Hello,

Just to follow up on the attached email I sent out recently. From what I
am hearing from others, my problem with using rawrite.exe on a Sony VAIO
PCG-N505VX is due to the fact that the floppy disk drive is a USB device
and therefore rawrite.exe is not able to get the necessary information
from it to do its work.

Assuming that really is the case and seeing how computers with USB devices
are becoming more and more common, what can be done about this? Is
there anyone reading this that has the necessary programing skills that
could create a new version of rawrite for computers with USB floppy
devices? Does anyone know of any existing programs like rawrite.exe that
will work with a USB floppy drive?

In the mean time I guess I will have to use another computer system to
create the boot images I want.

Brian

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Brian Stark                       | Internet : bstark@siemens-psc.com |
| Siemens PT&D, Inc.                | Voice    : +1 763 536-4697        |
| Power Systems Control Division    | Fax      : +1 763 536-4919        |
| 7225 Northland Drive, Brooklyn Park, Minnesota 55428   USA            |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 27 Mar 2000 15:53:04 -0600 (CST)
From: Brian Stark <bstark@siemens-psc.com>
To: netbsd-help@netbsd.org, port-i386@netbsd.org
Subject: rawrite fails to write boot image...

Hello,

I am trying to write the boot1.fs and boot2.fs images from the 20000314
snapshot on a Sony VAIO PCG-N505VX machine and it is not working. Anyone
got any idea what is causing this:

C:\Incoming\NetBSD\20000314\installation\floppies>..\rawrite
RaWrite 1.2 - Write disk file to raw floppy diskette

Enter source file name: boot1.fs
Enter destination drive: A
Please insert a formatted diskette into drive A: and press -ENTER- :
Can't figure out how many sectors/track for this diskette.

C:\Incoming\NetBSD\20000314\installation\floppies>a:

A:\>chkdsk

    1,457,664 bytes total disk space
    1,457,664 bytes available on disk

          512 bytes in each allocation unit
        2,847 total allocation units on disk
        2,847 available allocation units on disk

      651,264 total bytes memory
      606,912 bytes free

Instead of using CHKDSK, try using SCANDISK.  SCANDISK can reliably detect
and fix a much wider range of disk problems.


A:\>


If it matters, the floppy drive is connected to the system via the USB.

Thanks,

Brian

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Brian Stark                       | Internet : bstark@siemens-psc.com |
| Siemens PT&D, Inc.                | Voice    : +1 763 536-4697        |
| Power Systems Control Division    | Fax      : +1 763 536-4919        |
| 7225 Northland Drive, Brooklyn Park, Minnesota 55428   USA            |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------