[comp.sys.ibm.pc] Formating problem

hobbes@Portia.Stanford.EDU (Andrew Zimmerman) (05/10/89)

I am having a problem with the format command under DOS 3.30 on a
NCR PC-AT compatible.  Hopefully, someone on the net can help me.

When I try to format a 360K disk on the 1.2 Meg floppy drive, I get
the following

C>format a:/4
Parameters not supported by Drive
Format Failure

If I do a format without the /4, the NCR tries to format for a 720 disk.

The version of dos that I am using is the one that was supplied with
a machine that has a 3.5" 1.44 Meg drive.  (I was hoping to be able to
use the same version of dos on both machines.)
Thanks for any help.
Andrew
hobbes@portia.stanford.edu

mregeste@ncrwic.Wichita.NCR.COM (Mark Regester) (05/12/89)

> I am having a problem with the format command under DOS 3.30 on a
> NCR PC-AT compatible.

  Is the PC an 8, 810 or 916?

> When I try to format a 360K disk on the 1.2 Meg floppy drive, I get
> the following
> 
> C>format a:/4
> Parameters not supported by Drive
> Format Failure
 
  The syntax you are using is correct.  Do you have any device drivers
  installed in config.sys?  All NCR PC 8s, 810s, and 916s with 1.2 Meg
  floppy drives support both 1.2 Meg and 360k floppies without the use
  of a device driver.

> If I do a format without the /4, the NCR tries to format for a 720 disk.
 
  I have never had any luck using a 5 1/4" disk at any density other than
  1.2M and 360k.

> The version of dos that I am using is the one that was supplied with
> a machine that has a 3.5" 1.44 Meg drive.  (I was hoping to be able to
> use the same version of dos on both machines.)

  NCR DOS versions prior to 3.3 required the use of a device driver to
  use 1.44M floppies in a 3 1/2" drive.  If you copied config.sys from
  the 3 1/2" machine to the 5 1/4" machine, check for a device driver
  in config.sys.

> Andrew
> hobbes@portia.stanford.edu