diff --git a/dosfsck/boot.c b/dosfsck/boot.c
index ae1a98f..bc9da05 100644
--- a/dosfsck/boot.c
+++ b/dosfsck/boot.c
@@ -375,9 +375,11 @@ void read_boot(DOS_FS *fs)
     if (logical_sector_size & (SECTOR_SIZE-1))
 	die("Logical sector size (%d bytes) is not a multiple of the physical "
 	  "sector size.",logical_sector_size);
+#if 0 /* linux kernel doesn't check that either */
     /* ++roman: On Atari, these two fields are often left uninitialized */
     if (!atari_format && (!b.secs_track || !b.heads))
 	die("Invalid disk format in boot sector.");
+#endif
     if (verbose) dump_boot(fs,&b,logical_sector_size);
 }
 
diff --git a/mkdosfs/mkdosfs.c b/mkdosfs/mkdosfs.c
index 33aa028..efc8233 100644
--- a/mkdosfs/mkdosfs.c
+++ b/mkdosfs/mkdosfs.c
@@ -746,8 +746,8 @@ establish_params (int device_num,int size)
     {
       /* Can we get the drive geometry? (Note I'm not too sure about */
       /* whether to use HDIO_GETGEO or HDIO_REQ) */
-      if (ioctl (dev, HDIO_GETGEO, &geometry)) {
-	printf ("unable to get drive geometry, using default 255/63");
+      if (ioctl (dev, HDIO_GETGEO, &geometry) || geometry.sectors == 0 || geometry.heads == 0) {
+	printf ("unable to get drive geometry, using default 255/63\n");
         bs.secs_track = CT_LE_W(63);
         bs.heads = CT_LE_W(255);
       }