Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watdragon!tiger!swklassen From: swklassen@tiger.waterloo.edu (Steven W. Klassen) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st Subject: Re: 16 meg partition limit Message-ID: <20465@watdragon.waterloo.edu> Date: 2 Feb 90 17:24:00 GMT References: <2947@water.waterloo.edu> <1325@crash.cts.com> Sender: daemon@watdragon.waterloo.edu Reply-To: swklassen@tiger.waterloo.edu (Steven W. Klassen) Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario Lines: 37 In article <1325@crash.cts.com> canada@crash.cts.com (Diane Barlow Close) writes: >I used this program until I formatted my hard drive to have partitions >bigger than 16 megabytes (allowable under TOS 1.4). I had no problems with >FSCK *until* it tried checking partitions over 16 megs, then it gave false >readings (ie. bad sectors where there were none). Others in the local >atari club (San Diego) have reported the same thing. Be careful... Here is a question about the 16 meg partition limit. I purchased an Atari Megafile 60 a number of months ago. From the part number I believe it used a Seagate drive. The manual that came with it mentioned the 16 meg limit, however, the utilities which came with it allowed me to make larger partitions. I decided to experiment with this. I made a partition a fair bit larger than 16 meg (I believe it was about 24 meg but I don't recall for sure) then tested it by copying a program onto it multiple times (giving it a unique name each time) and then reading the files (actually some selected copies of it from throughout the hard drive) and everything worked fine. I have kept my large partition and have not had a problem with it yet (although I also haven't filled more than about 11 meg on that partition, except of course during the test I mentioned earlier). Does anyone have comments on this? Did some of the later versions of TOS 1.0 or 1.1 or whatever it is in my 1040, allow for larger partitions? Did some of the later versions of the driver program allow for larger partitions, patching TOS appropriately? Did I just get lucky during my test and is my >16 meg partition going to be unreliable for long term use? I am being sure to back everything up on occasion (usually every 4 months unless I add something significant to the drive in which case I back it up immediately following the installation) just in case. (Actually I would do this anyway.) Steven W. Klassen +-----------------------------+ Computer Science Major | Support the poor...buy fur! | University of Waterloo +-----------------------------+