Re: Format an MS-DOS floppy on /dev/sdc
On Wed 20 Mar 2019 at 21:01:00 (+0100), Anders Andersson wrote:
> On Sun, Mar 17, 2019 at 5:43 PM David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> wrote:
> > On Sun 17 Mar 2019 at 13:19:29 (+0100), Anders Andersson wrote:
> > > I got myself a USB 3.5" disk drive and want to format a 3.5" HD disk
> > > so that it Just Works™ as a standard MS-DOS floppy.
> >
> > I'm not sure that you really can. What's your reasoning for
> > doing this? Are you just spoiling for an unnecessary fight?
> > Or do you really want to boot off it?
>
> I want to use a floppy disk to transfer information between computers
> and other devices which expects 3.5" HD diskette formatted for use
> with DOS. Since it was the industry standard for "sneakernet" file
> transfer for over a decade, I don't think it's a strange use case.
> What did I miss?
I think *I* missed, or rather misread, the first two lines of your
post (assuming the drive was what's commonly called a hard drive).
I think I understand what you're asking now, so you can delete at
least my first paragraph.
Unless you've a stack of real 3.5" diskettes which you haven't yet
got round to transferring onto a better format¹, then I think you
probably wasted your money on the drive. The port that you plug
your drive into would support a wide range of cheap drives that
could be formatted with FAT16/32±VFAT if and as required. Or you
could just use USB sticks instead, which I would recognise as
being the modern sneakernet. Why limit yourself to 1.4MB?²
¹ There are scads of LPs, VHS tapes, and probably 78s, musicassettes,
reel-to-reel, etc. that need conversion, but there's more excuse
here for tardiness.
² Floppy storage appears to cost around 1$/MB. Without suggesting
your devices could handle 10TB drives, the cost of storage on
these can be as low as 2¢/GB. (Best Buy throws in a 32GB stick.)
Cheers,
David.
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