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#1 (**permalink**) 01-16-2008, 06:32 PM

Does anyone know how to format floppy discs on HP-UX?

In particular the old "high density" floppies in
630/720/788kB formats?

630kB and 788kB were HP LIF formats.

But I'd also like to be able to format the double
density 1.44M disks too.

How about formatting high density floppies to 788kB on
series 300 RMB workstations?

Thank you,

--

Frank Ball frankb@sonic.net

#2 (**permalink**) 01-16-2008, 06:32 PM

frankb@sonic.net wrote:
> Does anyone know how to format floppy discs on HP-UX?
>
> In particular the old "high density" floppies in
> 630/720/788kB formats?
>
> 630kB and 788kB were HP LIF formats.
>
> But I'd also like to be able to format the double
> density 1.44M disks too.

On most systems, a "format" (of a diskette) is both a Low Level
Format and a High Level Format operation. The former writes sector pre-
and post-ambles, etc., while the latter puts an empty file system on the
LLF-ed diskette.

On HP-UX, the Low Level Format is a seperate operation. It *can* be
done with mediainit(1M), but that is not for the faint of heart.

A High Level Format is only available for LIF (and native HP-UX
filesystems like HFS and VXFS), lifinit(1M), not for 'DOS'.

In most cases it is best to *format* diskettes on their 'native'
systems, i.e. LIF on RMB/Pascal/WS and DOS on a PC, but you can *use*
(i.e. read/write/create/delete/list) them on HP-UX.

> How about formatting high density floppies to 788kB on
> series 300 RMB workstations?
>
> Thank you,
>
> --
>
> Frank Ball frankb@sonic.net

#3 (**permalink**) 01-16-2008, 06:32 PM

Can't tell you for certain off the top of my head. See how far down
the road the "mediainit" command gets you.

Best Regards,

HP_BRS

frankb@sonic.net wrote in message news:<2Cibd.17240$54.288426@typhoon.sonic.net>...
> Does anyone know how to format floppy discs on HP-UX?
>
> In particular the old "high density" floppies in
> 630/720/788kB formats?
>
> 630kB and 788kB were HP LIF formats.
>
> But I'd also like to be able to format the double
> density 1.44M disks too.
>
> How about formatting high density floppies to 788kB on
> series 300 RMB workstations?
>
> Thank you,

#4 (**permalink**) 01-16-2008, 06:32 PM

Hi Frank

I found the following in an old howto:

# mediainit -v -i2 -f16 /dev/rfloppy/c0t1d0
# newfs -n /dev/rfloppy/c0t1d0 ibm1440

The newfs option does correspond neither to what I know about newfs nor
to what the manpage says. But I remember, that it worked once.

Florian

frankb@sonic.net wrote:

> Does anyone know how to format floppy discs on HP-UX?
>
> In particular the old "high density" floppies in
> 630/720/788kB formats?
>
> 630kB and 788kB were HP LIF formats.
>
> But I'd also like to be able to format the double
> density 1.44M disks too.
>
> How about formatting high density floppies to 788kB on
> series 300 RMB workstations?
>
> Thank you,
>

#5 (**permalink**) 01-16-2008, 06:32 PM

Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> wrote:
}
} On HP-UX, the Low Level Format is a seperate operation. It *can* be
} done with mediainit(1M), but that is not for the faint of heart.

mediainit did the trick:

mediainit /dev/rfloppy/c0t1d0
formats a double-density floppy to 1.44MB
or a high-density floppy to 720kB

mediainit -f1 /dev/rfloppy/c0t1d0
formats a high-density floppy to 630kB

mediainit -f3 /dev/rfloppy/c0t1d0
formats a high-density floppy to 788kB

} In most cases it is best to *format* diskettes on their 'native'
} systems, i.e. LIF on RMB/Pascal/WS and DOS on a PC, but you can *use*
} (i.e. read/write/create/delete/list) them on HP-UX.

The RMB/Pascal/WS are getting really old. It's getting hard
to find the floppy drives anymore and I don't want to setup
a new process using them.

Thanks everyone.

--

Frank Ball frankb@sonic.net

#6 (**permalink**) 01-16-2008, 06:32 PM

frankb@sonic.net wrote:
> Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> wrote:
> }
> } On HP-UX, the Low Level Format is a seperate operation. It *can* be
> } done with mediainit(1M), but that is not for the faint of heart.
>
> mediainit did the trick:
>
> mediainit /dev/rfloppy/c0t1d0
> formats a double-density floppy to 1.44MB
> or a high-density floppy to 720kB
>
> mediainit -f1 /dev/rfloppy/c0t1d0
> formats a high-density floppy to 630kB
>
> mediainit -f3 /dev/rfloppy/c0t1d0
> formats a high-density floppy to 788kB

Minor nit: I think you have "double-density" and "high-density" the
wrong way around.

(Double-Sided) Double-Density (DSDD) is a diskette which has 720KB
capacity in 'IBM-PC' ('DOS') format and a (Double-Sided) High-Density
(HD) is a diskette which has 1.44MB capacity in 'IBM-PC' ('DOS') format.
(Yes, in this case 'High' is bigger than 'Double'! :-))

> } In most cases it is best to *format* diskettes on their 'native'
> } systems, i.e. LIF on RMB/Pascal/WS and DOS on a PC, but you can *use*
> } (i.e. read/write/create/delete/list) them on HP-UX.
>
> The RMB/Pascal/WS are getting really old. It's getting hard
> to find the floppy drives anymore and I don't want to setup
> a new process using them.
>
> Thanks everyone.

And thank *you* for the feedback.

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