Unix administration - copying an old Idris floppy image

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Author copying an old Idris floppy image
Vendor Neutral

2005-01-13, 2:54 am

Linux SuSE 8.2

I have two old Idris OS floppies I want to make image copies of. I
have tried everything from 'cat /dev/fd0 > file.name' to rawread to a
bunch of old freeware DOS utilities (FDCOPY, etc.)

Linux isn't even able to mount the Idris floppies.

Anyway, if anyone has a clue or a pointer to where I can read up and
get one, I'd be very grateful.

jpd

2005-01-13, 7:48 am

Begin <MPG.1c4ff7432105a78998a040@news.verizon.net>
On 2005-01-13, Vendor Neutral <neutral@domain.invalid> wrote:
> I have two old Idris OS floppies I want to make image copies of. I
> have tried everything from 'cat /dev/fd0 > file.name' to rawread to a


You usually do that with dd(1) (dd if=/dev/fd0 of=file.name), but do
see the manual for options you might or might not need, like setting
the blocksize. If the blocksize is wrong it will not copy anything.


> bunch of old freeware DOS utilities (FDCOPY, etc.)
>
> Linux isn't even able to mount the Idris floppies.


I don't know what those are, but if they're a) not formatted in a
manner that linux undertands (think floppies for c64 or the various
cp/m machines or even older mac 800k floppies (pc hardware can't
physically read those at all)) or b) not laid out with a filesystem
linux understands, then you won't be able to mount them.

Note that altough the linux mount(8) contains some code that makes wild
guesses about what kind of filesystem is on a floppy, it is by no means
always correct. If you happen to know what filesystem is on them, use an
explicit -t <fstype> option to mount(8) to avoid the guessing code.


--
j p d (at) d s b (dot) t u d e l f t (dot) n l .
Mark Hittinger

2005-01-13, 5:53 pm

Vendor Neutral <neutral@domain.invalid> writes:
>Linux SuSE 8.2
>I have two old Idris OS floppies I want to make image copies of. I
>have tried everything from 'cat /dev/fd0 > file.name' to rawread to a
>bunch of old freeware DOS utilities (FDCOPY, etc.)
>Linux isn't even able to mount the Idris floppies.


If they are old they may not be "double density" (1.44mb) - they may
instead be "single density" (720k).

You also have the double sided/single sided issue to worry about.

try "man fd" - there will be a giant list of floppy device names, the
density and the sidedness are determined by the device name.

fd0 defaults to double sided double density. You'll have to find the right
device name to make the copy with.

The nice thing about the lower density floppies is that they may still
contain mostly good data. My apple-II floppies are still readable after
all these years.

Later

Mark Hittinger
bugs@pu.net
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