yap@me.utoronto.ca (Davin Yap) (11/06/89)
Here's the scoop:
If I do a mapping of the disk usage of my hard disk using norton
utilities (nu), it appears that the first dozen or so little blocks in
the first row aren't allocated (this represents a few hundred clusters).
Needless to say, this causes me much distress, as I'm sure there's stuff
there. In fact, that is precisely where the majority of my utilites
live. If I list the contents of my \utils directory, about half the
files that are usually there just aren't! 'chkdsk' doesn't help, it just
replies 'probable non-dos partition'. Everything else seems to work,
it's just that those clusters are free in the FAT when they shouldn't be.
Now here's the odd bit. Through my cussing and screaming I start 'nu'
again and recheck the disk map --- the blocks seem to have been magically
reallocated! Listing my \utils directory shows that all my utilities are
back!Muy extrano! Fine, I'm cautiously optimistic, at least now I can do
a full backup. Time passes (30 minutes), having backed up my hard disk,
I try 'nu' again, and wouldn't you know it, the bloody blocks are gone
again! I 'cd' to the root directory and try 'nu' again, and they're
back!!!!!! What's going on here?!? Is this something to do with norton?
I'd like to think not. Usually loathe to check for viruses, since I
hardly ever download stuff, and never from BBSs, I grudgingly download
scanv46 and scan my disk for viruses. This thing checks my ram, system
files, and all the executables/overlays on disk - nothing, no viruses
detected. Tonight, I'm going to do a low-level format, but somehow I
don't think my problems will go away....
If you have had similar problems, or have any words of advice, please
post or send me mail directly!
Here are the particulars of my system:
- Nec ProSpeed 286 - 40 meg drive
- I run one TSR, a program that remaps the CAPS-LOCK to CTRL (like it
bloody well ought to be!)
- I'm also trying out a command processor called 4DOS version 2.2, I
doubt this is the problem, but I'll likely stop using it anyhow, though
it has a lot of nice features, the few annoyances it has really bother
me: specifically, it's not UNIXy enough,
tab or esc should be filename completion not F9 (which is really
out of the way on the newer keyboards)
^W should be word-kill not ^L, ^L (form feed) should perform a cls
^U should be line-kill not esc
If they made a UNIXy version of 4dos, I'd buy it, as it stands, it just
aggravates me.
Thanks to all who respond!
Davin
_______________leave_nothing_to_the_imagination_of_those_without_______________
GOAL: To dance the light fan- |Davin Yap, Mechanical Engineering, U of Toronto
tastic in the face of derision,| yap@me.toronto.edu yap@me.utoronto.bitnet
from those bland at heart. | ...{pyramid,uunet}!utai!utme!yap