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How to use USB floppy drives

The following applies to extern USB floppy drives which can be used to access disks in "PC format".

If you need to read and write various formats for old computers you need a special adapter like "Greaseweazle" and the tools from https://github.com/keirf/greaseweazle.

Useful tools

ufiformat

This tool is to used check or format disks when needed. If you call the tool without any parameters it will show a help text.

According to the man page the following formats are possible depending on the hardware:

  • 1440/1232/1200 (for 2HD disk)
  • 720/640 (for 2DD disk)

Example - check the disk in the drive connected as /dev/sdi:

sudo ufiformat -i /dev/sdi

Example - format and verify a 3.5" HD disk in the drive connected as /dev/sdi:

sudo ufiformat -f 1440 -v /dev/sdi

mkdosfs

Using mkdosfs you create a FAT filesystem on the disk. If you call the tool without any parameters it will show a help text.

Example - create and verify a filesystem using the drive connected as /dev/sdi:

sudo mkdosfs -v /dev/sdi