Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!inria!loria!cartan.crin.fr!domen
From: domen@cartan.crin.fr (Eric Domenjoud)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Hard disk problems
Message-ID: <1814@loria.crin.fr>
Date: 12 Mar 90 09:58:38 GMT
Sender: news@loria.crin.fr
Reply-To: domen@loria.crin.fr (Eric Domenjoud)
Organization: CRIN, Nancy, France
Lines: 33


Some days ago, my hard disk got completely corrupted: I first noticed
that some files were mixed on the disk and looking at the FATS and the root
directory, I saw that a file was partly written in the root directory and
some clusters were allocated to more than one file. It's actually the fourth
time it happens but I never exactly identified the problem before.

I noticed that the first data cluster on the disk corresponds to the third
entry in the FATS, that's to say, is numbered 2 since the first one is 
numbered 0. This means that the data clusters 0 and 1 are actually never 
used and thus marked as free in the FATS (at least on my disk which is not
an ATARI disk) and that they are actually located in the root directory, 
exactly where a part of my files were written.

My questions are then:

1) Did anybody already experience this problem?

2) Are the data clusters 0 and 1 marked as free ($0000) on the ATARI disks?

2) Is it posible that a poorly behaved program allocates these two non 
   existing data clusters, thinking that they are free?


This problem occured first while copying a file with the Universal Item 
Selector and then almost systematicaly with Turbo C.

My disk is a 30MB with OMTI controler bought at 
FSE in Kaiserslautern (W. Germany).


Eric Domenjoud
e-mail: domen@loria.crin.fr