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Sydex Con>Format A Concurrent Diskette Formatter Con>Format A "POP-UP" CONCURRENT DISKETTE FORMATTER Copyright 1988-89, Sydex All Rights Reserved Version 1.06 December, 1989 Sydex 153 North Murphy Ave. Sunnyvale, CA 94086 (408) 739-4866 NOTICE THIS IS NOT FREE SOFTWARE! If you paid a "public domain" vendor for this program, you paid for the service of copying the program, and not for the program itself. Rest assured that noth- ing ever gets to the originators of this product from such a sale. You may evaluate this product, but if you make use of it, you must register your copy. We offer several inducements to you for registering. First of all, you receive the most up-to-date copy of the program that we have -- and we do update the product on a regular basis. You also receive support for Con>Format -- which can be quite valu- able at times. And finally, we have a few utilities not included in the evaluation package. Make no mistake, however - this is a fully functional version of Con>Format and not "crippled" in any way. REGISTRATION INFORMATION The non-commercial single-user registration fee for Con>Format is $15.00 US. The commercial and multisystem site fee for Con>Format (including Con>Format) is $50.00. Send a check or company P.O. for the appropriate amount to: Sydex 153 North Murphy Ave. Sunnyvale, CA 94086 Please indicate what product you are ordering and if you have a requirement for 3.5" media. We normally ship 5.25" 360K dis- kettes, but will furnish 3.5" 720K media upon request. Customers outside of the United States and Canada should add $5.00 for air- mail shipping. If you are a registered user of this product and desire an up- date, please send $5.00 for handling and we will ship you an up- to-date copy. Please add $3.00 for printed documentation to cover duplication costs. DISTRIBUTION NOTICE This is "user-supported" software. You are hereby granted a license by Sydex to distribute this evaluation copy of Con>Format and its documentation, subject to the following conditions: 1. Con>Format may be distributed freely without charge in evaluation form only. 2. Con>Format may not be sold, licensed, or a fee charged for its use. If a fee is charged in connection with Con>Format, it must cover the cost of copying or dis- semination only. Such charges must be clearly iden- tified as such by the originating party. Under no cir- cumstances may the purchaser be given the impression that he is buying Con>Format itself. 3. Con>Format must be presented as a complete unit, in- cluding this documentation. Neither Con>Format nor its documentation may be amended or altered in any way. 4. By granting you the right to distribute the evaluation form of Con>Format, you do not become the owner of Con>Format in any form. Any other use, distribution or representation of Con>Format is expressly forbidden without the written consent of Sydex. Table of Contents Con>Format, Briefly..........................................1 Installing Con>Format........................................1 Operating Con>Format.........................................4 Display Adapters and Modes and Con>Format....................5 Removing Con>Format From Memory..............................5 Other Things to Know.........................................5 In Conclusion................................................6 The Sydex Product Line.......................................7 i Con>Format, Briefly For those who don't like going though tons of documentation to find out what a program does, here's Con>Format in a nutshell: * Con>Format stands for Con(current) For(matter) and offers you the capability of formatting diskettes "in the back- ground" while other work is being done on your computer. * Con>Format is a "pop-up" utility. That is, it stays dor- mant until a particular combination of keys (which you specify yourself) is depressed. Con>Format then opens a "window" on the display and requests which drive to format and what kind of format to write. Once this is done, the "window" disappears and does not reappear until formatting is complete. In the meantime, you have full use of your computer, excluding the diskette drives (you may use the hard disk). Hence the term "background" formatter. * Con>Format works with 5.25" and 3.5" diskette drive types, and provides formatting for 180K, 360K, 720K, 1.2M and 1.44M diskettes. The format written is compatible with DOS versions 2.0 through 4.01 (the latest as of this writing). * Con>Format will "hold up" a diskette access from a running program if a diskette is in the process of being for- matted. A window "pops up" to notify you of this occur- rence. When formatting is complete, the diskette access is performed and program execution continues. If the ES- Cape key is pressed during the time that diskette access is suspended, a "Drive not ready" status will be returned and control returned to the suspended program. So why waste your time staring at "Formatting Track 13, Side 1" displays? Give Con>Format a try--pretty soon you'll be wondering why you ever put up with DOS Format! Installing Con>Format Con>Format will not run without first being installed. Installation is easy. You'll need a PC XT, AT or PS/2-compatible computer. Some machines, such as the Tandy 2000 or PC jr will not work with Con>Format, because they are relatively PC- incompatible. Your video display may be monochrome, CGA, EGA or VGA, and your diskette drives may be internal or external to your computer. If you have more than one diskette adapter card, Con>Format will access drives attached to the primary or secon- dary adapters. If you're using the registered version of Con>Format, you may in- stall directly from the distribution diskette. Page 1 Otherwise, you'll need to have the files CONFMT.COM and INSTALL.EXE on a disk where they can be accessed by the installa- tion program. If you obtained Con>Format in "archived" or "squeezed" form, you'll need to run the appropriate utility to extract both INSTALL.EXE and CONFMT.COM. At the DOS command prompt, execute the installation program by entering INSTALL and pressing the ENTER key. You'll be guided through a series of displays which will install Con>Format on the disk of your choice. At one point in the installation program, you will be requested to furnish a "hot key" combination -- the combination of key depressions which will "activate" Con>Format and cause its window to "pop up". A "hot key" combination involves depressing any (or none) of the following keys: Ctrl, Alt, Right Shift, Left Shift and, while these keys are depressed, depressing any other key on the keyboard. Note that a "hot" combination must a "shift" com- bination and some other "non-shift" key. For example, a good combination to use is Alt, Right Shift and "F", as it's a rather unlikely combination and is easy to remem- ber. Take care not to assign a "hot key" combination which is the same as that used by another one of your programs. Should this happen, the "hot key" combination will be intercepted by Con>Format and be rendered inaccessible to the other program. For instance, the "F" key could be designated as a Con>Format"hot key" -- but you'd be left without the letter "F" in everything else you tried to do! If you find that your "hot key" selection was not a good one, you can run INSTALL again to re-install Con>Format with a different "hot key" combination. Some notes on the installation process - * You may have INSTALL modify the file AUTOEXEC.BAT on the target disk drive to cause Con>Format to be loaded automatically after each system "boot". Alternatively, you may load Con>Format with the following DOS command: CONFMT followed by the ENTER key * If you have installed the registered version of Con>Format and want to avoid the opening "banner", use the following DOS command to load Con>Format: CONFMT S followed by the ENTER key * If you have an XT-compatible machine with a high-density diskette adapter such as the Western Digital "Fox", you may need to install your computer as an AT-compatible to be able to use the higher capacity drives. Page 2 * Conversely, a Toshiba T3100 laptop should be installed as an XT-compatible, rather than the default AT-compatible selection, because of its non-standard diskette control- ler. * During the installation process you will have an oppor- tunity to specify what type of diskette drives and con- trollers your computer supports. If you have a single diskette adapter, all drives are connected to the primary adapter. If you have an additional adapter, such as the SYSGEN Omni-Bridge or MicroSolutions' CompatiCard, this is the secondary adapter. In all cases, if your computer supports high-density diskette formats, you must specify that it is an "AT" type of computer, regardless of its ac- tual model type. * If you're using a MicroSolutions CompatiCard tm diskette adapter in addition to the "normal" PC-type adapter, you must specify not only that you have an "AT"-type of com- puter, but also that you are using a CompatiCard. If you are in doubt about the base address of the CompatiCard, consult your CompatiCard reference manual for configura- tion information. * As part of the installation process you may specify that Con>Format use a different "boot" sector image. To do this, you'll need a copy of a diskette having the boot sector to be used by Con>Format. * Finally, you may specify if Con>Format is to signal completion of the formatting process by a tone instead of or in addition to a "pop-up" status window. If a tone signal is selected, a high, medium or low tone is sounded indicate that the diskette you just formatted had: * No errors (High tone) * Some flawed areas (Medium tone) * A serious error; the result is unusable. (A low tone) These tones are very distinctive. If no "pop-up" completion status window is selected, the status of the previous formatting operation is display when the "hot key" combination is next pressed. Note that the installation process customizes Con>Format for a specific configuration of disks and display adapter. Con>Format must be re-installed if the system configuration is changed. Page 3 Operating Con>Format Operation of Con>Format is straightforward. After Con>Format has been loaded, simply depress your own "hot key" combination and a "window" will appear, prompting for information. After the drive containing the diskette to be formatted and the format to be written have been selected, the "window" disappears and the formatting process begins. While the format is being written, you may perform other tasks on your computer, provided that no diskette activity is involved. Should you attempt to ac- cess a diskette drive while Con>Format is formatting, a "window" will appear, advising that your diskette request has been held up, pending completion of the formatting operation. At this point, no more work can be performed concurrently with the format operation. However, if the ESCape key is pressed during the time that diskette access is suspended, a "Drive not ready" status will be returned and control returned to the suspended program. It may take several depressions of the ESCape key before DOS reports a "Drive not ready" error because most diskette opera- tions are retried several times by DOS before an error is finally reported. When the formatting operation is complete, Con>Format again "pops up" a window displaying the outcome of the operation, or sounds a tone, or both, depending on the selection made at installation. If a tone only was selected, the results of the formatting opera- tion will be displayed the next time the "hot key" combination is depressed. If any flawed areas of the diskette were discovered, the total size of the flawed areas is displayed. In some cases it may not be possible to format a diskette because the drive door was left open, the diskette was write-disabled, or a flaw was detected in a critical area of the diskette. Con>Format will diagnose each of these conditions and display an appropriate message. After the results of the formatting operation are shown, you'll be asked if another diskette should be formatted. If you enter the letter "Y", the whole process repeat, using the same drive and choice of format used for the previous diskette. Otherwise, the "window" will disappear and any diskette operation which was held up by Con>Format will be performed and execution of the program requesting it will resume. When Con>Format displays its window, you may move the window around the screen with the cursor keypad. Each key moves the window as follows: 7 - Upper left corner 9 - Upper right corner 1 - Lower left corner 3 - Lower right corner 5 - Center of screen 8 - One line up 2 - One line down Page 4 4 - One column left 6 - One column right Display Adapters and Modes and Con>Format Con>Format will not "pop" a window up when your computer's dis- play is in graphics mode. That is, Con>Format will work only with text displays. If Con>Format concludes diskette formatting and the display has been changed from text to graphics, Con>Format will wait until the display is again text before "popping" a window up. If the display is in graphics mode when Con>Format is activated by the "hot key" combination, Con>Format will ignore the "hot key" depression. However, "Hercules" or Monochrome Graphics adapters pose some special problems. Con>Format will not display correctly or in- telligibly when a Hercules- or Monochrome-graphics display is in graphics mode. If Con>Format is activated accidentally when a monochrome-graphics display is in a graphics mode, the ESCape key should be pressed and Con>Format will restore the display. In addition, Con>Format is not compatible with some program which make use of Hercules Computer Technology's "RAM-FONT" mode. The ESCape key will restore the display in case of accidental activa- tion of Con>Format. Removing Con>Format From Memory You can remove Con>Format from your computer's memory with the command: CONFMT R The only restriction is that Con>Format must not be in the process of formatting a diskette at the time this command is ex- ecuted. Other Things to Know... Con>Format will work with most "serious" programs. Some games will not operate with Con>Format, however. Products which directly access the diskette adapter will not operate correctly with Con>Format. These include our own ANADISK, TELEDISK, COPYQM, FORMATQM and 22DISK. Con>Format may be installed, but must not be activated (by depressing the "hot key" combination) while any of these programs are executing. If Con>Format is accidentally activated during the execution of these programs, exit Con>Format by pressing the ESCape key. When using other "hot key" products, such as Borland International's SideKick, remember that the order in which "hot keys" are recognized depends on the order in which the products have been loaded. Load Con>Format last if possible. Page 5 The formats created by Con>Format are compatible with DOS 4.0, and will also work with DOS 2 and DOS 3. Con>Format will not produce 8-sector DOS 1 formats. In Conclusion Thank you for giving Con>Format a try. If you have suggestions or questions concerning its use, or any of our other products, please write or give us a call. Page 6 The Sydex Product Line AnaDisk -- The compleat diskette utility. Nothing like it anywhere else; scan, edit, repair and copy just about any kind of diskette. $25.00 ($150.00 site) registration fee. Con>Format -- Concurrent "background" diskette formatter. Features "pop-up" operation and "hot key" activation. You've got to see it to believe. Supports all current DOS formats. $15.00 ($50.00 site) registration fee. 22DISK -- Transfer files, format, examine and erase files on "foreign" CP/M diskettes on your PC. Includes tips on sup- porting 8" and 5.25" single-density diskettes. Contains definitions for over 200 different formats. $25.00 ($100.00 site) registration fee. 22NICE -- A CP/M 2.2 emulation package. Supports the NEC V-series chips or performs emulation by software for both the 8080 and Z80 processors. Includes terminal emulation and diskette handling for common CP/M systems. Includes 22DISK. $40.00 ($150.00 site) registration fee. TeleDisk -- Turn any diskette into a compressed data file and vice-versa. Allows you to send and receive entire dis- kettes via modem. Even works with some "copy-protected" diskettes. $20.00 ($65.00 site) registration fee. COPYQM -- Mass diskette duplicator. Format, copy and verify multiple diskettes from a single master. Implements "no keyboard" interaction mode and drive "round robin" servic- ing. Supports all standard DOS formats. $15.00 ($50.00 site) registration fee. FORMATQM -- Mass diskette formatter - format a box of dis- kettes at a single sitting. Implements "no keyboard" inter- action mode and drive "round robin" servicing. Supports all standard DOS formats. $10.00 ($40.00 site) registration fee. ...And, soon to be released: InterDisk - The universal Diskette Interchange utility. Features user-programmable media conversion for those for- mats not covered by 22DISK. Available 1Q90. Information on any of these products can be obtained from Sydex by calling (408) 739-4866 (voice) or by leaving a request on our Bulletin Board System (408) 738-2860 (1200-9600 bps, N81). 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