🚀 go-pugleaf

> In article <806@aluxs.UUCP>, cdl@aluxs.UUCP (MITCHELL) writes:
> > I posted this question a while back.  Does anyone know how to find out
> > if a floppy diskette is blank/non-blank without using the 'dir' command.
> > 
> 
>   *gee*, I don't know.  What sort of floppy diskette?  8", 5 1/4", 3 1/2",
>   3 1/4", 3"???????????????
> 
> > Basically, using the "dir" command to check whether a diskette is blank-
> > -non/blank is okay if, the diskette contains data.  However, if the disk-
> > -ette is blank you get that "A(bort) R(etry) I(gnore)" error.  Depending
> > on the application you are running you might abort your program.
> 
>    DIR command?  Lessee, that command will accomplish something or another on
>    RSTS/E, RT-11, RSX, NOS, CP/M, MS/DOS, and any number of other operating
>    systems I can think of, and no doubt myriads with which I am unfamiliar.
> 
> > 
> > If anyone knows the answer to this problem please let me know
> > 
> > Ps.
> > A source code on how to do this would be more than welcome.
> 
>    Sure.  How about telling us what sort of hardware you're running on, and
>    under what operating system?   Don't you think that might be slightly
>    helpful?
> 
>    I complain a *LOT* about the arrogance of IBM-PC and clone users, who
>    seem to think the entire world uses and cares about their kind of machine.
>    I complain about non-general questions being posted to net.micro.  I am
>    going to have to re-think my position, as this question has to be one of
>    the most general (and meaningless, and unanswerable) questions I have 
>    ever seen.
> 
> -- 
> 
> Disclaimer:  Disclaimer?  DISCLAIMER!? I don't need no stinking DISCLAIMER!!!
> 
> tom keller					"She's alive, ALIVE!"
> {ihnp4, dual}!ptsfa!gilbbs!mc68020
> 
> (* we may not be big, but we're small! *)

 This is really offensive.  The guy's question is neither meaningless nor 
 unanswerable.  I find an innocent misposting a lot less irritating (not
 to mention arrogant) than your "reply".  If you want to complain to
 someone send him email, don't make the entire net distribute your attempts
 at witticisms.  BTW shouldn't your posting have gone to a different group
 since it deals with netiquette and not micro's??

 To the original poster:
 You will have to do two things,

 1) The disk may not be formatted and this (along with damaged disks and
    disks formatted by sufficintly alien controllers) will cause the
    "Abort, Retry,....etc" message.  Probably the only way for you to
    detect this is to directly read the disk, perhaps using some of the
    bios code or by writing your own routine to access the controller
    chip.  You should then get an error status back. It would probably
    be sufficient to just try and read the first sector on the first track
    to determine if the disk was properly formatted.

 2) the disk may be formatted correctly but not have a dos file structure
    on it.  This should be easily detected by trying to open a file.

   Hope this helps.........