Using removable media on Linux

CDROM:

• Press button to open CD drive, insert CD, then push to close.
• Enter mount /mnt/cdrom.
• The contents of the CD appear in the directory /mnt/cdrom and can be copied, read or executed from there.
• When you are done, enter umount /mnt/cdrom.
• Press button and remove CD.
• See also Creating a CD on Linux.

Floppy disks:

• Insert floppy disk into slot. To remove the floppy, press the button.
• If the floppy needs to be formatted, enter fdformat /dev/fd0.
  
  DOS floppies
• If you need to create a file system, enter mformat a:.
• To copy files to the floppy, use mcopy /path/file a:
• To copy files from the floppy, use mcopy a:\path\file /path/file
• To view the contents of a floppy, enter mdir a:
• For additional options, see man mtools
  
  Linux floppies
• If you need to create a file system, enter /sbin/mke2fs /dev/fd0
• To mount the floppy, enter mount /mnt/floppy
• The contents of the, floppy appear in the directory /mnt/floppy and can be read, written, copied or executed from there.
• When you are done, enter umount /mnt/floppy.

Zip disks:

• In the physics cluster, yang.phys.cmu.edu has a 250 MB SCSI zip drive. Wean Cluster Linux computers have 100 MB zip drives. 100MB disks work in 250MB drives, not vice-versa.
• See the Zip Drive Mini-HOWTO for general information.
  
  DOS formatted zip disks
• Mount the zip disk with mount /mnt/dzip.
• Work with the directory /mnt/dzip as with a unix file system.
• Unmount the zip drive with umount /mnt/dzip.
  
  Linux zip disks
• To format the zip disk, enter /sbin/fdisk /dev/sdb. Locate any existing partition (probably #4) with the command p, delete it with the command d, then make a new partition with the command n followed by p for primary, 1 for the partition number, then the cylinder limits (probably 1 and 239). Write the new partition table with the command w.
• If you need to create a file system, enter /sbin/mke2fs /dev/sdb1
• To mount the zip disk, enter mount /mnt/zip
• The contents of the, zip disk appear in the directory /mnt/zip and can be read, written, copied or executed from there.
• When you are done, enter umount /mnt/zip.
• To remove an unmounted zip disk, press the button on the drive.

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