Re: MicroDrive Re-Do-Do

["Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com>]

Steve ][ wrote:
> > Re-partition it using the MicroDrive utility, then re-format (hi-level)
> > each partition.  Then restore the files to each partition from your
> > backups.
>
>
> Booting into the the MicroDrive floppy-based util, I did delete all 8
> partitions, then created 8 new ones with different sizes. When I
> booted with a System 6.0.1 floppy into the Finder, it saw my "new"
> partitions with "old" names.

It sounds like you didn't "commit" or write the new partition data
to the drive...  Did you exit the partition utility normally?

> That is when I sait "WTF" and reformatted the CF card under WinXP, put
> it back in the IIGS, and started over. Or so I thought.
>
> Before I go too far, is it possible the CF card itself was corrupted?

That kind of failure should be detected by the formatting utility,
which, if reasonably written, will verify that the newly written
partition info can be correctly read back.

Since everything on the drive depends on the partition table data,
if ever there were a reason to verify, this is it.  If I were doing
it, I'd even include a checksum in the partition table.

> My original idea was to have 8 partitions to boot into some
> "edutainment" titles for my kid (making some partitions floppy-sized)
> and leaving some space for me (making some others 32mb ProDOS boot
> into GS/OS). Then I could drop the floppy drives completely and have a
> useful (and quiet and small footprint) system. I wonder if one of the
> apps I tried to install in a partition ("Talking Letters" for example)
> could corrupt other CF partitions when it (didn't) boot up.

This shouldn't be possible, but it depends on how the MicroDrive
firmware is written.

-michael

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