ddb@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Darren Brierton) (03/27/91)
Can anyone tell me how to change logical drive labels in MS-DOS 3.3 without erasing the data on the disks? I'm under the impression that FDISK can't do this. My problem is that I have a 42MB hard disk with a 32MB primary partition which is logical drive c and a 10MB extended partition which is logical drive d. I have now bought a 50MB Hard Card 2XL, and as this is a *very* fast disk (9ms access time) I would like to use this as my drives c and d to increase speed in booting up and loading applications etc., and to rename the drives on my old hard disk as e and f without having to back up all the files on it and removing the primary partition with FDISK. Is this possible? Any help greatly appreciated, Darren. -- Darren Brierton | University of Edinburgh UUCP: ...!uunet!mcvax!ukc!its63b!cogsci!ddb | Centre for Cognitive Science ARPA: ddb%cogsci.ed.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk | 2 Buccleuch Place JANET: ddb@uk.ac.ed.cogsci | Edinburgh EH8 9LW Scotland
rschmidt@copper.ucs.indiana.edu (roy schmidt) (03/28/91)
ddb@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Darren Brierton) writes: > >My problem is that I have a 42MB hard disk with a 32MB primary partition >which is logical drive c and a 10MB extended partition which is logical >drive d. I have now bought a 50MB Hard Card 2XL, and as this is a >*very* fast disk (9ms access time) I would like to use this as my drives >c and d to increase speed in booting up and loading applications etc., >and to rename the drives on my old hard disk as e and f without having >to back up all the files on it and removing the primary partition with >FDISK. Is this possible? > Yes, this is possible, and it has nothing to do with FDISK. What you must do is configure your original hard disk controller as secondary. This involves installing a few shunts across some jumpers on the board. As to which jumpers, this varies from controller to controller. You will need to contact the manufacturer of the controller (or consult the documentation that came with the controller -- most are cryptic) and ask them how to make the controller secondary. Once this is done, then you will need to enter your machine's CMOS setup and redescribe the drives: to wit, Physical HD "0" (which will be your hardcard) should be described as in the hard card's documentation. Then Physical HD "1" (your old hard disk) should be designated as NOT INSTALLED. (I know, sounds wrong, but this works :-)). Once this is done, you can boot from the hardcard (providing it has DOS on it). If you had made two partitions on the hardcard when you formatted it with FDISK, then you would find that LOGICAL drives C; and D: are the hardcard, and giving the command "DIR E:" should give you the directory for the 32 MB partition on your old hard disk. There are two drawbacks to this whole process. (1) The manufacturer may well inform you that their HD controller cannot be configured as secondary. This is common -- I have had it happen to me more than once when dealing with pre-1990 equipment. In this case, you will have to purchase a new HD controller in order to use the old HD. (2) Making the old controller secondary may have the side effect of disabling your floppy controller if it is on the same board. I'm not sure if there are any HD/FD controllers where you *can* run the FD controller when the HD is secondary. Again, a heart-to-heart with the manufacturer is required. Good luck! -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Roy Schmidt | #include <disclaimer.h> Indiana University | /* They are _my_ thoughts, and you can't Graduate School of Business | have them, so there! */