European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 03, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Too Many files need not result in a fatal error Jerry Kidder Quot Etc have been dealing with of Prat a / ing systems principally Dos for a a 1/ while now and since operating sys a v tems arc what make computers go we will continue. Right on Cue i received a letter from Georgc hallmark of Naples Italy who Hadron into Dos related problem and wanted to pass it  described a problem that he had encountered while running the word Star word processing  has a Tandy to ooh computer w Ith a let it pay disk drive a without , he had run into Dos gotcha. R while working on a mailing list with. Word Star he got a fatal error 27 disk directory full. This would seem to he a word Star error hut in fact he ran into a Dos. Limitation. A 36 kilobyte floppy disk can Only contain 112 items in the Root or main directory. Lets look at a disk and How it is organized and maybe we can find out Why there is this limitation and what other limitations a user might run into on other disks. A a a a a a a a a a a a a. A a a a. A 360-kb floppy is divided into 40 tracks a just like the tracks of a record but you can to Sec the tracks on a floppy. They Are rings of magnetization if you would spread Iron powder onto a formatted disk it would show the magnetized rings. This column is just like watching a emr. Wizard Quot in t it. The tracks Are divided into sectors  a a specific number of bytes. Our example of the 360kb floppy has nine sectors per track with 512. Bytes per sector. If you multiple All that 40x9x512x2 you should come up with 368,640 bytes of storage. That last 2 in the equation  because the disks Are double sided. The message on the screen will Tell you that 362,496 bytes Are available Lor data after formatting is completed. If the formatting encountered. Areas of the Diskette which it could not format it will Tell you How Many Byl Colne in bad sectors and How Many arc available for data. Just a word to the Wise if the bad bytes Mes. Sage shows a significant number of sectors throw that sucker into the trash. Floppy diskettes arc too cheap to risk losing  data to a faulty piece of plastic. A a sonic of the space on any disk is used by the electronic markings that identify the Trayk and sector and also by additional information that allows error checking. The first area on the first sector of the first track Side 0, sector 0, track 0 is reserved for the Boot area w hich enables Dos to Load itself other space not available to the user is the file allocation table w hich holds information on where files Are stored. These arc called pointers. A since a file is not always stored continuously on a Diskette something has to keep track of where the pieces arc. This something is Dos. A a a the Root directory area which is really just a. File also takes up space and has reserved an area that will hold a maximum in the Case of a 360-kb floppy of 112 file entries. A a a a a a. This directory area holds information about the files and also other directories which can be Ere a cd. These other directories arc called subdirectories. A. The major difference Between the Root directory and a subdirectory is that the Root directory is limited to Jiow Many files it can hold while the subdirectory can be expanded to a Eft the users requirements. This is All taken care of by Dos so you done to need to worry about it. So the solution for the 112 files limitation and the fatal error message is to limit the amount of files in your Root directory by creating sub Directo Rie with the Madir make directory Dos command. A. Since the space for data storage on a floppy particularly a 360-kb floppy is also limited this could also be a problem. Quot a a belter solution would be to create a second Diskette. In. The Case of a one floppy computer this could be a minor inconvenience. The user  to create  containing Quot the Progi am files plus another set of data files. It  a Little More time but in the Case of lost data should be Well Worth the Effort Inthac ions run. A a Jerry Kidder is a stars and stripes computer technician. Dat cassettes get a High tech rival Bart Ziegler associated press a awards shaping up in the music Industry and the Battleground is the cassette tape player. A rival groups Are ussling Over com. Acting technologies for next Genera Tion cassettes that offer the Superior sound Quality of compact discs. A in one Camp Are several japanese companies including Sony  hich began Selling digital audio tape or Dat products in the United states last year. Such tapes Are about half the size of conventional cassettes but far More expensive the new contender is . Philips the dutch a electronics maker which recently unveiled a tech. Ology it Calls the digital compact cassette or dec. Unlike the japanese Dat players Philips says machines using its technology will be Able to play today a cassettes As Well As the new digital tapes. A Wilh the average household already owning Between 5 and 6 1 music cassettes this conv path Billy is seen As a major Factor in the successful introduction ,�?� Philips said in a. Statement. However the Philips machines wont be Able to play the japanese Dat tapes. That Means the rivalry could end up a replay of the videotape War of the 1980s, in which the vhf tape format heat out Sony a Beta Standard leaving millions of Consumers with virtually obsolete Beta tapes and Vars. A. A. A a a what this Means for the Market is confusion a a said Ivan Berger technical editor of audio Magazine. A this has become a very interesting time for the Home recording Industry because there Are All of these things  a. Philips says its tape players should Cost $500 to-$600 when they Are introduced next year a far cheaper than the japanese Dat models which carry a list Price of up to about $1,000. However Industry experts say die Price of Dat machines May have dropped steeply by that Point if the Price drops seen in other electronics products such As Vars and cd players arc any guide. Both the japanese and the Philips technologies record music in digital format the computer Ian Guage used by compact discs eliminating the background. Hiss and other distortions o f Conven -. Tinal tape. Philips w hich invented the cassette tape and the compact disc has joined with Tandy corp.,. The Ftp Worth Texas Ltd Crof the radio Shack a Chain to develop dec. Although the two companies said in october they were working on the technology they waited until january s consumer Flection ies show in Las to ii a a lne Small digital audio tape cassette soon will no longer have the Field to it Seir. Vegas the semiannual showcase for the Home electronics Industry. \. Quot Tandy says it will make tape players and Blank cassettes at its . Plants for Sale at radio Shack Muresanu elsewhere. Philips which makes elect pcs products under the Magna Vox Sylvania Noi Eleo and Philips brands also will sell Home Aarand portable tape players using the tech nolo in addition i  it will License the tech no to Oiler companies and is in advanced Dis Tummons Wah several japanese electronics companies Hui it would not identify them. Page 6 c. Sunday february 3. 1991