Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!sdd.hp.com!hplabs!hpda!hpcuhc!hpspcoi!jfarley
From: jfarley@hpspcoi.HP.COM (Jens Farley)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.programmer
Subject: Re: Dectection of HPFS File system?
Message-ID: <15510005@hpspcoi.HP.COM>
Date: 16 Nov 90 17:33:36 GMT
References: <1990Nov15.174907.19980@mks.com>
Organization: HP PCG, Sunnyvale CA
Lines: 13

dale@mks.com (Dale Gass) writes:

> I require a portable and efficient method of determining whether a given
> drive uses the HPFS file system.

I needed to do the same thing a while back.  What I did is have my program
look at the boot sector, which, in 1.2(1), contains a (text) field that
describes the file system.  The field isn't there for 1.1, so if it's not
there, you assume FAT.  (You can determine the offset of this field into
the boot sector by looking at a boot sector in ASCII format, with DEBUG,
SYMDEB, or Norton Utilities, for example.)  Your program can read the boot
sector using the usual DosOpen, DosRead calls if you open the drive for
direct access (by setting the DASD flag).