[SGVLUG] Forgot to mention about the 5.25 --> present conversion

[David Lawyer]

After claiming that it's OK even if the BIOS can't detect a 5 1/4"
drive
On Mon, Feb 25, 2008 at 05:11:06PM -0800, David Lawyer wrote:
> But I'm not 100% sure of the above since I get a lot of read errors.
> The top directory reads OK and shows all the files on the 5 1/4"
> floppy but I hear a lot of clicking and see IO error messages as the
> drive tries in vain to reread file contents.  I'll keep trying

No wonder I got these errors.  The bios incorrectly "detected" it as a 3
1/2 floppy with 18 sectors/track and Linux blindly accepted this as
true.  But it's not.  My floppy only has 8 sectors/track (most had 9
for "Double Density" 5 1/4" and 15 for "High Density 5 1/4").  It
turns out that of the 11 formats for 5 1/4" floppys which can be
autodetected by Linux, my floppies are not any of these 11 and I'll
have to specify a custom format if I expect them to be read correctly.
Not only that but Linux was trying to autodetect formats for 3.5 inch
high density drives.

So I can supposedly use the programs setfdprm, floppycontrol, and or
use the kernel boot parameter floppy= ... to set it to the correct
parameters, etc.  But why bother since I long ago transferred my files to
my HD and from there to another HD, etc.  The only interest in them
might be historical interest in the binary system software but
wouldn't old source code be better?

When the Linux Documentation Project got started volunteers decided to
write a Serial HOWTO, and one on Hard Drives, but nothing on Floppies
or Parallel Ports.  That lack results in problems even today.  And the
documentation problem with newer hardware like video cards,
photography, etc. isn't good.

 			David Lawyer