Copying Diskettes

Before making a copy of a diskette, the new diskette (or clobbered diskette) must first be initialized. That is, it must have sector marks written on it and it must be tested to determine that it has no errors when reading form it or writing to it. A program exists in the current floppy system which will initialize the disk. Note: in order to initialize or copy, it is necessary to work on a system which has two floppy drives.

Initialization

insert the good system disk into the system drive (usually found on the right-hand side) and IPL the system.
Bring up the background executive; this may be done by either of the following two methods.
When the system is in the IPL process it displays on the screen $CMPL. By depressing the "CONTROL" and "C" keys of the keyboard after the "$CMPL" message has been displayed and before the program has been loaded, the system will enter the background.
IPL and allow the marking system to be loaded. Enter the keyboard mode and type stop.
When you have entered the background, bring in and execute the initialization program.
Type $FLOPPY,F1,512,D1,FORMAT
Note The system disk drive is known as F0, while the second (or left-hand) drive is known as F1.
When the program has been loaded and is ready for execution, it will display
TYPE CR TO CONTINUE
?
Place the diskette to be initialized in the drive F1 and ready the drive, then press the enter/return key.
If the program encounters errors, the nature and type of errors are displayed.
Execution of the program is complete when it again displays the message
TYPE CR TO CONTINUE
?
press the enter/return key. This deselects drive F1 and returns the system to the background executive.
Remove the initialized diskette from F1.
To continue to initialize additional diskettes, repeat the above procedure.

COPYING DISKETTES

If not already in the background use the procedures above to enter it.
Place an initialized diskette in drive F1 and ready the drive.
Type $FLOPPY,F1,512,D0
Note the term FORMAT is not entered
The system will respond with the message
BACKGROUND CC
?
Type $SI=WS(0-4CF,F0)
The system responds with a question mark
Type $S0=WC(0-4CF,F1)
The system responds with a question mark
Type $BMAG
The copy program will be loaded into memory and when it is ready for execution, it will display the following message.
GA-16 BMAG REV 1
** ENTER @C, @V, @B, @R, OR @@
?
Type @B,16
The program will respond with the display.
@B,16
The program will begin execution and you will here the drives Ping-Pong as they are alternately selected and deselected.
If errors are encountered, the program will display the nature and type of errors.
For successful operation the program will first display.
1232 RECORDS COPIED
It will then attempt verification of the records and will return the number of records verified and will display the message.
1232 RECORDS VERIFIED
At the completion of the program, it will display.
** ENTER @C, @V, @B, @R OR @@
Remove the new diskette from drive F1.
To continue copying to other diskettes, insert an initialized diskette into drive F1, ready the drive and type @B,16
When all copying is complete and you wish to return to the background, type @@ after you remove the new disk from F1.