I found some documentation about how to use dd to analyse
an unknown disk. In this case, the disks are boot loaders for some
3Comm serial communications servers. The procedure I read about tells
one to do something like
dd if=/dev/fd0 of=/tmp/testfile count=1
# If it works:
getfdprm # This will report what geometry the disk has
file /tmp/testfile # This may indicate the type of file system
mdir a: # Check for an MS-DOS file system
tar tvf /dev/fd0 # Check for a tar archive
cpio -itv < /dev/fd0 # Check for a cpio archive
e2fsck /dev/fd0 # Check for an "ext2" file system
I did all that and found that the disk is
DS HD sect=18
/tmp/testfile: PDP-11 UNIX/RT ldp
I can use dd to seemingly copy the entire disk image with no
trouble or at least not one error.
dd bs=2x80x18b of=/dev/fd0 if=/tmp/floppy.image
If I try to write floppy.image back to /dev/fd0 with a blank
but formatted disk in it, the resulting disk appears to have the same
data on it but it won't boot and the Linux mount command complains
about bogus FAT's.
Is there any sort of Linux analysis tool that works in the
command mode that might tell me what is wrong with the copies I am
making?
These disks are not copy-protected at all and one can use the
comm server to make new copies but this is not as convenient as using
a computer to manage backups.
It would be nice to be able to mount the disks, but being able
to make a binary copy to and from an image would be fine, also.
Also, the problem may lie in the way I use superformat to
format a totally blank diskette. I do:
superformat /dev/fd0 --verify_later sect=18 cyl=80
I think what I need is to format all the tracks with no FAT.
The PDP-11 disk has a different FAT structure, at least that is what I
think is happening.
If anybody has any suggestions as to how I can possibly
complete the copy process, I am extremely thankful.
Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK
OSU Information Technology Division Network Operations Group
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