Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!hplabs!hpcea!hpnmd!hpsrli!darrylo
From: darrylo@hpsrli.HP.COM (Darryl Okahata)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: minix 1.2 on 3.5" drives.
Message-ID: <210002@hpsrli.HP.COM>
Date: 21 Apr 88 18:04:00 GMT
References: <5525@sigi.Colorado.EDU>
Organization: HP Network Measurements Div, Santa Rosa, CA
Lines: 44

In comp.os.minix, hartzell@boulder.Colorado.EDU (George Hartzell) writes:

> I am looking into putting minix on a zenith 183 portable.  It has a 20
     [ ... ]
> Does anyone out there know how to go about getting the stuff over to the
> little disks?  While we're at it, does anyone have minix running on a 
> zenith portable?  Is it compatible enough or am I wasting my time?
> g.
> 
> George Hartzell			                 (303) 492-4535
> MCD Biology, University of Colorado-Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309
> hartzell@Boulder.Colorado.EDU  ..!{ncar,nbires}!boulder!hartzell
> (bitnet hosts try: hartzell%boulder.colorado.edu@jvnca.csc.org)

     Write a program to do a "disk image" copy of the 5 1/4" disk to the 3 1/2"
one.  By "disk image", I mean:

     Transfer head 0, track 0, sector 1 of the 5 1/4" disk to head 0, track 0,
	sector 1 of the 3 1/2" disk.
     Transfer head 0, track 0, sector 2 of the 5 1/4" disk to head 0, track 0,
	sector 2 of the 3 1/2" disk.
     Transfer head 0, track 0, sector 3 of the 5 1/4" disk to head 0, track 0,
	sector 3 of the 3 1/2" disk.
     Etc., ad nauseum.

This can be done, as the sector size on the 3 1/2" disk is the same size (512
bytes) as that on the 5 1/4" disk.

     Note that, as the 3 1/2" disk has many more sectors, many sectors on the
3 1/2" disk will not be used.  The only problem with this method is that your
3 1/2" disks look like 360K disks to Minix.  Once you've copied all of the
5 1/4" disks to 3 1/2" format, just boot normally (I assume that Minix works on
the Zenith).

     I wrote a program to do a disk image copy and was able to boot minix with
my portable.  I wrote the program using a very non-portable dialect of C, and I
don't know if I still have it.

     -- Darryl Okahata
	{hplabs!hpccc!, hpfcla!} hpsrla!darrylo
	CompuServe: 75206,3074

Disclaimer: the above is the author's personal opinion and is not the
opinion or policy of his employer or of the little green men that
have been following him all day.