You are mounting the filesystem on the floppy not the drive. If you do not unmount the disk prior to ejecting any pending writes will then be written to the next floppy inserted which will corrupt it's filesystem. Linux buffers reads and writes so you need to unmount to clear them out.

Linux Mint 17.2 (rafaela)
Dell Optiplex 745
I haven't been able yet to access bios. I have tried the ways I am used to and my methods are ignored.
Via the terminal and 'In root' I tried </etc/fstab> and got 'permission denied'. Is the terminal a text editor?
The terminology in linux has me snowed. I am used to installing a floppy drive, not mounting it. An installed drive stays that way, never have I unmounted one. Once installed, it works, leave it alone, move on...that is my experience.
It might be best if I forget trying to use the 3.5" drive.
One person has directed me to some things to try that look familiar because I have tried them already.
Perhaps the terminal is not a 'text editor', I will await your answer on that.

Thanks for your attempts!
Ted.

No . You need to do in root or sudo even

or

or what ever text editor Mint uses. I would first do

to back up your original /etc/fstab file 1st. Before writing changes. So you have a back up you can put back called /etc/fstab.old with

after deleting the old fstab file 1st because you did something wrong and boot up quits working.

Hold the presses! I set up my Optiplex GX280 and tried entering bios and did so successfully. The difference is on the 745 drive that I am trying to enable, upon pressing the start button I held the F2 key down. On the GX280 upon starting, I did a continuous and rapid tap of F2. That worked. I then went back to the 745 and tried the continuous F2 tapping upon pressing the start button and got into bios. Sure enough, the floppy was disabled. I enabled and now am off to the races. I now understand the mount/unmount requirement. The drive now reads a disk.

My appreciation to all that have helped with my problem. What a friendly place this is. I can see I have a lot of reading to do to understand Linux. Years ago when the general population was hearing of Linux, I ordered a CD, installed, was totally dumbfounded and put the disk away...still have it. Now years later I am back to try and like what I see.

Thanks to all,
Ted.

You're welcome. Praise God, glad you got it working!

If you would, please mark this thread as "SOLVED" by clicking on "Thread Tools" directly above your initial post. Thanks!

Regards...

1 members found this post helpful.

Will marked 'solved'. Thanks again. BTW, I got a note from someone saying I don't have permission to access the page I went to. Do you have any idea what that is about? There was no way to reply/ask 'why not'.
Ted.

Hi Ted....

You're welcome

Was it a page on LQ's site? If you would, please provide us with a link to the page.

Regards...

I've searched and come up empty. His note looked like it came from the site but there was no way to reply to him that I could find. I don't remember his name. He gave me a stern lecture though, I remember that much. Takes all kinds, I guess. If I hear from him again, I will forward all data to you. thanks.

Hi Ted...

No, if the note did indeed come from LQ (from another member) all information should be sent to Jeremy (the owner of the site) or one of the moderators for them to handle. You can use the contact form here.

Regards...