Short: Format Iomega ZIP drives for MSDOS PCs Author: Alexander Feigl Uploader: Alexander Feigl Type: disk/misc Version: 0.3 Architecture: m68k-amigaos This is a PRERELEASE of FormatZIP - a utility to format Iomega ZIP drives for MSDOS PCs. This is impossible with the usual format command of AmigaOS because with the usual format command you would theoretically create a ZIP disk in floppy disk format. The ZIP disks used on PCs are in "harddisk format" with one single partition and CrossDOSFilesystem cannot create this partition table. FormatZIP was compiled with GCC for Amiga - sources are included FormatZIP is distributed under the GNU Public License - see file COPYING Usage : FormatZIP : This is the device name of the ZIP drive in PC format. On my machine this is ZPC0C (using the supplied mount-list entry). You can specify the dos device with or without an column. Example: FormatZIP ZPC0C: - format ZIP disk in ZPC0C: CAUTION : If you select the wrong device your harddisk will become an EMPTY!!!!!! ZIP :-) I am NOT responsible for unrecoverable loss of data!!! NOTE : FormatZIP creates a single harddisk partition on a harddisk type ZIP disk. This is the format which is used for pre-formatted ZIP medias. You can read this type of media with the CrossDOSFilesystem if the last letter of your DOS device name is a "C" (e.g. ZPC0C , ZIP0C, ZPC). Use the supplied mount entry to use FormatZIP. Future : - lock all DOS devices of this ZIP drive while formatting (this will cause a diskchange afterwards on all devices assigned to this ZIP drive) - Don't hardcode the drive geometry - this would make this tool usable for Jaz drives, too. For this I'll need information about MSDOS MBR - using CrossDOSFileSystem for formatting of the partition. Problem : V2.1 CrossFS is buggy Solution : Use CrossFS for OS 3.0+ - use workaround for OS 2.1 workaround might not be able to support Jaz Author : Please EMail bug reports & suggestions to: Alexander Feigl Changes since V0.2: - using DOS device names now - new command line syntax - Format ZIP asks for a confirmation before formatting the ZIP - More modularited source code - Does lock ZIP CrossDOS-handler while formatting - Does cause an disk change - FormatZIP now distributed under GNU Public License Changes since V0.1: - small bugfix : program terminated before writing bootblock and directory - mount entry included in distribution