Read floppies directly from OMV

  • Hi,


    Sorry if this is a noob question since I'm new to Unix based systems. But uhh is there a way I can directly read and write floppy disks via my fileserver? The motherboard of my fileserver is soon the only motherboard that has a actual floppy connector and where I work we still have some super expansive machines that write their data on floppy disks.


    So is there a way I can mount my floppy disk like I can mount a USB hard drive or do I really need to mess with Docker or Virtualbox just to read and write a floppy disk?


    And before someone asks, a USB FDD is not a option. Too unreliable and I already have 2 that don't work properly/reliably.

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    But uhh is there a way I can directly read and write floppy disks via my fileserver?

    Sure but not via the OMV web interface. You would do it just like any other Linux box. Assuming the disk was formatted on Windows and one floppy drive, you would:
    mkdir /mnt/floppy
    mount -t vfat /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy


    a USB FDD is not a option. Too unreliable and I already have 2 that don't work properly/reliably.

    Interesting... I have two of them and they work great. Just recovered a file from a 25 year old floppy the other day.

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  • Sure but not via the OMV web interface. You would do it just like any other Linux box. Assuming the disk was formatted on Windows and one floppy drive, you would:mkdir /mnt/floppy
    mount -t vfat /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy


    Interesting... I have two of them and they work great. Just recovered a file from a 25 year old floppy the other day.

    Thanks for the replay. But these commands will just make the floppy read or write on the fileserver itself right? What I really want is to put the floppy inside a drive and than go to my modern PC and open de floppy drive just like how I can open a USB stick via OMV.

  • Sure but not via the OMV web interface. You would do it just like any other Linux box. Assuming the disk was formatted on Windows and one floppy drive, you would:

    Thanks for the replay. But these commands will just make the floppy read or write on the fileserver itself right? What I really want is to put the floppy inside a drive and than go to my modern PC and open de floppy drive just like how I can open a USB stick via OMV.

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    But these commands will just make the floppy read or write on the fileserver itself right? What I really want is to put the floppy inside a drive and than go to my modern PC and open de floppy drive just like how I can open a USB stick via OMV.

    Yes, they will only allow you to read/write on the fileserver. If you create a shared folder, you could change the mount point to be a folder inside the shared folder (ie /sharedfolders/newshare/floppy). I assume it would work but I haven't tried it and you might have permissions issues.


    By the way, you are the first in 7+ years of my presence on OMV forums to ask for this.

    omv 7.0-32 sandworm | 64 bit | 6.5 proxmox kernel

    plugins :: omvextrasorg 7.0 | kvm 7.0.9 | compose 7.0.9 | cputemp 7.0 | mergerfs 7.0.3


    omv-extras.org plugins source code and issue tracker - github


    Please try ctrl-shift-R and read this before posting a question.

    Please put your OMV system details in your signature.
    Please don't PM for support... Too many PMs!

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    I get what you're trying to do, and I know it's not what you asked... but this makes absolutely zero sense to me. A 16gig flash drive (which can be had cheap).. is the equivalent of over 11k floppy disks. Wouldn't it make more sense to move your data to a much more commonly used format, that you could use on virtually any computer you happen to come across? Looking online, 16gig flash drives are between $4 and $7, for some pretty popular brands.
    You could take 1, 16gig flash drive.. create folders and move documents into folders so that it is easily organized.. and not have to worry about this again for years.


    At some point (and with floppy disks, it passed many moons ago), it makes more sense to move on to more current technology

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