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From: brian@shift.lan.awfulhak.org (Brian Somers)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: MSDOS file system question
Date: 3 Apr 1997 09:30:23 GMT
Organization: Awfulhak Ltd.
Lines: 52
Message-ID: <5hvtbf$e44@ui-gate.utell.co.uk>
References: <5h9428$a8i$1@xmission.xmission.com>
<5hbhvu$g0@ui-gate.utell.co.uk> <r7zpvgk0n7.fsf@ukrv.de>
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In article <r7zpvgk0n7.fsf@ukrv.de>,
Udo Wolter <uwp@ukrv.de> writes:
> brian@shift.lan.awfulhak.org (Brian Somers) writes:
>
>> The problem seems to be filesystems with 16k cluster sizes (>1028Mb).
>
> By the way: I have 16k block size when I'm using partitions bigger than 504MB.
> Or does cluster size means somehing else ? I'm speaking of the cluster size
> like this:
>
> When I create a file smaller than 16KB size on the disk the disk space loose
> exactly 16KB.
> Is this what you're talking about ? The next problem is that I even had
> problems writing to partitions bigger than 504MB (one time my whole disk
> crashed). Maybe it is because fdisk always tells me that my DOS-partition is a
> FAT16-partition. (I'm using partitions about 990MB)
Oops *blush*. You're right, the 1028Mb limit is where it goes from
16k to 32k cluster sizes.
A 16bit FAT means you can address 65536 "logical units" or clusters.
If you divide your disk space by this number, you get your cluster
size.
I encountered the problem with a 1.4Gb disk, but the problem didn't
happen with a 1028Mb disk. If it's happening for you when the
disk is >= 504.... maybe it's a combination of cluster size &
geometry. What's your drive geometry ? 'dmesg' will tell you
what the drive thinks are good values and FreeBSDs 'fdisk' should
tell you what the values in use are. Are they the same ?
>> If you're encountering this problem, you'll see an error about cluster
>> sizes when you mount the partition. Umount it immediately or risk
>> trashing the whole system.
>
> Yeah, but is it possible that this problem will be resolved ? It's very
> enerving using mtools (very slow) to write to DOS-partitions or using
> streamer-tapes to transfer data...:-(
>
> Bye,
> Udo
> --
> Udo Wolter, email: uwp@cs.tu-berlin.de
> !!! LOW-TECH Page: http://www.cs.tu-berlin.de/~uwp/low-tech.html !!!
Someone is still working on a VFATFS - no estimated dates, but it
hasn't been forgotten.
--
Brian <brian@awfulhak.org> <brian@freebsd.org>
<http://www.awfulhak.demon.co.uk>
Don't _EVER_ lose your sense of humour !