Re: Nonstandard low-level formats and USB floppy drives (is linux capable?)

From: Robert Heller (heller_at_deepsoft.com)
Date: 02/11/05 

Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2005 12:39:43 +0100

  "Luser" <azquzcudlcrh@mailinator.com>,
  In a message on 10 Feb 2005 16:08:12 -0800, wrote :

"> Dances With Crows,
">
"> Interesting points. Is it possible to low-level format USB floppies
"> under Windows? I don't have a Windows computer of my own to test with.
"> I also don't feel very qualified to reverse engineer a USB protocol,
"> but then again, I could at least try.
">
"> When I mount a 1600KB floppy, for example, in my USB drive, it looks
"> just like things would look if I mounted a normal floppy drive with the
"> same disk, but by using the "fdnH1440" device. That is, the file
"> names and other things are corrupted looking or not displayed
"> correctly. I have never tried writing a floppy mounted with the
"> incorrect device because I assume it would corrupt both the low and
"> high-level formats.
">
"> So I guess a USB floppy drive really isn't as good as a real floppy
"> drive. I guess I need to dig an old motherboard and drive out of the
"> attic. It is a shame to lose functionality like this.

Is it true that the new motherboards actually lack the floppy
controller? Or just that the system simply lacks the drive itself?

">
">

                                     \/
Robert Heller ||InterNet: heller@cs.umass.edu
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