Partition Manager FAQ |
A: Yes. You can. If you have one large FAT-16 or FAT-32 partition and you
want to create another partitions, without losing existing data you have to do
the following:
1. Defragment your C: disk.
2. Run partition manager and change partition size in TWO places:
partition table and boot record (you get there when you press Enter).
Make sure the size does not drop below minimum partition size.
3. Reboot computer and run SCANDISK to check for errors / adjust FAT-32
free space.
4. Create new partitions.
A: Partition Manager and Partition Magic are different programs. They are complementing each other. While Partition Magic isolates you from small details and does all work for you, Partition Manager lets you see all those details in the partition table (cylinders', heads', and sectors' numbers) and you have to make all decisions yourself. I use Partition Manager for non-standard tasks, such as creating more than one primary (bootable) FAT partitions on the disk, and use Partition Magic to resize partitions or change their cluster size.
A: While both programs allow you to have multiple Operating Systems on one hard drive they do it in the different ways. System Commander lets you boot several OS from one partition by manipulating with system files (for example you can put several versions of MS-DOS, Windows 95, and Windows NT into a single FAT partition). With System Commander you still have a limitation of four partitions per disk, but you can put many OS in each of those partitions. On the other hand Advanced Boot Manager does not manipulate inside partitions, but, instead, lets you create up to 31 bootable partitions on your disk, and then boot from them different OS. I have not tried, but it might be possible to use both at the same time.
A: Probably 31 is too much, but the current limitation of four partitions is a problem. For example, I have six partitions on my 5.1G hard disk. I have an old version of MS-DOS, Windows 95, Solaris x86, another Windows 95 partition for programs downloaded from web, some empty space to test Partition Manager, and an Extended DOS partition. When I boot from DOS or Windows 95 I can see two partitions: one, from which I have booted and an extended partition with my files and programs.
In addition, it is now common to have several OS, such as Windows 95/98, Windows NT, and various flavors of Linux in order to develop crossplatform applications.
First you have to create two Linux partitions (ext2fs and swap):
# File System Size
1 FAT-16 200M <- This your old DOS
2 FAT-32 2000M <- This is Windows 95
> 3 Linux (ext2fs) 800M
> 4 Linux swap 40M
5 Extended 500M
FAT-16 500M <- This is shared FAT-16 partition inside
extended partition, visible to all OS.
Then you have to edit Advanced Boot Manager boot menu:
# Partitions Name 1 1/1 Last MS-DOS 6.22 2 2/2 Last Windows 95 3 3/3 Last3 Linux
After that save it and reboot computer. Then in boot menu you have to highlight "Linux" and press 'A' to boot from Linux boot floppy disk.
When Linux setup will ask you where to put LILO you have to answer "In the first sector of the partition" (NOT "in MBR").
1 DOS FAT-16 500Mb 2 DOS Extended 300Mb 3 Linux 400Mb 4 Linux swap 20Mb
A: When you install Advanced Boot Manager it automatically picks extended partition only if it is last on the disk. In your case you have to edit boot menu (press Space in the main screen) so it will look as follows:
# Partitions Name 1 1/1 Next MS-DOS 2 3/3 Next Linux 3 3/3 Last3 Linux (sees D:)
After that you will be able to see extanded partition from both DOS and Linux.
If you did this, but you still cannot see Extended partition, it might be that you have unused space at the end of the disk, which is considered to be the last partition. Then you have to enlarge Extended partition up to the end of the disk (just increase its size in MBR).
A: The reason, why number of choices was limited, is that I wanted to keep all occupied (by partitions) space covered in MBR. Then if somebody runs fdisk or similar utility, it wouldn't think that disk space not mentioned in MBR is empty (and available), even though it has some valuable information.
This is a reasonable behaviour, since most people want to hide primary partitions from each other and put all shared data in the Extended partition, making it visible to all of the systems, and implemented set of choices seems to be enough.
A: Click here to see what you should do before installing a new OS in the Partition Manager's help.
A: Yes you can do that. See an example in the Partition Manager's help.
A: Yes, there is a solution for this case. You have to set a "default partition" in the boot manager's options. Then, instead of booting from rememberd "last time booted" partition, boot manager will always start with the default partition highlighted.
A: Yes, there are several ways. First of all you can set the prompt timeout up to 100 seconds - this will give you some time, or you can set it 0 - this will force boot manager to wait forever, even if you had to go to China for your tea, you still couldn't miss it. (In case of compact boot manager setting default partition to Space will have similar effect). And finally, you can get a faster machine, which will solve most of the problems.
A: Yes. Version 2.38 supports disks over 8Gb in size.
The old standard for partition table has an 8G limit for the size of the hard disk and partitions. Version 2.37 of the Partition Manager follows that standard and if you have 8G or greater disk it will not be able to see anything beyond 8G boundary. However, you can operate as usual under 8G line.
A: There is a program which does one-way conversion from FAT-16 to FAT-32. You can download a copy of cvt.exe. This utility appears to be written by Microsoft, but I couldn't find any documentation or reference for it on their web site. So use it at your own risk.
A: Even if Partition Manager could do it - you still cannot have 6G FAT-16 partition. The limit for FAT-16 partition is 2G. I would suggest you to shrink FAT-32 partition down to 4G and create a 2G FAT-16 partition on the freed space.
A: First of all run SCANDISK and DEFRAG utilities. Then start Partition Manager and change partition size. Then go to the setup screen (press Enter on the partition) and change size there. Make sure that you do not go below MINIMUM partition size. Reboot computer. Then run SCANDISK to make sure there is no errors and let it adjust amount of free space on the disk. Done.
Note: DEFRAG moves all files to the beginning of the partition, but it leaves system and hidden files untouched. Therefore even after you run DEFRAG there still might be files at the end of partition. In this case you would have to find those files and remove system and hidden attributes, then defragment the disk again and after that restore those attributes.
A: You either forgot to change partition's size in its boot sector (you get there when you press Enter on the partition record) or you didn't run SCANDISK afterwards.
A: Yes, but only if it was shrinked before. The problem is the size of the
FAT - it must be large enough to address all clusters on the disk. However,
if you don't want to backup and restore all files so much that you are willing
to spend $70, get Partition Magic and
it will do it in a few minutes. (I am going to add this feature to my program
in a near future).
Note: you can format partitions with option /x:max_number_of_sectors
so that you can enlarge them in the future. For example if you want to extend
partition up to 4G you should put /x:8,000,000 as an option.
A: Yes, but it isn't automatic. You would have to do the following steps:
Pictures: Original: [ FAT-16 Data......... Free.... ] [ FAT-16 Data.... Free..... ] Move files: [ FAT-16 Free.................. ] [ Data.................. F. ] Format: [ FAT-32 Free.................. ] [ Data.................. F. ] Move files: [ FAT-32 Data................ F ] [ Free..................... ] Enlarge: [ FAT-32 Data................ Free........................... ] Unzip: [ FAT-32 Data............................. Free.............. ]
Descriptions:
OK. Lets go step by step.
Suppose that you have 1.2G of data on your partition.
Pictures: Original: [ FAT-32 Data... Free... Data... Free... Data... ............ ] After Defrag: [ FAT-32 Data................... Free........................ ] Shrink: [ FAT-32 Data................... F] [ FAT-16 Free............ ] Move or zip: [ FAT-32 Free.................... ] [ Data................... ] Format: [ FAT-16 Free.................... ] [ Data................... ] Move back: [ FAT-16 Data................... F] [ Free................... ] Enlarge: [ FAT-16 Data................... Free........................ ]
Descriptions:
If you have enough free space on the original partition the process will involve only one temporary partition and one copy cycle "to and back."
When you do copy use appropriate utility - one which handles long file names and hidden files.
A: I am a poor student. :-) And I know how it feels not being able to do simple things because you don't have money to buy software. It feels miserable, but you learn a lot, if you have enough determination. Now I know a lot (because I did all those things) and now I want to help other people.
If you think that I am not getting anything in exchange for my work - you are wrong. I am getting people to learn the staff. It is in Partition Magic you just click and it moves data around and you don't know what is going on (which is cool by the way). In my program, unlike the others, you will not get anywhere, unless you know which numbers to enter. Partition Manager will, obviously, help you and show everything it can, but it will require some efforts from the user side - basicly to think (that's why it is so small - it leaves decision making up to the user's brain :).
So, my program directed to people who learn, just like me or a bit younger. And I expect that when they become more experienced, they will also write something, which I and everybody else could use.
A: There is a bug in MS-DOS boot sector code. It will not work if partition is above 2G. I have written a replacement for that boot sector code. To install it you have to run Partition Manager, select FAT-16 partition and press Enter. You will get into boot sector configuration screen. Then press F6 to install the new code and F2 to save it.
In addition to fixing 2G problem with the new boot sector code you can now dual boot Windows 95 OSR2 with no problem (which was not possible before, because of the bugs in OSR2 code).
The new code is independent from Partition Manager and, once installed, it can be used with any other Boot Manager. To uninstall it simply run "sys.com" which comes with your OS.
A: Yes. You simply have to create FAT-32 and NTFS partitions with Partition Manager, and format FAT-32. Then you have to install Windows 95 into FAT-32 and NT into NTFS. After that you can use Compact or Advanced Boot Managers to switch between the systems.
In order to share files you can either create a small FAT-16 partition at the end of the disk (which both OS can read) or get NTFS driver for Windows 95 and FAT-32 driver for NT at http://www.sysinternals.com
A: This problem exists with both Windows 95 and 98. However there is a way around.
First of all you have to create and format FAT-16 or FAT-32 partition for Windows 95/98 on the second disk. Then you have to reboot computer and in BIOS setup swap first and second hard drives or simply disable your first hard drive. After that you can boot computer with Windows 95 setup floppy and install Windows.
After Windows will be configured you have to reenable your first hard disk in BIOS setup. Then run Partition Manager and go to the second disk, install boot manager and change in the FAT-16/32 boot sector drive number from 128 to 129. (To get into the boot sector configuration select partition and press Enter).
When you will boot Windows from the second disk make sure that all primary FAT partitions on the first disk are hidden. (It can be configured automatically with Advanced Boot Manager).
A: No. Your computer is OK. Most of the BIOSes follow an "old custom" to reserve last cylinder "for testing purposes." Newer BIOSes and OS (such as NT) ignore that and use last cylinder. To be compartible with them Partition Manager tries to detect the last cylinder.
A: There is a problem with NT - it wouldn't boot from partitions above 2G. You have to place NT partition under 2G or make a small FAT-16 partition at the beginning of the disk where NT could put its boot files. However it seems that this bug was fixed in SP4. So you may want to try it out.
A: Boot Manager's IPL (Initial Program Loader) code have been identified by NAV as Bloodhound.MBR virus. This is a false alarm. There is no virus on your system. To remove this warning you have to disable "MBR Virus Detection" option in NAV configuration:
People have submitted this false alarm to Symantec Antivirus Center so you may expect it to be fixed in the future.
A: You could try to guess starting partition locations and their sizes. For that first read Partitioning Primer and second download Partition Manager version 2.38.
In 90% of the cases your disk will look similar to the example given in the primer. You will have to guess starting location of the partition and then see if in the right bottom corner correct information about its boot sector (i.e. volume label) will appear. If it does try to set partition's ending location according to the information in the boot sector. Repeat it for all the partitions that you might have on your disk.
Also you might want to use some recovery tools listed on the links page.
For example if your first partition starts at Cyl=0, Head=1, Sect=1 and
ends at Cyl=400, Head=254, Sect=63 it assumes that your OS expects to see
disk with 255 heads and 63 sectors (heads are numbered 0..254, sectors - 1..63).
And if partition ending head is 127, then it assumes that OS expects 128
heads per cylinder.
So how will it influence Partition Manager users?
First of all if you create partition, which does not end on the last head,
and you put that partition into the first row in MBR then on the next reboot BIOS
will report wrong number of heads. Even if you do not create such partition
yourself, but you have installed Advanced Boot Manager this will
also happen, because by default Boot Manager creates very small partition
at the beginning of the disk which both starts and ends on the first head.
The simptoms of the problem would be that after installation of Advanced Boot Manager or after you created a new partition you have rebooted and first time everything would work, but when you rebooted for the second time nothing would work and hard drive would report 128 heads instead of 255 and 4G instead of its normal size (8G, 10G, 13G, ... ).
I am going to make these checks in the next version of the program.
For now the solution would be to make sure that Advanced Boot Manager
partition takes up entire cylinder (ie. starts at Cyl=0, Head=1, Sect=1 and ends
at Cyl=0, Head=254, Sect=63). This will waste about 8M of the disk space, but
everything will work.
Another solution would be either to move Boot Manager to the end of the disk
or make sure that it never appears in the first row in MBR. To do that you have
to go into the boot menu configuration screen and force bootable partitions
to be placed in the first row (replace "3/*", "4/*", ... with "3/1", "4/1", ...).
But make sure that those partitions do not end in the middle of the cylinder.
If you already run into this problem and cannot access your disk here is what you have to do:
1. Reboot computer from DOS or Windows 95/98 system floppy.
It will not be able to see C:, D:, ... But this is normal.
2. Run partition manager from the floppy.
It will show you your partition, but it will complain about disk size.
Ignore the complains and press 'S' to save partition table to a file on the floppy
(or press 'F4' and write down file system types, starting sectors, and number of sectors for all partitions).
3. Delete all partitions. That's correct - DELETE them!
4. Press 'U' to uninstall Advanced Boot Manager. You should see partition table with four rows of only zeros.
5. Press 'F2' to save it.
6. Reboot computer and enter BIOS setup (hit 'DEL' when it prompts).
7. Run "Hard Disk Auto Detection". Choose line with correct size of your disk (it also should say "LBA").
8. Save changes and reboot computer from floppy.
9. Run Partition Manager and load partition table from the saved file or
enter partition types and locations manually.
10. If you still want to use Advanced Boot Manager make sure that it's and all other
partitions ends with head=254 (if you have 255 heads).
11. Save changes to the disk.
If this doesn't work, try to take your disk to computer with older BIOS, which is not so smart :). The last option usually works.