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From: Robert Nordier <rnordier@iafrica.com>
Message-Id: <199604152120.XAA00406@eac.iafrica.com>
Subject: Re: Mount Msdos FS resolved
To: gmarco@masternet.it (Gianmarco Giovannelli)
Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 23:20:19 +0200 (SAT)
Cc: questions@freebsd.org
In-Reply-To: <3172AAB6.41C67EA6@masternet.it> from "Gianmarco Giovannelli" at Apr 15, 96 09:59:50 pm
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On Mon, 15 Apr 1996, Gianmarco Giovannelli wrote:
> 
> Robert Nordier wrote:
> > 
> > On Mon, 15 Apr 1996, Gianmarco Giovannelli wrote:
> > >
> > > Some time ago I wrote a message about problems on mounting dos
> > > partitions . A message concerning something about the clustersize
> > > and the root partion appeared soon after the mount  and the partition
> > > after a few access became non dos .
> > >
> > > Now I have resolved the problem changing the clustersize of the dos
> > > partitions from 32kb to 8kb. Everything works like a charm now...
> > >
> > > It's possible or I am saying something new ? :-)
> > 
> > What were the steps you took to do that?  (What did you do it with?
> > What did you do before and after?  Do you access the partition from
> > DOS as well as BSD?  If so, what version of which DOS?)  Details,
> > please.
> > 
> 
> I had to repartition the HD into smaller partitions.
> This because the DOS (and WIN*) use a FAT at 16bit, allowing to use a max of 65.536 (2^16) clusters
> for every partitions. 
> 
> So a drive larger than 1024 Mb with only one partition will have clusters of 32kb. 
> 
> I did three partitions in my 2.0 Gb HD, two of 512mb each (with clusters of 8kb) , one of 1024mb (with
> clusters of 16kb) 
> 
> Now I can see all partitions without any problems ( and I saved a lot of space , in a 32kb cluster
> partition you usually waste about 30% of the space, usually :-) 
> 
> The AFTER is simple I changed sd0 in sdsx (with x=1,2,3) in my /etc/fstab 
> 
> /dev/sd0s1                      /mnt/win95      msdos   ro,noauto 0 0
> /dev/sd0s2                      /mnt/games      msdos   ro,noauto 0 0
> /dev/sd0s3                      /mnt/data       msdos   ro,noauto 0 0
> 
> 
> I my humble opinion  when the HD had only one partitions with 32kb cluster the entire partition was
> not a multiple in length of 32kb , but I really don't know ... :-) But why it crashed is a mistery ...
> 
> What's about from FreeBsd team ?

The present msdosfs code does have problems with certain DOS filesystem
configurations.  Large DOS partitions, particularly (but not necessarily)
those on which FIPS has been used, typically cause the sort of problems
you were experiencing.  Other configurations, however, work much better
... as you've found in your case by experimenting.

You should find that the new partitions remain usable. 8)

-- 
Robert Nordier