Accessing info from Boot Sector of Diskette


 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Top Forums Programming Accessing info from Boot Sector of Diskette
# 1  
Old 02-19-2005
Data Accessing info from Boot Sector of Diskette

I am writing a Floppy Disk Driver and need to find out what the "Sectors per track", "Tracks per cylinder", and the "number of cylinders" on a disk. I have a book that tells me that this info is held in the boot sector of the disk in locations such as:

0x18 0x19 Sectors per track

But doesn't even begin to explain how to access this data.

Can anyone tell me how to access this? Smilie
Login or Register to Ask a Question

Previous Thread | Next Thread

10 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting

1. Solaris

Boot disk crash with metadb config info

Hello all; We have a SunFire V240 with three disks that were part of a metadb. One of those disks, the boot disk, experienced a horrible death Monday night and we're now trying to recover from that. I know very little about metadb stuff, so please be gentle with me... I'm assuming... (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: Handon
3 Replies

2. Filesystems, Disks and Memory

Cannot use USB diskette drive

I would be extremely grateful for any help on the following matter. Under AIX 5.1 and for years I have been using perfectly well a USB 3.5" disketted drive. But since yesterday, after a power failure disconnected my e-server, I have been unable to use the drive. Whatever <operation> I try to... (0 Replies)
Discussion started by: ahjchr
0 Replies

3. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

boot / reboot log info

hi guys, i know some commands to check last boot information in solaris and redhat. #last -10 | grep boot #who -b #cat /var/adm/messages | grep signal but how do i check for boot info in hp-ux other than from the "shutdownlog" #last -10| reboot has rebooted my hp-ux server ! ... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: cromohawk
2 Replies

4. AIX

Repair boot sector after stupidly importing disk into vg?

Hey guys, I've bought a second-hand RS/6000 hardware with freshly installed AIX 5.3 on disk2 and freshly installed AIX 6 on disk1. I'm in possession of the original 5.3 install cds but the AIX 6 installation is just on the disk, I've no install media. So first after getting the system, I... (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: selzeda
3 Replies

5. SCO

boot diskette no.2 error

please execuse my english ... i'm from czech republic ... I have a copy of UnixWare 7.0.1. There is images of boot diskettes on the CD. I used rawrite to create bootdiskettes 1 and 2. When I boot from disk1, installator will prompt me for language, I choose english, then it wants to insert... (5 Replies)
Discussion started by: bsorter
5 Replies

6. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Fedora Core 3 boot diskette

I want to upgrade from Red Hat Linux 8.0 to Fedora Core 3. I have already downloaded FC3 on CD's. My current config. on my PC is that I have Win XP on primary hard drive and Red Hat 8.0 on another hard drive. Because my Compaq Presario reserves the first cylinder of my primary hard drive, I... (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: Mark McWilliams
1 Replies

7. Filesystems, Disks and Memory

boot sector bad? or is is something else?

SuSE 8 Both LILO and GRUB are complaining about not being able to write to the boot sector. Is this definitely a problem with the drive or is there another possible problem? I've checked the BIOS and I don't think the problem is there....it's probably the drive. Just another Linux user (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: HumanBeanDip
1 Replies

8. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

boot sector for Solaris 8

Hi all, I was wondering if anyone knows how to make a boot sector for Solaris 8. I'm trying to install solaris 8 via the network and I'm get error "files just loaded does not seem to be executable" at the ok propmt. Has anyone encouter this problem before? THANKS advance (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: larry
1 Replies

9. Filesystems, Disks and Memory

Boot Diskette Image

Where can I find the boot floppy disk image file(*.vfd)of SCO UNIX 5.0.5?:confused: (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: whiteknight
1 Replies

10. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

boot diskette

I have a ICL DRS3000 Server which runs AT&T SVR4 version 6 unix. The first boot diskette got damaged. How can I replace this diskette? Can it be created from another machine running the same Operating system? (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: spice1770
1 Replies
Login or Register to Ask a Question
disktab(4)						     Kernel Interfaces Manual							disktab(4)

NAME
disktab - Disk description file SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/disklabel.h> DESCRIPTION
The disktab database describes disk geometries and disk partition characteristics. It is used to initialize the disk label on the disk. The format is patterned after the termcap terminal database. Entries in a disktab file consist of a number of : (colon) separated fields. The first entry for each disk gives the names which are known for the disk, separated by | (vertical bar) characters. The last name given should be a long name fully identifying the disk. The following list indicates the normal values stored for each disk entry: Type Description str Type of disk (for example, removable, win- chester) str Type of controller (for example, SMD, ESDI, floppy) num Number of sectors per track num Number of tracks per cylinder num Total number of cylinders on the disk num Number of sectors per cylinder, nc*nt default num Number of sectors per unit, sc*nc default num Sector size in bytes, DEV_BSIZE default bool Controller supports bad144-style bad sector forwarding num Rotation speed, rpm, default 3600 num Sector skew per track, default 0 num Sector skew per cylinder, default 0 num Headswitch time, usec, default 0 num One-cylinder seek time, usec, default 0 num Sector interleave (n:1), default 1 num Drive-type-dependent parameters num Boot block size, default BBSIZE num Superblock size, default SBSIZE num Block size for partition `a' (bytes) num Block size for partition `d' (bytes) num Block size for partition `e' (bytes) num Block size for partition `f' (bytes) num Block size for partition `g' (bytes) num Block size for partition `h' (bytes) num Fragment size for partition `a' (bytes) num Fragment size for partition `d' (bytes) num Fragment size for partition `e' (bytes) num Fragment size for partition `f' (bytes) num Fragment size for partition `g' (bytes) num Fragment size for partition `h' (bytes) num Offset of partition `a' in sectors num Offset of partition `b' in sectors num Offset of partition `c' in sectors num Offset of partition `d' in sectors num Offset of partition `e' in sectors num Offset of partition `f' in sectors num Offset of partition `g' in sectors num Offset of partition `h' in sectors num Size of partition `a' in sectors num Size of partition `b' in sectors num Size of partition `c' in sectors num Size of partition `d' in sectors num Size of partition `e' in sectors num Size of partition `f' in sectors num Size of partition `g' in sectors num Size of partition `h' in sectors str Partition type of partition `a' (4.2BSD file system, swap, etc.) str Partition type of partition `b' str Partition type of partition `c' str Parti- tion type of partition `d' str Partition type of partition `e' str Partition type of partition `f' str Partition type of partition `g' str Partition type of partition `h' EXAMPLES
The following is an example disktab entry: rz25|RZ25|DEC RZ25 Winchester: :ty=winchester:dt=SCSI:ns#62:nt#9:nc#1492: :oa#0:pa#131072:ba#8192:fa#1024: :ob#131072:pb#262144:bb#8192:fb#1024: :oc#0:pc#832527:bc#8192:fc#1024: :od#393216:pd#146437:bd#8192:fd#1024: :oe#539656:pe#146437:be#8192:fe#1024: :of#686096:pf#146437:bf#8192:ff#1024: :og#393216:pg#439311:bg#8192:fg#1024: :oh#0:ph#0:bh#8192:fh#1024: FILES
/etc/disktab RELATED INFORMATION
Functions: getdiskbyname(3) Files: disklabel(4) Commands: disklabel(8), newfs(8) delim off disktab(4)