Baslinux mailing list

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Last time Steven wrote:

> > I can't copy a two megabyte file from a floppy 
> > drive to my ramdrive because my floppy drive 
> > holds only up to 1.44 megabytes of data.
> 
> I suggest you use 'split' to get the file in small
> enough chunks to fit on floppies.  Then reassemble
> them in your DOS HD partition (using copy with the
> binary switch)

>From the instructions I've read here on on this list about
how that is done it seems to me that doing that would be a 
real geeky and complicated procedure.  Maybe it wouldn't be 
as complicated after all to just copy stuff from my hard 
drive to my ram drive, but, as I've said before, I don't know 
how that is done either.

> > I have heard that there is a way to format a floppy 
> > drive for linux so that it can hold a lot more data 
> > than just 1.44 M.
> 
> Not a lot more.  Common formats are 1.68mb, 1.722mb
> and 1.743mb (I think the BL2 ramdisk might even have 
> /dev entries for those formats).  Use the superformat
> command (/slakware/a5/floppy.tgz) to get those formats
> (and others).  However, expect more errors when you 
> increase the capacity (especially if you use those
> floppies on different drives).
> 
> > I haven't yet learned how to copy stuff from my hard 
> > drive to my ramdrive.  
> 
> Have you mounted your harddrive?

I did that a few times back when I was doing BasicLinux 1.7.
To do that I used the instructions provided in the distribution 
files.  I was able to mount some hard drives but not others.  On
the ones that would not mount I got an error message saying 
something to the efect that the file system type isn't recognized.
I mounted the hard drives for the purpose of entering some changes
in the distribution files so as to customize them for my own
pppsetup and email setup. 

> > I sure don't want to mess up my hard drive.
> 
> Indeed.  Perhaps, if you want to experiment, try 
> mounting a floppy.
> -------------------
> mount /dev/fd0 /mnt
> -------------------

I do that every time I run BasicLinux.  Then I copy my sig file and 
my address-book from the floppy to "/root/mail".

Sam Heywood
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