Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.apps

  This is yet another continuation of my two earlier postings on the "If
you are formatting floppies, you must first switch off (disable or
uninstall) SUPERPCK or else the floppy will get many lost clusters."
problem reported by Howard Harvey :

  I wrote :

>- I could reproduce the problem *each and every time* with the simple
>  sequence (Super PC-Kwik enabled, details follow) :
[deleted]

and

>  On Oct 1 Howard Harvey writes :
>
>>To those who believe that the problem is due to premature ejection of the
>>floppy: I tried the formatting as the very first action after booting the
>>system, so there should not have been any residual reference to B: in
>>the SUPERPCK.  The number of bytes lost was reported immediately on 
>>completion of the formatting procedure and was identical for several floppies
>>formatted at the same time.  CHKDSK was necessary to clear up the diskettes.
>
> This exactly confirms my findings. [deleted]

  While what I said was not really wrong, it does not give all the
information neccessary for reproducing the problem. Apparently the use of
the system *before* the FORMAT is essential. I could not reproduce the
problem, by following the procedure I gave earlier, *directly after* a
Ctrl-Alt-Del reboot. So I investigated further and came up with a
procedure which *does* reproduce the problem directly after a
Ctrl-Alt-Del reboot.

  Since it took me a long time to get a reliable problem-reproduction
procedure, I will give rather detailed information. I hope that the
audience will bear with me.
  
  I think the hardware configuration is/may_be important, so I will
start with that :

- Hewlett-Packard Vectra QS/16 (386DX) with 2MByte memory and VGA.
- Diskette drives: A: 5.25" 1.2MB and B: 3.5" 1.44MB.
- Hard-disk: Seagate ST-251 40MB, 2 partitions C: and D: of 20MB each.

How to reproduce :

- REName CONFIG.SYS to CONFIG.YSY and AUTOEXEC.BAT to AUTOEXEC.TAB in
  order to make the software configuration of DR DOS 6.0 as simple as
  possible. My DR DOS is the original 6.0 version, i.e. no (Dec'91,
  MS-Windows 3.1 or Apr'92) updates.

- Reboot with Ctrl-Alt-Del.

- During boot press the 'Enter' key at the date and time prompts.

- Type "\drdos\superpck /tl". "\drdos\" is needed because PATH is not
  set. This command results in the following Super PC-Kwik options: /D-,
  /H+, /B+, /O-, /Q-, /T+ ("Track buffering using a 18-sector buffer."),
  /V+, /W+, /L+ ("512K reserved for lending.") and /EM ("1024K Extended
  memory cache"). Note: Do not use "\drdos\superpck /p" at this time to
  verify the settings, it might disturb the problem-reproduction
  process.

- Insert 3.5" 1.44MB diskette, which has already been formatted and which
  has no files/subdirectories on it (i.e. 1,457,664 bytes available on
  disk), into drive B:.

- Type "dir b:". DIR should report "0 File(s)   1457664 bytes free".

- Type "\drdos\format b: /u". "/u" is needed to do a real re-format of
  an already formatted diskette. Press the 'Enter' and 'Enter' keys in
  response to the "when ready..." and volume label prompts.
  Now, if you can indeed reproduce the problem, FORMAT will say "Disk
  formatted successfully." and will report a number of "bytes available
  on disk." which is substantially less than the reported number of
  "bytes total disk space.", for example 1,342,976 versus 1,457,664.
  Press the 'n' key at the "another diskette" prompt.
  "\drdos\chkdsk b:" will now report "... lost clusters in ... chains.",
  for the same example 682 clusters in 216 chains.

Notes:

- The "dir b:" before the "\drdos\format b: /u" is the *essential*
  command. Without it I could not get FORMAT to fail ("fail" means
  available < total and lost clusters).

- After performing the "How to reproduce" steps, subsequent FORMATs will
  fail each and every time. There is no need for further DIR commands to
  get FORMAT to fail. That was the missing/confusing aspect in my
  previous postings: I knew that, once FORMAT failed, each subsequent
  FORMAT would fail. I just did not realize/know what was needed to get
  the first failure.

- The moment where the diskette is inserted seems not to be important.
  For example inserting the diskette before the Ctrl-Alt-Del (instead of
  before the "dir b:") also causes the FORMAT to fail.

- One can remove and re-insert the diskette between the DIR and the
  FORMAT and the FORMAT will still fail. As posted earlier, one can, but
  does not have to, remove and re-insert the diskette before each
  subsequent FORMAT (For the suspicious people in the audience: Yes, the
  volume change hardware of the diskette drive works correctly. See my
  earlier postings.).

- When the "/tl" option is not given, the track buffers will be 17
  sectors (for my disk) and there will be much less lost clusters, for
  example 1,436,160 bytes available and 126 lost clusters in 42 chains.

- I could *not* get FORMAT to fail with 360KB (/f:360) or 1.2MB 5.25" or
  720KB (/f:720) 3.5" diskettes.

- A "\drdos\superpck /f" between the DIR and FORMAT does not help, the
  FORMAT will still fail. As reported earlier, a "\drdos\superpck /f"
  *after* the FORMAT will "solve" the "problem" (As reported earlier, the
  diskette is actually fine (Just remove it after the FORMAT, write-
  protect it and CHKDSK it after a reboot and you will see), so there is
  no real problem and hence also nothing to solve.).

  I hope that with this information others besides Howard and myself can
reproduce this "problem". A person from Norway reported by e-mail that he
could reproduce the problem with the information I posted earlier.
  Anyone from Novell/DRI? Frotz?

Frank "All this testing has worn out my diskette[-drive]! :-)" Slootweg