Making external calls or API

Currently I am writing disk images to floppy with batch files to do installation routines. To write the disk image I use DITU.exe. I want to put this into a windows format and program it in VB.

Can I call external batch files and executables to use in my VB program or should I be using API's? I have not been able to find any information on using .exe, batch files or dos type commands.

Is there an API to to format a 1.44" floppy and make it bootable?

Any help would be appreciated!

I found these in using the "SEARCH"
http://forums.vb-world.net/showthrea...threadid=35510

http://forums.vb-world.net/showthrea...threadid=35133



Hope it helps ,

[]P

To format a floppy:

Code:

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Const SHFD_CAPACITY_DEFAULT = 0 ' default drive capacity
Const SHFD_CAPACITY_360 = 3 ' 360KB, applies to 5.25" drives only
Const SHFD_CAPACITY_720 = 5 ' 720KB, applies to 3.5" drives only
Const SHFD_FORMAT_QUICK = 0 ' quick format
Const SHFD_FORMAT_FULL = 1 ' full format
Const SHFD_FORMAT_SYSONLY = 2 ' copies system files only (Win95 Only!)
Private Declare Function SHFormatDrive Lib "shell32" (ByVal hwndOwner As Long, ByVal iDrive As Long, ByVal iCapacity As Long, ByVal iFormatType As Long) As Long
Private Sub Form_Load()
    'iDrive = The drive number to format. Drive A=0, B=1 (if present, otherwise C=1), and so on.
    SHFormatDrive Me.hwnd, 0, SHFD_CAPACITY_DEFAULT, SHFD_FORMAT_QUICK
    SHFormatDrive Me.hwnd, 0, SHFD_CAPACITY_DEFAULT, SHFD_FORMAT_SYSONLY
End Sub

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To execute an external app:

Code:

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Private Declare Function ShellExecute Lib "shell32.dll" Alias "ShellExecuteA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal lpOperation As String, ByVal lpFile As String, ByVal lpParameters As String, ByVal lpDirectory As String, ByVal nShowCmd As Long) As Long
Const SW_SHOWNORMAL = 1
Private Sub Form_Load()
  ShellExecute Me.hwnd, "open", "notepad.exe", vbNullString, "C:\WINDOWS", SW_SHOWNORMAL
End Sub

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