Hi all

Very simple one. I want to create a backup of my bootdisk. I went to google once and there was a nice 5 step list of commands to format the floppy, mount it, create an image of the floppy in the /tmp directory using dd, then write it out to the new floppy with the reverse of the dd command. For some reason it has disappeared from google, or I am not searching right. When I do, I will put it in a text file in my home directory so that I will never lose it again. Thanks everyone.

Jim

Well I'm not sure what the 5 steps where and what they exactly accomplished but here is a few commands that might help you out.

Mounting and unmounting can be done like this:
mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
umount /dev/fd0

You have to make sure the /mnt/floppy exist.

To create an image of the floppy in the /tmp directory:
dd if=/dev/fd0 of=/tmp/floppy.iso

To copy the image to floppy:
dd if=/tmp/floppy.iso of=/dev/fd0

To format the floppy you can use the mkfs command. You will have to add the filesystem type you would like to create. Something like:
mkfs -t vfat /dev/fd0

You could always read the man pages for more detailed descriptions on each command. Or search google for each command.

Hi Mik

Now that you have put them up, most are the ones that I remember. But the dd commands had, as I can remember, some kind of a size parameter for the floppy's. I used it to create a backup of my RedHat startup disk. I knew about the mount and umount commands, and in this little list, things came in a certain order. If I remember, first you format, then mount, then dd to /temp, change disks, write it out again and them umount. It is just some of the parameters that I can't remember. Or find. Thanks for your response.

Jim

Well with dd you can specify a size using bs and count but without it, it should stop when it reaches the end of either the input or the ouput stream.

What exactly are you trying to do with the commands. A dd copies a complete image. The filesystem will also be present in the image so it's not necessary to format first before you copy to a new disk. You should also not be mounting the floppy when you want to use dd.

So if all you want to do is copy a floppy directly then the two dd commands would be enough.

Hi Mik

Thanks for the info. I wasn't sure if you needed the parameters or whether they were critical in doing the diskcopy. Apparently they are not, which makes the whole thing a lot easier. Thanks again for the help.

Jim

Will this work on CD-Rom's as well? - A friend of mine downloaded the 3 CD's for RH 9 and I wanted a copy of them (damn my 56k modem...)

Hi fatuus.

Not sure. But I don't see why not. If you have the hard drive space. Make sure and post if it does work. It would be a nice way to copy disks. And it would be easier to do that than download the whole thing again. Thanks.

Jim