Other Help Topics :: Exact imaging of non-OS floppies?



Just had the thought after yet another failure to create non-OS disk images under DOS and windoze.
I, and many others, have an Ensoniq Mirage sampling keyboard (of the musical variety, that is), circa 1984 or so.  Problem being, the OS floppies are unreadable under DOS and windoze, so you can't make backups, or share image files (non-copyrighted ones) with other people who have acquired one of the old beasts but no disks to go with it.

So, as Linux gives you more direct access to things like floppy drives (correct?), is there an app or method that could be used under DSL to create and write such a disk image, as an exact copy of the disk structure?  Would give DSL yet another claim to fame, helping revive dying musical beasts!

PS.  The floppies are generally single-sided double-density, sometimes double-sided.  Not high-density.

the command 'dd' might work

dd if=<inputfile/device> of=<outputfile/device>

In other words:

sudo su      #May not be required
dd if=/dev/fd0   of=/home/dsl/my_backup.img


And to create a new floppy disk:

sudo su
dd if=/home/dsl/my_backup.img of=/dev/fd0


Be VERY careful abot your input vs output device/filenames.  If you type in the command backwards then you will accidentally erase your floppy disk or accidentally erase your backup file.

Hmm, when I try to mount the floppy it says that it is unable to mount it, and then when I try the dd if of, it comes up with the error:  "dd: /dev/fd0:  Input/Output error"

My uneducated guess is that it wants to mount it first, but because the disk structure is not a standard formatted structure, it refuses to mount it?

You shouldn't mount a disk when using dd.  It reads and writes directly to the device rather than the mount point.
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