klamer@mi.eltn.utwente.nl (Klamer Schutte -- Universiteit Twente) (01/08/91)
ta_cook@eisvxe.moundst.mn.org (Thomas A. Cook) writes: >Awhile back I remember some discussion about Minix for the ST being able to read >the disk label to determine the size of the disk and the ablility to read 800Kb >formatted (vs the 720Kb standard formatted) disks. >Am I remembering this correctly or not. If there is such a patch available >where can I find it (non-FTP)? There is such a patch for minix 1.1. But this one does not patch cleanly to 1.5. But there is a problem with this approach. You are creating a device which can be resized according to the data you write to it. (Suppose you have a 820k floppy. You write a tar file to the device /dev/dd0. Now you have a tar file at the 82/10/2 style floppy. But... Next time you open the device, its bootblock( phys. block 0 ) will be corrupted (i.e. it will be the tar file header). So you can't read your information anymore) The correct way (IMHO): Make several minor devices point to several physical layouts. This will ensure that the problem above will not occur. Disadvantage: You have to remember what way the floppy is initialized. But you had to do that anyway (problem of double/single sided floppies). Having this implemented i now can read my 82/10/2 floppies on minix 1.5.10 But not tested to good (i have a hard disk now :-)) When there are request, i can post the diffs. Greetings, Klamer PS with a 82/10/2 floppy i mean 82 tracks, 10 sectors and 2 sides. I think this is the biggest safe size on a standard ST. -- Klamer Schutte Faculty of electrical engineering -- University of Twente, The Netherlands klamer@mi.eltn.utwente.nl {backbone}!mcsun!utrcu1!utep!utelmi01!klamer