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diff --git a/sag-0.6.1-www/Invisible/sag-0.6/node31.html b/sag-0.6.1-www/Invisible/sag-0.6/node31.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..473e354 --- /dev/null +++ b/sag-0.6.1-www/Invisible/sag-0.6/node31.html @@ -0,0 +1,86 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN"> +<!--Converted with LaTeX2HTML 96.1-h (September 30, 1996) by Nikos Drakos (nikos@cbl.leeds.ac.uk), CBLU, University of Leeds --> +<HTML> +<HEAD> +<TITLE>Floppies</TITLE> +<META NAME="description" CONTENT="Floppies"> +<META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="sag"> +<META NAME="resource-type" CONTENT="document"> +<META NAME="distribution" CONTENT="global"> +<LINK REL=STYLESHEET HREF="sag.css"> +</HEAD> +<BODY LANG="EN" > + <A NAME="tex2html704" HREF="node32.html"><IMG WIDTH=37 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="next" SRC="./next_motif.gif"></A> <A NAME="tex2html702" HREF="node28.html"><IMG WIDTH=26 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="up" SRC="./up_motif.gif"></A> <A NAME="tex2html696" HREF="node30.html"><IMG WIDTH=63 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="previous" SRC="./previous_motif.gif"></A> <A NAME="tex2html706" HREF="node1.html"><IMG WIDTH=65 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="contents" SRC="./contents_motif.gif"></A> <A NAME="tex2html707" HREF="node114.html"><IMG WIDTH=43 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="index" SRC="./index_motif.gif"></A> <BR> +<B> Next:</B> <A NAME="tex2html705" HREF="node32.html">CD-ROM's</A> +<B>Up:</B> <A NAME="tex2html703" HREF="node28.html">Using Disks and Other </A> +<B> Previous:</B> <A NAME="tex2html697" HREF="node30.html">Hard disks</A> +<BR> <P> +<H1><A NAME="SECTION00530000000000000000">Floppies</A></H1> +<P> + A floppy disk consists of a flexible membrane covered on one + or both sides with similar magnetic substance as a hard disk. + The floppy disk itself doesn't have a read-write head, that is + included in the drive. A floppy corresponds to one platter in + a hard disk, but is removable and one drive can be used to + access different floppies, whereas the hard disk is one + indivisible unit. +<P> + Like a hard disk, a floppy is divided into tracks and sectors + (and the two corresponding tracks on either side of a floppy + form a cylinder), but there are many fewer of them than on a + hard disk. +<P> + A floppy drive can usually use several different types of disks; + for example, a 3.5 inch drive can use both 720 kB and + 1.44 MB disks. Since the drive has to operate a bit differently + and the operating system must know how big the disk is, there + are many device files for floppy drives, one per combination of + drive and disk type. + Therefore, <tt>/dev/fd0H1440</tt><A NAME="1472"> </A> is the first floppy drive (<tt>fd0</tt>), + which must be a 3.5 inch drive, + using a 3.5 inch, high density disk (<tt>H</tt>) of + size 1440 kB (<tt>1440</tt>), i.e., a normal 3.5 inch HD floppy. + For more information on the naming conventions for the floppy + devices, see [<A HREF="node113.html#device-list">Anv</A>]. +<P> + The names for floppy drives are complex, however, and Linux + therefore has a special floppy device type that automatically + detects the type of the disk in the drive. It works by trying + to read the first sector of a newly inserted floppy using different + floppy types until it finds the correct one. This naturally requires + that the floppy is formatted first. The automatic devices are + called <tt>/dev/fd0</tt><A NAME="1474"> </A>, <tt>/dev/fd1</tt><A NAME="1476"> </A>, and so on. +<P> + The parameters the automatic device uses to access a disk can + also be set using the program <tt>setfdprm</tt><A NAME="1478"> </A>. This can be + useful if you need to use disks that do not follow any usual + floppy sizes, e.g., if they have an unusual number of sectors, + or if the autodetecting for some reason fails and the proper + device file is missing. +<P> + Linux can handle many nonstandard floppy disk formats in + addition to all the standard ones. Some of these require + using special formatting programs. + We'll skip these disk types for now, but in the mean time + you can examine the <tt>/etc/fdprm</tt><A NAME="1480"> </A> file. It specifies + the settings that <tt>setfdprm</tt><A NAME="1482"> </A> recognizes. +<P> + The operating system must know when a disk has been changed in + a floppy drive, for example, in order to avoid using cached + data from the previous disk. Unfortunately, the signal line + that is used for this is sometimes broken, and worse, this won't + always be noticeable when using the drive from within MS-DOS. + If you are experiencing weird problems using floppies, this might + be the reason. The only way to correct it is to repair the + floppy drive. +<P> +<HR><A NAME="tex2html704" HREF="node32.html"><IMG WIDTH=37 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="next" SRC="./next_motif.gif"></A> <A NAME="tex2html702" HREF="node28.html"><IMG WIDTH=26 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="up" SRC="./up_motif.gif"></A> <A NAME="tex2html696" HREF="node30.html"><IMG WIDTH=63 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="previous" SRC="./previous_motif.gif"></A> <A NAME="tex2html706" HREF="node1.html"><IMG WIDTH=65 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="contents" SRC="./contents_motif.gif"></A> <A NAME="tex2html707" HREF="node114.html"><IMG WIDTH=43 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="index" SRC="./index_motif.gif"></A> <BR> +<B> Next:</B> <A NAME="tex2html705" HREF="node32.html">CD-ROM's</A> +<B>Up:</B> <A NAME="tex2html703" HREF="node28.html">Using Disks and Other </A> +<B> Previous:</B> <A NAME="tex2html697" HREF="node30.html">Hard disks</A> +<P><ADDRESS> +<I>Lars Wirzenius <BR> +Sat Nov 15 02:32:11 EET 1997</I> +</ADDRESS> +</BODY> +</HTML> |