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For more details on how the drive works and how to attach
it
to your computer, please
refer to the "Commodore CBM Dual Drive Floppy Disk Model 2040 User's Manual".
Disk Commands
Now let's look at some of the commands you 'II need to use the disk drive. For more in-
formation on disk commands read the floppy disk drive user's manual. There are five com-
mands used to write data to or read data from a floppy disk. Their formats are:
DSAVE"fn, "Dx
VERIFY"dr:fn",8
VERIFY"*" ,8
DLOAD"*",8
DLOAD"fn ",Ox
where fn=file name supplied by user
dr=disk drive number (1 or 0)
x=1 or 0: both Dx and dr default to 0
8=device number (8 for disk, 2 for second cassette, 4 for printer)
All upper-case characters shown in format are absolutely essential for proper execution of
command and must be typed by the user. However, these commands must be entered from
the keyboard using unshifted characters only. On a Business Model they will appear in lower
case. The only exception is when typing the short form of the DIRECTORY command
which requires a shifted
R.
Version 3.0 BASIC commands are upward compatible with Version 4.0 BASIC commands.
Formatting Your Disk
HEADER Command
Each of these commands will be defined along with a brief example to illustrate their use.
If your computer has a dual drive floppy disk attached, please try the examples. Before we
can use a new floppy disk, it must first be formatted. This will prepare the disk to receive
data from the computer. Care should be exercised when formatting a disk since this process
will destroy all data previously stored on the disk. The improper use of the HEADER
command could destroy useful data already stored in a diskette file. Therefore, a disk
should be formatted once when new and possibly formatted again only if the resident data
is no longer needed. In addition to removing all the data, formatting will also remove the
old disk name and ID and replace them with a user-designated name and ID. Let's take
time now to prepare a disk for use in the examples that follow.
STEP 1: Insert an unused disk into the left-hand drive and close the door. Insert the disk
as shown in the User's Manual.
STEP 2: Clear the screen.
STEP 3: Keeping in mind that you are only to use lower case characters when entering
commands type: header"new disk",d1,i99 then press RETURN.
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