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Formatting the Hard Disk

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Matthew Harrold edited this page Jan 23, 2024 · 3 revisions

Before using the Hard Disk / Compact Flash card you will need to format it using the HDInit tool created by J.G.Harston

Prerequisites

  • With the machine turned off, connect the 1MHz and Tube interfaces between the BBC and WinchesterPro and then switch it back on.
  • Check you have an ADFS 1.33 ROM fitted to your machine or loaded in SRAM / Flash
  • Make sure you can load the HDInit tool from Disc, Econet, SerialFS etc
  • Disable the Second Processor by entering *FX 151,230,14 and then CTRL + BREAK

Using HDINIT

Chain the program:

CHAIN "HDINIT"

Press TAB to select an 8 bit drive:

Press D to enter a Drive number, and enter 0:

Press I to investigate the drive to discover the capacity:

Press F to format the drive. When asked if you want to leave space for HADFS, enter NO, then YES to format:

It should only take a few seconds to format the disk. Once done it'll tell you to reset the machine, so press CTRL + BREAK. Issuing the *FREE command should show about 512MB of available disk space:

You may wish to re-enable the Second Processor with *FX 151,230,1 and then another CTRL + BREAK

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