Topic: Fdisking.

[Simon]

Fdisk(ing?) has been mentioned quite a bit on here, but I have to admit to never having done it, and it is often assumed that everyone knows how to do it.

A step by step guide to Fdisking would be handy, if someone could take the time, or point in the direction of an easy to follow website?

Thanks!

[Sandra]

A straight forward guide is available here Simon :

http://www.compguystechweb.com/troubleshooting/fdisk/fdisk_run.html

On the same site is a page showing the various displayed screens and explaining the options.
Fdisk can also be used to tell you how your drive/s are partitioned,which are FAT32 or FAT 16 for example and the size of each partition used.
Hope this helps  

[Simon]

Thanks for that, Sandra.  It may also be of help to other people.

I assume that Fdisk does not apply to XP, as usually you just pop the disc in the CDROM, and it boots from there.

[Sandra]

I think XP does its own partitioning as it installs as it doesnt recognise DOS commands as far as I know,maybe someone with XP can confirm this  

[bat69]

Although I haven't used XP yet   I understand on Set Up, it does allow partitioning of the HD.

As you know XP uses NTFS format as opposed to FAT32.

XP also doesn't work ontop of DOS as in other versions of Windows, and DOS has been omitted from the application  :'( :'( boohoo  I like DOS  

[Simon]

Well, as you know, I have XP, and yes, it does offer to partition during installation.

I don't know anything about DOS, but you can run a Command prompt in XP, and a DOS type screen pops up, but I've never done anything with it.

[Adept]

The command prompt works with all the old DOS programs that I've tried. In fact, the DOS emulator in XP is quite a lot better than the one in Windows 2000 which broke quite a few old DOS programs

XP allows you to partition your hard drives at install time, plus it also allows full partition editing from the Control Panel's Administrative Tools | Computer Management | Disk Management section.

Well at least it does in XP Pro - I'm not sure about Home. I assume it is the same

[Simon]

Yes it does - I just checked!  

[Adept]

LOL. Thanks Simon

[Lona]

A straight forward guide is available here Simon :

http://www.compguystechweb.com/troubleshooting/fdisk/fdisk_run.html

Very interesting site that Sandra. I always thought F/disk in dos meant formatting the disk completely. I have dabbled a little bit in dos and know how to move things around etc but I shy away from deleting anything in dos incase I create a disaster as once done cannot be undone. Curiosity-- What is the advantage of partitioning your disk? :-";"xx

[Sandra]

I think you said you had a 40 gig drive Lona,so some people would create an extra partition and have about 4 or 5 gig as your primary partition to have your operating system on and the rest for your data and things youd rather not lose.That way if you have a problem with your ME you could wipe the primary partition and reinstall ME again and you would still have the rest of the drive intact.You would still have to reinstall your prgrammes as the OS wouldnt be able to find them,but any music ,letters and other data would still be on your drive.
Another reason is if you want to Dual Boot into another OS then you would create another partition to have that OS on so you would end up having 3 partitions on your drive (if you didnt have a second hard drive installed)  

[Lona]

So let me understand this Sandra. If I had my operating system on one partition would I still be able to access my other partition as normal. I can't get my head round this one :-";"xx

[Sandra]

On a PC with only one hard drive it has to have a partition (silly name but thats what it is).You can have this as the full size of the drive as one partition.This then becomes drive C.If you do this and need to reinstall your operating system then you have to format before you can reinstall,formatting then wipes everything off your drive and you lose anything that you have not backed up onto CD or in some other way.
If you create a second partition your OS goes on C and the second partition is called D,this moves your CD rom to E and a writer if you have one to F.
If you have a second hard drive installed it would be more sensible to use your smallest drive as the primary master and just have the OS on that which will be your C drive.The second hard drive can be partitioned if you wanted or left as one partition of the full size of the drive.
Be aware that if you have two hard drives and create two partitions on each drive that C will be the first partition on your master drive and D will be the first partion on your slave,E will be the second partion on your master and F will be the second partition on your slave.I found this out to my cost by wiping D after carefully transferring everything from E to D thinking I was  ending up with everything on my master drives second partition  

[Sandra]

So let me understand this Sandra. If I had my operating system on one partition would I still be able to access my other partition as normal. I can't get my head round this one :-

In addition to what I have just written Lona,when you click on My Computer you would have A drive(floppy),C drive (Primary partition),D drive (Secondary partition),E (CD rom),and F (CD writer).Along with Printers,Control Panel and Dial Up Networking etc as you do now,assuming you just had the hard drive as two partitions.
You access D in the same way as you access C or A or your CD rom now.When you download anything you just have to make sure you tell it to download to D (whichever folder you want) instead of C so as you can keep it all neat and tidy.I download to D/programs or D/music and such like but that is down to your own personal preferences and way of working.
I hope that this has clarified things for you  

[Simon]

I'm with you, Lona!   :-[

Sandra, (or anyone), do you have to have an OS on a second HD, or can it just be used for storage if it's a small drive?