Date: Sat, 09 Mar 2002 16:21:26 +0000 From: "Fubar Libretto" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: my brain hurts [LIB]
>>I just booted my L110 from the FDD / Win'98 recovery diskette (Shift+F5), >>from cold. >> >>I just don't get it - how can C: and D: and E: "see" the whole >>8GB, 1GB, and 20GB respectively??? No Win'2K, no fancy BIOS- >>enhancing software, absolutely nothing... > >I'm *guessing* here, but didn't you previously partition the >drive in the sizes you mention? Indeed I did, Neil! - with Win'2K >If that's the case, I'd suspect that windows sees the >partition info and calculates sizes accordingly. >If the directory info is at the front of the disc, as it >would be if you've just rebuilt everything, then it will be >able to read that without problems and probably some, or >even all, of the files. > >It might even be able to write new files,(95 wouldn't) but >I'd be very careful about using it without testing. Sounds to me like you could be right on the mark there... I've noticed FDISK report a FAT16 partition as FAT12, and likewise report absolutely full partitions as "1%" or simply "%" - both in the 8MB+ area DIR works; I suspect that COPY has problems (I wasn't testing for that specifically when I noticed something strange, so I can't be more conclusive). --- I've spent the entire day (and then some) on this and while my understanding is far from complete, I am very confident that the bit I'm about to relate is definitely correct. I appreciate I'm re-inventing the wheel and verifying what was "known" all along, so please don't read on beyond this point unless you're either very bored or very skeptical ;-) ------------------------------------------------------------ If you've got a single "big" partition on your Libretto (ie the BIOS hibernate area around 8MB is unreserved) then ***YOUR DATA IS AT RISK***. I've painstakingly verified this for myself (using somewhat crude techniques and learning as I go), hands on at my own Libretto 110, and as far as I'm concerned this is the absolute bottom line. The problem will arise if/as/when your Libretto decides to hibernate without intervention from Windows - for example, I've seen this happen when there has been some problem booting; if your Libretto decides it's too hot; and so on. Let's call it a "spontaneous BIOS hibernation" - it's something that can still occur while running Win'2K, even though Win'2K itself has an alternative hibernation policy. You can't disable the "spontaneous BIOS hibernation" functionality, and it will trash your data if you've got one partition spanning the sector in question - despite the fact that everything worked OK for however long prior to encountering the problem. Basically, you're sitting on a ticking bomb... I made an initial partition as big as the Libretto could "see" (7.77GB - 8,348,737,536 bytes) and then experimented with other partitions following on from that. Basically you get 7MB increments; 70MB is definitely too small, and the next one up - (78.2MB - 82,073,600 bytes) is the smallest available option that will do the job (presuming 64MB memory). I suspect the Libretto hibernates from the furthest point it can see and writes backwards, towards the beginning of the drive, if that makes sense - so if you don't reserve enough space, the area that get trashed is some way into the following partition. I've followed my 78.2MB partition with a small (7.81MB - 8,196,096 bytes - smallest you can have / has to be FAT16) partition and filled it with .JPGs so that there are zero bytes free. Now, when I boot from cold straight to a DOS prompt and hibernate, the 78.2MB partition suffers heavy data loss, and everything in the 7.81MB partition immediately after that is fine. I've tested this, and similar variations, repeatedly - and yes, my brain still hurts! _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx ************************************************************** http://libretto.basiclink.com - Libretto mailing list http://libretto.basiclink.com/archive - Archives http://www.picante.com/~gtaylor/portable/faq.html - FAQ -------TO UNSUBSCRIBE------- Reply to any of the list messages. The reply mail should be addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Then replace any text on the message's subject line: cmd:unsubscribe --------TO UNSUBSCRIBE DIGEST------ Do above but with this on subject line: cmd:unsubscribe digest **************************************************************
