SpartaDOS X Reference Manual

The Command Processor — Commands

Index

Initializes a disk in either SpartaDOS or Atari DOS 2 format. You may select density, sector skew, tracks, and volume name before formatting. It supports most known hardware configurations for your computer.
 

When you format a floppy diskette, you are first writing the sector structure to the diskette so the DOS has a place to put the program information. Next the directory structure is written to the diskette which is where the DOS keeps track of sector usage. You can also initialize a RAMDISK or Hard Disk in the FORMAT menu but only with the BUILD DIRECTORY option.

You can exit or quit the FORMAT menu at any time before formatting begins by pressing <ESC>.

After entering the FORMAT menu you choose the following parameters:

U		Unit is the initial selection that must be made. The formatter needs to know which drive you wish to initialize. Valid choices are: 1 - 9 or A - I. After entering the unit number or letter the program reads the drive to determine what type it is. FORMAT automatically determines whether the drive is a floppy disk drive and if it is configurable or if the drive is a RAMDISK/Hard Drive which appear the same at this point. Note: FORMAT will only write directories to RAMDISKS and hard drives. An internal RAMDISK must be installed with the RAMDISK.SYS driver. A hard drive partition must be low-level (physical) formatted with with a program that should have been provided with the hardware.
S		Skew refers to the order in which the sectors are arranged in a given track. The two valid choices are: High Speed and Standard. High Speed will automatically put the correct UltraSpeed skew on a disk using SpartaDOS with the US Doubler or Indus GT drives. It will also put the correct high speed skew on the Atari XF551 drive under Double Density. Standard skew is used on all other floppy drives. If you do select High Speed skew and the drive does not support a high speed mode, the format program will receive an error from the drive and then try to format under Standard skew. The correct skew is required on most drives for the fastest possible reading and writing. Skew is not applicable to RAMDISKS and Hard Drives, since they can not be physically formatted by this program. NOTE: Skew refers to the order in which the sectors are written on the diskette. The optimum skew will position the sectors so that after sector 1 is read and the drive CPU is ready for the next, sector 2 is directly under the head for reading; after 2 is read, 3 is directly under the head, etc. (Usually 2-8 sectors have passed under the head before the next sector can be read. This varies with drive speed and SIO baud rate.) If the skew is off, it may take a full disk revolution to read or write the next sector each time. No harm is done, the drive just reads and writes slowly.
M		Mode is either Sparta or Atari. Sparta is for SpartaDOS disk directory structure and Atari is for all the AtariDOS 2.0 clones and their directory structures. NOTE: FORMAT does not write a "DOS" file to the diskette. If you want to create a bootable SpartaDOS disk, you must copy a "DOS" file from the SpartaDOS Construction Set to your formatted disk and then use the BOOT command. (See the BOOT command.) If you want to create a bootable AtariDOS diskette, you will need to boot AtariDOS and write the DOS.SYS and DUP.SYS to the drive through its menu. SpartaDOS X will boot with any or no disk.
V		Volume is a way of naming your diskettes for organizational purposes. Up to eight characters are allowed on SpartaDOS formatted diskettes. The volume name may contain any ATASCII characters except spaces. Volume is used on SpartaDOS diskettes only and is not applicable to other DOS types.
D		Density may be one of three types used with 8-bit Atari computers. These are: Single, 128 bytes per sector FM, Dual, 128 bytes per sector MFM, or Double, 256 bytes per sector MFM. (FM and MFM refer to bit density where MFM writes twice the number of bits in the same area as FM.) Atari 810s only support Single density. Stock Atari 1050s support Single and Dual. Atari 1050s with the US Doubler (or other OS enhancement), Atari XF551s, and Indus GTs support all three densities. Most other disk drives for the 8-bit Atari support Single and Double density.
T		Tracks can be 40 SS, 40 DS, 77 SS, 77 DS, 80 SS, and 80 DS. SS means Single Sided (1 head writes on one side of the diskette) and DS means Double Sided (2 heads with each writing on opposite sides of the diskette). All Atari brand drives will use 40 SS except for the XF551 which is capable of 40 DS. Most of the other 5 1/4 inch drives will be either 40 SS or 40 DS. (See your drive manual if you are not sure.) 77 Tracks is used for 8 inch disk drives connected with an interface like the ATR8000 or PERCOM controller. 80 Tracks is used for 3 1/2 inch drives and high capacity 5 1/4 inch drives with a similar interface. All drives with two heads will also format in the SS mode. NOTE: The drive controllers do not provide adequate feedback to the computer when formatting a diskette to determine whether the Tracks selection is wrong for the drive. It is important to enter the correct information or the disk will end up with an incorrect free sectors count.
F		Format Disk will start the physical format of a floppy diskette assuming you have entered all the other parameters required. It also writes the directory structure selected in Mode after the physical format and verify is completed. (The physical format and verify are functions of the floppy disk controller and not affected by the SpartaDOS VERIFY command.) CAUTION: The Format Disk procedure obviously destroys all previous information stored on the diskette.
B		Build Directory is the initialization option available for RAMDISKS and Hard Disks, although it will work equally well with floppy disks. The only parameters available for these disks are Unit number and Volume name. The others are predetermined or not applicable. Build Directory writes fresh SpartaDOS directory structure to the drive. Unit selected which means it will destroy all previous information stored in the RAMDISK or Hard Disk partition. The physical format of a Hard Disk drive must be performed by a special program written for the particular hard drive, interface, and controller. That is considered a low-level format and is beyond the scope of the FORMAT menu. The physical format of the RAMDISK is provided by the RAMDISK handler at installation.

Sectors and Bytes counts are also shown on the FORMAT menu and are determined by what is read from the configuration on RAMDISKS or Hard Disks or by the parameters selected for a Floppy Drive format.

Indus GT NOTES: It should be mentioned here that the Indus GT has a few known quirks or bugs. Because of this, Dual (Enhanced) Density is not supported on this drive. This should not be a problem since Dual Density is really unnecessary on a double density drive. The Indus has also been known to keep spinning indefinitely when used in a system with US Doubler enhanced 1050s. If you experience this problem, the best solution is to stop using mixed drives in your system.

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