Can I format a disk in an external floppy drive

[Larry]

Graham Watkins wrote:
> elmo wrote:
>   
>> Graham Watkins wrote:
>>   
>>     
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> When I got my new computer, it did not have a built-in floppy drive so I 
>>> bought an external usb model.  Obviously floppy disks don't have much of 
>>> a future so all I wanted to do was lift any valuable data off them, burn 
>>> it to a CD and re-format the disks so that they could be given/thrown 
>>> away.  However, kfloppy does not recognise the drive so I can't do it 
>>> that way.   fdisk doesn't see it either.    Does anybody know what, if 
>>> anything I should do to re-format the disks?
>>>
>>>   
>>>     
>>>       
>> I use an external floppy..In Windows, it is B:\
>>
>> I use it the same way as an A:\ drive, formatting, etc.  I haven't tried 
>> it in any Linux.
>>
>> elmo
>>
>>   
>>     
> Windows is not an option.
>
> A correction to my earlier mail: fdisk -l does now show the floppy 
> device as sdc.  I'm not sure what all those partitions are about though.
>
> Disk /dev/sdc: 1 MB, 1474560 bytes
> 1 heads, 3 sectors/track, 960 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 3 * 512 = 1536 bytes
> Disk identifier: 0x73696420
>
> This doesn't look like a partition table
> Probably you selected the wrong device.
>
>    Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
> /dev/sdc1   ?   639983653   821462684   272218546+  20  Unknown
> Partition 1 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
>      phys=(356, 97, 46) logical=(639983652, 0, 3)
> Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
>      phys=(357, 116, 40) logical=(821462683, 0, 2)
> Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
> /dev/sdc2   ?   443394735   623053497   269488144   6b  Unknown
> Partition 2 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
>      phys=(288, 110, 57) logical=(443394734, 0, 1)
> Partition 2 has different physical/logical endings:
>      phys=(269, 101, 57) logical=(623053496, 0, 2)
> Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
> /dev/sdc3   ?   179663131   645784101   699181456   53  OnTrack DM6 Aux3
> Partition 3 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
>      phys=(345, 32, 19) logical=(179663130, 0, 2)
> Partition 3 has different physical/logical endings:
>      phys=(324, 77, 19) logical=(645784100, 0, 3)
> Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
> /dev/sdc4   *   464875888   464883000       10668+  49  Unknown
> Partition 4 has different physical/logical beginnings (non-Linux?):
>      phys=(87, 1, 0) logical=(464875887, 0, 3)
> Partition 4 has different physical/logical endings:
>      phys=(335, 78, 2) logical=(464882999, 0, 3)
> Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary.
>
>
>   
*Try this, to see if it shows your floppy drive...

cd /media then type ls...

Then try mount /dev/fd0, <--- that's a zero...

Mine is internal floppy, which uses the fd0, your's might be alittle 
different...

See if it will work for you then format it...

Larry
*

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