Formatting a Floppy Disk

Embird Embroidery Software Tutorial

Embird supports standard and non-standard floppy disk formats.

Standard floppy disks are disks with designs stored in the standard MS-DOS format. These disks are recognized and can be accessed in Windows Explorer, a common file manager, or any other application supporting floppy disks. In Embird, you can access a standard floppy disk by choosing the disk drive (typically "A:") in the "Drive:" box in the Right Panel of the Manager window.

Non-standard floppy disks are disks with designs stored in a special format. These disks are not recognized and cannot be accessed in Windows Explorer or in a common file manager; these applications report a "Disk is not formatted" error when you attempt to read the floppy disk contents. In Embird, you can access non-standard floppy disks via the Left Panel menu of the Manager window. However, non-standard floppy disk formats require low-level access to the floppy disk controller, and therefore, non-standard floppy disks are supported only on a non-USB floppy drive connected to the motherboard floppy port.

Formatting Standard Floppy Disks (MS-DOS Format)

Format a standard floppy disk using Windows formatting commands:

1 - Insert the floppy disk into the disk drive. Make sure that the disk is not write-protected.

2 - Click the "My Computer" icon located on the desktop. A window containing all available drives will be shown on the screen.

3 - Right-click the icon that represents the floppy disk drive (typically "A:"). This will display a popup menu.

4 - Choose the "Format" command from the popup menu. A dialog box will appear on the screen, allowing you to choose the formatting options.

5 - Choose the correct disk capacity and click the "Start" button to start the formatting process.

Note 1: In the case of a "Tajima" disk, use 2DD (double-sided double-density) floppy disks and always specify the "TAJIMA" label in the format dialog box. A floppy disk without this label might not be recognized by the embroidery machine.

Note 2: You can also format standard floppy disks in Embird by using the steps explained below for non-standard floppy disks - just choose the "Standard Floppy Disk" option in step 3.

Formatting Non-Standard Floppy Disks (e.g., Barudan, ZSK)

Non-standard floppy disks cannot be formatted using Windows formatting commands. Use the following steps:

1 - Run Embird; it will start in "Manager" mode.

2 - Select the "Left Panel > Format Floppy Disk" command from the main menu (Picture No. 1).

1. Select "Left Panel > Format Floppy Disk" menu

3 - Choose the floppy disk format in the dialog box that appears on the screen (Picture No. 2). Click the "OK" button to continue.

2. Choose floppy disk format

4 - Insert the floppy disk into the disk drive. Make sure that the disk is not write-protected (Picture No. 3). Click the "OK" button to continue.

Note: Embird will either ask you for a 2DD (double-sided double-density, 720 kB) or 2HD (double-sided high-density, 1.44 MB) floppy disk, depending on the format you choose in step 3. Make sure that you are inserting the correct type of disk.

3. Insert floppy disk

5 - Note that all files already stored on the floppy disk will be erased during the formatting process (Picture No. 4). If you agree, click the "Yes" button to continue.

4. Confirm disk formatting

6 - The formatting process will start. Wait until the floppy disk is formatted to 100%.

7 - Once the formatting is finished, a dialog box will appear on the screen, showing the result of the operation. Click the "OK" button (Picture No. 5).

5. Operation result

8 - The floppy disk is now formatted and ready for use - now you can write the designs to it. Find more details in the Writing Designs to Floppy Disks tutorial.

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