>>>>> "Roland" == Roland McGrath <roland@frob.com> writes:

Roland> But I found that to read my data I had to start the
Roland> partition at offset 32 instead of 0 (and make corresponding the
Roland> reduction in size).  I wonder ...

This is normal DOS behavior.  If the DOS partition is the first
partition on the disk, the data area starts on the 2nd track (counting
from 1).  Your disklabel says 32 sectors/track, so sector 32 (counting
from 0) is the start of track 2, precisely where DOS starts its stuff.

[I don't know whether this rule applies for DOS partitions which do
_not_ start at the front of the disk.]

==John