Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!UIAMVS.BITNET!AWCTTYPA
From: AWCTTYPA@UIAMVS.BITNET ("David A. Lyons")
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: DOS3.3/ProDOS; hard drives
Message-ID: <8806220042.aa06980@SMOKE.BRL.ARPA>
Date: 22 Jun 88 13:23:58 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 46
X-Unparsable-Date: Tuesday 21 Jun 88 11:41 PM CT

>Date:         Tue, 21 Jun 88 08:26:31 EST
>From:         Murph Sewall 

I wrote:
>It gets less and less reasonable to keep using DOS 3.3.  CD-ROMs would
>be ridiculous, for example, addressed 400K at a time.

And Murph Sewall wrote:
>True, but 32Mbytes at a time may look just as silly on a 1+ gigabyte
>device (I know ProDOS can be modified to handle it -- GS OS again? --
>but I couldn't pass-on the thought 'cause I'm not so sure from what
>I've read that DOS 3.3 couldn't have been modified as well other problems to make that I worthwhile approach, no doubt>).

ProDOS 16/GSOS should be able to handle very large devices...since
there are 4 bytes reserved in the parameter lists for things like
file positions and number of blocks, that should hold us for a
while.

ProDOS could be modified to deal with larger volumes, as long as we
stay at the FILE level and not the block level.  For that matter, MAYBE
DOS 3.3 could be, too--but then there would be no hierarchical structure,
and it would still be pretty silly to have CD-ROMs with no directories.

> [...] Unfortunately, streaming
>backups simply reproduce recorded sectors; so if the platter is replaced
>chances are something important (like part of the FAT) is recorded on
>what were good but have become bad sectors.

Ugh!  Sounds like a silly approach to backup to me!

>The newer, file-by-file,
>technology solves the problem, but they cost a bunch more too (there's
>a neat device called "The Fat Boy" described in this week's InfoWorld --
>its a 1.2 gigabyte, file-by-file tape backup that uses standard Video
>8 cassettes and transfers at 15 Mbytes per minute).

Gee...file-by-file backup isn't a new technology.  I used Davex's
"update" command to copy changed files onto 3.5" backup disks.  My
backup disks will be useful if my hard drive dies, unlike a backup
tape with no hard drive to restore it to!

>ARPA:   sewall%uconnvm.bitnet@mitvma.mit.edu        Murphy A. Sewall
>BITNET: SEWALL@UCONNVM                           School of Business Admin.
>UUCP:   [rutgers psuvax1 ucbvax & in Europe - mcvax] Univ. of Connecticut
>                 !UCONNVM.BITNET!SEWALL