Detecting a floppy disk from a batch file

Hi,

Can anyone tell me if it is possible to determine if a floppy disk is present in the A: drive from a batch file?

I beleive that at one time it was possible to use the following line:-

xcopy A:\NULL

and then use ERRORLEVEL etc. This no longer works in Windows XP (SP2).

Regards PCFarmer

 

Hi,

I have tried doing something similar to this but the problem is that if the floppy is not inserted we get a windows dialogue appear.

PCFarmer

 

Hi,

I am following a very good Win98 batch file coarse on the internet as a recap for the old days. Part of the coarse uses the:-

xcopy a:\NUL

to determine if a floppy drive is present in its drive. I just got to wondering how something this simple would be done using windows xp these days. The answer does not appear to be that simple at all.

The reason for doing this is part of a backup batch file where both the source and destination are arguments to the backup batch file. It is quite possible to select the A: drive as the destination (or source) and therefore it would be useful to detect if the drive is ready or not without forcing windows dialogue boxes to appear.

Regards PCFarmer

 

OK here is the answer.

You are gettiing a very low level dos error

Abort, Retry or Fail that has to be resopnded too.

Win98 did not have the contol over these low level functions that NT class 32 bit windows has. XP is being "controling" to possibly protect itself from DOS.

There is some very complex ways to do this using for next loops and ctty etc.

But a simpler way is to download a program that can handle this error correctly. There are many programs that can handle this and report the errorlevel.

Download pkzip and copy it to the Windows folder so it will be in the path, or you can put it elsewhere but will need to address its path correctly in the batch.

Pkzip has an error checking routine that can handle the Abort, Retry....

SO!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
@echo off

::send file that should not exist to a: using Pkzip

pkzip a:\zzz.zip nul>nul
if errorlevel 1 goto NODISK

:: the line above detects there is no drive (errorlevel 1) and routes to NODISK
:: if the errorlevel is other than 1 there is a disk so it does not go to NODISK
:: but falls thru to GOTO GOTDISK

del a:\zzz.zip > nul
:: since there is a dirive then we actually did create a file on it so the line
:: above deletes that file

goto GOTDISK

:NODISK
echo You didn't insert a writable disk!
goto DONE

:GOTDISK
echo You put a writable disk in! Good dog!
goto DONE
ONE
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note the last line above should be
: DONE
(without the space) but since it is didrectly ajecent to the colon it is interpeted as a grin

Mike

 

Hi,

Many thanks for your help. I will download the utility and give this script a go.

PCFarmer

 

I jumped the gun!

Don't bother, I have used this before but it may have been on 2k or a lower sp in XP, but I just tested it again on XP pro sp2 and it failed.

Sorry I didn't test it again sooner but I was involved with several things when I posted.

But here is a even simpler way. That I tested.

Download the below and extract Drvexist.exe copy to Windows so it will be in the path.

http://www.mahringer.co.at/mwbat1.zip

use it like this

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
@echo off
drvexist a:
if errorlevel 1 goto NODISK

:: the line above detects there is no drive (errorlevel 1) and routes to NODISK
:: if the errorlevel is other than 1 there is a disk so it does not go to NODISK
:: but falls thru to GOTO GOTDISK

goto GOTDISK

:NODISK
echo You didn't insert a writable disk!
goto DONE

:GOTDISK
echo You put a writable disk in!
goto DONE

ONE
pause
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I put the pause above so it would not exit for testing!

Mike

PS make sure to correct the Gin as in my last post.

 

Hi Mike, FYI you can tag the box on the posting screen to "disable Smilies in text" and your script will look like this:

use it like this

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
@echo off
drvexist a:
if errorlevel 1 goto NODISK

:: the line above detects there is no drive (errorlevel 1) and routes to NODISK
:: if the errorlevel is other than 1 there is a disk so it does not go to NODISK
:: but falls thru to GOTO GOTDISK

goto GOTDISK

:NODISK
echo You didn't insert a writable disk!
goto DONE

:GOTDISK
echo You put a writable disk in!
goto DONE

ONE
pause

 

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the download URL, it contains one or two other useful items I can use.

How do you set ERRORLEVEL from an application, is it simply the value that the main() function returns?

Regards PCFarmer

 

It is usually set by the App. In this case 1 means unsucessful which is normal for failure.

Errorlevel can be from 1-255 and each can mean something else.

I assume you have tested and it does what you want?

Mike