[Coco] [coco] creating boot disks

[Bob Devries]

Actually, the bootfile may reside anywhere on the disk (technically even in 
a sub-directory). The OS9Gen programme places the LSN (logical sector 
number) of the start of the OS9Boot file into LSN 0 of the disk.

OS9Gen creates a file called Tempboot when it tries to create the new boot 
file. If successful, it renames that to OS9Boot. If not, you're left with 
the Tempboot file. If you try to run OS9Gen again, it will fail with error 
218 (File Exists). If you suspect fragmentation, a thing to try is to rename 
the file Tempboot to say, Oldboot, and then run OS9Gen again. This will 
likely (though not always) force the creation of the OS9Boot file on a 
section of the disk not previously used. If the disk is already badly 
fragmented, this will not help, of course.

I have usually found that it's better to run OS9Gen on a freshly formatted 
disk, and then use dsave to copy the files from my old disk to the new one, 
like this:

dsave /d0 /d1 ! shell

Hope that helps.

--
Regards, Bob Devries, Dalby, Queensland, Australia

Isaiah 50:4 The sovereign Lord has given me
the capacity to be his spokesman,
so that I know how to help the weary.

website: http://www.home.gil.com.au/~bdevasl
my blog: http://bdevries.invigorated.org/

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joel Ewy" <jcewy at swbell.net>
To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Sunday, March 16, 2008 12:14 PM
Subject: Re: [Coco] [coco] creating boot disks


> George Ramsower wrote:
>> When I make a mistake while creating a boot disk, "they" say that the
>> disk needs to be clean of files to create a bootfile.
>>
>> If, when it doesn't work, do I have to reformat or can I just delete
>> the mistake?
>>
> As I understand it, the only issue is that the bootfile can't be
> fragmented, and has to reside at the correct location at the start of
> the disk.  So if you delete the old bootfile and you don't make it any
> bigger, then a new one should probably go right where the old one was.
> But if the file size grows, it won't have room, and will become
> fragmented.  You could try making a boot file on a blank disk, then
> copying some filler files immediately after it, before copying the CMDS
> directory, etc.  Then if you need to make the boot file bigger, you can
> delete the next filler file to free up some contiguous space.  I haven't
> tested this myself, but is sounds like a plausible idea.
>
> JCE
>> I should try this, but I'm hoping to get an answer more quickly.
>>
>> George
>>
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