Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!lll-crg!lll-lcc!styx!twg-ap!amdahl!pyramid!decwrl!sun!saber!imagen!atari!neil From: neil@atari.UUcp (Neil Harris) Newsgroups: net.micro.atari16 Subject: Re: Questions re. hard disks, clocks, and neil harris. Message-ID: <425@atari.UUcp> Date: Tue, 16-Sep-86 12:41:00 EDT Article-I.D.: atari.425 Posted: Tue Sep 16 12:41:00 1986 Date-Received: Fri, 19-Sep-86 22:47:26 EDT References: <8609151828.AA03938@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> Organization: Atari Corp/Mktg Lines: 50 In article <8609151828.AA03938@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>, FISCHER-MICHAEL@YALE.ARPA writes: > (2) Much more serious are limitations mentioned in the owners manual; > in particular, that you should not have more than 40 directories total > in all partitions and all devices attached to the ST. Apparently this > restriction is due to some sort of bug in TOS. I don't really understand > why or how the ST even knows how many folders I have several levels down > in the directory tree, and indeed, one can apparently exceed the 40 number > for some period of time without any trouble. But the bug, whatever it is, > is real, and the result is a trashed partition on the hard disk. I rebuilt > my disk 3 times over the weekend before finally taking that restriction > seriously. (I had been using it for a month without problems; the trouble > only started when I added some new software that caused several new folders > to be created.) I would really appreciate hearing from anyone who has > any better information about this bug and what to do to prevent it > and/or recover from it. The 40 folder limit is inherent in GEMDOS. The problem will manifest itself when the system has actually looked at more than 40 folders in one session (session=between power on and power off). So you can be safe even if there are many folders, as long as you power off before traversing 40 directory folders. This is known as the "Russian roulette" technique and is NOT recommended. > (3) The software that comes with the hard disk does not permit booting > from it. Instead, one puts the driver on a floppy in the AUTO folder > and then boots from the floppy. Desk accessories are loaded from the > hard disk, but any AUTO folder on the hard disk is ignored. Neil Harris > announced a few weeks ago that TOS will in fact boot from the hard disk > if the appropriate boot sector is written on it. He indicated at the > time that Atari had software to write the boot sector and was currently > using it in-house and that they would release it if no problems > developed. The auto boot program is still in test until we feel confident that it won't lead to other problems. -- --->Neil @ Atari ...lll-crg!vecpyr!atari!neil or ...lll-lcc!vecpyr!atari!neil BIX: neilharris CIS: 70007,1135 Delphi: NEILHARRIS GENIE: nharris WELL: neil Atari Corp. BBS 408-745-5308 US Mail: Atari Corp. 1196 Borregas Ave. Sunnyvale, CA 94086 "I'm a 20th century man but I don't want to die here." -- Ray Davies