Re: [9fans] fdisk: reported number/size of cylinders changes

[David Presotto <presotto@closedmind.org>]

It is true that most IDE's are chameleons, i.e., they can be told to
display their geometry in different ways, i.e., with different numbers
of cylinders, heads, and sectors.  The identify command tells us the
geometry.  There is both a 'logical' and a 'actual' set of values in
what is returned.  We use the actual if its valid (a certain bit is
set) but it may very well not be.  Did you happen to get to plan 9
differently in the two instances?  It could be that you're just seeing
two different logical geometries of the same disk.  In LBA mode, we
don't use the logical geometries except to determine the number of
disk blocks, so you should be OK in both cases (modulo the fact that
one comes out to less sectors).