Re: HFS.FST patch

[dempson@atlantis.actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

In article <Pine.A32.3.93.960609123937.21256C-100000@freenet4.afn.org>,
Donald 'X-caiver' Pattee Jr  <afn45687@afn.org> wrote:
> What is this patch? I have just about all of my harddrive formatted under
> HFS (An entire 105meg SyQuest removable is HFS and about 90% of my 540meg
> harddrive is HFS partitioned). I haven`t run into problems...as far as I
> have noticed. 

The HFS FST has a bug which causes it to miscalculate block numbers in
some cases.  This may cause file corruption, or damaged catalog
structures on the disk.

It seems to be more common with larger HFS volumes.  For example, the
Golden Orchard CD-ROM just wouldn't work if it was a single 600 MB HFS
partition, but seems to be reliable with about six smaller partitions.

The patch corrects this bug, allowing the FST to reliably access volumes.

The catch: if you have already created an HFS volume using the
unpatched FST, the patched one will probably not read it reliably!

Before installing this patch, you should back up all data on HFS
partitions (using the unpatched FST of course), ideally using ShrinkIt
GS.  (You can turn off compression to save time.)

It isn't sufficient to simply copy the files to another HFS
volume, because they will also have the erroneous block mapping, and
it isn't a good idea to simply copy them to a ProDOS volume, because
you will lose HFS filenames.

After installing the patch, erase the HFS volume and copy all the
files back again.

Note that the files might have been damaged already by the original
buggy HFS FST, so you should check every file to make sure it is OK.
-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand