Disklavier

For those needing it, here are instructions for formatting a HD or DD floppy disk to 720k. If the disk is HD cover the extra hole with adhesive tape.

Formatting a 720kB floppy disk with Windows XP

1) Cover the square hole in the corner of the 1.44M floppy with a piece of tape

(there should be two holes - you want to cover the one WITHOUT the

write-protect shutter). If you hold the disk parallel to the floor, with

the label side up and the metal shutter away from you, it will be the hole

on the right.

2) Open a DOS window. (select “Run” in Windows 7 from the Start menu, type

cmd into the box and press enter to open up a DOS box.

3) Type in the DOS command "FORMAT A: /T:80 /N:9" and press enter and follow

the prompts.

(Windows XP doesn't support the /F:720 switch anymore, but explicitly

defining the number of sectors and tracks works just fine.)

4) This works with Windows 7 as well.

Kind regards

Geoff

From: disklavier@yahoogroups.com [mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com]
Sent: Saturday, 29 November 2014 2:12 PM
To: disklavier@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [disklavier] Floppy Drive

Good evening, everyone.

Mark, I am wondering if you have a mixture of double-density (DD) floppies and high-density (HD) floppies, all of which are formatted as DD disks. If so, that would explain why they used to work in the DKC500 xrg but may not work in a newer device.

Many of the older Disklavier control units did not know the difference between DD and HD disks. Although I am not certain, this may be the case with your DKC500 xrg. If so, disks that were formatted in the old control unit would have been formatted as DD disks even if they were HD disks. Newer drives and operating systems, however, know the difference between a DD and an HD disk (because the HD disk has a permanent hole on one side). The newer devices look at HD disks and expect HD formatting and are stumped when the disk was formatted as DD.

If this scenario fits your situation, use a piece of tape to cover over the permanent hole in the HD disks and try reading them again.

Regards,

PianoBench

On Nov 27, 2014, at 6:53 PM, whymark@... [disklavier] <disklavier@...m> wrote:

speaking of floppies and floppy drives....I just purchased two Teac external floppy drives...one for my computer and one for the DKC 850.....both are having trouble reading (all of a sudden)...I get a message that they need to be formatted when I know they contain MIDI files....I've been using standard off-the-shelf floppies for ears with the DKC500 xrg with no problem....about 0.001% of the time, I can disconnect them from the USB port and they will read correctly but, this is a crap shoot at best....anybody else having trouble like this???