streib@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Allan Streib) (04/14/91)
Sorry for the possible FAQ: Can somebody tell me how to use disk(8), fdform(8), or other appropriate unix command to format/initialize a floppy disk on the slab? Which device should I specify? /dev/fd0a didn't work. /dev/fd1a seemed like it was going to work, then said something about improper ioctl. (Can't remember the exact message now). I was doing all this as root. Maybe I just have a bunch of bad disks, but when I try to format from the Workspace it always chokes, saying the disk is unusable. These are 720 KB disks. Also, I want to reuse some disks that have MS-DOS filesystems already. Workspace reformats these as DOS disks, not unix, so the above applies to these disks as well. I've perused the documentation and checked NextAnswers, but couldn't find a specific answer. Thanks -Allan
streib@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Allan Streib) (04/14/91)
In article <1991Apr13.230656.6140@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> streib@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Allan Streib) writes: > >Maybe I just have a bunch of bad disks, but when I try to format from >the Workspace it always chokes, saying the disk is unusable. These are >720 KB disks. Now I'm beginning to think I have a bad drive. I haven't gotten it to sucessfully initialize any disk, including the 2.88MB floppy that came with the system. Has anyone had any trouble with the Sony internal drives that ship with the NeXTstation? -Allan
glenn@heaven.woodside.ca.us (Glenn Reid) (04/17/91)
Allan Streib writes > In article <1991Apr13.230656.6140@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> streib@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Allan Streib) writes: > > > >Maybe I just have a bunch of bad disks, but when I try to format from > >the Workspace it always chokes, saying the disk is unusable. These are > >720 KB disks. > > Now I'm beginning to think I have a bad drive. I haven't gotten it to > sucessfully initialize any disk, including the 2.88MB floppy that came > with the system. Has anyone had any trouble with the Sony internal > drives that ship with the NeXTstation? My 'station won't format (or read) DOS disks either. I thought I was doing something wrong until I tried it on my DIT floppy drive connected to a cube, which worked just fine. I've seen several messages saying the same thing. I think there's a software or firmware problem. -- Glenn Reid RightBrain Software glenn@heaven.woodside.ca.us NeXT/PostScript developers ..{adobe,next}!heaven!glenn 415-851-1785 (fax 851-1470)