Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!amdahl!kim
From: kim@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (Kim DeVaughn)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: Fast File System for floppys ... how to.
Message-ID: <31096@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com>
Date: 8 May 88 03:50:49 GMT
References: <30793@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com> <5888@well.UUCP> <861@imagine.PAWL.RPI.EDU>
Organization: Amdahl Corporation,  Sunnyvale, CA 94086
Lines: 40
Summary: Danger!  Danger, Will Robbinson ...

In article <861@imagine.PAWL.RPI.EDU>, jesup@pawl15.pawl.rpi.edu (Randell E. Jesup) writes:
> In article <5888@well.UUCP> ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab) writes:
> >
> >       There's not a lot we can do about this, since it's making the rounds
> >on BBS's and such, so might I recommend the following disclaimer be put onto
> >all such boards, and be inserted into the shar file that was posted.
>
>         Even worse:  it's almost guaranteed to fail eventually, because as
> Steve Beats said at Devcon:  FFS doesn't understand removable media, therefor
> it probably doesn't dump buffers when a disk is removed.  This could cause
> disks to be destroyed if you EVER change disks (of course, it might not too.
> BUT DON'T TRUST IT NOT TO KILL DISKS IF YOU PLAY THESE TRICKS!)

Hold on now ... let's not start a panic, guys.

If you recall, I mentioned that before posting this technique, I sent it off
to Steve for his comments, as I had similar concerns.  And I included his
reply to me in my posting.

He didn't seem to get excited over it, and did not mention any potential problems
or future incompatibilities that might occur.  In fact, he said that he had
hinted that such was possible during DevCon.

So, before we burn up alot of net.bandwidth over this, perhaps Steve (are you
there ?) could give us the facts.  If this *is* a dangerous practice, everyone
should certainly know that up front.  If it's not, then it would be nice to know
that too.  And if it's a "use at your own risk, but don't come crying to me
later ... maybe it *might* break" deal, well then ... caveat emptor.

It might also be useful for someone who has 1.3 Gamma's to actually *try*
this out, and let us know the results (Randell?, Leo?)

/kim


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