Commodore VIC-20 User Manual page 277

Chapter 8: Peripheral Devices
263
data. To avoid this, format your diskettes with different ID numbers when-
ever possible.
To manually initialize a diskette, use the following statements:
OPEN 1,8,15
PRINnt1, "INITIALIZE"
A shorter version of this command is
FORMAnlNG A DISKEnE
Before you can use a new diskette, you must format it. Formatting
writes a disk name, an 10 number, and all of the track and sector informa-
tion onto the diskette so that data may be written onto it by the VIC 20.
To format a diskette that has never been used before, use the following
commands:
OPEN 1,8,15
The disk name can be any 16-character string you choose. The 10 can be any
number you choose. The Disk Operating System (DOS) uses the 10 number
to determine which diskette is in your drive. Remember to use a different
number for each of your diskettes; that way the disk drive will always be able
to determine whether it should initialize or not. If the IDs of your diskettes
are all different, the initialization will be automatic; otherwise, you will need
to do it
m~mially
each time you change diskettes.
A good way to ensure that all of your diskettes have different IDs is to
format an entire box of diskettes at once, numbering them sequentially.
When you need to use them, you can perform a short version of the
FORMAT instruction which erases all data on the diskette and renames it,
leaving the 10 number the same. That way, no two diskettes in the box will
have the same 10 number. To do this, use the following FORMAT
instruction.
Note: This will not work on new (previously unformatted) diskettes.
OPEN 1,8,15
PRINTI1, "N:disknafl'le"