Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 18:36:19 +0000 From: "Matt Hanson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [LIB] The 8 Go limit again...
From: Sylvain Bouju <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Fisher, Dave (IBM) a �crit le 10/05/04 19:33:
>> But it seems I have read recently that PM don't works >> correctly if Fdisk has been used before...? >> > > That's not been my experience... again, YMMV.
I just made some try with Partition Magic in my Libretto, which actually contains a 20 GB IBM Travelstar; this disk had been FDISKed for a single max partition with a Win98SE boot diskette (-> around 8 GB), and then installed with Windows 98 SE.
I just discover this program (PM 8.0) and have not read yet any documentation, but it seems to me that it cannot do anything after those 8 GB. If I ask it for a second partition, it propose to me to do it only inside the space already used (7977.6 MB, exactly), by diminuing the size of the existing partition first.
I probably have to rtfm, I suppose...
Hi Sylvain,
Though I've never gone through the exact process Dave outlined, I have done a lot of tests setting up >8GB HDDs in my Librettos, and issues with drive overlay, partitioning, and imaging the drives.
My method on setting up >8GB HDDs has been to create a 2GB partition with FDISK, install EZ-BIOS driver overlay, install the Windows 98 & 98SE OSs, boot into Windows, and the use Partition Magic (PM) to set up partitions on the remainder of the HDD.
The last time I set up a new HDD, I did some tests to determine if I really need EZ-Drive installed, and I think I can address the problem you may be seeing. From what I've seen, PM is >never< going to see the complete drive space if started in DOS without drive overlay. At least that's what I've seen with the drives I've worked on, and the specific partitions and OS I've set up. My partitions have always been FAT32 primary and extended partitions for Windows 98SE.
Here's what I'd recommend you do if you've created one big ~8GB partition with FDISK at this point. Go ahead and set up your operating system. I'm assuming that will be Windows 95, 98, or 2000. Once you boot into Windows, you can then install PM. I've always found that PM can see the entire drive space correctly when run from within Windows.
At that point, you can make a 100MB partition immediately after your existing 8GB partition for Libretto hibernation. Create another big partition in the remainder of the drive space for data, and you should be set. At some point you could actually delete that 100MB partition, and free up one of the spaces for the 4 primary partitions that can be created if you need it at some point in the future. You could even delete that 100MB partition before you even tell PM to apply the partitioning options you've set up. And another approach would be not to make that 100MB partition at all, and just tell PM that you want to make one big partition at the end of the drive, but starting 100MB from the end of the 1st partition. You just want to make sure that area of the drive is not somewhere where you write data to.
That said, if you don't install drive overlay, and only have a Windows boot floppy to access the drive, you won't be able to make any changes within DOS in the future if needed. But the odds of that are small unless you do any further partitioning at some point in the future that you'd need to modify in DOS. However you will be able to access your data in DOS from a boot floppy, as drive overlay isn't needed at that point. If necessary, you may be able to install EZ-Drive later if you need to make any partition changes in DOS.
Setting up EZ-Drive is pretty simple. Starting up the system from the EZ-Drive boot floppy lets you do a couple things quickly. One is to install EZ-Drive AND create partitions using the 'Fully Automatic Install' option which would write over any existing partitions. That's not what you want to do if you've already have a partition made a ~8GB partition with FDISK. The other is just install EZ-Drive's EZ-BIOS drive overlay to trick the Libretto's BIOS into seeing drive space over the 8GB boundary> That's usually been my method after first making a 2GB partition with FDISK.
So in review, here's what I'd recommend if you have one big primary partition made by FDISK at this point:
* Install Windows * Boot into Windows and install Partition Magic * Create a primary 100MB hibernation partition. (Type doesn't matter.) * Create a FAT32 primary partition with the remaining drive space. * Hide or delete that 100MB partition.
Instead of the last primary partition, you could create an extended partition, and several logical drives within it if you want to install other OSs in the future that can be set up like that.
Now the biggest challenge not discussed yet is how you're going to install Windows! That can go one of many roads that we can discuss further if needed.
Matt
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