How to format a disk in an USB-Floppy-drive

How to format a disk in an USB-Floppy-drive

[Christian Schmidt]

Dear all,

How do I actually low-level format a floppy disk in an 
USB-Floppy-Disk-Drive?

I tried as with usual drives, using fdformat:

[~]>fdformat /dev/sdd
Could not determine current format type: Invalid argument

But setting the format failed as well:
[~]>setfdprm -p /dev/sdd 1440/1440
ioctl: Invalid argument

Next up scsifmt:

[~]>./scsifmt /dev/sdd fmt
scsifmt: non-sense ioctl error

Didn't work too well, too. Any ideas?

Best regards,
Christian

Re: How to format a disk in an USB-Floppy-drive

[Jan Engelhardt]

> How do I actually low-level format a floppy disk in an USB-Floppy-Disk-Drive?
>
> I tried as with usual drives, using fdformat:
>
> [~]>fdformat /dev/sdd
> Could not determine current format type: Invalid argument
>
> But setting the format failed as well:
> [~]>setfdprm -p /dev/sdd 1440/1440
> ioctl: Invalid argument
>
> Next up scsifmt:
>
> [~]>./scsifmt /dev/sdd fmt
> scsifmt: non-sense ioctl error
>
> Didn't work too well, too. Any ideas?


Does not mkfs suffice?


	-`J'
-- 

Re: How to format a disk in an USB-Floppy-drive

[Willy Tarreau]

On Sun, Nov 19, 2006 at 07:25:34PM +0100, Jan Engelhardt wrote:
> 
> > How do I actually low-level format a floppy disk in an USB-Floppy-Disk-Drive?
> >
> > I tried as with usual drives, using fdformat:
> >
> > [~]>fdformat /dev/sdd
> > Could not determine current format type: Invalid argument
> >
> > But setting the format failed as well:
> > [~]>setfdprm -p /dev/sdd 1440/1440
> > ioctl: Invalid argument
> >
> > Next up scsifmt:
> >
> > [~]>./scsifmt /dev/sdd fmt
> > scsifmt: non-sense ioctl error
> >
> > Didn't work too well, too. Any ideas?
> 
> 
> Does not mkfs suffice?

No, he's talking about low-level format. This is necessary before writing
anything on a floppy for the first time or after defects have been detected
(remember these old ages ?).

Cheers,
Willy

Re: How to format a disk in an USB-Floppy-drive

[Jan Engelhardt]

On Nov 19 2006 19:44, Willy Tarreau wrote:
>On Sun, Nov 19, 2006 at 07:25:34PM +0100, Jan Engelhardt wrote:
>> > [~]>./scsifmt /dev/sdd fmt
>> > scsifmt: non-sense ioctl error
>> >
>> > Didn't work too well, too. Any ideas?
>> 
>> 
>> Does not mkfs suffice?
>
>No, he's talking about low-level format. This is necessary before writing
>anything on a floppy for the first time or after defects have been detected
>(remember these old ages ?).

Yeah but the scsi *disk* driver does not seem to handle *floppy* 
requests (just as it does not handle *cdrom* ioctls). I sense a Missing 
Feature here.



	-`J'
-- 

Re: How to format a disk in an USB-Floppy-drive

[Willy Tarreau]

On Sun, Nov 19, 2006 at 08:15:31PM +0100, Jan Engelhardt wrote:
> 
> On Nov 19 2006 19:44, Willy Tarreau wrote:
> >On Sun, Nov 19, 2006 at 07:25:34PM +0100, Jan Engelhardt wrote:
> >> > [~]>./scsifmt /dev/sdd fmt
> >> > scsifmt: non-sense ioctl error
> >> >
> >> > Didn't work too well, too. Any ideas?
> >> 
> >> 
> >> Does not mkfs suffice?
> >
> >No, he's talking about low-level format. This is necessary before writing
> >anything on a floppy for the first time or after defects have been detected
> >(remember these old ages ?).
> 
> Yeah but the scsi *disk* driver does not seem to handle *floppy* 
> requests (just as it does not handle *cdrom* ioctls). I sense a Missing 
> Feature here.

I'm just wondering whether an SCSI floppy drive should support the hard
disk command set (including low-level fmt). I'm not even sure that our
sd driver supports those commands itself ! Clearly smelling -ENOFEATURE...

Regards,
Willy