Date:	Tue, 3 Jun 1997 09:35:33 +0300 (IDT)
From:	Eli Zaretskii <eliz AT is DOT elta DOT co DOT il>
To:	"Mike A. Harris" <mharris AT blackwidow DOT saultc DOT on DOT ca>
cc:	djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Subject:	Re: Exclusive access to drive
In-Reply-To:	<Pine.LNX.3.95.970602233527.608F-100000@capslock.com>
Message-ID:	<Pine.SUN.3.91.970603092431.29063G-100000@is>
MIME-Version:	1.0

On Mon, 2 Jun 1997, Mike A. Harris wrote:

> 1) CHKDSK is WRITTEN specifically to work WITH W95, by
> syncronizing with 95's internal drive caching, etc and locks
> parts of the disk.

If so, it should also run and do the same from a DJGPP program.  And btw, 
the person who started this thread said that they tried to lock the disk 
before launching CHKDSK, to no avail.

> 2) CHKDSK or W95 is broken and will eventually trash your disk.

If so, this could also happen when you run it from the DOS box.

> If CHKDSK runs in W95 it is either broken, or it is specifically
> designed to do so.  If it doesn't run from within a DJGPP app,
> then Windows is either protecting it for some reason (probably a
> very valid one) or else it or windows has a problem with the fact
> that a DPMI program is running it, or the DPMI program has a
> problem with it itself.

My problem is exactly these ``or''s: I don't understand what is it that 
Windows could want to protect itself from that doesn't exist when you run 
CHKDSK from COMMAND.COM in a DOS box.  And I don't buy the assumption 
that CHKDSK is broken, not when we are talking about v7 of the OS 
(although this might happen, of course).

> See above.  Running any program that accesses the RAW hard disk
> in WRITE mode under a multitasking operating system - wether the
> program was written for it or not, and you are asking for
> trouble.

When you run CHKDSK without the /F switch, it's not a READ-ONLY mode, so 
nothing bad should happen.  At the most, you will see messages that say 
your disk has errors, but without /F CHKDSK won't repair them.

> I'd say that whatever is causing the problem is doing
> you a favour.

Just to remind you: this thread started when a user (not me) who is
writing a shell complained that CHKDSK won't run from his/her shell.  I
told right there that it is not wise to run CHKDSK from Windows, so we
actually agree here.  However, I'd be much better off without such
``favours'', thanks a lot!  (Btw:  does `fsck' on Unix fail to even start
when you run it in multi-user mode? I don't think so.)

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