mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us (Marc Unangst) (04/23/89)
Rather recently, I decided to stop running MINIX on my hard disk and format
that partition for DOS. Because I didn't want to have to back up and
then restore the contents of my other partition, which would have taken
well over 2 hours, I decided to leave the partition structure the way
it was (17MB C:, 3.9MB D:), and just reformat the second partition
for DOS. So, I twiddled the Partition Assignment Bit in IO.SYS (using
Zenith's CONFIGUR utility) to Manual, and then ran ASGNPART to assign
Partition 2 to drive D:. (I'm running Zenith MS-DOS v3.1.) Then, I
used FORMAT.COM to format drive D:. So far, so good. I can now use
drive D:, and everything else works fine. However, when I start up
NDD, it pops up the "Analyzing Partition Table..." message, takes
it down (as normal), and then crashes so hard that even the three-finger
salute doesn't work. I have to cycle the power to regain control of
my machine. The only drivers I have in my CONFIG.SYS are those for
a ramdisk, and DoubleDOS's ANSI.SYS replacement (DBLDANSI.SYS). When
I tried rebooting without a CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT (i.e., without
assigning partition 2 to drive D:), NDD didn't crash. It put a
D> prompt at about line 1, column 50. For some reason, DOS then thought
that there were NO files on ANY disks. When I typed DIR, I just
got a "File not found" message. Whenever I tried any external command,
it just said "Bad command or file name", without even accessing the
disk. I have to reboot (soft) to get things back to normal.
I'm getting desperate here. I usually run NDD's full surface check
every week, to make sure the disk is okay, and I can't do that now.
I haven't been able to check drive D: at all, and that concerns me:
It has a bad cluster on it, and I'd like to lock it out before it starts
to corrupt files.
--
Marc Unangst
UUCP : mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us
UUCP bang : ...!uunet!sharkey!mudos!mju
UUCP bang alt.: ...!{ames, rutgers}!mailrus!clip!mudos!mju
Internet : mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.uscgh018@tijc02.UUCP (Calvin Hayden ) (04/25/89)
You write: > Rather recently, I decided to stop running MINIX on my hard disk and format > that partition for DOS. Because I didn't want to have to back up and > then restore the contents of my other partition, which would have taken . . . > I'm getting desperate here. I usually run NDD's full surface check > every week, to make sure the disk is okay, and I can't do that now. > I haven't been able to check drive D: at all, and that concerns me: > It has a bad cluster on it, and I'd like to lock it out before it starts > to corrupt files. ... Depending on the version of Norton you're running, there is a problem with the utilities. As I remember, 4.5 had problems when used with dos and *ix type file systems. I'm not sure what the problem was, but I seem to remember from a posted note that it dealt with the trashing of partitions. I think that a letter was to be sent to registered users informing them of problem, with info on what to do. This may or may not be related to what you've seen, but sounds like it might be if you're using 4.5. Cal
mpcook@chinet.chi.il.us (Michael P. Cook) (04/25/89)
You should be using Norton Utilities program files date stamped Jan 3 89.
These were an update that you should have received a letter about. Call
them.
________________________________________________________________________
Mike Cook Oak Park, IL
usenet: mpcook@chinet.chi.il.us
data: 312-383-6335 - Discovery Place BBS, 3/12/2400, 8N1
=>Home of Children's Software Library
________________________________________________________________________
THESE ARE MY OWN OPINIONS AND ARE NOT SHARED BY MY EMPLOYER OR ANYONE
ASSOCIATED WITH MY EMPLOYER (I'M SURE, BECAUSE THEY COULDN'T CARE LESS
ABOUT THESE ARCANE ISSUES).
________________________________________________________________________mitch@arcturus.UUCP (Mitchell S. Gorman) (04/25/89)
One thing I have discovered about NDD is that it will lock up (Divide Error sound familiar??) when one runs it on a non-bootable partition (my AT clone only supports one Dos partition). When you start NDD up, it runs thru some initialization checks of the boot record, etc. At this point, it will display error messages saying that it has found non-standard "stuff" and do you want to fix it? Well, your answer should be 'NO'. It sorta makes sense: if it's not your booting partition, and it's just a place to work in after the system is already running, then why does it need a boot sector that is correct, eh? If you do not fix those initial errors, NDD will not lock up. At least that is how I have managed to avoid the problem with my clone (Award Bios, ST251-0, 2meg C:, 6meg D:, 12meg E:, 20meg F:). Of course, if NDD displays errors in the FAT or directory tree, let it fix'em. That's what it's s'posed to do! Mitch @ Rockwell, Anaheim Disclaimer: NDD ain't perfect, but it's still a good tool!