formatting floppy
 

is there a commandline in linux to format a floppy disk so that the files on the disk are available to both linux (EXT3) and XP (NTFS) filesystems?

I believe a normal FAT (16?) floppy is the easiest way to have the floppy available to multiple operating systems.
"mkdosfs" works. Check the "-m" option to add custom "not a boot floppy" message.
"man mkdosfs" for more info.

i looked at the man page for mkdosfs and it says that it will either create a fat12 or fat16 filesystem by default if no options are specified to the 'mkdosfs' command (based on what it thinks best), so with the advice from 2damncommon i didnt use any options. so i then went ahead and formatted the floppy with..

'mkdosfs /dev/fd0'

i then tested to see if i could transfer a file from linux to xp via the floppy disk, by first mounting the floppy in linux with a commandline i found elsewhere on the net..

'mount -t [fstype] [something] [somewhere]

so i actually typed..

'mount -t vfat /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy'


next i copied a file to the floppy with..

'cp filename /mnt/floppy'


then i unmounted the floppy with..

'umount /mnt/floppy'


i then started XP, and successfully transfered the file from the floppy disk to XP.

thanks for your help guys :) (ps, ive given a full account of what worked for me incase any other noobs find it useful too)

I've got an odd problem with this command. The man mkdosfs comes up, but when I try to use it it says command not found.

You must be root to execute that command

I'm still new to this, thanks.