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From: grunau_b@husc4.harvard.edu (justin grunau)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Re: Hard disk questions
Message-ID: <983@husc6.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 11-Jan-87 15:38:04 EST
Article-I.D.: husc6.983
Posted: Sun Jan 11 15:38:04 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 11-Jan-87 23:14:48 EST
References: <1982@ptsfa.UUCP> <503@atari.UUcp> <170@fornax.uucp>
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Reply-To: grunau_b@husc4.UUCP (justin grunau)
Organization: Harvard Science Center
Lines: 83

In article <170@fornax.uucp> chapman@fornax.uucp (John Chapman) writes:
.
.
.
>Info at last! Allan perhaps you could clear up some of the
>details for us:
>
>Is the 40 folder limit:
>
>1. per disk or per partition
>2. a "physical" limit or just the limit of the number of folders
>   Gem/Tos can look at between resets, e.g. can you have >40 folders
>   (safely) as long as you never try and access more than 40 between
>   resets?
>3. If it is just a limit between resets do folders on the floppy
>   count towards the 40 limit?
>
>4. Presumably the blitter will require a rom upgrade: will Atari
>   attempt to fix the "40 folder limit" problem in that rom release?
>
>Unrelated (but interesting) question: some time ago the net heard that
>Atari was testing software to allow the ST to boot directly from the
>hard disk - can you tell us the status of this? will it require a rom
>upgrade too or just changing the boot sector of the hard disk or both?
>
>Thanks in advance for answers.....
>
>john


I can answer questions 1 and 4 above with a reasonable degree of certainty,
in case we do not get an answer from Atari soon, since I asked questions very
much like these from Alan Pratt, and this is what my interpretation of what
he told me is:

1. The limit is neither per disk nor per partition but PER SYSTEM:  that is,
you cannot have more than 40 folders ON ALL MEDIA attached to your system.
And this is even regardless of whether the disks/partitions containing these
folders are all "installed" on the GEM desktop (I am not sure why uninstalling
the devices wouldn't solve the problem, but this is what I was told).

The way you calculate your folders is by:
	(a) counting how many logical drives you have;  a hard disk partitioned
	    into four logical drives counts as four:  each floppy drive counts
	    as one.
	(b) if you have something in the cartridge slot, count that, too
	(c) then count the number of folders in EACH logical drive, including
	    the floppy(/ies), and add those to (a) and (b).

The important thing is not only to count the folders across all drives, but to
count the drives (or logical drives) THEMSELVES (as well as the cartridge).

So if you have a four-partitioned HD, and one floppy, and a ROM cartridge, and
each of the logical drives has, say, five folders (AND SUB-FOLDERS:  make sure
you count all the way to the bottom of the tree -- "show info" does this for
you), then your count is: 4+1+1+5+5+5+5+5 = 26.


Clearly, this is unacceptable, especially since there is nothing in the soft-
ware that begins to warn you when you approach the limit, and in fact figuring
out how many folders your system thinks you have is obviously not easy:  you
have to remember to count everything, and be sure to do "Show Info" on all your
drives regularly.

It has been hinted that as long as you do not ACCESS all the folders, you might
be safe;  but what ACCESS means, I am not sure.  I.e. if you access a folder
that has N subdirectories, but only one subdirectory under the top level, then
have you accessed 1, 2, or 1+N folders by opening the top one?  I don't know.
Does clicking on a logical drive "access" ALL its subdirectories, or only the
top level?  This has not been clarified.  Obviously, what Mr. Pratt says is
true:  it is too dangerous even to HAVE more than 40 folders on your system
because you might slip up and do the wrong thing, and there is danger of
losing data on the HD.

As far as your "unrelated" question is concerned:  no, the blitter ROMs will
not have this fix.  It will not be fixed until GEMDOS is completely rewritten
by Atari -- when this will get finished is anybody's guess.  But considering
how well I expect the Mega ST to be received, I think it should be high on
their priorities, to break seriously into more than the home-hobbyist market.

									JJMG

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