Chapter 14 Guidelines for Using CDs and Diskettes (Overview)

This chapter provides general guidelines for using diskettes and CDs in the Solaris environment.

This is a list of overview information in this chapter.

• "Where to Find Managing Removable Media Tasks"

• "Removable Media Features and Benefits"

• "Comparison of Automatic and Manual Mounting"

• "What You Can Do With Diskettes and CDs"

Where to Find Managing Removable Media Tasks

Use these references to find step-by-step instructions for managing removable media.

• Chapter 15, Using CDs From the Command Line (Tasks)

• Chapter 16, Formatting and Using Diskettes From the Command Line (Tasks)

• Chapter 17, Using PCMCIA Memory Cards From the Command Line (Tasks)

For information on using removable media with File Manager in the Common Desktop Environment, see Solaris Common Desktop Environment: User's Guide.

Removable Media Features and Benefits

The Solaris environment gives users and software developers a standard interface for dealing with diskettes and CDs. Referred to as Volume Management, this interface provides three major benefits:

• By automatically mounting diskettes and CDs, it simplifies their use. (For a comparison between manual and automatic mounting, see Table 14-1.)

• It enables you to access diskettes and CDs without having to become superuser.

• It allows you to give other systems on the network automatic access to any diskettes and CDs you insert into your system (see Chapter 15, Using CDs From the Command Line (Tasks) and Chapter 16, Formatting and Using Diskettes From the Command Line (Tasks)).

Comparison of Automatic and Manual Mounting

The table below compares the steps involved in manual mounting (without Volume Management) and automatic mounting (with Volume Management).

Table 14-1 Comparison of Manual and Automatic Mounting

Steps	Manual Mounting	Automatic Mounting
1	Insert media.	Insert media.
2	Become superuser.	For diskettes, use the volcheck command.
3	Determine the location of the media device.	Volume Management automatically performs many of the tasks previously required to manually mount and work with CDs and diskettes.
4	Create a mount point.
5	Make sure you are not in the mount point directory.
6	Mount the device using the proper mount options.
7	Exit the superuser account.
8	Work with files on media.	Work with files on media.
9	Become superuser.
10	Unmount the media device.
11	Eject media.	Eject media.
12	Exit the superuser account.

What You Can Do With Diskettes and CDs

Essentially, Volume Management enables you to access diskettes and CDs just as manual mounting does, but more easily and without the need for superuser access. To make diskettes and CDs easier to work with, they are mounted in easy-to-remember locations.

Table 14-2 How to Access Data on Diskettes and CDs

To Access ...	Insert ...	And Find the Files In ...
Files on a diskette	The diskette and enter volcheck	/vol/dev/aliases/floppy0
Raw data on a diskette	The diskette and enter volcheck	/vol/dev/aliases/floppy0
Files on a CD	The CD and wait for a few seconds	/cdrom/cdrom0

If your system has more than one diskette or CD-ROM drive, see the table below for their access points.

Table 14-3 Where to Access Diskettes and CDs

Media Device	Access File Systems On ...	Access Raw Data On ...
First diskette drive	/floppy/floppy0	/vol/dev/aliases/floppy0
Second diskette drive	/floppy/floppy1	/vol/dev/aliases/floppy1
First CD-ROM drive	/cdrom/cdrom0	/vol/dev/aliases/cdrom0
Second CD-ROM drive	/cdrom/cdrom1	/vol/dev/aliases/cdrom1