This command causes EFI$CP to access and to read in data
structures needed for processing the FAT disk volume.
For EFI partition files such as SYS$LOADABLE_IMAGES:SYS$EFI.SYS
and SYS$MAINTENANCE:SYS$DIAGNOSTICS.SYS, you can use software
such as the OpenVMS LD component to render the partition file
accessable as a (usually foreign-mounted) disk device.
If the volume FAT data is found corrupted, MOUNT will attempt
to read the FAT data from a shadow copy of the FAT sector. Most
FAT volumes have two copies of FAT data present, and MOUNT will
attempt to use all available copies upon receipt of FAT I/O
failures within the FAT data.
MOUNT does not compare the FAT data across copies of the FAT upon
successful I/O operations. Comparison is not attempted as with
typically only two copies of FAT data present, and as there is no
checksumming and no ECC within FAT, there is no way to determine
which copy of the FAT is correct. EFI$CP does write modified data
to all copies of the FAT present
Should MOUNT detect sector read I/O errors in all copies of a
FAT sector, MOUNT will synthesize a block of FAT EOC (End of
Cluster Chain) markers to replace the missing FAT data, and will
continue with the MOUNT attempt. This EOC sector will effectively
truncate any files using cluster chain data stored within the bad
FAT sector, but may allow access to other files and to parts of
any files that reference (valid) cluster chain data prior to that
stored within the failed sector. Should this recovery processing
be triggered, you will obviously want to immediate relocate all
remaining data onto other media.
Mount can also check the integrity of the files when /CHECK
or /REPAIR are specified in the command. If the volume was
not cleanly dismounted, the check will be done unless the user
explicitly uses /NOCHECK. Some older versions of EFI$CP may have
created files with incorrect lengths which show up as errors in
EFICHK (a utility in the VMS UTILITIES area that can be run from
the EFI command shell). If EFI$CP detects that the FAT volume was
created with an old version of EFI$CP, it will automatically
check and repair the volume (unless /NOWRITE or /NOCHECK is
specified) and update the volume information to the current
version of EFI$CP.