Re: mtools / double-density floppies / old PC problem
On Mon, May 05, 2003 at 10:06:33PM +0200, Conrad Newton wrote:
> This is not strictly a debian question, but I'm afraid
> this list is my best hope for answering a question that
> may otherwise go unanswered.
>
> I do some word-processing on an old PC (1980s) whose
> operating system runs off of double-density diskettes.
> MS-formatted double density diskettes are also the means
> of storing the files.
>
> There is no problem to take the diskettes, and copy the
> files over to Debian, but the reverse direction appears
> to be problematic. That is, if I copy the files from
> the modern computer (e.g. with mcopy) and then try to read
> them on the old PC, the diskette is no longer readable.
>
> I know that I have managed to copy from new -> old in
> the past with success, but I cannot remember how,
> and it baffles me that mcopy no longer seem to work.
>
> The diskettes on which the copy operation new -> old
> have NOT been performed work fine, so it does not appear
> to be a hardware problem. The copy (actually mcopy)
> operation appears to be the source of the trouble.
>
> Any idea why this might be happening? Even better,
> does anyone know a fix?
You don't mention whether your diskettes are 3.5" or 5.25"
diskettes. If they're 5.25" diskettes, there are very good
reasons for you to have trouble -- for more information check out
the following url:
http://web.ukonline.co.uk/freshwater/floppy1.htm
If that's not the issue, then perhaps the "fdutils" package is
what you need to troubleshoot the situation:
You can also read the fdutils manpage at
http://fdutils.linux.lu/Fdutils_toc.html
Best of luck!
--
Shaun Crossley
mailto:shaun@whatever.ca
http://www.whatever.ca
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