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Using floppy disks in Linux

Overview

While the use of cheap, portable USB devices containing flash memory increases, the ubiquity of the floppy disk continues.

Summary

Floppy disks work in the Linux labs as follows:

  1. Place the PC formatted floppy disk in the floppy disk drive.
  2. Use the floppy drive icon on the desktop to mount the disk.
  3. Read and write to the disk.
  4. Before removing the disk, unmount it using the floppy drive icon.

The sections below contain more detailed explanations.

User Responsibilities

Users must comply with the provisions of the Copyright Act. Only files related to relevant course work can be copied, including files they have produced in their own home directories and files in other locations where they have been granted permission to copy.

Users must comply with the Acceptable Use Policy for IT Facilities for students and staff. IT Services accepts no responsibility for loss of data arising from the use of floppy disks on University IT facilities.

Usage

Follow these steps to use a floppy disk in the Linux labs.

  1. Place the PC formatted floppy disk in the floppy disk drive.
  2. Right click the floppy drive icon on the desktop and click Mount to mount the disk.

  1. If the disk was successfully mounted, double click the floppy icon to open a file manager window for the floppy disk.
  2. Read and write files to /mnt/floppy.
  3. Close all open files on the floppy. Right click the floppy disk icon and click Unmount before removing the disk.


Frequently Asked Questions

  1. My floppy disk doesn't work?
  2. How do I get my floppy disk icon back?
  3. How do I format a floppy?


  1. My floppy disk doesn't work?

    2. Check that your disk is correctly inserted into the drive. Your disk may be unformatted. Try a new floppy disk.

  2. How do I get my floppy disk icon back?

    3. Right click on the desktop, click Create New, click Floppy Device.

    Click on the Device tab, then click Device and choose /dev/fd0 (/mnt/floppy). Click OK to finish.

  1. How do I format a floppy?

    2. Format the disk using mkdosfs. The following example uses /dev/fd0.

mkdosfs /dev/fd0