.\" Copyright (c) 1993 Michael Haardt (michael@cantor.informatik.rwth-aachen.de)
.\" and 1994,1995 Alain Knaff (Alain.Knaff@imag.fr)
.\"
+.\" %%%LICENSE_START(GPLv2+_DOC_FULL)
.\" This is free documentation; you can redistribute it and/or
.\" modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
.\" published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of
.\" GNU General Public License for more details.
.\"
.\" You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
-.\" License along with this manual; if not, write to the Free
-.\" Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111,
-.\" USA.
+.\" License along with this manual; if not, see
+.\" <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+.\" %%%LICENSE_END
.\"
.\" Modified, Sun Feb 26 15:00:02 1995, faith@cs.unc.edu
.\"
-.TH FD 4 1995-01-29 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
+.TH FD 4 2014-05-10 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
.SH NAME
fd \- floppy disk device
.SH CONFIGURATION
Floppy drives are block devices with major number 2.
Typically they
-are owned by root.floppy (i.e., user root, group floppy) and have
+are owned by
+.I root.floppy
+(i.e., user root, group floppy) and have
either mode 0660 (access checking via group membership) or mode 0666
(everybody has access).
The minor
than supported by your drive, you may cause it mechanical damage.\fP
Trying once if more tracks than the usual 40/80 are supported should not
damage it, but no warranty is given for that.
-Don't create device
-entries for those formats to prevent their usage if you are not sure.
+If you are not sure, don't create device
+entries for those formats, so as to prevent their usage.
.PP
-Drive independent device files which automatically detect the media
+Drive-independent device files which automatically detect the media
format and capacity:
.TS
l l.
\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP 0
.TE
.PP
-5.25 inch double density device files:
+5.25 inch double-density device files:
.TS
lw(1i) l l l l l.
Name Capac. Cyl. Sect. Heads Base minor #
\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBd360\fP 360K 40 9 2 4
.TE
.PP
-5.25 inch high density device files:
+5.25 inch high-density device files:
.TS
lw(1i) l l l l l.
Name Capac. Cyl. Sect. Heads Base minor #
\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBh1600\fP 1600K 80 20 2 92
.TE
.PP
-3.5 inch double density device files:
+3.5 inch double-density device files:
.TS
lw(1i) l l l l l.
Name Capac. Cyl. Sect. Heads Base minor #
_
-\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBD360\fP 360K 80 9 1 12
-\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBD720\fP 720K 80 9 2 16
-\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBD800\fP 800K 80 10 2 120
-\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBD1040\fP 1040K 80 13 2 84
-\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBD1120\fP 1120K 80 14 2 88
+\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBu360\fP 360K 80 9 1 12
+\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBu720\fP 720K 80 9 2 16
+\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBu800\fP 800K 80 10 2 120
+\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBu1040\fP 1040K 80 13 2 84
+\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBu1120\fP 1120K 80 14 2 88
.TE
.PP
-3.5 inch high density device files:
+3.5 inch high-density device files:
.TS
lw(1i) l l l l l.
Name Capac. Cyl. Sect. Heads Base minor #
_
-\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBH360\fP 360K 40 9 2 12
-\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBH720\fP 720K 80 9 2 16
-\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBH820\fP 820K 82 10 2 52
-\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBH830\fP 830K 83 10 2 68
-\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBH1440\fP 1440K 80 18 2 28
-\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBH1600\fP 1600K 80 20 2 124
-\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBH1680\fP 1680K 80 21 2 44
-\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBH1722\fP 1722K 82 21 2 60
-\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBH1743\fP 1743K 83 21 2 76
-\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBH1760\fP 1760K 80 22 2 96
-\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBH1840\fP 1840K 80 23 2 116
-\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBH1920\fP 1920K 80 24 2 100
+\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBu360\fP 360K 40 9 2 12
+\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBu720\fP 720K 80 9 2 16
+\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBu820\fP 820K 82 10 2 52
+\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBu830\fP 830K 83 10 2 68
+\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBu1440\fP 1440K 80 18 2 28
+\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBu1600\fP 1600K 80 20 2 124
+\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBu1680\fP 1680K 80 21 2 44
+\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBu1722\fP 1722K 82 21 2 60
+\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBu1743\fP 1743K 83 21 2 76
+\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBu1760\fP 1760K 80 22 2 96
+\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBu1840\fP 1840K 80 23 2 116
+\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBu1920\fP 1920K 80 24 2 100
.TE
.PP
-3.5 inch extra density device files:
+3.5 inch extra-density device files:
.TS
lw(1i) l l l l l.
Name Capac. Cyl. Sect. Heads Base minor #
_
-\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBE2880\fP 2880K 80 36 2 32
+\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBu2880\fP 2880K 80 36 2 32
\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBCompaQ\fP 2880K 80 36 2 36
-\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBE3200\fP 3200K 80 40 2 104
-\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBE3520\fP 3520K 80 44 2 108
-\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBE3840\fP 3840K 80 48 2 112
+\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBu3200\fP 3200K 80 40 2 104
+\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBu3520\fP 3520K 80 44 2 108
+\fBfd\fP\fIn\fP\fBu3840\fP 3840K 80 48 2 112
.TE
.SH DESCRIPTION
\fBfd\fP special files access the floppy disk drives in raw mode.
sends a raw command to the floppy controller.
.PP
For more precise information, consult also the \fI<linux/fd.h>\fP and
-\fI<linux/fdreg.h>\fP include files, as well as the manual page for
-floppycontrol.
+\fI<linux/fdreg.h>\fP include files, as well as the
+.BR floppycontrol (1)
+manual page.
.SH FILES
/dev/fd*
.SH NOTES
-The various formats allow to read and write many types of disks.
-However, if a floppy is formatted with a too small inter sector gap,
-performance may drop, up to needing a few seconds to access an entire
-track.
+The various formats permit reading and writing many types of disks.
+However, if a floppy is formatted with an inter-sector gap that is too small,
+performance may drop,
+to the point of needing a few seconds to access an entire track.
To prevent this, use interleaved formats.
+
It is not possible to
read floppies which are formatted using GCR (group code recording),
which is used by Apple II and Macintosh computers (800k disks).
+
Reading floppies which are hard sectored (one hole per sector, with
the index hole being a little skewed) is not supported.
-This used to be common with older 8 inch floppies.
+This used to be common with older 8-inch floppies.
.\" .SH AUTHORS
.\" Alain Knaff (Alain.Knaff@imag.fr), David Niemi
.\" (niemidc@clark.net), Bill Broadhurst (bbroad@netcom.com).
-.SH "SEE ALSO"
+.SH SEE ALSO
.BR chown (1),
.BR floppycontrol (1),
.BR getfdprm (1),
.BR superformat (1),
.BR mount (8),
.BR setfdprm (8)
+.SH COLOPHON
+This page is part of release 3.79 of the Linux
+.I man-pages
+project.
+A description of the project,
+information about reporting bugs,
+and the latest version of this page,
+can be found at
+\%http://www.kernel.org/doc/man\-pages/.