From owner-freebsd-questions Tue Oct 22 02:50:14 1996 Return-Path: owner-questions Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id CAA18455 for questions-outgoing; Tue, 22 Oct 1996 02:50:14 -0700 (PDT) Received: from gatekeeper.barcode.co.il (gatekeeper.barcode.co.il [192.116.93.17]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id CAA18449 for ; Tue, 22 Oct 1996 02:50:07 -0700 (PDT) Received: (from smap@localhost) by gatekeeper.barcode.co.il (8.7.5/8.6.12) id LAA19143; Tue, 22 Oct 1996 11:46:03 +0200 (IST) X-Authentication-Warning: gatekeeper.barcode.co.il: smap set sender to using -f Received: from localhost.barcode.co.il(127.0.0.1) by gatekeeper.barcode.co.il via smap (V1.3) id sma019141; Tue Oct 22 11:45:50 1996 Message-ID: <326C97A4.D2D@barcode.co.il> Date: Tue, 22 Oct 1996 11:45:08 +0200 From: Nadav Eiron X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0 (X11; I; SunOS 5.5 sun4m) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu CC: Snob Art Genre , Robert Eckardt , Greg Lehey , questions@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: Making a DOS Partition writeable References: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-questions@FreeBSD.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk Doug White wrote: > > On Mon, 21 Oct 1996, Snob Art Genre wrote: > > > > Please, anyone correct me, but mounting a DOS-FS could -- under certain > > > circumstances -- corrupt the BSD-FS !?!? > > > > > > > Shortly after I installed FreeBSD, I was running two finds on different > > virtual consoles, with /msdos mounted, and my machine crashed hard. When > > it came back up, my entire FreeBSD installation was hosed. I can't say it > > was definitely due to msdosfs, but I suspect it. > > The primary problem comes when you FIPS a partition and cause the cluster > size to change. FreeBSD assumes a perfect world while FIPS cheats -- it > SHOULD rewrite all those sectors back down to the smaller clustersize but > that takes a while (I had a program that actually did it right!) esp. on > big disks. There is a commercial DOS software package called PartitionMagic (see http://www.powerquest.com) that costs about $50 and can edit partitions without reformatting (it can shrink/expand DOS and HPFS partition and move around many other types of partitions, though not FreeBSD yet - maybe someone shoul talk to them as they support linux and SCO partiotions). I never had a problem with it, and it is highly recommended if you find yourself repartitioning disks often (once a year is often enough for me). It sure beats backing up, formatting and restoring! > > Doug White | University of Oregon > Internet: dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu | Residence Networking Assistant > http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~dwhite | Computer Science Major Nadav