Random automation

[Petersueco]

No damage where I live. I'm about 400 km away from the epicenter and here we didn't feel it. Thanks for asking though.

[anyhorizon]

This is the very reason anyhorizon never let me say anything in the database... oh I tried, I pleaded, I even offered him money once and of course he was polite about it... something like, yeah I'll check that out, good idea Mike!

I honestly could see anyhorizon's face at my suggestions... something like this I think, l

I don't recall any scenarios like that. If so, I'm sorry. Anyway, the database over at the other place is like a mad woman's breakfast at the moment and I just don't have the time to go through and change all the internal linking, nor does it seem necessary since there's only about one post a fortnight over there.

Peter

[High C Double G]

No damage where I live. I'm about 400 km away from the epicenter and here we didn't feel it. Thanks for asking though.

Very good, glad to hear you and yours are okay.

MPD

[High C Double G]

This is the very reason anyhorizon never let me say anything in the database... oh I tried, I pleaded, I even offered him money once and of course he was polite about it... something like, yeah I'll check that out, good idea Mike!

I honestly could see anyhorizon's face at my suggestions... something like this I think, l

I don't recall any scenarios like that. If so, I'm sorry. Anyway, the database over at the other place is like a mad woman's breakfast at the moment and I just don't have the time to go through and change all the internal linking, nor does it seem necessary since there's only about one post a fortnight over there.

Peter

You know how I like to kid around some, that is all this is... a friendly roust. Think nothing of it and there is absolutely nothing to apologize for. The sentiment was/is that you took, and apparently are, taking great care in making sure the extensive Database is 100% accurate with proven and tested known fixes, facts, workarounds, and upgrades. You don't take it for gospel until proven as fact, so when it ends up in the Database it is bulletproof and not just some hair brain idea (no offence intended toward the FAT32 poster). The only thing I can remember suggesting to you was a wattage rating listing for both the 230v and 115v CPU’s to accurately calculate the load of the d8b as my nameplate was covered by the BFC connector so I thought that might be useful to have in there, but really the motivation was/is that I am a ego centric “Database contributor want a be”. This is to serve me exclusively and for the primary purpose for the fame and fortune that is associated of being listed somewhere as someone who has a brilliant idea. Unfortunately, my idea wasn’t that brilliant. The other two were equally not impressive. They are the power supply fan replacement procedure and a step by step instruction on how to load the operating system without a VFD. As a matter of fact these items are quite obscure and a very rare need if at all, but one day I will come up with something so insanely great it will have to get listed and I can join the ranks of the elite. All in good fun I say.

MPD

[buckhopper]

Sorry for taking so long to respond-- I was out of the state for a convention last week.

The problem is in the "Hard drive replacement: 10 Golden Rules" section in the Maintenance part of the D8b DataBase.

In Rule #4, it specifies using MS-DOS 6.22. I think this reference should be removed, since that step implies that only a FAT16 partition can be read by the D8b.

I would also remove Rule #8. Mackie's documentation included an adorable line about introducing the hard disk to the D8b, and I think that line implies that there is a special benefit to partitioning and formatting the drive using the D8b hardware. But the documentation doesn't actually say to do that, so I would replace Rule #8 with something about just adding a raw FAT16 or FAT32 partition to the drive with whatever tools you have available. Even Mac OS X can put a FAT32 partition on a drive, and once the Format:On option is turned on, I don't see any reason why a Mac-added FAT32 partition would cause any trouble for installation.

If those changes had been made, I think I would have had a much clearer idea on how to install a new drive into the D8b. Still, I did get it working, and now my D8b is working great!

[synthjoe]

I'd be surprised if FAT32 worked wth the D8B pre-v5 OSes - though I have not tested it. The FAT32 filesystem was was hardly in use when the D8B was designed - so I think the reference is only partly wrong, if at all.

On the other hand, drive sizes/volumes smaller than 512 MB will be partitioned/formatted automatically FAT16 (even if the FDISK/FORMAT used would support FAT32). Asnwering 'N' to large drive support in later versions of FDISK under DOS disables FAT32 altogether for the partitions created during that session, so they will be formatted FAT16, automatically. Windows XP disk manager offers FAT16 by default when partitioning of formatting, as long as the partition size does not exceed 4096 MB (4 GB). The only difference occurs if you 'right-click/format' the drive in Windows explorer (NTFS will be preferred, unless the disk is already formatted with another filesystem), but you wouldn't be able to do that before partitioning the disk in disk manager first (which motivates you to format it, right away). This all is to say that in fact you're most likely to have a FAT16 partition unless you manually specify FAT32 or you partition's size is over 4 GB.

Win95 OSR2 thorugh MinME will create 'Emergency Boot Disks' that contain FAT32 capable versions of these tools, so inserting such a disk into Mackie's CPU upon boot will allow you to create FAT32 HDD partitions, if you so desire. Unless you answer 'N' to large disk handling, with these tools any partition larger than 512 MB will be FAT32, by default.