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Re: /dev/fd0: Input/output error (making base disks)



On 21/12/99 Matt Garman wrote:

I'm trying to make the "base" disks to do a potato install.

When I do a "dd if=root.bin of=/dev/fd0," I get the following:

dd: /dev/fd0: Input/output error
1113+0 records in
1112+0 records out

looks like a disk error prevented the copy from completing

And again with "cmp root.bin /dev/fd0":

cmp: /dev/fd0: Input/output error

does cmp work with device files?

This is using a standard 1.44 floppy drive that came with my system.  It
has worked fine for as long as I've had the machine.  By the way, I also
tried several different disks, all with the same results as above.

Any thoughts?

I have had similar problems and every time it was a bad floppy at fault, i solved the problem by throwing the floppy in the general direction of the trash can and grabbing a new one out of a box full of hundreds , I always use the following procedure to test floppies:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/fd0 bs=512 count=2880

then i eject the floppy and reinsert it (otherwise the kernel cache will prevent a real test) and run:

cat /dev/fd0 > /tmp/floppytest

when that finishes there should be a file in /tmp exactly 1440K if cat complains about any errors remove the floppy and throw it in the general direction of the trash :)

if all floppies seem to be bad then I would suspect your floppy drive is either gone south or is dirty, more likely the latter so get a cleaning kit and try cleaning it. I have fixed many floppy drives this way. (back when i worked at a school kids would manage to get so much snot inside there disks it would transfer to the heads then to someone elses disk, and in turn that disk would transfer gook to yet another floppy drive...)

try at least 5 floppies though, I have had up to 3 or 4 in a row be bad, floppies are about the most unreliable things ever invented. (except for windows)



--
Ethan Benson
To obtain my PGP key: http://www.alaska.net/~erbenson/pgp/


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