how to reformat floppies that have data on them
Les
hlhowell at pacbell.net
Thu Apr 12 19:56:00 UTC 2007
On Thu, 2007-04-12 at 13:43 +0200, Nigel Henry wrote:
> On Thursday 12 April 2007 01:17, Rick Stevens wrote:
> > On Wed, 2007-04-11 at 15:10 -0800, Fred Erickson wrote:
> > > On Wed, 2007-04-11 at 19:29 +0200, Nigel Henry wrote:
> > > > On Tuesday 10 April 2007 23:06, Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:
> > > > > Rick Stevens wrote:
> > > > > > For an MS-DOS floppy,
> > > > > >
> > > > > > #fdformat /dev/fd0H1440;mformat a:
> > > > >
> > > > > I don't think that udev creates anything but the /dev/fd0 for the
> > > > > first floppy with the default settings...
> > > > >
> > > > > Mikkel
> > > >
> > > > Ok. Udev doesn't come into my equation, as I'm doing this on FC2.
> > > >
> > > > I've now got a floppy formatted with a low level format using the
> > > > following.
> > > >
> > > > [root at localhost djmons]# fdformat -n /dev/fd0H1440
> > > > Double-sided, 80 tracks, 18 sec/track. Total capacity 1440 kB.
> > > > Formatting ... done
>
> > > > Anyone can help with the correct syntax for using mformat to add a
> > > > filesystem to this low level formatted floppy.
> > > >
> > > > Very frustrating.
> > > >
> > > > Nigel.
> > >
> > > Would one of the mkfs variants work for this?
> >
> > You could try
> >
> > mkfs -t msdos /dev/fd0
> > mkdosfs /dev/fd0
>
> Sorry that this problem is dragging on. I tried mkfs, and mkdosfs, but got
> errors again, as with mformat. See below.
>
> root at localhost djmons]# /sbin/mkdosfs -v /dev/fd0
> mkdosfs 2.8 (28 Feb 2001)
> /dev/fd0 has 2 heads and 18 sectors per track,
> logical sector size is 512,
> using 0xf0 media descriptor, with 0 sectors;
> file system has 2 16-bit FATs and 2 sectors per cluster.
> FAT size is -32639 sectors, and provides 32631 clusters.
> Root directory contains 224 slots.
> Volume ID is 461e15e1, no volume label.
> mkdosfs: unable to allocate space for FAT image in memory
> [root at localhost djmons]#
>
> Get the same "unable to allocate space for FAT image in memory" using mkfs,
> and also logwatch gave be a bunch of kernel errors when trying mformat
> yesterday, as below.
>
> --------------------- Kernel Begin ------------------------
>
> WARNING: Kernel Errors Present
> Buffer I/O error on device fd0, l...: 14 Time(s)
> end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector...: 15 Time(s)
> floppy0: data CRC error: track 0, head 0...: 18 Time(s)
> floppy0: data CRC error: track 1, head 0...: 6 Time(s)
> floppy0: data CRC error: track 2, head 0...: 6 Time(s)
>
> ---------------------- Kernel End -------------------------
>
> I don't believe there is any problem with mkfs, mkdosfs, or mformat, but
> something is stopping them creating a file system on this low level formatted
> floppy.
>
> Any further ideas folks.
>
> Nigel.
>
> btw. I looked at the other machine, that I thought I could put the firewall
> on, and that won't boot from cdrom either.
>
I know I am late on this thread, and I didn't read all of it, but I am
curious. Did you try setting the fdparm first then using fdformat? I
don't have a floppy in this machine, so I cannot comment on the
applicability of it. You might also verify what format you disk is
designed to accept. Some will not do quad density.
Regards,
Les H
More information about the users
mailing list