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Reformatting the 2MB v-drive on a PC
To reformat the v-drive on a PC, enable Power User Mode
and mount the v-drive. Locate the “Kinesis KB” removable
drive and right click on it, then select the “Format” option
from the dropdown menu (see Fig 26 for example). Click
“Start” and if prompted about erasing all data, then click
“OK” (see Fig 27 for example). The reformatting process
should not take more than 15 seconds. Replug the
keyboard to regenerate the configuration files. Then
condition the drive per the instructions below.
Reformatting the v-drive on a Mac
To reformat the v-drive on a Mac (aka “erase”), enable
Power User Mode and open the v-drive. Open up the Disk
Utility application (Applications>Utilities) and select the
“Advantagre2” drive from the menu of available disk drives
on the left (see Fig 28 for example).
IMPORTANT NOTE:
Do not select your
“Macintosh HD” or
any other available
disk as reformatting
an unintended drive
could have
disastrous
consequences.
After highlighting the “Advantage2” drive, click the “Erase” button in the top menu. Inside the Disk Erase Menu
enter “Advantage2” in the Name field and select “MS-DOS (FAT)” from the Format dropdown menu, then click
“Erase.” The reformatting process could take several minutes. Replug the keyboard to regenerate the
configuration files. Then condition the drive per the instructions below.
Linux reformatting note
With Linux, if possible try to “repair” the drive before reformatting. When reformatting the v-drive in Linux, be
sure to provide a new name for the drive.
Conditioning the v-drive
If you plan to use on-board programming exclusively, no special actions are necessary after reformatting the
v-drive. However, if you plan to use direct editing or the SmartSet App, we recommend that you first
“condition” the qwerty.txt and dvorak.txt files. Furthermore, you should always “eject” the v-drive using the file
manager before using Progm-F1 to close it.
With the v-drive closed, condition qwerty.txt by switching to Mac Mode (progm + F5) and then back to your
preferred mode (progm + F6 for PC or progm + F7 for Win). Condition dvorak.txt by loading the file (progm +
F4) and then switching to Windows Mode (progm + F7). If you normally use QWERTY, then switch back to
that with progm + F3. Conditioning causes the keyboard to write to each layout file first, while the v-drive is
closed, preventing a potentially corrupt file from being created with direct editing.
Ejecting v-drive after use
The v-drive should always be “ejected” like other thumb drives before being closed. Occasionally you may
see a warning that scanning and “fixing” the drive are advised. This is most likely if you open the drive and
manually edit files, then close the drive without ejecting, and you should perform the brief “scan and fix”
process. Normally this does not result in any loss of files or contents from the v-drive.
Fig 27. The PC
“Format Drive” menu
Fig 26. For a PC, right click
on ‘Advantage2’ for format
Fig 28. Mac Disk U lity Applica on
