From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Apr 22 16:31:01 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5090937B401 for ; Tue, 22 Apr 2003 16:31:01 -0700 (PDT) Received: from ntli.com (pc1-glfd2-4-cust59.glfd.cable.ntl.com [81.99.187.59]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0AB8243FD7 for ; Tue, 22 Apr 2003 16:31:00 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from william@palfreman.com) Received: from aqua.lan.palfreman.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ntli.com (8.12.3p2/8.12.3) with ESMTP id h3MNduRa002031; Wed, 23 Apr 2003 00:39:56 +0100 (BST) (envelope-from william@palfreman.com) Received: from localhost (william@localhost)h3MNdtTw002028; Wed, 23 Apr 2003 00:39:55 +0100 (BST) X-Authentication-Warning: aqua.lan.palfreman.com: william owned process doing -bs Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 00:39:40 +0100 (BST) From: William Palfreman To: Malcolm Kay In-Reply-To: <200304221410.29115.Malcolm.Kay@internode.on.net> Message-ID: <20030422113719.X41557@ndhn.yna.cnyserzna.pbz> References: <20030421170801.GA23306@freedaemon.home.lan> <200304221410.29115.Malcolm.Kay@internode.on.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII cc: Chris Pockele cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: floppy drive problem X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 23:31:01 -0000 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Tue, 22 Apr 2003, Malcolm Kay wrote: > Notice all Chris's commands address a ufs partition, and the errors come from > fd0c -- again a ufs concept. The disk is not set up with ufs but FAT12 so > these do not exist. > > His drive works OK under windows; it is possible but very unlikely there is > a hardware problem. > > His problem will probably disappear if he uses a suitable device fd0 or > fd0.1440 rather than fd0a. I tried mounting an old msdos format disk using fd0, fd0a, fd0b, fd0d, fd0f, fd0h, and they were all exactly the same and all worked - not entirely surprising given that they all have the same major and minor numbers. > This also applies in writing an image using dd, but here it might be > advisable to use the sized device fd0.1440 or the traditional raw device > rfd0.1440 I thought rfd[0-1]* was deprecated? Anyway, it has identical major/minor numbers to fd[0-1]* and it works identically for me too. I suppose you could try using fd0.1440. I'm fairly sure it is simply the default fd0 does anyway. It certainly works identically for me, although the major/minor is different. In general, I think it is a really big mistake not to assume hardware failures with an elderly floppy drive, before digger around for an obscure incompatibility. The 3.5" IBM floppy has been around a very long time and are very well understood. Unless it is a very special type of hardware. Chris has since said that the drive takes known good disks, and after failing to read them, those disks are no longer readable. There is probably a huge chink of crud on the read/write heads, and its wrecking everything that get near it. That or similar seems to me to be the overwhelmingly likely cause of the problem. - -- W. Palfreman. I'm looking for a job. Read my CV at: Tel: 0771 355 0354 www.palfreman.com/william/cv-wfp2.html -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.1 (FreeBSD) iD8DBQE+pdLLlEOQDkvPqLYRAlouAKCGjpaRDsMtd6t3xeowXRQfckOl+QCfZd7S M5tduWvxeYArJbT9AwMb/J4= =i8L6 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----