· Packages
· MFORMAT
· FDFORMAT
- Some Notations
· Checking badblocks under mtools
· Other very useful utility:’superformat’
The words in blue colour represent the commands that can be entered at the command shell in Linux.
Packages
Packages useful to work with floppy disks under LINUX OS are
1)mtools
2)fdutils
MFORMAT
VERY USEFUL
mformat –t 83 –n 21 –L 22 a:
-t no.of tracks max 83
-n no.of sectors per track max 24
-L length of FAT 1,2,…12,16,32
-X Xtensible(XDF-Xtra Density Floppy) formatting
(1840KB,1920KB on a HD disk!)
-M format in 2m disk
a: drive (/dev/fd0)
NOTES:
1.You MUST edit /etc/mtools.conf before you use -X switch.It’s only low-level format
After which you should do high level format using ‘fdcopy’.
2.Using 2m format:I don’t think it’s more popular;it needs special software to read.
FDFORMAT
fdformat /dev/fd0
fdformat /dev/fd0u1760 etc
And fdformat –n /dev/fd0
for ->no track check.
Then do the other work i.e.,to make a file system which you want:
Use the following:
mkfs /dev/fd0u1760
ext2 file system is generated on disk.
Same if used mkfs.ext2 /dev/fd0u1760
Remember if you use mkfs /swc/fd0,the default capacity 1440KB is generated.
mkfs.msdos /dev/fd0
Then MS-DOS file system is generated.
Also mkdosfs /dev/fd0u1760
mkfs.minix (Minix file system is generated)
Some Notations:
fd0h---- 5½ inch DD disk max 1660KB
fd0H---- 3½ inch HD disk max 1920KB
fd0u---- 3½ inch ED disk max 3880KB
where ---- shows the capacity->e.g.,1760,1440
NOTES:
1.Though you have only HD drive,fdformat /dev/fd0u1760 works.
Other best formatting tool for floppy disks under windows os is ALKONOST MAX FORMAT
For mulinux:
Only fdformat available.
Pre-defined /dev/ files:
fd0H1440
fd0H1722
1.fdformat /dev/fd0H1722
2.mkfs.ext2 /dev/fd0H1722
Checking badblocks under mtools:
For DOS fs:
mbadblocks a:
For ext2 fs:
fsck /dev/fd0
e2fsck /dev/fd0
Other very useful utility:’superformat’
It is from fdutils package.
superformat /dev/fd0 tracksize=12KB cyl=83 ass
It formats a HD disk to 1992KB.
YES.Almost nearly 2MB
But these 1992KB is not read by DOS or WINDOWS->USE them in LINUX ONLY!
---STICK TO LINUX---
This superformat is even more powerful than XDF disk(which formats to 1920KB)
"fdutils" package is only of 700KB size!
NOTES:
1.You can create the device files for floppies by giving the following commands:
mknod /dev/fd0H1760 b 2 96
mknod /dev/fd0H1920 b 2 100
After this you can use
fdformat /dev/fd0H1760
OR
mkfs.ext2 /dev/fd0H1760
OR
superformat /dev/fd0H1920
Then MUST AND SHOULD DO
mke2fs /dev/fd0H1920
The 1980/1992KB format is fully usable only using mtools.Use ‘mcopy’ to copy files.
It is not fully usable in KDE Konqueror,GNOME file manager etc.
THANKS TO MTOOLS.
