Date: Sat, 25 Mar 95 16:58 CST From: uhclem@nemesis.lonestar.org (Frank Durda IV) To: current@FreeBSD.org Cc: uhclem@nemesis.lonestar.org Subject: Invalid DOSpartition table may be a bad idea Message-ID: <m0rsemq-0004vsC@nemesis.lonestar.org>
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[2]If there is no DOSpartition table then there is one slice (the whole [2]disk). Unfortunately you have to have a DOSpartition table to boot with [2]biosboot, and disklabel -B writes a dummy DOSpartition table whether you [2]want it or not. Fortunately it writes an _invalid_ DOSpartition table. If I understand what you are saying here, this may be a bad thing. Windows 95 (which I have to run on some systems at work) takes a disk with a missing or invalid partition table as an open invitation to automatically initialize the entire disk for Windows 95 by putting a "use entire disk" DOS partition table in there. We found this out by accident and it was costly. There was no opportunity to stop the drive takeover from happening, apart from not booting Windows 95 at all. (That is a possibility but they probably won't buy it.) If there is a valid table and there are non-DOS partitions, Windows 95 does keep out of the other partitions. If there is a drive (including the boot drive) that is completely used by non-DOS operating systems, Windows 95 also stops and asks for directions before destroying anything. To avoid user problems, we may not want to put drives that our stuff is on in a state where we will get wiped-out if the user happens to boot a Windows 95 floppy, which late this year will be (sadly) one of the most common operating systems on the planet. Frank Durda IV <uhclem@nemesis.lonestar.org>|"Where do you want to go today? or uhclem%nemesis@trsvax.ast.com (Internet)| Wherever Microsoft tells you ...letni!rwsys!nemesis!uhclem | to." (TM) 1994 MADsoft ...decvax!trsvax.fw.ast.com!nemesis!uhclem |
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