Many of us have been using pre-formatted DOS floppy disks right out of the box for the VPE editor (after initializing them for RT of course). This works. However, if you were to format those disks on a VPE editor using the FFORM utility at the RT> prompt, or with the Format and Initialize Utility on the main menu, something wonderful happens. They copy files and boot, etc. about 4 times faster.

This is because the DOS formatted disks you buy are formatted with a 1 to 1 interleave factor. We format disks with a 2 to 1 interleave factor. Our hardware works most efficiently with a 2 to 1 interleave factor. Using a 1 to 1 interleave, when it reads a single sector, the disk has to rotate a full revolution befere it can read the next sector.

So, if you want lightning fast disk operation, use FFORM at the RT> prompt or the FORMAT and INITIALIZE Utility on the VPE main menu to format your disks.