redhat 9. floppy drive losing files.

anvilmonkey · 10-14-2003, 12:46 PM

i'm using redhat 9 and i'm having problems with my floppy drive.

using a terminal i copied a .gif file into the /mnt/floppy directory, no problem there.

i checked the /mnt/floppy directory and the file was there.

i unmounted and remounted the floppy and the file was gone.

any ideas what is happening? i really need the floppy drive.

Imyrryr · 10-14-2003, 12:53 PM

this may seem really stupid but are you going through this step

$mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
cp filename.gif /mnt/floppy
umount /dev/fd0

I had a similar problem but I was forgetting to mount the disk drive first.
The information is stored in memory until you unmount the drive and then the info is transferred to the floppy disk.

Hope this help, if this is wrong or doesn't help my apologies in advance

anvilmonkey · 10-14-2003, 01:41 PM

ok, here are the commands i tried.

mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy

cp /home/john/anvil.gif /mnt/floppy

ls /mnt/floppy

cd

umount /dev/fd0

here's what happened.....
the drive mounted ok.
the file copied without any problems.
the file showed up ok.
i returned to my home directory.
but when i tried to unmount the floppy i got a "device is busy" message.

my terminal is not looking at the floppy.
i don't have any nautilus windows looking at the floppy.
but it still wont unmount.

perhaps my floppy drive is faulty.

Imyrryr · 10-14-2003, 02:51 PM

see if you can can create a file on the floppy; use vi or emacs or what ever your favorite text editor is.

if you want you can also try to see if the drive works with a different disk.. btw.. the disk isn't write protected. :-)

anvilmonkey · 10-14-2003, 05:36 PM

sounds like a good idea.
i'm at work right now, but i'll give it a go when i get home.
thanks for the advice.