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[3aoo-cvfd AT dea.spamcon.org]

Sindi Keesan wrote:
> 
> I also have a floppy drive on a desktop that keeps telling 
> me there are bad sectors on every disk.  Another computer 
> formats them 100%.  Should I change the first drive to 
> another?

I would.

> I cannot replace the drive in this laptop, can I?  

Perhaps.  

> At least not without buying a new one.  

I thought you had several dead laptops.  If you are lucky
you might find one with a floppy drive you can use.  The
problem with laptops is they are not easy to fix.  Getting
at some components can be fiendishly difficult.  It's not
worth killing a working laptop trying to install a new FD.

> software test for alignment?  

Superformat (Linux) gives you an alignment reading when it 
formats floppies.  I think it is available in Slackware.

> I got it working without that by typing cd /etc/pcmcia 
> and then start. I don't see a PCMCIA line in /etc/rc in 
> BL3-floppy.  

BL3-floppy runs in a ramdisk, so editing /etc/rc is pointless
until you install it to HD.  IIRC install-to-hd creates an
/etc/rc that includes the PCMCIA line.

Cheers,
Steven