If you need to use floppy disks on Athena workstations (such as if you
run out of space or need a personal backup), here's how:

If you will be using the 5.25'' floppies:

   You should buy High Density floppy disks; they can hold 1.2 megabytes,
   and are usable ONLY on IBM RT's.  (Be sure not to buy double-density
   disks by mistake.)

   To format the disks, login onto a RT workstation, and type:

           /etc/fdformat -h /dev/rfd0

   Answer 'yes' when it asks you whether you want to format the disk.
   Formatting the disk will destroy any information already on it.

If you will be using 3.5'' HD flopppies:

   You should buy brand-name Double-Sided, High Density floppies.  (They
   will have two little tiny square-ish notches on the bottom of the
   floppy.)  These floppies, when formatted, hold 1.44 megabytes.  They
   are usable on the VAXstation 3100, DECstation 5000/25, and IBM RS/6000
   workstations.

   It is now possible for you to format the floppies on Athena.  All you
   need to do is use an RS/6000 workstation.  Insert the floppy into the
   drive, and at the athena% prompt type:

	format

   For more information about this command type

	man format

   Note that this will work on the RS/6000 workstations ONLY!

If you will be using 3.5'' *ED* floppies:

   These are higher-density disks, which may only be used on the
   DECstation 5000/25 (Maxine) machines.  You can format ED disks for
   up to 2.88 megabyte capacity.  At your athena% prompt type:

	fddisk -fmt /dev/rfd0a

   To format a floppy disk in drive zero when the disk has been read or
   written since it was inserted into the drive:

	fddisk -fmt -f /dev/rfd0a

   For more information on the fddisk command, type

	man fddisk 

   at the athena% prompt on a Maxine.

   Any of these formatting commands will, of course erase any information
   that was on the disk.

   If you cannot access an RS/6000 workstation, or Maxine, and have no
   access to a PS/2 or another MS-DOS machine with a HD 3.5'' drive,
   you will not be able to format these disks yourself.  Instead, come
   to the Athena Consultants' Office (1st floor N42) during the hours
   we are open, and we will format the disk for you.  You can find out
   when we're open by calling x3-4435.

   Once the disk is formatted, you can copy information to it in tar format.
   You can also use the MTOOLS suite of commands.  (Note, however, that the
   dosread and doswrite commands will NOT work.)  If you want to use mtools
   with ED disks, use the following command to format the disk:

	add mtools
	mformat -e a:

   (You can ONLY format to 2.8 Meg on DECstations, but you can do 1.4 Meg, if
   desired, on the IBM RS/6000 machines.)

   WARNING: (From the Ultrix 4.3 Release Notes:) "Due to hardware
   constraints, specially-formatted media is required to get reasonable
   performance from these floppy drives.  By default, the _fddisk_ utility
   formats media for optimum performance in the system (about 30
   Kbytes/second).  If a floppy that has been formatted in another system is
   used, the performance will be about 2 Kbytes/second."


If you have an MIT PO #, you can go to the Dept. of Purchasing and Stores
in the basement of building 4 and buy your own pre-formatted HD disks:

Part #			Description		       Price
------		------------------------------	       -----
103566		Disks, 3.5", 3M IBM PS/2 Format	       $16.16/box of 10

If you don't have an MIT PO #, you can purchase them individually or in
boxes of 10 at the MIT Computer Connection, in the basement of the
Student Center, or at the MIT Kendall Coop, in Kendall Square.