Uh-oh, How do I eject a floppy disk from a workstation?


  
After pushing in your floppy in the drive, you now realize that there is no familiar 'push button' in the drive bay to eject the floppy disk out. To make matters worse, even after various frantic attempts, you still have no idea how to eject the darn floppy disk out... (both you and your floppy are literally stuck) Sounds familiar?

O.k, here're a number of ways you can eject the floppy disk out.

Use "eject" command

Well, the solution is sometimes a lot simpler than you think. Since the floppy disk is the only 'removable' device in your workstation, all you have to do is to type;

$ eject

It does make a sense, isn't it? :-)

Use OpenWindow File Manager

You can use an OpenWindow (i.e., Sun's own X-Window manager interface) GUI program called "File Manager." Don't be confused this with a CDE (Common Desktop Environment)'s default GUI file manager (a normal Motif-based GUI desktop environment that you'll see when you log in) which is called "Dtfile."

To start the OW (=OpenWindow) File Manager program, type at your system prompt

$ filemgr &

Once the OW File Manager program started, right-mouse click on "File" then click on "Check for Floppy." A second OW File Manager window will open, listing file(s) in your floppy disk. Now, all you have to do is click on "Eject floppy" button in that floppy disk window. Walla! (Don't forget to exit "filemgr" program when you're done)

The Almighty Paper Clip

When you can't eject the floppy disk with above two methods, chances are either your floppy went bad before being inserted to the drive and/or it failed to be mounted properly on Unix file system. Problem is that since Unix system can't recognize the floppy disk, it can't eject the floppy disk - you're out of luck.

Well, even though it is not recommended, still there is a way. (A dire situation requires a dire measure) First, find a paper clip and straighten its wire up. Then if you take a closer look at the floppy disk drive bay, you should see a very small hole. Gently push the straightened paper clip into the hole to manually eject the floppy disk. Keep in mind that this is the last resort and you can really damage the workstation if you don't know what you're doing! If you're not so sure, first ask one of Unix gurus in the CEE UCL for help.