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Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.development Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!news.Hawaii.Edu!ames!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!menudo.uh.edu!uuneo!sugar!peter From: peter@NeoSoft.com (Peter da Silva) Subject: Re: Hard disk geometry translation (was V86 mode ...) Organization: NeoSoft Communications Services -- (713) 684-5900 Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1993 20:43:10 GMT Message-ID: <CBx87z.44x@sugar.NeoSoft.COM> References: <24cc1hINNo8@kralizec.zeta.org.au> <CBo9C6.9ED@sugar.neosoft.com> <24gt3e$gg7@klaava.Helsinki.FI> Lines: 39 In article <24gt3e$gg7@klaava.Helsinki.FI> torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Torvalds) writes: > This is usually not a problem on most systems: almost all BIOSes have a > "type 47" or whatever that allows you to set your geometry to suit your > taste. Well, that's certainly true for modern systems. It's almost always NOT true for older ones, including mine. > - less problems with sharing the disk with other systems: the partition > table makes more sense if everybody agrees on the layout of the disk. The only thing I have that runs DOS on a regular basis is my Amiga 3000, and that's emulating the hardware. Less virus worries that way, too. In any case, you can do what System V does: let the O/S use translated or untranslated code on a case by case basis. That's the high quality solution. Unlike some folks here, I don't automatically go "Ick. System V. Must be the wrong thing to do." > - I personally think the "translation overhead" mentioned by some folks > as a source of inefficiency for the filesystems (either due to the > controller getting slower due to translation or due to the fs not > knowing about the real geometry) is mostly a load of bull-sh*t. Well, my Miniscribe 9380E got quite a bit faster when I turned translation off. That might have been due to there being less fragmentation after I reloaded, but I don't think so... I hadn't been using it much. > - parly the same as the above: new drives usually have a variable > number of sectors anyway in reality, so trying to use a "native > mapping" is definitely not worth it. For those drives, turn translation on. Make it the default. That's fine. But it's gotta be able to turn off, too. -- Peter da Silva. <peter@sugar.neosoft.com>. `-_-' Hefur thu fadhmadh ulfinn i dag? 'U` "Det er min ledsager, det er ikke drikkepenge."