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RE: [Sheflug] floppy problems



On 30-Nov-04 Stephen.Tozer-Loft [at] sth.nhs.uk wrote:
> trying to copy lots (a few hundred) of little (2k or so)
> files to a floppy disk under redhat 7.2.
> 
> after the first 200 or so, the floppy is only 40% full,
> but reports 'cp: cannot create regular file....No space
> left on device'
> 
> i have a feeling that this has something to do with inodes,
> rather than physical space.  Is there a limit on the number
> of files I can cram on?
> Can I get rounding this by mounting the floppy as a specific type?
> 
> grateful for any crumbs you can offer

Since you're using 'cp' rather than 'mcopy' I'm inferring that
you put a Linux filesystem on it to start with, e.g. using

  mkfs -t ext2 /dev/fd0H1440

I just did this on a floppy and got the message that there were

  184 inodes  1440 blocks
  72 blocks (5%) reserved for superuser

So you're not going to get more than 184 (perhaps + the 5%) files
onto a floppy with ext2 on it 

I don't know off-hand what the maximum number of directory
entries is on a floppy with msdos filesystem on it, but I'd
be surprised if it was much different.

So that's where your limit is coming from.

There are higher-density options if you use floppy devices
like

/dev/fd0u1743   /dev/fd0u3840  /dev/fd0h1494  /dev/fd0u1760
/dev/fd0h1660   /dev/fd0u1840  /dev/fd0u1920  /dev/fd0u2880
/dev/fd0u1660  /dev/fd0u3200   /dev/fd0u1680  /dev/fd0u3520
/dev/fd0u1722

(selected from the output of ls /dev/fd0*), but I don't know
(a) How many of these would work with a given floppy and drive;
(b) How many more inodes (if any) you would get.

Anyway, on the assumption that you don't absolutely have to
get everything on a single physical floppy, just use 2 or more
and never mind the empty space!

Cheers,
Ted.


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Date: 30-Nov-04                                       Time: 15:09:46
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