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Date:      Tue, 22 Oct 1996 19:23:05 -0700 (PDT)
From:      Doug White <dwhite@gdi.uoregon.edu>
To:        Don Yuniskis <dgy@rtd.com>
Cc:        FreeBSD Questions <questions@FreeBSD.org>
Subject:   Re: Making a DOS Partition writeable
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSI.3.94.961022191721.6076M-100000@gdi.uoregon.edu>
In-Reply-To: <199610220806.BAA21835@seagull.rtd.com>

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Ack!  let's prune that cc: back to questions.

On Tue, 22 Oct 1996, Don Yuniskis 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.  
> 
> So, how does this result in the FBSD partition being trashed?  Or, is that
> an "ugly rumor"?  Is it only applicable to a FBSD partition on the same 
> physical device as a FIPS'ed DOS partition?  etc.

I can't really say why it's corrupt the FreeBSD filesystem as well.  My
guess would be a wrong disklabel or partition table, but I can't say for
sure.  In any case bad things can happen.

> It sure would be nice if these things were more thoroughly described or
> qualified ... help reduce some of the "lore" surrounding them.

The new msdosfs code should fix it once and for all.

Doug White                              | University of Oregon  
Internet:  dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu    | Residence Networking Assistant
http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~dwhite    | Computer Science Major




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