On Wed, Aug 01, 2001 at 09:49:42AM +0800, Robert Storey wrote: > > > ---------- Forwarded Message ---------- > Subject: Re: zip drive problems... > Date: Wed, 1 Aug 2001 07:19:45 +0800 > From: Robert Storey <y2kbug@ms25.hinet.net> > To: Andy Saxena <ansaxena@engr.uconn.edu> > > > On Tuesday July 31 2001 04:57, Phillip Deackes wrote: > > On Mon, 30 Jul 2001 13:39:47 -0700 > > > > Sometimes the partition you need to access is /dev/sda1 rather than > > /dev/sda4. Don't know why, but I have several zip disks, some where the > > uabale partition is /dev/sda1 and others where it is /dev/sda4. Maybe it > > has something to do with whether you formatted the zipdisks using Linux > > or Windows? > > By default, Zip disks from the factory are partitioned as /dev/sda4. That's > just Iomega's standard practice, there is no technical reason why it must be > so. By using the Linux fdisk command, you can repartition a Zip disk as > /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2 or /dev/sda3. Actually, I believe this is done so that older versions of MacOS (which uses its own partition map and saves the first three partitions for system use) could use PC zip disks with the msdos fs driver installed on the mac. partition 1: Apple partition map partition 2: Apple disk driver code partition 3: Updated disk driver or free space for such partition 4: first fs partition > If you aren't already familiar with the fdisk command, it wouldn't be a bad > idea to practice with it on a Zip disk (a Zip disk with no important data on > it!). It's much safer to practice using fdisk on a Zip disk than on your hard > drive. Run "fdisk /dev/sda" and have fun playing with the menus. Once you've > changed the partition information, you may have to reformat the disk with > mkfs. Oh, and to throw a spanner into the works, the official spec for the IDE/ATAPI zip drive allows the drive to hide the first track (with the partition) table from the IDE interface and pretend that it's a single msdos fs. So if you use a disk with custom partitioning, be prepared that it might not work in an IDE zip drive. My dualboot system's BIOS sets this, so the custom Debian installer image I was playing with cannot work any longer. -- Ferret I will be switching my email addresses from @ferret.dyndns.org to @mail.aom.geek on or after September 1, 2001, but not until after Debian's servers include support. 'geek' is an OpenNIC TLD. See http://www.opennic.unrated.net for details about adding OpenNIC support to your computer, or ask your provider to add support to their name servers.
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