Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!uwmcsd1!ig!agate!pasteur!ames!killer!chasm
From: chasm@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Charles Marslett)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Linkage error in FAT (Help?!?)
Summary: Help, I am trying to build one . . .
Message-ID: <4972@killer.DALLAS.TX.US>
Date: 29 Jul 88 06:14:34 GMT
References: <1459@tahoe.unr.edu> <1180039@hpcvlx.HP.COM> <37242@linus.UUCP>
Organization: The Unix(R) Connection, Dallas, Texas
Lines: 40

In article <37242@linus.UUCP>, jcmorris@mitre-bedford.ARPA (Joseph C. Morris) writes:
> In article <1180039@hpcvlx.HP.COM> bw@hpcvlx.HP.COM (Bill Wilhelmi) writes:
> >                                                          Anyhow, I  
> >recommend the Norton Utilities for FAT recovery.
> 
> So do I, but with one word of warning: Norton won't handle a disk with a
> loop in the FAT unless you use the /m switch which (I think) is part of the
> Advanced Edition only.  At init time NU builds an allocation table and doesn't
> recognize a trashed FAT, resulting in a loop.  Once you figure out which
> directory allocation is looping and patch that then NU works wonders.

> Joe Morris


I have written a "freeware" disk check program that does no repairs -- just
reports problems, and I would like comments from people who have used other
programs to identify file system problems and fixed them.  What do you want
such a program to do, what is dangerous to do, and what versions of DOS are
the most difficult to work with (the Plus Card has been mentioned to me
several times).

The check program is submitted to the binaries group, and I am working on
the repair version (which I hope to be able to sell . . .).  I split the
functionality up this way because something picked up on the net can get
run without much thought -- and a read only program seems to be a much
safer one than a program that mucks about in the partition tables and in the
FATs and directory sectors!

Two questions for any MSDOS file system gurus out there:

  (1) Does PCDOS really not have any information in the partition tables for
the next-to-last extended partition? -- I cannot find it anywhere, it seems
that I have to create the partition table from the hole left before the
last logical partition in the extended partition area.

  (2) What do the new DOS 4.0 partition tables and boot/FAT sectors look
like?

Ciao,
Chasm@killer.dallas.tx.us