Unusual Zip disk formatting (create a Windows compatible disk)

There are a number of tutorial pages on the web that explain how to mount PC-formatted zip disks under Linux. But what if you have a Mac formatted disk, or a Linux formatted disk, and you need to make it into a PC zip disk? The following are steps I took to mount a zip disk under the Linux OS and format it as a VFAT, Windows-compatible disk that I could send to someone who doesn't use Linux.

• First, I needed to download the package for mkdosfs

which I either did not install originally, or wasn't part of the default Redhat 6.0 system. It turns out that package was named mkdosfs-ygg-0.3b-9cl.i386.rpm. You can find it with ftpsearch.lycos.com or something similar.

• Installed the thing using rpm -Uvh mkdosfs-ygg-0.3b-9cl.i386.rpm
• This added <b>mkdosfs</b> to my /sbin folder
• Next, I put the zip disk in my SCSI Zip drive (not all Zip drives use SCSI)
• Having booted and mounted this device before, I know that it is /dev/sdd
• I used fdisk   /dev/sdd to enter a utility that alters the disk
• I used option "n" to add a new partition
• Given a list of drive types, I chose the option for "VFAT 32", then chose "p" for primary and "1" as

the partition. The beginning block was 1 and the ending block was 1024

• Next, I used option "w" to write the changes to disk, and "q" for quit
• Next I actually used the mkdosfs program with mkdosfs /dev/sdd1
• If you do not have a folder created for the mount point, you'll need to create it: mkdir /mnt/zip
• Last, I mounted the disk with "mount": mount -t vfat /dev/sdd1 /mnt/zip

Alternatively, you can use "mke2fs" to create a standard Linux file system on the same disk: mke2fs /dev/sdd1. In this case the mount command would be mount -t ext2 /dev/sdd1 /mnt/zip