Path: utzoo!utgpu!utcsri!mendell From: mendell@utcsri.UUCP (Mark Mendell) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Detecting write-protected diskette on PC, AT, etc Message-ID: <5729@utcsri.UUCP> Date: 11 Dec 87 22:22:46 GMT Article-I.D.: utcsri.5729 Posted: Fri Dec 11 17:22:46 1987 Distribution: na Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto Lines: 24 Is there any way to detect a write-protected diskette without trying to do a write to the diskette? I have read the relevant parts of Norton's Programmers guide to the IBM PC, and have experimented with the BIOS call Get diskette status (0x1). I am already using the Verify Diskette Sectors (0x4) interrupt to check for the presence of a formatted diskette. That works perfectly for that purpose. I am trying to detect if a later open will fail, without having to write a critical error handler to detect the un-writable diskette. Is there any DOS or BIOS call that will return the information for me? Please mail any responses to me. Thanks -- Mark Mendell Computer Systems Research Institute University of Toronto Usenet: {linus, ihnp4, allegra, decvax, floyd}!utcsri!mendell CSNET: mendell@Toronto ARPA: mendell%Toronto@CSNet-Relay