---
name: "fdflush"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "fdflush"
version: "1.0.1.3"
release: "Debian 11 (Bullseye)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/fdflush/8"
---

# fdflush(8)

force floppy disk drive to detect disk change

## NAME

fdflush - force floppy disk drive to detect disk change

## SYNOPSIS

**fdflush** \[device\]

## DESCRIPTION

**Fdflush** is a band-aid for a common PC hardware problem. Many PC floppy disk drives can't detect when the disk has been changed. The symptom of this problem is that when a disk is changed, the drive will continue to read buffered data from the previous disk rather than new data from the disk presently in the drive. Running *fdflush* makes the system believe the disk-change switch has been actuated, and the system discards the buffered blocks in response to this information. If you have one of these slightly-broken disk drives, you'll have to run *fdflush* every time you change a disk.

The kernel uses two different ioctl commands to flush buffers. One's generic (BLKFLSBUF), one's floppy-specific (FDFLUSH). *fdflush* calls both, and only reports an error if noth fail.

## OPTIONS

- *device*

  The name of the floppy disk device, in the form */dev/fd1 .* The default is */dev/fd0 .*

## EXIT CODES

Zero: success, one: ioctl error, two: inability to open the floppy (or other) device, three: usage error.

## BUGS

They're in your hardware. Try swapping in another floppy drive to see if this problem goes away.

## FILES

/dev/fd*N*	floppy disk device.

## AUTHOR

Bruce Perens *Bruce@Pixar.com .*