Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!mcdchg!ddsw1!ddsw1!karl From: karl@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Karl Denninger) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Miniscribe 3085 on Dos3.3? Message-ID: <[4368.1]comp.ibmpc;1@ddsw1.MCS.COM> Date: 17 Jul 89 21:00:05 GMT References: <36300051@iuvax> Lines: 38 >Item 4368 (0 responses) by bose at iuvax.cs.indiana.edu on Mon 17 Jul 89 14:17 >[] Subject: Miniscribe 3085 on Dos3.3? > > >I just tried to install a Miniscribe 3085 hard disk on my AST Premium 286. >The disk is 85Meg unformatted. I used DiskManager to install the disk. I >got 72Megs out of the disk. I set it up to have a .9Meg bootable partition, >and a 71Meg read/write partition. I am running Dos 3.3. > >The problem I am having is that after copying all my files onto the hard >disk, 32Megs of files, 52Megs are allocated. I checked how much space is ...... You're in trouble. The reason for the large usage of space is that each file is taking up much more space than would otherwise be consumed. I believe that you are using 8K per file -- regardless of the amount of storage actually _used_. We have seen this as well, and it is a limitation of MSDOS. You can't have large partitions and not run into this. For this reason, we recommend most users partition their drive into multiple <= 32MB pieces. Then you end up with 2K allocation units, and for most users, much more free disk space. Dos 4.1 uses a larger bit table for the FAT, and thus can deal with larger disks without changing the allocation size. This is a help -- but the first time you run one of those utility programs that doesn't know what DOS 4 is, it will SCRAMBLE BEYOND REPAIR your FAT tables! Be careful with this! I would use Dos 3.3 and partition for smaller "chunks" unless you have a compelling need to have more than 32Mb in a single file or directory. -- Karl Denninger (karl@ddsw1.MCS.COM, !ddsw1!karl) Public Access Data Line: [+1 312 566-8911], Voice: [+1 312 566-8910] Macro Computer Solutions, Inc. "Quality Solutions at a Fair Price"