How do I copy a floppy in Unix/Linux? All Things Unix FAQ

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How do I copy a floppy in Unix/Linux?

Copying an entire floppy (which is different than just copying the files on the floppy) is done with the dd command to and from the floppy device. On most systems this is /dev/fd0, though there may be local variations.

The floppies copied with this procedure are indistinguishable from the originals, including their "bootable" status.

  insert the source floppy
$ dd if=/dev/fd0 of=/tmp/floppy.copy bs=9k
 
  insert the target floppy
$ dd of=/dev/fd0 if=/tmp/floppy.copy bs=9k
 
$ rm /tmp/floppy.copy

The dd command uses some curious parameters, but they were modelled after similar commands on an IBM mainframe. These parameters include:

if= specify the input file
of= specify the output file
bs= specify the blocksize (9k is optimal for floppies)

Note that the first step stores the contents of the floppy in the file /tmp/floppy.copy, and this file should be removed when it's no longer needed. But it can be reused to make multiple copies of a floppy (obviously, the floppy disks need to be changed each time).

$ dd if=/dev/fd0 of=/tmp/floppy.copy bs=9k     # read source floppy
 
$ dd of=/dev/fd0 if=/tmp/floppy.copy bs=9k     # write copy #1
$ dd of=/dev/fd0 if=/tmp/floppy.copy bs=9k     # write copy #2
$ dd of=/dev/fd0 if=/tmp/floppy.copy bs=9k     # write copy #3
...
$ rm /tmp/floppy.copy

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by Steve edited by bmn
last modified: 2004-05-31 16:40:23

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How do I copy a floppy in Unix/Linux?