Boot sector parameter table tricks

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2 total messages Started by Solitair Mon, 16 Jul 1990 11:16

#970

Author: Solitair
Date: Mon, 16 Jul 1990 11:16

13 lines
1125 bytes

When I change things like the no. of FAT's or the start of the first FAT
sector, in this table on my hard disk and/or on floppies, my MSDOS 3.3
does not acknowledge this and does not use the new offsets and sizes.

Does MSDOS 3.3 use some other ways to determine these parameters?
(Well, it actually shouldn't, but apparently it does :-)

Can anyone shed some light onto this matter?
--
Sincerely,                             |"I code it in 5 min, optimize it in 90
           Stephen R. van den Berg.    | min, because it's so well optimized:
uunet!mcsun!unido!rwthinf!cip-s01!berg | it runs in 5 only min.  Actually, most
berg@cip-s01.informatik.rwth-aachen.de | of the time I optimize programs."

Re: Boot sector parameter table tricks

#971

Author: Everett Kaser
Date: Mon, 16 Jul 1990 21:04

20 lines
1637 bytes

/ berg@cip-s05.informatik.rwth-aachen.de (Solitair) writes....
>When I change things like the no. of FAT's or the start of the first FAT
>sector, in this table on my hard disk and/or on floppies, my MSDOS 3.3
>does not acknowledge this and does not use the new offsets and sizes.
>
>Does MSDOS 3.3 use some other ways to determine these parameters?
>           Stephen R. van den Berg.    | min, because it's so well optimized:

First, MS-DOS appears to REQUIRE that there be two fats, even though there's
an entry in the BOOT sector telling how many fats there are on the disk.  I've
never been able to get just one fat to work, and I've seen several references
to the fact that the two fats are pretty-well wired into MS-DOS.  As for the
start of the fat, that's controlled by the the number of hidden sectors (the
partition track) and the number of reserved sectors (usually =1, the BOOT
sector).  I have no idea if you can have more than one reserved sector (even
though it's specifiable in the BOOT sector).

Everett Kaser                   Hewlett-Packard Company
...hplabs!hp-pcd!everett        work: (503) 750-3569   Corvallis, Oregon
everett%hpcvra@hplabs.hp.com    home: (503) 928-5259   Albany, Oregon

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