Slackware 12.2 has the unkind habit of deleting all the
/dev/fd?u*
floppy special files upon boot-up. I have to make another
directory (I use /floppy) to contain these files so I don't
have to keep copying them from an earlier distribution (12.1)
Now, for example, to format a 1743 kilobyte floppy, I do
fdformat /floppy/fd0u1743
mformat a:
If I copy these special files to /dev (where they belong)
then some part of Slackware Linux 12.2 mysteriously deletes
the special files when I power down and power up the machine.

Slackware 12.1 and earlier leave floppy special files
severely alone upon shutdown/startup. I cannot seem to
"grep" a reference to /dev/fd anywhere in /etc/rc.d or
its subdirectories. Why is Slackware 12.2 deleting them?

It has been quite some time since I had a machine with a floppy drive, but if I recall correctly this was some function of the udev changes going on during the Slackware 12 development process.

It looks like this topic talks about a similar issue, and a user proposes a possible fix in post #12.

Also, there were a few udev updates after the release of Slackware 12.2, and the changelog seems to indicate some issues were fixed. I don't know that it would necessarily help, but you should have all of the packages updated regardless. If you haven't installed them, the updates can be found on any of the Slackware mirrors.