Date:        Tue, 15 Aug 2000 15:13:04 +0900 (JST)
    From:        Henry Nelson <henry@irm.nara.kindai.ac.jp>
    Message-ID:  <200008150613.PAA05079@ibr1.irm.nara.kindai.ac.jp>

  | (but no way to test until I get fdformat to work).

Do you really need to run fdformat?   Formatting floppies used to be
needed back in the 8" floppy days - these days they're generally all
pre formatted, and cheap enough that if they "go bad" it is simpler to
just throw them in the bin and replace them that bother wasting time
seeing if a reformat will help (which it only does occasionally anyway).

Try just dd'ing your data to a floppy without bothering with the format.

kre