Msdos hidden files viewable from linux?

[mchale at zk3.dec.com (mchale at zk3.dec.com)]

Ok folks, yes I had mounted the partition with dos, so I could see all
the viewable dos files; I found that the 1.3.21 kernel in msods/dir.c
has a test to say if the file is hidden or system dont return it; in
1.2.x all hidden and sytem files are displayed. (I am running 1.3.21
with no problems that I know of).


I did get a patch for 1.2.x kernels from Albert Cahalan which puts a
'.' in front of hidden files. 

I was hoping I could backup the dos partition by tar'ing it off and 
then compressing it; But the sys/hidden bits arent restored; 

Is there a way to do this?
thanx
-jim

In response to:
>
>> Is there a way to get the hidden files on an msdos partition viewable?
>> the files are on a large hard drive;
>> I looked at mtools but it cautions about using it on hard drives, and
>> it didnt seem to be what I wanted.
>
>Doesn't "mount /dev/xxx -t msdos /mnt" work where xxx is the correct
>device name for the partition?
>
>Tom
>