lclarke@questor.wimsey.bc.ca (Lawrence Clarke) (01/02/91)
Does anyone out there know how to backup the 105 MB Hard Disk on the NeXTstation to 1.44meg floppies ? Why does it take so long to write/read to the floppy drive ? I've boosted the priority of the process writing/reading to the floppy (with the RENICE command) but it doesn't seem to help much . /==============================================================\ | lclarke@questor.wimsey.bc.ca | c/o TRIUMF Operations | | larry@triumfcl.bitnet | University of B.C. Canada | | Compuserve: 70441,1776 | 4004 Wesbrook Mall | | Phone: +1 604 275-5902 | Vancouver, British Columbia | | FAX: +1 604 275-4184 | Canada V6T 2A3 | \==============================================================/
matthews@lewhoosh.umd.edu (Mike Matthews) (01/03/91)
In article <PaF6u1w163w@questor.wimsey.bc.ca> lclarke@questor.wimsey.bc.ca (Lawrence Clarke) writes: >Why does it take so long to write/read to the floppy drive ? I've boosted >the priority of the process writing/reading to the floppy (with the RENICE >command) but it doesn't seem to help much . Because the floppy drive is real slow. It isn't too bad in native Unix, from my experience, but MS DOS disks are about as slow as ... as ... dare I say, Commodore Amiga disks. :-) No flames wars please. Also, while I'm here, I've had my computer almost totally lock up when trying to stick an MS DOS disk in there. Frequently I get internal sig errors or something, please save your changes before I log you out messages. Also frequently, you stick the disk in there, and it gets bad label or magic number messages on /dev/console, and the disk just kind of sits there but never gets mounted. You have to go into the monitor and do an ef to get it out. I tried umounting the floppy, but that was a pretty stupid move. Unmounting doesn't eject... <sigh> >| lclarke@questor.wimsey.bc.ca | c/o TRIUMF Operations | ------ Mike Matthews, matthews@lewhoosh.umd.edu (NeXT)/matthews@umdd (bitnet) ------ "But don't you see, the color of wine in a crystal glass can be spiritual. The look in a face, the music of a violin. A Paris theater can be infused with the spiritual for all its solidity." -- Lestat, _The Vampire Lestat_, Anne Rice
lclarke@questor.wimsey.bc.ca (Lawrence Clarke) (01/03/91)
matthews@lewhoosh.umd.edu (Mike Matthews) writes: > Also, while I'm here, I've had my computer almost totally lock up when trying > to stick an MS DOS disk in there. Frequently I get internal sig errors or > something, please save your changes before I log you out messages. Also > frequently, you stick the disk in there, and it gets bad label or magic > number messages on /dev/console, and the disk just kind of sits there but > never gets mounted. You have to go into the monitor and do an ef to get it > out. I tried umounting the floppy, but that was a pretty stupid move. > Unmounting doesn't eject... <sigh> > You don't have to go to the ROM Monitor to eject the floppy ! If you'll notice there is a small pin-hole on the lower right hand side of the floppy entrance. Just get a pin or paper-clip and stick it in the hole and push. This pushes on a level inside which will eject the floppy. BUT don't do this on a safely mounted filesystem ! Only if you can't eject the floppy with software. /==============================================================\ | lclarke@questor.wimsey.bc.ca | c/o TRIUMF Operations | | larry@triumfcl.bitnet | University of B.C. Canada | | Compuserve: 70441,1776 | 4004 Wesbrook Mall | | Phone: +1 604 275-5902 | Vancouver, British Columbia | | FAX: +1 604 275-4184 | Canada V6T 2A3 | \==============================================================/
tempest@walleye.uucp (Kenneth K.F. Lui) (01/03/91)
In article <uic7u1w163w@questor.wimsey.bc.ca> lclarke@questor.wimsey.bc.ca (Lawrence Clarke) writes: >You don't have to go to the ROM Monitor to eject the floppy ! If you'll >notice there is a small pin-hole on the lower right hand side of the >floppy entrance. Just get a pin or paper-clip and stick it in the hole Better yet, umount the disk then use /usr/etc/disk to eject it. Run it without any parameters and it'll give you a help screen. Ken ______________________________________________________________________________ tempest@ecst.csuchico.edu, tempest@walleye.ecst.csuchico.edu,|Kenneth K.F. Lui| tempest@sutro.sfsu.edu, tempest@wet.UUCP |________________|
scott@mcs-server.gac.edu (Scott Hess) (01/04/91)
In article <uic7u1w163w@questor.wimsey.bc.ca> lclarke@questor.wimsey.bc.ca (Lawrence Clarke) writes: matthews@lewhoosh.umd.edu (Mike Matthews) writes: > never gets mounted. You have to go into the monitor and do an ef to get it > out. I tried umounting the floppy, but that was a pretty stupid move. > Unmounting doesn't eject... <sigh> > You don't have to go to the ROM Monitor to eject the floppy ! If you'll notice there is a small pin-hole on the lower right hand side of the floppy entrance. Just get a pin or paper-clip and stick it in the hole and push. This pushes on a level inside which will eject the floppy. Also, you might be able to use disk (though I cannot be sure, not being on a 2.0 system :-). Under 1.0, disk -e /dev/rod0a would eject the optical disk. Maybe using a similar command on the floppy will do the trick. I believe you had to be root to use disk, too . . . -- scott hess scott@gac.edu Independent NeXT Developer GAC Undergrad <I still speak for nobody> "Tried anarchy, once. Found it had too many constraints . . ." "Buy `Sweat 'n wit '2 Live Crew'`, a new weight loss program by Richard Simmons . . ."
lacsap@media-lab.MEDIA.MIT.EDU (Pascal Chesnais) (01/06/91)
In this period of everyone trying to be helpful while using new hardware and a new OS, I would like to remind people to show some restraint and try out their panaceas before posting. Scott's message was essentially correct, but I would like to concisely review the umounting and ejecting of floppy and optical disks. The following information assumes that you were manipulating Floppy or Optical disks as a normal user, meaning that when you put in the disk it appeared on the top shelf of the workspace viewer. Floppy disks that appear on the workspace dock can usually be unmounted by dragging the floppy or optical disk icon off the top shelf of the dock into the recycler icon. This will not work if the disk is in use by some other application, which happens if you are connected to a directory from the Terminal or some other application. Once you have cleared these applications the floppy or optical disk should umount *and* eject cleanly. You can also unmount the disk from a unix shell using /etc/umount command. Again this will fail if some application is busy. /etc/umount will *not* eject the disk. The umount command tells the operating system to no longer recognize the filesystem on the disk. The operating system will automatically mount an inserted optical or floppy disk in the root directory with the label name. So if I put in an initialized floppy or optical diskette with the name "Untitiled" I would see it mounted as /Untitled using the df command. To eject the floppy or disk optical disk once operating system no longer has it mounted (use df to verify this true) you can use the /etc/disk command. You need to have superuser shell to do this. /etc/disk -e /dev/rfd0a will eject the floppy disk, and /etc/disk -e /dev/rod0a will eject the optical disk. It is important to understand that umount and mount deal with the operating system integrating the filesystem, and the disk command deals with low level disk manipulations. Using the disk command or any other mechanism to eject a disk before the operating system has cleanly unmounted can result in data being damaged on the disk. The eject function of the disk command can also be performed at the monitor level. Using a safety pin on the floppy drive or the NextTool on the optical drive should always be considered to be a last ditch measure for extracting the media from the drive. I really wish that NeXT would post similar stuff in a timely fashion in addition to having this information in NextAnswers. I hope this information is useful, and that people will correct its contents if it is false or mis-stated. Is someone still collecting information for the commonly asked questions? pasc -- Pascal Chesnais, Research Specialist, Electronic Publishing Group Media Laboratory, E15-348, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge, Ma, 02139 (617) 253-0311 email: lacsap@plethora.media.mit.edu (NeXT)