Disk formatting

[Tsukasa]

I have a whole bunch of old 5 1/4 floppies from an ancient pc, I know that pc and commodore 64 formatting is different, is it possible to reformat the disks to commodore 64 formatting? It would be nice if I didn't have to buy a whole bunch of disks that are already formatted, cuz I have a small budget.

[Nukey Shay]

Yes...though the higher capacity floppies (1.2meg) may not work. Try one and find out.

[Tsukasa]

I was kind of looking to find out how to format the disks.

I've never had a c64 before.

[Nukey Shay]

When you're using a new, unprogrammed disk for the first time, you need to format it. Formatting, which is also called headering, prepares your disk by doing things like dividing the disk into blocks.

Formatting also creates a directory that you use as a table of contents for the files you save on the disk. DO NOT header a preprogrammed disk. You only have to format new disks, not disks that already have programs on them unless you want to erase the entire disk and reuse it. To format a new disk, use this special version of the OPEN and NEW commands:

 

OPEN 1,8,15,"N0:,"

 

+ N0 tells the computer to header (NEW) the disk in drive 0. If you have a dual disk drive connected (via a suitable interface) header disks in drive 0.

+ The you use in this command goes in the directory as the name of the entire disk. Give the disk any name up to 16 characters.

+ The is any two characters. Give the disk any you want, but you should give every disk a different code.

 

When the disk drive light goes off, type CLOSE 1 and press RETURN.

 

BE CAREFUL! Headering a disk erases all information on the disk, if there is any. Header only a new disk or a disk you are willing to erase. Here are some examples of formatting commands that header a disk:

 

OPEN 1,8,15,"N0:MYFILE,A3"

OPEN 1,8,15,"N0:$RECORDS,02"

 

 

From http://db.gamefaqs.com/computer/c64/file/c...ommodore_64.txt

[Susuwatari]

Also some 5.25" disks may have notch on one side of the disk. You will need to cut a notch on the other side to format the other side. A hole puncher would work, scissor can work but it's messy. There used to be disk notcher that made neat square notch in the exact spot but it has long vanished from stores years ago.

[MacbthPSW]

Yes...though the higher capacity floppies (1.2meg) may not work.  Try one and find out.

It's very rare for them to work, and even then, they're unreliable. Go ahead and try, but if they're HD (high density, 1.2meg) you can be pretty certain you won't get anywhere. The 1541 expects DD (double density, 360k) disks.