From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Nov 27 15:53:54 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C3C0116A4CE for ; Thu, 27 Nov 2003 15:53:54 -0800 (PST) Received: from cain.gsoft.com.au (cain.gsoft.com.au [203.31.81.10]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E977543FA3 for ; Thu, 27 Nov 2003 15:53:48 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from doconnor@gsoft.com.au) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by cain.gsoft.com.au (8.12.9/8.12.8) with ESMTP id hARNrihk041192; Fri, 28 Nov 2003 10:23:45 +1030 (CST) (envelope-from doconnor@gsoft.com.au) From: "Daniel O'Connor" To: Malcolm Kay , freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2003 10:23:44 +1030 User-Agent: KMail/1.5.3 References: <200311271957.42283.doconnor@gsoft.com.au> <200311280012.47529.malcolm.kay@internode.on.net> In-Reply-To: <200311280012.47529.malcolm.kay@internode.on.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200311281023.44869.doconnor@gsoft.com.au> X-Spam-Score: -4.4 () CARRIAGE_RETURNS,IN_REP_TO,QUOTED_EMAIL_TEXT,REFERENCES,SPAM_PHRASE_00_01,USER_AGENT,USER_AGENT_KMAIL X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.16 (www . roaringpenguin . com / mimedefang) Subject: Re: fdformat doesn't work anymore? X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 27 Nov 2003 23:53:54 -0000 On Friday 28 November 2003 00:12, Malcolm Kay wrote: > On Thu, 27 Nov 2003 19:57, Daniel O'Connor wrote: > > I am trying to format a floppy in a FreeBSD 4.9-mumble system but it > > spits errors on most tracks. > > > > I've tried several floppies, but the result is the same. If I do "dd > > if=/dev/zero of=/dev/fd0c" it completes without error. > > So this proves you can get nulls from /dev/zero without error. > But having done this will dd read from /dev/fd0c? Good question :) > The fact that the errors are pretty much the same on both machines, I would > take as a strong indication the the diskettes are due for the rubbish tip. Yeah, sigh :) > And I've known batches of old disks to fail from physical distortion of the > media while on the shelf through aging -- long term backup on floppies is > useless or at least a big gamble. Well, it sucks to have to buy new floppies in emergencies.. Maybe I should keep a set in the fridge or something :) I bought some new ones and the fdformat fine, so I guess it was just dodgy disks. Thanks :) -- Daniel O'Connor software and network engineer for Genesis Software - http://www.gsoft.com.au "The nice thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from." -- Andrew Tanenbaum GPG Fingerprint - 9A8C 569F 685A D928 5140 AE4B 319B 41F4 5D17 FDD5