larry@sgistl.SGI.COM (Larry Autry) (02/03/88)
I am using DOS 3.2 and I want to format and partition an 80 meg drive.
What I need to know is how to format the drive, then how to set the partitions
up so that MS-DOS knows about them. I want to have all partitions active
simultaneously. Please e-mail either the name of the book to read, or actual
instructions on how to do it. Could there even be a utility program to do this?
I am upgrading a clone with no documentation to go on except for the drive
parameters and an MS-DOS manual that tells me I can only have one partition
active at a time (say what!).
--
Larry Autry
larry@sgistl.sgi.com
or
{ucbvax,sun,ames,pryamid,decwrl}!sgi!sgistl!larrymvolo@ecsvax.UUCP (Michael R. Volow) (02/09/88)
Poster wants to know how to format a large hard disk into two partitions simultaneously useable as two different logical drives. I am also interested in this -- can it be done reliably? Can MSDOS partition 1 be used for data and MSDOS partition 0 be used for programs to access data in partition 1? What level DOS is needed to do this reliably? (The Zenith MS-DOS 3.2 that came with our 40 MB Z248 claims to be able to do this but I have been warned against using this feature.) It would be nice to be able to make frequent backups of only the data partition. Michael Volow, M.D. Dept of Psychiatry, Durham VA Medical Center, Durham, N.C. 27705 919 286 0411 mvolo@ecsvax.UUCP
john@wa3wbu.UUCP (John Gayman) (02/10/88)
In article <5561@sgistl.SGI.COM>, larry@sgistl.SGI.COM (Larry Autry) writes: > I am using DOS 3.2 and I want to format and partition an 80 meg drive. > What I need to know is how to format the drive, then how to set the partitions I would recommend Speedstor from Storage Dimensions. It can partition any disk up to 1GB into as many little partitions as you want. It also allows for a SINGLE 80 MB partition in your case. If of course you can live with 1024 byte sectors. I use this software on my 71 MB Miniscribe and have it divided into two 32MB (C & D) and a 6MB (E). It works flawless. John -- John Gayman, WA3WBU | UUCP: uunet!wa3wbu!john 1869 Valley Rd. | ARPA: wa3wbu!john@uunet.UU.NET Marysville, PA 17053 | Packet: WA3WBU @ AK3P
truett@cup.portal.com (02/10/88)
With regard to MS-DOS being able to handle multiple partitions on a hard disk: 1) Up through version 3.2 of PC-DOS and most varieties of MS-DOS, only a single DOS partition could be created by FDISK. It was always possible to have partitions for other operating systems on a drive. Note that the single DOS partition was limited to a size of 32 MB. 2) The term "active partition" refers to which partition is BOOTABLE. Just the fact that a DOS partition exists on a drive does not mean that it is the DOS partition from which the machine performs a hard boot. In fact, it is possible for a machine to have a hard drive none of whose partitions are bootable. 3) As of PC-DOS version 3.3, the supplied FDISK program can create more than one DOS readable partition. Each is still limited to 32 MB and only one can be "active", i.e., bootable, at any time. 4) It is possible, using third-party software, to create DOS readable partitions which are larger than 32 MB. Programs that do this include VFeature, Speedstor, and Disk Mechanic. I believe the Mace Utilities can also do this. 5) As far as I know, none of these can create a DOS bootable (active) partition which is larger than 32 MB. Thus, the usual practice is to create a small DOS boot partition (say 1-2 MB) and either put all the rest of the drive into a single large DOS readable partition or split the drive up as desired. Some programs are limited in the number of partitions they can handle on a single drive; I have seen as many as 16 on a single hard drive. Note that the partition table created by the DOS version of FDISK only has room for four entries. 6) When you get to really BIG disks, like some of the optical disks with more than a Gigabyte on each surface, then things get more complicated. In such cases, it is necessary to "mount" the partitions that are to be currently accessible and ~dismount" them when you are through. This is because DOS is totally incapable of dealing with file allocation and directory data for such a vast disk space. (As an aside, I understand that some versions of UNIX, with a 65K limit on the number of entries in the inode table for a device, has problems with really big disks.) Hope this is helpful. Truett Lee Smith, Sunnyvale, CA UUCP: truett@cup.portal.com
leefi@microsoft.UUCP (Lee Fisher) (02/11/88)
In article <4583@ecsvax.UUCP>, mvolo@ecsvax.UUCP (Michael R. Volow) writes: [edited] > How do I format a large hard disk into two partitions which are both > useable as two different logical drives. What level DOS is needed to > do this reliably? DOS v3.30 is the first release that supports multiple logical partitons for large hard disks. Each one has to be under 32M, however. Many OEMs realized that people wanted this support, and thus many have added this ability in earlier OEM versions. Compaq did this starting from v3.10 of their DOS, I believe. Wyse, and Tandy are amongst other OEMs that have added this to their DOS, most of them at version 3.2. Some of these formats are not completely compatible with the DOS v3.30 standard (which is almost identical to the current OS/2 partitioning method), so I'd always reccommend that you try to get the latest OEM version of DOS for your system. -Lee ________ 01001100 Lee Fisher, Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA. 01000101 {uw-beaver,decvax,decwrl,trsvax,sun,attunix,uunet}!microsof!leefi 01000101 leefi@microsof.uucp 01000110 leefi@microsof.beaver.washington.edu 01001001 disclaimer: My opinions are my own, not those of my employer.
dspoon@fenix.Atlanta.NCR.COM (David B. Witherspoon) (02/13/88)
In article <5561@sgistl.SGI.COM>, larry@sgistl.SGI.COM (Larry Autry) writes: > I am using DOS 3.2 and I want to format and partition an 80 meg drive. > What I need to know is how to format the drive, then how to set the partitions > up so that MS-DOS knows about them. We picked up a utility called "SpeedStor" available from Storage Dimensions, Los Gatos, California at (408) 370-3304. It's really slick, menu-driven, and compatible with DOS2.0 to DOS3.2. I'm pretty sure this would meet your needs. It will perform all functions required, replacing DOS's fdisk and format operations. The documentation is good and the software seems very reliable. Hope this helps! -------------------------------David Witherspoon------------------------------- D.Witherspoon@Atlanta.NCR.COM | "Facts all come with points of view NCR Sys Engineering-Retail/Atlanta | Facts don't do what I want them to" MY OPINIONS...ALL MINE!!! | - Talking Heads
hardin@hpindda.HP.COM (John Hardin) (02/15/88)
>As of PC-DOS version 3.3, the supplied FDISK program can create more than >one DOS readable partition. Each is still limited to 32 MB and only one >can be "active", i.e., bootable, at any time. > >Truett Lee Smith, Sunnyvale, CA >UUCP: truett@cup.portal.com >---------- I have an NEC APC IV (AT compatible) with a 40 meg disc partitioned into 32 and 8 with L_FDISK, a utility NEC supplied with the DOS 3.1 that came with the system. When I tried to upgrade to PC-DOS 3.3, I couldn't get FDISK to partition the disc properly. It would put 32M into one DOS partition and all the rest into a NON-DOS partition. I had backed-up my disc and started with a full physical reformat of the hard disk -- no shortcuts. After several hours of trying to install 3.3, I finally gave up and went back to 3.1. PC-DOS (IBM's version of MS-DOS) may not be suitable for clone users. John Hardin ----------------
figlik@ihlpl.ATT.COM (Figlik) (02/16/88)
In article <3093@cup.portal.com> truett@cup.portal.com writes: >With regard to MS-DOS being able to handle multiple partitions on a hard disk: > >1) Up through version 3.2 of PC-DOS and most varieties of MS-DOS, only a > single DOS partition could be created by FDISK. It was always possible > to have partitions for other operating systems on a drive. Note that the > single DOS partition was limited to a size of 32 MB. 35 lines deleted for brevity >Truett Lee Smith, Sunnyvale, CA >UUCP: truett@cup.portal.com There is one twist to this situation. I admit it's a kludge. But it works most of the time. The MS-DOS "JOIN" command can take a disk and make it look as if it's a directory on another disk. e.g. 1 70 Mb disk is divided into 2 30M and 1 10M logical disks C, D, & E. Disk C is bootable. By giving the following commands, D and E are accessible via subdirectories /data1 & /data2 (I know the slashes are backwards). c:/> join d: data1 c:/> join e: data2 If they already exist, /data1 & /data2 on C: must be empty. CHKDSK will recognise the fact that other disks are "join"ed and will only respond to the C: drive. A directory of /data1 will produce the "root" directory of disk D: and E:'s root directory is listed in /data2.
james@bigtex.uu.net (James Van Artsdalen) (02/17/88)
In article <3093@cup.portal.com>, truett@cup.portal.com writes: > With regard to MS-DOS being able to handle multiple partitions on a hard disk: > 4) It is possible, using third-party software, to create DOS readable > partitions which are larger than 32 MB. Programs that do this include > VFeature, Speedstor, and Disk Mechanic. I believe the Mace Utilities can > also do this. Compaq DOS 3.31 (I think this is the correct revision) does this directly without all the fancy footwork. Probably a better solution too, as it eliminates the need for large pseudo-sector sizes, or whatever the current trick is. > 5) As far as I know, none of these can create a DOS bootable (active) > partition which is larger than 32 MB. Thus, the usual practice is to > create a small DOS boot partition (say 1-2 MB) and either put all the rest > of the drive into a single large DOS readable partition or split the drive > up as desired. [ ... ] Compaq's DOS can do what is desired in a single bootable partition. I don't know if it supports multiple DOS partitions on a drive anyway. > [ ... ] > (As an aside, I understand that some versions of > UNIX, with a 65K limit on the number of entries in the inode table for a > device, has problems with really big disks.) This is not quite right: that's 64K inodes per file system. Virtually all unix systems have at least / and /usr on two different file systems, and those with active administrators tend to have several others. With Microport's unix it is possible to have several System V partitions within each fdisk partition. If you have only four partitions on a gigabyte disk drive (I find this unlikely on so large a disk for administrative reasons), you can have 256K files, for a reasonable average of 4K per file (DOS users: an "inode" is equivalent to a "file"). -- James R. Van Artsdalen ...!uunet!utastro!bigtex!james "Live Free or Die" Home: 512-346-2444 Work: 328-0282; 110 Wild Basin Rd. Ste #230, Austin TX 78746
norm@ontenv.UUCP (Norman S. Soley) (02/19/88)
In article <3093@cup.portal.com>, truett@cup.portal.com writes: > With regard to MS-DOS being able to handle multiple partitions on a hard disk: > 4) It is possible, using third-party software, to create DOS readable > partitions which are larger than 32 MB. Programs that do this include > VFeature, Speedstor, and Disk Mechanic. I believe the Mace Utilities can > also do this. > 5) As far as I know, none of these can create a DOS bootable (active) partition > which is larger than 32 MB. Thus, the usual practice is to create a small > DOS boot partition (say 1-2 MB) and either put all the rest of the drive I don't know about the other programs but my AT at work has a single 40MB partition that boots. I did it with Vfeature, the only problem with this is that if you want to boot from a floppy for any reason your hard disk is useless unless you use a previously created "Vfeature knowledgeable" diskette. [disclaimer: Just a satisfied customer] -- Norman Soley - Data Communications Analyst - Ontario Ministry of the Environment UUCP: utzoo!lsuc!ncrcan!---\ VOICE: +1 416 323 2623 {utzoo,utgpu}!sickkids!ontenv!norm ENVOY: N.SOLEY {mnetor,utgpu}!ontmoh/
lane@dalcs.UUCP (John Wright/Dr. Pat Lane) (02/20/88)
From lane Sat Feb 20 12:17:21 GMT 1988 >In article <3093@cup.portal.com>, truett@cup.portal.com writes: > With regard to DOS being able to handle multiple partitions on a hard disk: > 4) It is possible, using third-party software, to create DOS readable > partitions which are larger than 32 MB. Programs that do this include > VFeature, Speedstor, and Disk Mechanic. I believe the Mace Utilities can > also do this. Add to this list Disk Manager from OnTrack Systems (don't have the address handy but can supply it). It has all the bells and whistles mentioned for the other programs. Unless I've missed something in the versions of Mace that I've seen, it does *not* have this capability. It is also worth mentioning that most *XT* hard disk controllers have a low- level format program as part of their ROM BIOS routines and that some of those (notably, the Western Digital WX2) allow the hard disk to be partitioned at the controller level. After formatting the disk xou are asked if you want to "virtually configure" the drive. You can then give a list of numbers of cylindars which will be used to make partitions that will appear as separate disks to MS-DOS. With AT controllers, there appears to be no ROM software on the controller because it's all built into the machine's BIOS ROM (right???). I guess for low level formatting your stuck with either the IBM Diagnostics pgm (which I don't think does "virtual" configuring) or the third-party pgms. If I'm wrong about that please correct me... It's been a few weeks since I looked into the problem for myself and my memory deteriorates *very* quickly :-(,:-). Hope this helps. Cheers, John Wright, -- John Wright ////////////////// Phone: 902-424-3805 or 902-424-6527 Post: c/o Dr Pat Lane, Biology Dept, Dalhousie U, Halifax N.S., CANADA B3H-4H8 Cdn/Bitnet: lane@cs.dal.cdn Arpa: lane%dalcs.uucp@uunet.uu.net Uucp: lane@dalcs.uucp or {uunet,watmath,utai,garfield}!dalcs!lane
madd@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Jim Frost) (02/21/88)
In article <396@ontenv.UUCP> norm@ontenv.UUCP (Norman S. Soley) writes: >In article <3093@cup.portal.com>, truett@cup.portal.com writes: >> With regard to MS-DOS being able to handle multiple partitions on a hard disk: >> 4) It is possible, using third-party software, to create DOS readable >> partitions which are larger than 32 MB. Programs that do this include >> VFeature, Speedstor, and Disk Mechanic. I believe the Mace Utilities can >> also do this. >> 5) As far as I know, none of these can create a DOS bootable (active) partition >> which is larger than 32 MB. Thus, the usual practice is to create a small >> DOS boot partition (say 1-2 MB) and either put all the rest of the drive > >I don't know about the other programs but my AT at work has a single >40MB partition that boots. I did it with Vfeature, the only problem >with this is that if you want to boot from a floppy for any reason >your hard disk is useless unless you use a previously created >"Vfeature knowledgeable" diskette. This is partially incorrect. VFeature-created single-disk partitions are readable with standard floppies. It is possible to make the disk unreadable by standard floppies under VFeature as a security mechanism, and of course multiple drive spanning partitions (ie one logical 40Mb partition on 2 physical 20Mb drives) will make no sense at all to standard MS-DOS. It's really not a good idea to do anything with a VFeature volume larger than 32Mb using a standard MS-DOS diskette, though, since MS-DOS really doesn't like it. We've been using VFeature on a 72Mb drive for quite some time and I've done all sorts of things with the drive, both with and without the VFeature driver installed. jim frost madd@bu-it.bu.edu
brianc@cognos.uucp (Brian Campbell) (02/24/88)
In article <3093@cup.portal.com> truett@cup.portal.com writes: > 1) Up through version 3.2 of PC-DOS and most varieties of MS-DOS, only a > single DOS partition could be created by FDISK. It was always possible > to have partitions for other operating systems on a drive. Note that the > single DOS partition was limited to a size of 32 MB. I always thought the restiction was on the number of clusters on the drive, not the number of megabytes. Theoretically, a 16-bit FAT entry ought to be able to represent just under 65535 different clusters (half a dozen cluster numbers have special meanings). This limit actually seems to be something on the order of 20000 different clusters (if you want to use silly DOS utilities like CHKDSK). I determined this "limit" by reformatting my 20M drive with 1k clusters and then finding that I could no longer run CHKDSK. -- Brian Campbell uucp: decvax!utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!cognos!brianc Cognos Incorporated mail: POB 9707, 3755 Riverside Drive, Ottawa, K1G 3Z4 (613) 738-1440 fido: (613) 731-2945 300/1200, sysop@1:163/8