kimmel@umvlsi.ecs.umass.edu (Mathew Kimmel) (10/15/90)
Help! I'm trying to get Minix 1.3 to work properly with my hard disk. I'm running it on a PC/XT clone with two Seagate ST-225 hard drives. I've been trying unsuccessfully to make a file system using the entire second (D:) hard drive (20 megs). I've used mknod to create /dev/hd[56789] as per the instructions in the user guide, but no matter how I manipulate the partition table, minix refuses to recognize any partitions of any type or size (although when I check the hard disk file system from fsck while booting, it at least reads the disk for any partition). If I attempt to make a file system on /dev/hd5 (the whole disk disregarding partitions, major device 3 minor device 5), it works and will access that file system reliably and consistently, but will only make the file system using half the available disk space (10 megs' worth, about 10400 blocks). If I try to make the file system with any more blocks than that, I get an unrecoverable disk error. What am I doing wrong?? If someone could help me, I'd really appreciate it. I need all 20 megs to compile v1.5.10. Thanks in advance!! -Matt -- Matt Kimmel University of Massachusetts Amherst, Mass. Internet: kimmel@umvlsi.ecs.umass.edu Bitnet: KIMMEL@UMAECS
evans@syd.dit.CSIRO.AU (Bruce.Evans) (10/22/90)
In article <1295@umvlsi.ecs.umass.edu> kimmel@umvlsi.ecs.umass.edu (Mathew Kimmel) writes: >partition). If I attempt to make a file system on /dev/hd5 (the whole >disk disregarding partitions, major device 3 minor device 5), it works >and will access that file system reliably and consistently, but will >only make the file system using half the available disk space (10 megs' >worth, about 10400 blocks). If I try to make the file system with any >more blocks than that, I get an unrecoverable disk error. Never make a file system on /dev/hd0 ot /dev/hd5. It will wipe out the partition table. The size of the whole disk is read from the ROM. On XT's it is hard for that to be right for 2 drives. The driver assumes the drives have the same geometry unless AUTO_BIOS is used. It is easy to get the hd numbers mixed up. Various programs have different ideas about the order of the partitions, and the Minix driver sorts them, so you cannot have hd8 without a nonempty hd6 and hd7. The Minix-1.5 fdisk gives warnings about things like this. If you are not sure what you are doing, try running readall (preferably the 1.5 version) to count the sizes of the partitions before even thinking of running mkfs. -- Bruce Evans evans@syd.dit.csiro.au