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From: nall@loligo.cc.fsu.edu (John Nall)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: Large Disks
Message-ID: <249@vsserv.scri.fsu.edu>
Date: 5 Oct 89 14:55:12 GMT
Sender: news@vsserv.scri.fsu.edu
Reply-To: nall@loligo.cc.fsu.edu (John Nall)
Organization: Florida State University
Lines: 24


>  I hadn't realized that fdisks quietly assumed 4 heads.  That is probably 
>  very dangerous nowadays.  One solution is to force the number of heads
>  as a parameter, and give a Usage: message if not supplied.  Any other ideas? 

>  Andy Tanenbaum 

I think the Usage: message should certainly be given!  There are a small but
vital group of programs which new users are going to have to use just to get
started, and these should be made as foolproof as possible, since these users
are not yet knowledgeable about Minix.  Also, I am not sure that one can assume
that a user necessarily KNOWS all of the pertinent info about the harddisk.  I
had to use the Norton Utilities under DOS to get the info I needed.  So perhaps
some kind soul could write a "hdinfo" program which would print it out upon
demand, for new users.

John Nall



======================================================================
John Nall                              Internet:  nall@nu.cs.fsu.edu
Computer Science Department            Florida State University
    "Today, a Moon Moth -- tomorrow, a Sea Dragon Conquerer!!"