Robin, If you only want to do backup's, i can recomend you to have an ext2 partition, i do my backup's from dos too, but i generate the linux files with tar, what i do is the following:
tar -cf archi.tar dir1 dir2 dir3 // this creates archi.tar with directories dir1 dir2 dir3 and all // it's subdirectories gzip -9 archi.tar // this zip's the file with maximum compresion and generates // archi.tar.gz mv archi.tar.gz archi.tgz // this creates an 8.3 dos style file name to copy to one dos // partition cp archi.tgz /dos/c/direndos/subd-dos // this copies the file to a dos subdirectorie in my particular // setup of partitions, i mount mine dos partitions by default // in /etc/fstab There are only two drawbacks as i see it, one is that you need write permision to the dos partitions to do this, and for that you must do the final copy as root, the rest can be done with your normal user. And the second is that you must have i lot of free diskspace if you want to backup a directory with lots of files in it. And if you have Windoze 95, then you could mount it's partitions with the vfat filesystem, and could have even long filenames. To mount a dos partition in linux, just do the following: mkdir /dos mkdir /dos/c {this is the way i like it, you could use a single dir} mount /dev/hdaX /dos/c -t msdos {where X is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, which ever is your dos partition} or, mount /dev/hdaX /dos/c -t vfat {for windoze 95 file system with long file names, to access names with spaces in it, as Program files, you could do: cd "/dos/c/Program files" } On Mon, 9 Jun 1997, Robin Rowe wrote: > Chuck, > > Thanks for the reply. I guess I have to make my own kernal. > > The main reason I want to run Debian on a dos partition is so that I can > see unix files from the Win95 side (backups and other conveniences). The > umsdos faq says that I shouldn't expect any degradation in speed or > reliability, only size. Was this a false claim? As for the degradation, i have used a linux distribution (don't remember it's name), that run's under dos with umsdos, and in it documentation it say's it only run on umsdos because of the convenience for new user's to try it before decide on partitioning his hard disk, and i was realy disapointed in the terms of speed, i could always expect that slackware or debian run on my 486dx 100 with 8 mb of ram twice as fast as windoze 95, (which slows the machine to a 386sx 25mhz), but it run's just the same speed, because my machine does not have enought memory i think, and use a lot of swaping, but with ext2 it's so fast i almost can't notice it. :) HTH, Roberto Ruiz -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .