   A FreeWare Gem:                                  A Product Review


           An Essential Utility for Windows95: FDFORMAT

                          Copyright 1995 by Frank McGowan


 DI a!? ayyyyyyyy yyyyyyyyRyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy -95; my withdrawal pains from
 losing Win 3.1 have been excruciating!  While it's undoubtedly true that
 you cant teach an old dog new tricks, this old dog is willing and
 motivated to learn, - as long as the effort seems worthwhile. As you can
 probably tell, I'm still pretty skeptical about the newest OS.  I suppose
 I'll get over it, and learn to love Win 95, -- one of these days.

 In truth, I should be grateful to Microsoft.   As one who works in
 computer training, the coming of Window95 with its new challenges,
 obviously opens up a field ripe with opportunity. Guess I d better grit
 my teeth and climb back onto that wild horse.

 It didn't do much for my dyspepsia, however, to discover that I couldn't
 make backup copies of my Windows95 distribution disks. There is nothing
 quite so upsetting as the message  This Disk Can't be Copied".  For a
 few moments, I assumed I had a problem with the 3.5  disk drive, so it
 was a small relief to realize that the Windows 95 disks were formatted to
 hold over 1.7 meg, rather than the usual 1.44.  I grumbled, and worse,
 about how inconsiderate it was of Microsoft to use a non-standard
 formatting routine (DMF) and not provide the proper utility with their
 new operating system. This huge hole in their package put all of their
 customers at risk of losing the ability to reinstall the system, in case
 of disaster, and assuming the rescue disk failed. I put the original disks
 back in the box, and put the box in a safe place, hoping that nothing
 would corrupt them.

 Then along came a copy of a nifty little freeware program called
 FDFORMAT, the answer to the prayers of all who have upgraded to Win 95
 and intend to upgrade their major Microsoft applications, such as Word
 and Excel.

 Created by a troika of benevolent programmers named Christian
 Hochstatter, J. Armengaud, and P. Summers (sorry, I don t have the full
 names of the other members of the team), FDFORMAT transforms a 1.44 disk
 into a 1.7 meg disk; and then its companion program, FDREAD, performs the
 disk copy. Voila! Backup disks! Okay, it wasn't quite that
 straightforward. The documentation was virtually non-existent, save for
 one README file supplied by a benefactor named R. A. Faucett, who
 provided the proper command for formatting a diskette. R. A., you may
 have saved my sanity!

 After unzipping the distribution file, I had to muddle about figuring out
 what all the little icons mean. It should be obvious, but wasnt to me.
 Even though R. A. told me in the README file that Fdcpy17a refers to
 disks in the A drive and Fdcpy17b.... well, I d been having a tough day.

 Not so obvious is that you have to have already put the disk in the drive
 before double-clicking the Fdcpy17a icon. Old habits ? Or, even more
 important, that you need to format a bunch of  diskettes - (thirteen
 actually) to the new 1.7 meg capacity so they're ready to receive the
 data after you've read the Win 95 diskette into memory. You do this by
 invoking the FDFORMAT program in DOS mode, and specifying the following
 command:

                 FDFORMAT A: /T:80 /N:21 /C:4 /D:16 /M:240

 The program script that shows up when you start the copy process implies
 that you can simply put any 1.44 diskette in, and it will be properly
 formatted. Even though Id already formatted the diskettes, I gave it a
 try with an old 1.44, and although I could not reformat an already used
 diskette others can if the old disk is clean and free of errors.  Quoting
 from R.A. himself

 " This will yield the following results from FDFORMAT after the disk is
 formatted:

        OEM-Entry               CH-FOR16
        Total sectors on disk:  3360
        Sectors per track:       21
        Heads:                    2
        Bytes per sector:       512
        Hidden sectors:           0
        Boot-sectors:             1
        Number of FATs:           2
        Sectors per FAT:          3
        Total clusters on disk: 838

         1716224 total bytes on disk
         1716224 bytes available

 He goes on to say, "The key is the /M:240 parameter. This sets the Media
 Descriptor Byte to F0 (hex). This allows FDFORMAT to successfully use 4
 sectors per cluster on a floppy disk. DOS normally supports only 1 or 2
 sectors per cluster as the FDFORMAT documentation explains. Without this
 parameter, and using 4 sectors per cluster (/C:4), FDFORMAT will
 incorrectly set the Media Descriptor Byte to F8 (hex) and the disk will
 NOT be properly read by DOS."   Thanks RA !

 I inserted the newly-formatted 1.7 meg diskette and pressed ENTER. My
 heart skipped a beat when the message  No valid drive. This drive cannot
 be formatted  popped up on the screen.  I waited a bit, and breathed
 more easily when the files started to be copied onto the diskette.  Of
 course, it was with considerable trepidation that I put in  Win95 disk #1
 and pressed ENTER in the first place.  - I was betting 89.95 the diskette
 wouldnt be wiped out.

 In all, it took about an hour to get through the formatting and copying,
 but considering that my system is now backed up, I consider it time well
 spent. Besides, I was able to keep an eye on the O.J. trial in the
 meantime, almost as mindless a pursuit as performing thirteen disk
 copies. My hat's off to the folks who came up with this ingenious
 program. I have to wonder if they had any idea how popular it is about to
 become?

 Frank McGowan is a teacher, a trainer and a scientific writer.  He is a
 regular WindoWatch contributor. Questions about his articles can be
 directed to him at  76342.3036@compuserve.com


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