[jaclaz]

LLXX said:

Do you have any more details on this? For some reason I think a one-byte patch might be all that's required to make it work... (yes, that's what I'm planning to do if it's an easy fix)

The problem should be within the Floppy Disk Driver, which, if I am not mistaken, is flpydisk.sys.

There is also the fdc.sys, maybe is this latter the culprit.

Have a look at this:
http://support.micro...kb/321697/en-us

Quote

The following registry override was provided to force Fdc.sys to physically probe the floppy drives to determine whether the floppy drives actually exist or whether they are only virtual drives. If they are virtual drives, it does not report them.

However, because of a bug in the Fdc.sys driver, this override value does not go into effect.
Therefore, it is not useful.

Basically you need to write a new (or patch the existing) driver.

Maybe you can have some ideas "peeking" in the Source code for the XP 1.44 unconditional formatter:
http://www.denispetrov.com/?page_id=3
though I cannot say if it uses "low-level" instructions or not.

Another thing that might be an obstacle is WFP , cannot say if the driver is one of the protected files or not.

jaclaz

This post has been edited by jaclaz: 06 December 2006 - 11:31 AM

[LLXX]

jaclaz, on Dec 6 2006, 12:15 PM, said:

LLXX said:

Do you have any more details on this? For some reason I think a one-byte patch might be all that's required to make it work... (yes, that's what I'm planning to do if it's an easy fix)

The problem should be within the Floppy Disk Driver, which, if I am not mistaken, is flpydisk.sys.

There is also the fdc.sys, maybe is this latter the culprit.

Have a look at this:
http://support.micro...kb/321697/en-us

Quote

The following registry override was provided to force Fdc.sys to physically probe the floppy drives to determine whether the floppy drives actually exist or whether they are only virtual drives. If they are virtual drives, it does not report them.

However, because of a bug in the Fdc.sys driver, this override value does not go into effect.
Therefore, it is not useful.

Basically you need to write a new (or patch the existing) driver.

Maybe you can have some ideas "peeking" in the Source code for the XP 1.44 unconditional formatter:
http://www.denispetrov.com/?page_id=3
though I cannot say if it uses "low-level" instructions or not.

Another thing that might be an obstacle is WFP , cannot say if the driver is one of the protected files or not.

jaclaz

WFP isn't anything near an obstacle. Maybe a slight annoyance.

I'll keep those filenames in mind.

[jaclaz]

@LLXX

On second thought, you can experiment with the ReactOS floppy disk driver, or try with the "installable" one that vizzini made:
http://www.reactos.org/pipermail/ros-kerne...rch/002778.html

jaclaz

[swgreed]

Is there any chance of localizing the new fdisk and format files without an hexeditor?

[LLXX]

swgreed, on Dec 8 2006, 10:13 AM, said:

Is there any chance of localizing the new fdisk and format files without an hexeditor?

...why don't you learn how to use a hex editor. A lot more useful than you think.

This post has been edited by LLXX: 08 December 2006 - 06:58 PM

[swgreed]

...Because this intention already sucked when I tried hexediting the winboot.sys. Guess not everyone's that deep into bits'n'bytes

[ricardrosen]

Don't know if this had been posted before, but the >64GB win98se fdisk and the WinME fdisk.exe have a maximum single partition limit of 512GB. It will alow you to partition bigger but can cause corruption.

http://support.micro...om/?kbid=280737

Shame with 750GB drives out already, as I alwayds used the Winme fdisk.exe as a 100% safe standard over free-fdisk and the others.

[LLXX]

...and I thought those 500Gb drives I was planning to get for testing the 48bit LBA driver would be enough...

M$ is being a bit self-contradictory again...

Quote

To work around this issue and create partitions that are larger than 512 GB, do not use Fdisk to partition your hard disk.

You can use the Windows Millennium Edition (Me) Setup boot disk that is provided with the full version of Windows Me to partition new drives before you install Windows.

Basically they're saying

1. Do not use Fdisk on drives > 512Gb.

2. Use the WinME boot disk, i.e. use the Fdisk on it, to partition the > 512Gb drive.




Two solutions:

1. Mod the WinME Fdisk to support up to 2 terabytes (could be difficult, depending on how this problem manifests itself in the code, but keeps everything else M$)

2. Use Free Fdisk and if necessary, modify it (easier since it's open-source).

Your choice, I can do either one.

This post has been edited by LLXX: 11 December 2006 - 10:51 PM

[ricardrosen]

LLXX, on Dec 11 2006, 10:50 PM, said:

...and I thought those 500Gb drives I was planning to get for testing the 48bit LBA driver would be enough...

M$ is being a bit self-contradictory again...

Quote

To work around this issue and create partitions that are larger than 512 GB, do not use Fdisk to partition your hard disk.

You can use the Windows Millennium Edition (Me) Setup boot disk that is provided with the full version of Windows Me to partition new drives before you install Windows.

Basically they're saying

1. Do not use Fdisk on drives > 512Gb.

2. Use the WinME boot disk, i.e. use the Fdisk on it, to partition the > 512Gb drive.




Two solutions:

1. Mod the WinME Fdisk to support up to 2 terabytes (could be difficult, depending on how this problem manifests itself in the code, but keeps everything else M$)

2. Use Free Fdisk and if necessary, modify it (easier since it's open-source).

Your choice, I can do either one.

It is strange as their is only 1 fdisk.exe on Winme setup cabs, they all have the same md5 as used on the Winme boot-disk.

The only other thing I can think was that the MS article means to boot the computer with the Winme CD and use the windows setup/install GUI to partition the disk. I don't have a WinmeCD so can't check if it works.

[erpdude8]

ricardrosen, on Dec 12 2006, 01:44 PM, said:

It is strange as their is only 1 fdisk.exe on Winme setup cabs, they all have the same md5 as used on the Winme boot-disk.

The only other thing I can think was that the MS article means to boot the computer with the Winme CD and use the windows setup/install GUI to partition the disk. I don't have a WinmeCD so can't check if it works.

WinME CDs are no longer being sold as Win98/ME are no longer supported by MS.
the solution MS mentioned in MS article 280737 is somewhat convoluted [at least the way M$ described it is misleading]
how about using FDisk from the WinME startup disk? or better yet, partition the 512GB+ drives with third party solutions/tools

if you cant make a WinME startup disk or dont own a WinME CD (or the WinME setup files), go to this site and download the WinME startup disk image:
http://www.putergeek...ads/#winme_full

This post has been edited by erpdude8: 15 December 2006 - 01:44 PM

[patchworks]

Another reason to support an open source (win32?) super-FDISK & FORMAT is to implement a deep erase function.

Do you remember the good old Central Point COPY ][ PC BULK ERASER ? It's the unique tool that allowed me to "revive" unmagnetized disks. Why not a Windows version ?

This post has been edited by patchworks: 29 December 2006 - 11:32 AM

[jaclaz]

patchworks said:

Do you remember the good old Central Point COPY ][ PC BULK ERASER ? It's the unique tool that allowed me to "revive" unmagnetized disks. Why not a Windows version ?

Why not reading a few posts above?

http://www.denispetrov.com/?page_id=3

Quote

About

I could not figure out how to format a demagnetized floppy in Windows XP. Its format functions — both GUI and command-line — just verify that the disk is readable, and if it is not, they give up and declare the diskette unusable instead of actually trying to format it. I don’t know what developers at Microsoft were thinking, but this is obviously a mistake. Or a bug. Or maybe it’s a conspiracy between diskette manufacturers and Microsoft to boost sales as people toss “not working” but still perfectly good floppies and order another box of brand new “working” ones! Just kidding.

I searched the Web for a free utility that would do what I needed, but all I could find were overpriced monsters with a myriad of useless options. It seemed as if nobody would spend an hour to create a tiny little thing that would simply format a diskette and make it useful again.

Thus frustrated, I sat down and wrote this tiny little thing myself. It honestly formats a standard 1.44 MB diskette in drive A: on any Windows PC.
You can download the source code for study, improvement or including in your own projects. See compilation instructions below. I will be glad to hear your comments and answer questions, so feel free to e-mail me. This program is provided AS-IS, WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY WHATSOEVER, and source code is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License. The program does not require installation of any kind - simply double-click on the downloaded executable file.

jaclaz

[LLXX]

The format.exe/format.com from DOS/Win9x doesn't work on XP?

[M_win]

LLXX, on Dec 11 2006, 09:50 PM, said:

Quote

To work around this issue and create partitions that are larger than 512 GB, do not use Fdisk to partition your hard disk.

You can use the Windows Millennium Edition (Me) Setup boot disk that is provided with the full version of Windows Me to partition new drives before you install Windows.

Basically they're saying

1. Do not use Fdisk on drives > 512Gb.

2. Use the WinME boot disk, i.e. use the Fdisk on it, to partition the > 512Gb drive.

I think they meant that little blue-screened portion of setup before setup.
I'm not sure if it was in ME but I know it was in 98.
Also not sure if it uses the actual fdisk program because the only option you get is:
"allocate disk space"
"do not allocate disk space"

and if you have an ntfs drive:
"remove these files"
"do not remve these files"

[erpdude8]

LLXX, on Jan 4 2007, 07:57 PM, said:

The format.exe/format.com from DOS/Win9x doesn't work on XP?

of course not LLXX. the Win2000/XP editions of FORMAT.COM is a little different than the DOS/9xME editions and they only work within Windows 2000/XP, NOT outside of Win2k/XP. do you even have an XP machine or even experienced using an XP computer?

good thing I've looked at XP's FORMAT.COM options on my bro's XP home edition computer.

This post has been edited by erpdude8: 17 January 2007 - 12:29 PM

[erpdude8]

M_win, on Jan 13 2007, 03:36 AM, said:

I think they meant that little blue-screened portion of setup before setup.
I'm not sure if it was in ME but I know it was in 98.
Also not sure if it uses the actual fdisk program because the only option you get is:
"allocate disk space"
"do not allocate disk space"

and if you have an ntfs drive:
"remove these files"
"do not remve these files"

no M_win. LLXX made her point. the solutions MS mentioned are confusing. use the ME edition of Fdisk to partition 512gb+ HDs; dont use the Win98 editions of Fdisk.

[patchworks]

Dunno if you're interested (as always), but seems that we have a new open source tool:

]

GNU General Public License[/u]. It is based on the Visopsys operating system. It boots from a CD or floppy disk and runs as a standalone system, independent of your regular operating system.

Partition Logic is intended to become a free alternative to such commercial programs as Partition Magic, Drive Image, and Norton Ghost.

Official website

This post has been edited by patchworks: 07 April 2007 - 03:01 AM

[shaddam]

another (well know?) partition resizer, freeware, DOS-based, support up to 2TB
download: http://www.zeleps.co...es/PRESZ134.ZIP

beside... someone got (positive) experience on 'mixed' environments, (newer) parts from freedos + win9x ?
e.g. the emm386 substitute which seems to use less low memory... good for old games & MS emm386 seems to have for my new hardware an problem in detection upper memory blocks... :/
freedos base tools
http://www.freedos.org/cgi-bin/freedos-lsm...?q=d&a=base

[jaclaz]

Just as an appendix to my previous post about the problems with the NT/2K/XP floppy driver, I recently found this nice thingie:
http://alter.org.ua/...oft/win/floppy/
an alternate Floppy Disk driver that allows for the 1.76 Mb format.

jaclaz

[erpdude8]

jaclaz, on Apr 7 2007, 09:39 AM, said:

Just as an appendix to my previous post about the problems with the NT/2K/XP floppy driver, I recently found this nice thingie:
http://alter.org.ua/...oft/win/floppy/
an alternate Floppy Disk driver that allows for the 1.76 Mb format.

jaclaz

nice find. does the creator of the 1.76Mb Floppy Disk driver have drivers for Windows Server 2003 and Windows Vista?