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From: jms@tardis.Tymnet.COM (Joe Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.applications,comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Re: Boot disk optimizer?
Summary: Don't use the last available block on the floppy.
Message-ID: <1742@tardis.Tymnet.COM>
Date: 17 Apr 91 08:40:52 GMT
References: <41207@cup.portal.com>
Reply-To: jms@tardis.Tymnet.COM (Joe Smith)
Organization: BT Tymnet, San Jose, CA
Lines: 19

In article <41207@cup.portal.com> Chris_F_Chiesa@cup.portal.com writes:
>   Had to edit the mountlist on the floppy-I-boot-from, last night, and 
>now the disk seems to "grind" back and forth a lot more than it used to,
>and take longer to boot.  (It's extremely full.)

When a floppy is completely full, AmigaDOS does not write out the bitmap.
The allows you to use the very last available block for your data.
The disadvantage is that the bitmap (which tells AmigaDOS which blocks
are in use and which ones are available) does not get stored.

When AmigaDOS sees a floppy in this state, it knows that it has to rebuild
the in-memory copy of the bitmap by locating every single file on the disk.
This is the delay you see.  The fix is easy.  Delete an unneeded file so
that the floppy has at least 1 block free.
-- 
Joe Smith (408)922-6220 | SMTP: jms@tardis.tymnet.com or jms@gemini.tymnet.com
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