frank@odetics.com (Frank Merrow) (02/28/91)
Hi, I am about to upgrade my home system from MS-DOS 3.2 to MS-DOS 4.1. (Yes I have already been told 5.x is due out soon.) The reason I am updating is to access the extra 8 Megs on my hard disc. Rather than reformating the whole disc as a single partition, I am wondering if I can just: "sys" the current DOS partions to update it to 4.1 and then use the new "fdisk" to create an extended partion and bring it up OR Do I have to totally start over by "un-fdisking" my 3.2 partion and then build my hard disc from scratch. I guess the real question is how close the FAT entries and such are between 3.2 and 4.1 and how compatable the new fdisk is with the old. Does anyone have experience in this area. I can build everyting from scratch, but I am basically lazy and would rather not if I can get away with it. Frank frank@odetics.com or uunet!odetics!frank
gettys@yacht.enet.dec.com (Bob Gettys) (02/28/91)
The FDISK's are incompatible. You've got to tear it all down and start over. One hint - Do NOT, repeat Do NOT use DOS backup to do the backup. They are also incompatible!!! Use one of the commercial or shareware backup programs that will support DOS 4.01 - make sure it supports 4.01 first!! I use PCtools V6.0 PCBACKUP myself. Mainly because of its tape support. The steps would be: 1. back up the files 2. use 3.2 FDISK to remove all partitions 3. boot from a 4.01 floppy 4. use 4.01 FDISK to create the partition(s) you want 5. format those partitions with either DOS format another format program 5. load DOS 4.01 6. restore the rest of your files NOTE: Don't mix DOS programs from the different versions. /s/ Bob
kabra437@pallas.athenanet.com (Ken Abrams) (03/02/91)
I let the original post get away from me so I don't know who originated the question. It went something like "Am upgrading from 3.2 to 4.1 in order to get access to an additional 8M on my hard disk" then goes on to talk about creating an extended DOS partition under 4.1. Something doesn't quite click with this story. 3.2 is fully capable of creating and using additional logical drives in an extended partition, isn't it? If that is true, and I properly understood the authors requirements, then he probably doesn't need to change to 4.1 to accomplish his objective. -- ======================================================== Ken Abrams uunet!pallas!kabra437 Illinois Bell kabra437@athenanet.com Springfield (voice) 217-753-7965