Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!shadooby!samsung!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!dell!kevin
From: kevin@dell.dell.com (Kevin Staggs)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: What does "Probable Non-DOS disk" mean?
Summary: It could mean a bad media descriptor byte...
Keywords: FAT media
Message-ID: <4674@dell.dell.com>
Date: 10 Dec 89 06:37:30 GMT
References: <1989Dec7.123115.13255@aucs.uucp> <1598@dsac.dla.mil>
Reply-To: kevin@dell.UUCP (Kevin Staggs, )
Distribution: na
Organization: Dell Computer Corp., Austin, Tx.
Lines: 18


	In the one case where I have seen (been bitten by) this the
	"media descriptor byte" was munged.

	FYI: The first 8 bits of the FAT (file allocation table - 
	kept by DOS) is the "media descriptor byte".  For a hard
	disk this should be 0xf8. 

	At least in my case changing this byte back to 0xf8 cured
	the problem (symptom?).  If you don't want to write a prog
	to do this you could use a disk editor or a commercial disk
	maintence program (Norton's Disk Doctor, etc. - these guys
	will detect and fix such problems)..).

-- 
Kevin Staggs	Dell Computer Corp.	!'s:  uunet!dell!kevin
		9505 Arboretum Blvd.	Work: (512) 343-3518
		Austin, Texas 78759	Home: (512) 338-9299