cdl@aluxs.UUCP (MITCHELL) (09/24/86)
I posted this question a while back. Does anyone know how to find out
if a floppy diskette is blank/non-blank without using the 'dir' command.
Basically, using the "dir" command to check whether a diskette is blank-
-non/blank is okay if, the diskette contains data. However, if the disk-
-ette is blank you get that "A(bort) R(etry) I(gnore)" error. Depending
on the application you are running you might abort your program.
If anyone knows the answer to this problem please let me know
Ps.
A source code on how to do this would be more than welcome.
Thanks.
Derrick Mitchell
1247 Cedar Crest Blvd.
Allentown PA 18103
(215)-770-3945mc68020@gilbbs.UUCP (Thomas J Keller) (09/26/86)
In article <806@aluxs.UUCP>, cdl@aluxs.UUCP (MITCHELL) writes: > I posted this question a while back. Does anyone know how to find out > if a floppy diskette is blank/non-blank without using the 'dir' command. > *gee*, I don't know. What sort of floppy diskette? 8", 5 1/4", 3 1/2", 3 1/4", 3"??????????????? > Basically, using the "dir" command to check whether a diskette is blank- > -non/blank is okay if, the diskette contains data. However, if the disk- > -ette is blank you get that "A(bort) R(etry) I(gnore)" error. Depending > on the application you are running you might abort your program. DIR command? Lessee, that command will accomplish something or another on RSTS/E, RT-11, RSX, NOS, CP/M, MS/DOS, and any number of other operating systems I can think of, and no doubt myriads with which I am unfamiliar. > > If anyone knows the answer to this problem please let me know > > Ps. > A source code on how to do this would be more than welcome. Sure. How about telling us what sort of hardware you're running on, and under what operating system? Don't you think that might be slightly helpful? I complain a *LOT* about the arrogance of IBM-PC and clone users, who seem to think the entire world uses and cares about their kind of machine. I complain about non-general questions being posted to net.micro. I am going to have to re-think my position, as this question has to be one of the most general (and meaningless, and unanswerable) questions I have ever seen. -- Disclaimer: Disclaimer? DISCLAIMER!? I don't need no stinking DISCLAIMER!!! tom keller "She's alive, ALIVE!" {ihnp4, dual}!ptsfa!gilbbs!mc68020 (* we may not be big, but we're small! *)
chapman@fornax.uucp (John Chapman) (09/29/86)
> In article <806@aluxs.UUCP>, cdl@aluxs.UUCP (MITCHELL) writes: > > I posted this question a while back. Does anyone know how to find out > > if a floppy diskette is blank/non-blank without using the 'dir' command. > > > > *gee*, I don't know. What sort of floppy diskette? 8", 5 1/4", 3 1/2", > 3 1/4", 3"??????????????? > > > Basically, using the "dir" command to check whether a diskette is blank- > > -non/blank is okay if, the diskette contains data. However, if the disk- > > -ette is blank you get that "A(bort) R(etry) I(gnore)" error. Depending > > on the application you are running you might abort your program. > > DIR command? Lessee, that command will accomplish something or another on > RSTS/E, RT-11, RSX, NOS, CP/M, MS/DOS, and any number of other operating > systems I can think of, and no doubt myriads with which I am unfamiliar. > > > > > If anyone knows the answer to this problem please let me know > > > > Ps. > > A source code on how to do this would be more than welcome. > > Sure. How about telling us what sort of hardware you're running on, and > under what operating system? Don't you think that might be slightly > helpful? > > I complain a *LOT* about the arrogance of IBM-PC and clone users, who > seem to think the entire world uses and cares about their kind of machine. > I complain about non-general questions being posted to net.micro. I am > going to have to re-think my position, as this question has to be one of > the most general (and meaningless, and unanswerable) questions I have > ever seen. > > -- > > Disclaimer: Disclaimer? DISCLAIMER!? I don't need no stinking DISCLAIMER!!! > > tom keller "She's alive, ALIVE!" > {ihnp4, dual}!ptsfa!gilbbs!mc68020 > > (* we may not be big, but we're small! *) This is really offensive. The guy's question is neither meaningless nor unanswerable. I find an innocent misposting a lot less irritating (not to mention arrogant) than your "reply". If you want to complain to someone send him email, don't make the entire net distribute your attempts at witticisms. BTW shouldn't your posting have gone to a different group since it deals with netiquette and not micro's?? To the original poster: You will have to do two things, 1) The disk may not be formatted and this (along with damaged disks and disks formatted by sufficintly alien controllers) will cause the "Abort, Retry,....etc" message. Probably the only way for you to detect this is to directly read the disk, perhaps using some of the bios code or by writing your own routine to access the controller chip. You should then get an error status back. It would probably be sufficient to just try and read the first sector on the first track to determine if the disk was properly formatted. 2) the disk may be formatted correctly but not have a dos file structure on it. This should be easily detected by trying to open a file. Hope this helps.........