doesn't have to wait for synch info, it just goes.
Technical Details
Message-ID: <8610170109.AA28955@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!mnetor!seismo!lll-crg!nike!ucbcad!ucbvax!UHUPVM1.BITNET!ACS19

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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!mnetor!seismo!lll-crg!nike!ucbcad!ucbvax!UHUPVM1.BITNET!ACS19
From: ACS19@UHUPVM1.BITNET (Mike Vederman)
Newsgroups: net.micro.atari16
Subject: the FORMATTER
Message-ID: <8610170109.AA28955@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: Thu, 16-Oct-86 10:09:38 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.8610170109.AA28955
Posted: Thu Oct 16 10:09:38 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 17-Oct-86 03:25:07 EDT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The ARPA Internet
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