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Re: how to duplicate a floppy (a lilo custom boot disk actually) ?



Try using dd on the device file and not on the mounted fs.
Do this:
1. Make sure the floppy is not mounted anywhere (if it is, unmount it)
2. Make your floppy write-protected by moving the tab on the disk (just a 
   precaution).
2. run 'dd if=/dev/fd0 of=/tmp/bootdiskimage'
3. insert a new disk (doesn't need to be formatted) write-enabled.
4. run 'dd if=/tmp/bootdiskimage of=/dev/fd0'
6. Test if the floppy boots and put it in a safe place :-)
7. run 'rm /tmp/bootdiskimage'

Note that in 2, and 4, /dev/fd0 is your floppy drive device and in 2, 4, and
6, /tmp/bootdiskimage is a temporary file that about 1.44 MB in size that
will be created by the process.


Regards,
Yannai.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Yannai A. Gonczarowski        _____..---======~~~~~=======---.._____
 ______________________ __,-='=====____  ================ _____=====`=
(._____________________I__) - _-=_/    `--------=+=-------'
    /      /__...---===='---+---_'                System Administrator
   '------'---.___ -  _ =   _.-'            yannaigo@leyada.jlm.k12.il
                  `--------'         The Hebrew University High School
"Si vis pacem, para bellum"    http://www.leyada.jlm.k12.il/~yannaigo/
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Gal Aviel wrote:
> 
> hellow all !
> 
> short question :
> 
> I have installed RH5.2  2 weeks ago, lilo didn't work, so I am loading
> linux from
> floppy (lilo custom boot disk), which is ok for the time being (although
> somewhat slow) - when I have more time I will take care  of this
> problem.
> 
> anyway, I'm afraid that something will go wrong with the floppy and than
> I will not be able
> to start linux - which is a problem because some of my stuff is already
> there ...
> 
> MY QUESTION :
> 
> how can I take the lilo custom boot disk that I have and duplicate it ?
> 
> I HAVE TRIED THE FOLLOWING :
> 
> * I've tried 'cp /mnt/fd0  /some_tmp_dir'  and wanted to insert a floppy
> and copy from the
>   tmp_dir back to the floppy - however this does not work because
> apparently my entire hd
>   is mounted from somewhere within the floppy, so I'm actually copying
> the entire hd which is
>   no good..
> 
> * I've also tried to use the 'dd' command, which again is no good since
> dd works on one file
>    at a time and I want to move recursively what's on the floppy.
> 
> please help if you know something....
> thanks allot,
> gal.