Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ncar!gatech!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!ncoast!allbery
From: allbery@NCoast.ORG (Brandon S. Allbery KB8JRR/AA)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Re: Anyone using prodigy with an AMIGA? (long)
Message-ID: <1991May8.222348.16503@NCoast.ORG>
Date: 8 May 91 22:23:48 GMT
References: <1991May7.001840.8440@bilver.uucp> <62040@masscomp.westford.ccur.com> <1991May7.154936.17734@ncsu.edu>
Reply-To: allbery@ncoast.ORG (Brandon S. Allbery KB8JRR/AA)
Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Distribution: na
Organization: North Coast Public Access Un*x (ncoast)
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As quoted from <1991May7.154936.17734@ncsu.edu> by kdarling@hobbes.catt.ncsu.edu (Kevin Darling):
+---------------
| If these users really want to check, they should FIRST SHUT OFF THEIR
| COMPUTER for a long while, take out their huge startup files, and try
| again.  I would bet they no longer get "personal" data in the Prodigy
| files, but only whatever had been read in on boot.  And even that's
| not a perfect test: if they have some weirdo caching program, then extra
| unrelated disk data may still be brought into memory and shot back out.
| 
| I'd really rather hear facts from a _real_ computer expert who checks
| this out... instead of reports from users who don't know how their
| machine is set up or operates.  best - kev <kdarling@catt.ncsu.edu>
+---------------

Already done... check the RISKS Digest (comp.risks on Usenet).  Someone did a
test under the following conditions:

(1) HD defragmented
(2) ALL NON-ALLOCATED SPACE ON THE HD ZEROED
(3) The trash at the end of "partially-allocated" clusters zeroed
(4) BUFFERS=0 in CONFIG.SYS (doncha jus' luv DOS? bleeagh :-)

Then some files were created, filled with garbage data (test patterns), and
deleted.  The computer was then shut off, allowed to sit, and rebooted with no
TSR's.  PRODIGY was then run from a freshly-formatted floppy.

Results:  STAGE.DAT contained a large chunk of "test pattern" and a small
chunk of zeroes.  NO data from actual files on the HD showed up in STAGE.DAT.

Looks like MS-DOS is indeed the culprit.  And keep in mind that MS-DOS doesn't
necessarily clear either unallocated memory, or unallocated disk space, *or*
*unallocated* *buffers* (recall the BUFFERS=0), so it's *real* easy to get
unexpected stuff showing up in data files.

++Brandon
-- 
Me: Brandon S. Allbery			  Ham: KB8JRR/AA  10m,6m,2m,220,440,1.2
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