Subject: Re: Is this a new disk problem?
To: Bob Nestor" , "Henry B. Hotz <hotz@jpl.nasa.gov>
From: Bob Nestor <rnestor@metronet.com>
List: port-mac68k
Date: 07/09/1998 20:23:53
Bob Nestor <rnestor> wrote:

>As for Colin's suggestion that you use Mkfs to zap the partition into 
>NetBSD format, I'd make sure I have a good backup first.  Those flags are 
>in the first block of the disk partition and I don't think there's 
>anything else in there that NetBSD cares about, but if you don't have a 
>good backup you can be darn sure there is. 

Oh rats!  As soon as I hit the send button I realized this isn't entirely 
correct.  The flags are stored in the Partition Map block, not in the 
disk partition itself.  So zapping with Mkfs should be safe, but a good 
backup is still a good idea.  That also means that "newfs" isn't going to 
set these flags, so unless it was done with your disk formatter or with 
Mkfs they probably won't be set as expected.  Not sure how the Kernel 
will react to them not being set, but I do know the Installer won't see 
the partitions unless these flags are set.  And Mkfs will probably think 
they are "Apple Free" type partitions without the flags set.

sorry for the confusion I caused,
-bob