How to format and duplicate floppies under Linux

Last modified on July 24, 2026 • 1 min read • 56 words
Technology   Floppy Disk   Formating   Duplicating   Linux  
Technology   Floppy Disk   Formating   Duplicating   Linux  
Formatting and duplication of floppy disks with Linux
How to format and duplicate floppies under Linux
Image by Michael Jeltsch

How to format:

  1. Put floppy in drive, do not mount it.
  2. fdformat /dev/fd0 OR: Use “System Tools -> Floppy Formatter " in RedHat 9

How to duplicate:

  1. Put source floppy into the floppy drive
  2. Mount it if it doesn’t automount.
  3. dd if=/dev/fd0 of=/tmp/floppy bs=1024 count=14404.
  4. Eject floppy, put destination floppy in
  5. dd if=/tmp/floppy of=/dev/fd0 bs=1024 count=1440
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