Format C: /U does it still work

[Philgo]

Hi All

I have noticed there is a lot of discussion lately about if the "U" switch still works with the Format command.

I have been using for years and now I am wondering if it actually works, I would have thought if it was not working I would get some sort of illegal switch response, but thats not the case. So could anyone tell me for sure if the "U" switch still works.

The only switch I know that has been removed is the "S" switch in ME, thats OK I never used it anyway but I would like to use the "U" switch.

Appreciate any thoughts

[sting]

hi, I believe it still does. Havent used it in awhile.... u= unconditional

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"Onward Through the fog"

ErrorCity

[DrMDJ]

My understanding is that the /U (unconditional) paramter became redundant starting with DOS 7.x and was disabled with ME. Prior to this DOS provided the UNFORMAT command, which was coupled to whether a FORMAT /U had been done or not. When the UNFORMAT command was dropped there was no need for the /U option and all formats became "unconditional". The /U continued to be accepted, but was effectively ignored.

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[Philgo]

Thanks folks,

Looks like you saved my typing finger, I wont bother with the /U in future.

[jtdoom]

hi all
this is academic, and maybe inconclusive.

but, the limited test I ran yesterday proved to me that the /u is still functional in win98SE, and format "tout court" does not format unconditionally.

well, I saw "a" thread, and I tried a few things.
I still have the old DOStools mirror and unformat sitting on drive

I call these incomplete tests since I had no fat16 drive hooked up so I ran these tests on a floppy.
(anyhow, mirror won't work on fat32, but will on fat16, and unformat needs the mirrordata. edit >> SEE LATER POST.)

the test;
mirror A: on a floppy with files
format a: (winse version)
unformat a:
presto, data recovered
dir A: to prove it
winse format a: /U
old dos unformat A:
data is lost to unformat

old style format on fat16 said something like "saving unformat data"
I wasn't gonna format a fat32 data drive to look if it still does.
(even if norton could recover it. and No, I don't use norton mirror.)

I do have a couple small drives in FAT16 I could test this on.
however, it is academic, ain't it?
only thing is, the /U switch still does what it did, and IMHO, without ain't unconditional.

Jaak



[This message has been edited by jtdoom (edited 05-16-2001).]

This is Win98OEM format switch combo:
C:\>format /?
Formats a disk for use with MS-DOS.

FORMAT drive: [/V[:label]] [/Q] [/F:size] [/B | /S] [/C]
FORMAT drive: [/V[:label]] [/Q] [/T:tracks /N:sectors] [/B | /S] [/C]
FORMAT drive: [/V[:label]] [/Q] [/1] [/4] [/B | /S] [/C]
FORMAT drive: [/Q] [/1] [/4] [/8] [/B | /S] [/C]

/V[:label] Specifies the volume label.
/Q Performs a quick format.
/F:size Specifies the size of the floppy disk to format (such as 160, 180, 320, 360, 720, 1.2, 1.44, 2.88).
/B Allocates space on the formatted disk for system files.
/S Copies system files to the formatted disk.
/T:tracks Specifies the number of tracks per disk side.
/N:sectors Specifies the number of sectors per track.
/1 Formats a single side of a floppy disk.
/4 Formats a 5.25-inch 360K floppy disk in a high-density drive.
/8 Formats eight sectors per track.
/C Tests clusters that are currently marked "bad."




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"Darnit Jim, I'm a doctor, not a Windows Beta Tester."

[Philgo]

Looks like I'm confused again.

[Renovator]

No reason to be confused.

/U still works in 98se, from Jaak's testing.

The M$ documentation is BS. Oh no, say it isn't so.

[jtdoom]

Hi all,

just hooked up an old clunker
(a caviar 280 with 80.1MB formatted space. )

at first glance, the old DOS6.22 mirror tool won't work on any sort of hard drive in 98 environment.
the reason, Long file name protection.

the different modes have differing error message.
when run in real mode, one must reboot
message said something about LOCK.....

when run in dosbox, windows itself comes up with a message about an old dos tool, and says something about long file name protection...
it allows you Y/N in the message, and mirroring is not succesful.

still works on floppy in both modes, tho.
Go figure

however, it said something about LOCK
what I did next was simple
LOCK D:
mirror D:
and presto, mirror worked
and the rest works too.
mirror and unformat won't work without direct access (iow, lock)

conclusions;

• DOS6.22 unformat works on a floppy when mirror was run on it
• unformat still recovers data when win98SE's format was used to format A:
• unformat cannot recover data when format A: /U was ran
• mirror and unformat cannot be used on hard drive without first locking it.
• mirror and unformat are no longer intended to be used as they apparently have an issue with long file names. Even in win98, REAL MODE DOS still uses the 8.3 convention.
• don't rely on LFNBK.EXE util (on win98 CDROM) to get you out of a mess. It ain't intuitive...
• Microsoft killed their best tools

Thank god for third party utilities

final final conclusion.
/U ain't so academic yet?

btw, after tests like this, one must not forget to UNLOCK D:

Jaak


[This message has been edited by jtdoom (edited 05-16-2001).]

[Philgo]

Thanks for the info, I'll just stay confused.

[jtdoom]

philgo,

I've yet to encounter the first tellurian [that/who] will understand my convoluted rants.

LOL

jaak, Deneb IV