Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Path: utzoo!utgpu!cunews!dfs
From: dfs@doe.carleton.ca (David F. Skoll)
Subject: Re: Minix and Dos
Message-ID: <dfs.663879237@scotty>
Sender: news@ccs.carleton.ca (news)
Organization: Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
References: <41583@nigel.ee.udel.edu> <1153@pdxgate.UUCP>
Date: 14 Jan 91 18:53:57 GMT

In <1153@pdxgate.UUCP> berggren@eecs.cs.pdx.edu (Eric Berggren) writes:

>KKET7663%BCIT.bitnet@ugw.utcs.utoronto.ca writes:

>> I'm still waiting for my Minix 1.5.xx but in the meantime I have a
>> question for everyone.  Is it possible for MINIX to co-habit on
>> a DOS formatted drive?  I only have a puny little 30 MB RLL
>> drive and it would be a real drag to have to back-it-up and
>> format it for MINIX instead.  Thoughts?  Thanks.

>  You mean reformat the WHOLE thing for Minix? Try partitioning the
>drive to say, oh 10-meg for Minix, rest for DOS. Up to you....

I don't have Minix yet, but I've ordered the demo diskette.  I was wondering
about the usefulness/feasibility of having Minix and DOS in the same partition.
For example, would it be useful to have a DOS program create a large (say 20
MB) file in the root directory, and mark it read-only and hidden.  Then,
some modification to MINIX's file system would have it allocate and use
blocks only within the DOS file, thus respecting DOS's files.  In other words,
the DOS file acts as a virtual disk drive.  I see some advantages to this:

1 - The file could be backed up with normal DOS backup utilities, or UNIX
    ones, whichever you prefer.

2 - By creating several of these virtual disks, you could easily have "daily
    use" and "test environment" file systems for MINIX.

3 - The creation and deletion of DOS files is much less of a pain than
    repartitioning a hard drive.

Some disadvantages:

1 - Additional complexity for MINIX file system, possibly poorer performance.

2 - Reduced portability

3 - It's against the whole spirit of disk partitions.

4 - DOS files are limited to 32 MB

Any comments?

--
David Skoll.
