On 6 Apr 2005, at 12:08, Kevin Philp wrote:
> One of the machines that seems to give disks that we can't read is a
> Dell, Win
> XP laptop. For example:
>> 1. Put file on floppy using laptop and try to read on Linux machines
> or Win NT
> and get a corrupt file message
>> 2. Very old DOS machine reads this floppy OK. Use DOS machine to copy
> file to
> another place on the disk (just copy with anew name)
>> 3. New copy reads just fine on all machines
This is exactly the type of head numbing crap alignment issues can give
you. Think of alignment as being a point on a line. Any given point is
happy to work with other points within a certain distance. The Linux
and NT machines are too far away on the line from the XP machine, so
they can't read files written by it. The DOS machine sits on the line
between the XP machine and the others. It can read the XP files, and
when it rewrites them, it's near enough to the XP machine (in one
direction) and the Linux + NT machines (in the other direction) that
they can all read its files. Your DOS machine has the Rosetta stone of
floppy drives. Don't lose it - Rosetta stones are hard to find :-)
> Are laptop floppies more prone to alignment problems? All that
> crashing around?
Very possible, I suppose.
> Buy a job lot of floppies and replace all floppies with same make /
> same model
Except that that won't work with the laptop, as you can't replace its
drive with a generic 10 EUR model.
> Buy the guy with the laptop a USB memory stick.
That'll help him get files to the Linux, and I suppose NT, machine. Not
much use for the DOS machine though.
One other thing to try is to format the diskettes on the DOS box. It
may or may not work, but it's a very quick and cheap test.
Another thing you might want to try is the concept of networking. They
say it's the coming thing, and I gather very many people are now using
it rather successfully for file transfer instead of diskettes. I
understand that DOS, NT and Linux machines may even all use the same
network. This could be quite useful for you.
Niall
Maintained by the ILUG website team. The aim of Linux.ie is to
support and help commercial and private users of Linux in Ireland. You can
display ILUG news in your own webpages, read backend
information to find out how. Networking services kindly provided by HEAnet, server kindly donated by
Dell. Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds,
used with permission. No penguins were harmed in the production or maintenance
of this highly praised website. Looking for the
Indian Linux Users' Group? Try here. If you've read all this and aren't a lawyer: you should be!
