Date: Mon, 1 Jun 1998 09:33:42 +0930 From: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> To: walton@nordicdms.com, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG, mike@smith.net.au Subject: Re: fdisk slice oddities Message-ID: <19980601093342.R22406@freebie.lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <19980531125617.A26780@ucb.crimea.ua>; from Ruslan Ermilov on Sun, May 31, 1998 at 12:56:17PM %2B0300 References: <199805140024440448.02FAF632@mailgate.execpc.com> <19980530073409264.AAA277@mail.nordicdms.com> <19980530185741.K20360@freebie.lemis.com> <19980531125617.A26780@ucb.crimea.ua>
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On Sun, 31 May 1998 at 12:56:17 +0300, Ruslan Ermilov wrote:
> On Sat, May 30, 1998 at 06:57:41PM +0930, Greg Lehey wrote:
>>
>> Dedicated mode. It's not only not dangerous, it's safer than
>> non-dedicated mode.
>
> I don't think so, at least after my last -stable installation.
> Interesting, what Mike Smith says about dedicated mode:
>
> msmith> "Dangerously dedicated" should probably be called "stupidly dedicated".
> msmith> It is almost never a better idea to use this mode than the "normal"
> msmith> mode.
You'll notice he doesn't say why. This is superstition. If you're
using a disk for one operating system (which should be the norm), it's
neither stupid nor dangerous to use the disk for one operating system.
The real problem we have with Microsoft partition tables
("non-dangerously-dedicated") is that our software is broken and can't
always recognize the correct geometry. This is why a small DOS
partition at the beginning of the disk helps: it also sets the correct
parameters in the partition table. After that, you can delete the DOS
partition, but the parameters stay correct.
I haven't seen this particular bug with dedicated disks, though I
haven't checked the code, so I can't be sure that it can't happen.
Still, for single OS use, it is almost always a better idea to use
this mode than the "normal" mode.
Greg
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