Date   : Thu, 14 Feb 1991 01:19:24 GMT
From   : ubc-cs!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!attcan!john@beaver.cs.washington.edu (John Benfield)
Subject: 8 meg limit

In article <1991Jan25.012406.13752@techbook.com>, fzsitvay@techbook.com
(Frank Zsitvay) writes:
> In article <4314@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> wilker@gauss.math.purdue.edu.UUCP
(Clarence Wilkerson) writes:
> >I believe that the 8meg limit is set in the coding of
> >the BDOS, and inforced in the BIOS in the sense that
> 
>    well, not really.   it is limited by the directory structure that is at 
> the heart of all cp/m disk operations.  cp/m only allows for a maximum of
> 65536 128 byte blocks.  that is the maximum size of a file, or a whole
> disk.

You can actually do some major diddling with the BDOS if you want and
modify the directory block size. It's a major hack, but I did it on my
Cromemco system to allow me to make use of a kludged hard disk I hotwired
in. It got a bit flaky with anything that was explicity accessing
directory records but if you're running a 'single application' box
and you need to up the file size, it's a good bet.


______Opinions stated are my own. Transcripts available by request______
      ==
    =--====  AT&T Canada Inc.             John Benfield
   =----==== 3650 Victoria Park Ave.      Network Support Analyst (MIS)
   =----==== Suite 800             
   ==--===== Willowdale, Ontario          attmail   : ~jbenfield
    =======  M2H-3P7                     email     : uunet!attcan!john
      ===    (416) 756-5221               Compu$erve: 72137,722

____Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines._____