floppy drive problem

[Chris Pockele]

On Mon, Apr 21, 2003 at 10:51:51AM -0700, Nathan Kinkade wrote:
> 
> Notwithstanding apparent problems with your entire floppy subsystem,
> your dd command is incorrect.  The syntax should be something like:
> # dd if=/dev/fd0 of=image.flp
> 
I know my dd command didn't do anything useful, it was just for testing.
Using of=/tmp/image results in similar errors.

> Take a look at dd's manpage.
> 
> You can usually get dd to copy data off a damaged disk with the
> following command:
> # dd if=/dev/fd0 of=image.flp conv=noerror
>
Logically, that shows even more error messages... :

fd0c: hard error reading fsbn 0 (ST0 40<abnrml> ST1 10<data_overrun> ST2 0 cyl 0 hd 0 sec 1)
fd0c: hard error reading fsbn 1 (ST0 40<abnrml> ST1 10<data_overrun> ST2 0 cyl 0 hd 0 sec 2)
fd0c: hard error reading fsbn 2 (ST0 40<abnrml> ST1 10<data_overrun> ST2 0 cyl 0 hd 0 sec 3)
fd0c: hard error reading fsbn 3 (ST0 40<abnrml> ST1 10<data_overrun> ST2 0 cyl 0 hd 0 sec 4)
fd0c: hard error reading fsbn 4 (ST0 40<abnrml> ST1 10<data_overrun> ST2 0 cyl 0 hd 0 sec 5)
.... (skipped some)
fd0c: hard error reading fsbn 60 (ST0 44<abnrml,top_head> ST1 10<data_overrun> ST2 0 cyl 1 hd 1 sec 7)
fd0c: hard error reading fsbn 61 (ST0 44<abnrml,top_head> ST1 10<data_overrun> ST2 0 cyl 1 hd 1 sec 8)
fd0c: hard error reading fsbn 62 (ST0 44<abnrml,top_head> ST1 10<data_overrun> ST2 0 cyl 1 hd 1 sec 9)
fd0c: hard error reading fsbn 63 (ST0 44<abnrml,top_head> ST1 10<data_overrun> ST2 0 cyl 1 hd 1 sec 10)
fd0c: hard error reading fsbn 64 (ST0 44<abnrml,top_head> ST1 10<data_overrun> ST2 0 cyl 1 hd 1 sec 11)
fd0c: hard error reading fsbn 65 (ST0 44<abnrml,top_head> ST1 10<data_overrun> ST2 0 cyl 1 hd 1 sec 12)

... and so on (alternating <abnrml> and <abnrml,top_head> (hd 0 and hd 1))
 
> Note that this won't prevent data loss.  It may allow you to recover
> good blocks off failing media, though.  How confident are you about the
> cable and the drive itself?
>
Well, it can read disks under dos/windows and linux, without I/O errors or
retries.
 
> Nathan