How does one format a usb floppy? The floppy is on /dev/sda. I've tried stuff like: fdformat /dev/fd0 Gives error: /dev/fd0: No such device or address fdformat /dev/fd0h1440 /dev/fd0h1440: No such device or address fdformat /dev/sda Gives the error: Could not determine current format type: Invalid argument It looks like one should use setfdprm to fix the above problem. setfdprm -p /dev/sda 1440/1440 Gives the error: ioctl: Invalid argument setfdprm /dev/fd0 1440/1440 /dev/fd0: No such device or address I've been looking thru google hits and I can only find other people with the same problem. Has anyone solved this yet? Note: I can mount a floppy. In fact SUSE 9.3 mounts the floopy for me in /media/floppy. Rafe
On Wednesday 06 July 2005 21:18, Rafe wrote:
How does one format a usb floppy? The floppy is on /dev/sda.
How about mkfs -t vfat /dev/sda1 Bryan ******************************************************** Powered by SuSE Linux 9.2 Professional KDE 3.3.0 KMail 1.7.1 This is a Microsoft-free computer Bryan S. Tyson bryantyson@earthlink.net ********************************************************
--- Bryan Tyson <bryantyson@earthlink.net> wrote:
On Wednesday 06 July 2005 21:18, Rafe wrote:
How does one format a usb floppy? The floppy is on /dev/sda.
How about mkfs -t vfat /dev/sda1
Bryan
I thought you added the file system after you formated. I am not sure, but I thought first you do a low level format and then partion and then you run mkfs. A quick check shows: mkfs -t vfat /dev/sda mkfs.vfat 2.10 (22 Sep 2003) mkfs.vfat: Will not try to make filesystem on full-disk device '/dev/sda' (use -I if wanted) So I tried cfdisk /dev/sda to create an empty partion, but got an error about the partions being messed up. So I tried fdisk. It appears to work if you fdisk to one partion with type 6 and then run mkdosfs (mkfs -t vfaat same thing) I always though you HAD to do a low level format - maybe not. Thanks for idea. It looks like the right track. Rafe
On Wed, 2005-07-06 at 23:30 -0700, Rafe wrote:
--- Bryan Tyson <bryantyson@earthlink.net> wrote:
On Wednesday 06 July 2005 21:18, Rafe wrote:
How does one format a usb floppy? The floppy is on /dev/sda.
How about mkfs -t vfat /dev/sda1
Bryan
I thought you added the file system after you formated. I am not sure, but I thought first you do a low level format and then partion and then you run mkfs.
No. mkfs is the program that formats the partition. mkfs is equivalent to the windows format program. Just partition and mkfs. -- Ken Schneider UNIX since 1989, linux since 1994, SuSE since 1998 "The day Microsoft makes something that doesn't suck is probably the day they start making vacuum cleaners." -Ernst Jan Plugge
On Wednesday, July 06, 2005 @ 10:30 PM, Rafe wrote:
--- Bryan Tyson <bryantyson@earthlink.net> wrote:
On Wednesday 06 July 2005 21:18, Rafe wrote:
How does one format a usb floppy? The floppy is on /dev/sda.
How about mkfs -t vfat /dev/sda1
Bryan
I thought you added the file system after you formated. I am not sure, but I thought first you do a low level format and then partion and then you run mkfs.
A quick check shows:
mkfs -t vfat /dev/sda mkfs.vfat 2.10 (22 Sep 2003) mkfs.vfat: Will not try to make filesystem on full-disk device '/dev/sda' (use -I if wanted)
So I tried cfdisk /dev/sda to create an empty partion, but got an error about the partions being messed up.
So I tried fdisk. It appears to work if you fdisk to one partion with type 6 and then run mkdosfs (mkfs -t vfaat same thing)
I always though you HAD to do a low level format - maybe not.
Thanks for idea. It looks like the right track.
Rafe
mkfs means make a file system. It's the same thing as formatting. If you're talking about physical partitions, you can "make" partitions (and file systems) on a hard drive. For example, people who have dual boot systems with Windows sharing Linux will have (at least) two file systems, NTFS or some earlier Windows file system for the Windows partition and one of the Linux supported file systems for the Linux partition. Each file system has certain underlying data structures to control it. I'm not all that up on Linux file systems but for NTFS, there's something called the master file table, which is basically a directory for all of the files in that partition. Each file system has it's on underlying architecture, which gets created when you do the mkfs. Greg Wallace
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Rafe