cgb@count0.uucp (cgb) (04/18/91)
I have been following the thread on people having problems formatting the internal floppy and would like to put my $.02's worth of observations in. 1. When you insert a DOS formatted floppy you will ALWAYS see the console msgs. > Bad disk label magic number > fd: UNABLE TO READ DISK. Thats OK because the system was looking for a UNIX formatted disk when it sent those messages to the console. It goes ahead and mounts the DOS disk afterwards. 2. IF you have already formatted a floppy UNIX style buildDOS will not reformat that disk as a DOS disk. In fact it will eject the UNIX floppy and ask for another. Bug or Feature I don't know but the only way I've been able to get around it is to format the disk on my MAC, I guess the MAC scrambles things up enough to keep the system from seeing the floppy as a UNIX floppy. The reverse seems to be true as well. 3. If maddness overcomes you and you format your 2.88 disk on a DOS machine (it will format as a 720 because of the hole location) I've found that another trip to the MAC is in order. This is the situatuion where the NeXT will SWEAR the the 2.88 is mangled beyond fixing and the format will ALWAYS fail. Misc: If you don't have access to a MAC I suppose a de-gausser (read bulk tape eraser) would work. I have not tried this. -- Cats, no less liquid than their shadows, Offer no angles to the wind. They slip, diminished, neat, through loopholes Less than themselves.