3.5" floppy drive recommendations for UNIXPC, plus program

[Todd Day]

I recently bought a 3.5" drive kit from Toshiba that's really meant
for the IBM PC.  The drive plus kit is part #ND352KU.  It cost me
around $90, which is more than reasonable to get a full 800k floppy.
Sure makes backups less of a pain, plus I don't have to keep using
cpio just to make a backup of the elm distribution.  Also, I've
cut the amount of distribution disks in half.

Anyway, the kit basically makes the 3.5" into a 5.25" form factor.
In fact, all of the important screw holes are there so you can just
replace your existing 5.25" with this 3.5".  You won't need to make
any hardward adaptations, just software (the floppy controller can
handle 80 tracks, no problem).

I've shar'ed together my format program plus the format description
file (MD10Lnl).  You'll have to add MD10Lnl to /usr/lib/iv.

BTW, if you need more than 16 inodes on the floppy, change the
mkfs line in 'format' to 1600:32.  I've found that for most of
my backup chores, 16 is more than plenty.

Good Luck!

#! /bin/sh
# To extract, remove mail header lines and type "sh filename"
echo x - format
sed -e 's/^X//' > format << '!FaR!OuT!'
X# format
X# formats a 3 1/2" floppy disk at 800KB
X
X# make sure user is on console, else exit
XNAME=`tty`
Xif [ \( "`expr $NAME : '/dev/w' `"      = "0" -a \
X	"`expr $NAME : '/dev/sys' `"    = "0" \) ]
Xthen
X	echo format: No disk drive in terminal.
X	exit 1
Xfi
X
XFORMAT=y
Xwhile [ "$FORMAT" = "y" ]
Xdo
X
X# prompt
Xecho "\nInsert floppy disk and press RETURN.\c"
Xread GARBAGE
X
X# format it
X	iv -iv /dev/rfp020 /usr/lib/iv/MD10Lnl
X	mkfs /dev/fp021 1600:16
X	dismount -f
X	echo "\n\007Format another? \c"
X	read FORMAT
X	if [ "$FORMAT" = "Y" ]
X	then
X		FORMAT=y
X	fi
Xdone
Xexit 0
!FaR!OuT!
chmod ugo+x format
echo x - MD10Lnl
sed -e 's/^X//' > MD10Lnl << '!FaR!OuT!'
X#sccs	"\@(#)iv/lib:MD10Lnl	1.1"
X#	iv description file for 135 TPI Micro Floppy file system disk.
Xtype		FD
Xname		Floppy
Xcylinders	80
Xheads		2
Xsectors		10
Xsteprate	0
Xsingledensity
X$
X$
X$
X0
X1
X$
X$
!FaR!OuT!
exit


-- 

Todd Day | todd\@ivucsb.sba.ca.us | ivucsb!todd\@anise.acc.com
"All theory, no practice.  That's the story of my life."