Date: Sat, 2 Oct 2010 07:21:04 -0400 From: Jerry <freebsd.user@seibercom.net> To: FreeBSD <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: 5.25" floppy drive Message-ID: <20101002072104.30a6b10e@scorpio> In-Reply-To: <4ca70e58.85Hn9/T3OsqNTwqg%mueller6727@bellsouth.net> References: <4ca70e58.85Hn9/T3OsqNTwqg%mueller6727@bellsouth.net>
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On Sat, 02 Oct 2010 10:50:00 +0000 Thomas Mueller <mueller6727@bellsouth.net> articulated: > from "Christoph Kukulies" <kuku@kukulies.org>: > > > Thanks to all. > > > Solved. > > > It was a multiple cause issue: > > > 1st: BIOS Setting was incorrect (had to enable 1.2MB 5.25 rather > > than 3.5 which was it set to - an oversight in the firts place, > > that occured to me). > > > > 2nd: Cable issue: I had a combined cable (3.5 " connector at the > > end and edge connector second but last. > > > > 3rd: in combination with 2nd: DS0 jumper issue. > > > > Anyway, I found a cable that had two edge connectors. > > > In the end it turns out that the floppies that were lying in a > > drawer for 19 years, are producing read errors. I also learnt about > > fdcontrol. Floppy interface has changed significantly since Joerg > > Wunsch and Bruce Evans worked on them in the early FreeBSD days > > back in 1995 :) > > > > -- > > Christoph > > Congratulations on solving your floppy problem, but I can understand > your problems with floppies. They've gone bad with age for me too. > I can read but not write, then I can't read and in most cases can't > even reformat. > > FreeBSD installation sets structure (base.aa, base.ab, base.ac etc.) > suggests that one could install from a big set of floppies, but > there's no way I could get such a good set of floppies together. I > think my 5.25" floppies and drive hold out better than the 3.5" > floppies and drives. I had a similar problem last year on a Windows platform when a local municipality asked to move the data from nearly 500 5.25 disks to CD. The disks were in storage since mid 1990. I located an external 5.25 disk drive, they are dirt cheap, and attempted to copy the data. Like you pointed out, the majority of the disks were severely damaged. I finally settled on Spin-Rite <http://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm>; to repair the disks. I had used it before and was familiar with its workings. It took nearly a week for us to get the disks repaired and copied; however, with only a couple of exceptions, the job ended successfully. I cannot comment on 3.5 vs 5.25 disks, except to say "good riddance" to both formats. -- Jerry ✌ FreeBSD.user@seibercom.net Disclaimer: off-list followups get on-list replies or get ignored. Please do not ignore the Reply-To header. __________________________________________________________________
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