From: gtaylor@jade.tufts.edu (Grant Taylor) Subject: Re: Novice question: How to write and read from /dev/fd0 Date: 16 Nov 1992 17:57:21 GMT
well, there are two ways to use floppies in linux-
just as a raw device, with no filesystem on the floppy, ie tar
and as you would in dos - by mounting and using the floppy's fs.
to use a floppy `raw', you simply specify /dev/fd[0||1] as the target `file'
for example - tar cCvvzf / /dev/fd0 will back up and compress your
entire filesystem, assuming that it fits on a single floppy. note that
tar does not allow simletaneous use of the compress (z) and
multivolume (M) options (a problem i will fix this weekend).
also useful - dd if=a2 of=/dev/fd0 would `rawrite' a2 to the floppy...
to use a floppy by mounting it, you just mount it. if the filesystem
is of a type other than minix, you must explicitly say so.
`mount /dev/fd0 /mnt' mounts a minix floppy as /mnt/
`mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /mnt' mounts a dos floppy as /mnt
also possible are -t ext and, i suppose, -t proc, (on a floppy!?)
(please note, for future reference, that this question is probably
covered in the FAQ, info-sheet, or installation notes of SLS or MCC,
as well as, where relavent, the man pages to dd and GNU tar)
hope this cleared up a bit of confusion...
-grant