Date: Mon, 15 Dec 1997 19:00:19 +1030 From: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> To: Mike Jeays <jeays@statcan.ca> Cc: grobin@accessv.com, questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Accessing Floppy Drive Message-ID: <19971215190019.20366@lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <Pine.SOL.3.96.971214222943.2617A-100000@austral>; from Mike Jeays on Sun, Dec 14, 1997 at 10:34:00PM -0500 References: <19971215091243.56481@lemis.com> <Pine.SOL.3.96.971214222943.2617A-100000@austral>
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On Sun, Dec 14, 1997 at 10:34:00PM -0500, Mike Jeays wrote: > > > On Mon, 15 Dec 1997, Greg Lehey wrote: > >> On Sun, Dec 14, 1997 at 03:50:07PM -0500, Geoffrey Robinson wrote: >>> This is a rather basic question but I'm new to UNIX so you'll have >>> to excuse me. I can't seem to figure out how to mount, or otherwise >>> access a UNIX formatted floppy. >> >> Why do you want to do this? >> >>> When I needed to transfer a file from FreeBSD to Windows I found out >>> how to mount an MS-DOS formatted floppy but when I try using mount >>> to mount a UNIX formatted floppy (formatted with fdformat) in fd0 I >>> get an error message about an incorrect super block. What do I do? >> >> You already have the simple answer from somebody else. But he didn't >> tell you that this will waste nearly half the capacity of the floppy. >> Normally, it's not a good idea to put file systems on floppy. You >> can't use them to exchange data with other (non-BSD) UNIX systems, >> either, since the format differs from one UNIX system to another. If >> you want to use the floppy for backup or transfer purposes, tar is >> better, and it doesn't require a file system. To copy files to the >> floppy, enter: >> >> # tar cvf /dev/rfd0 <list of files> >> >> To extract them into the current directory or in a subdirectory of the >> current directory, enter: >> >> # tar xvf /dev/rfc0 <list of files> >> >> If you omit the <list of files> when extracting, it will extract >> everything for you. > > I use the following script, part of which I got from someone else; I can't > remeber who : > > #!/bin/sh > # Floppy formats: > # > # To make a filesystem on a floppy: > # fdformat [-f <size>] fd<drive>[.<size>] > # disklabel -B -r -w fd<drive>[.<size>] fd<size> > # newfs <opts> fd<drive>[.<size>] > # > fdformat -q fd0.1440 > disklabel -B -r -w fd0.1440 fd1440 > newfs -c 1 fd0.1440 > > I don't find that half of the space is wasted, and have had many > diskettes work reliably in this mode. It beats using DOS-format > disks, amd losing the long filenames with case sensitivity. Hmmm. It used to. Those of you who have one of my books can read an example which shows that if you don't specify any parameters, you'll only get 787 kB on a 3.5" floppy. Thanks for drawing this to my attention. Of course, at the moment UFS will only give you 1213 blocks, which isn't too much either. Greg
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