jtdoom
August 4th, 2001, 07:30 AM
dos 6.x/win95 first release won't ever do...
you's in for a shock...
here's some boilerplate...PASTED from another hangout (http://discussions.virtualdr.com/Forum2/HTML/038724.html)
-------------------------------
Hi, all
what seems like eons ago, early versions of "butter" saw first light.
A strange name perhaps, but it was caused by my Flemishness... :)
Anyway, there are things mentioned in this thread that may be of help.
for instance;
When people cannot boot from CDROM
and/or
have no boot disk that supports their CDROM-drive.
Or;
When people have no specialist utility to partition/repartition.
Or;
When people need a virus free booter.
Or;
you got "cannot copy to C:" error
you got "invalid media, disk needs to be formatted" error.
or.....
(btw, I'll often say boot floppy or booter while referring to a "system disk". It's all in a word, yet the various disks have disimilarities. So, it's not only for semantics, eh?)
_____________________________________________
BOOT DISK CREATION,
(RE)-PARTITIONING using FDISK
and SETUP procedures........................................ ......
when one needs a start disk, this first method to create one is most widely known.
However, I'd like to mention that when you want to create it, you got to have a working computer, and more IMPORTANT, it's gotta be free of VIRUS.
Therefore, and first of all, again scan the PC for viruses using a RECENTLY updated antivirus tool.
Then create a bootable floppy on your known good PC.
CONTROL PANEL > SOFTWARE > START DISK > CREATE
In most cases, this floppy will support your cdrom reader.
I call it a setup floppy (the booter that creates a ramdrive....)
If you are sure this computer is free of virus, I recommend you copy
C:\windows\smartdrv.exe and C:\windows\command\diskcopy.com
to that floppy.
******
Creating it from "control panel" may not work!
Yes, I saw some systems fail making one.... When it happens, chances are this was caused by an option chosen during windows setup, and thus your \command\ebd\ folder is missing in windows.
Anyway, you can perhaps make an EBD (emergency boot disk) straight from CDROM.
How ?
Pop your original windows CD in, hold shift so it won't load, open
explorer & navigate to tools\mtsutil\fat32ebd\fat32ebd.exe(You probably won't find this on a RESTORE cdrom)
Pop in a new floppy, and run fat32ebd.exe
Strange as it may sound, it has a slightly different content than the one made from control panel in windows.
This EBD has a lot going for it.
Primo; It got made from virus free media.
Secundo; it does not create a RAMdrive at boot, which eliminated driveletter confusion.
The EBD is the booter I prefer.
If you are sure this computer is free of virus, and sure it runs the SAME version of windows than the CDROM you just created this EBD from, I would suggest you copy
C:\windows\smartdrv.exe
C:\windows\scanreg.ini
C:\windows\command\scanreg.exe
C:\windows\command\chkdsk.exe
C:\windows\command\diskcopy.com
to that floppy.
by the way, soon as you can access your windows CDROM, you can run this from DOS too.
And, you can do this on another machine, even if it has another operating system.
the floppy it makes will be the Emergency Boot Disk for the version on the CDROM.
(Remember that, it may save you a lot of trouble.)
for instance; from DOS, run
[cdromdriveletter]:\tools\mtsutil\fat32ebd\fat32ebd.exe
(Well, when you read FAT32EBD.TXT you learn it should make a virus-free floppy. However, when you keep on reading this thread you’ll find yet another method to create a boot floppy, which will make it same version as the windows-CDrom no matter what, and just about GUARANTEES you have NO VIRUS loaded and copied to floppy. However, it requires you have a bootable windows Cdrom, and an upgrade isn’t. also, some machines cannot boot from CDROM, period. I mentioned this method as an afterthought, but there may come a time when you have to make one such floppy.
I think it's good to know all available options for the time you have to make a viral free boot-disk
(For instance, gotta work on an infected machine? NEVER trust the boot floppy/any floppy recently used... you better start cleanup with a clean booter..)
******
Of course, once you made a booter, you have to test the thing.
Boot from this floppy and see if you can access your cdrom from it.
HOW? It is at A:\> _
(and it also tells you which letter was assigned to cdrom)
For instance; letter given = G: then type DIR G:
In most cases, it shows files and directories on the cdrom.
*****--*****--******--*******
SOME PITFALLS AND FOOTANGLES
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
PLEASE NOTE, a boot disk with another version of DOS may cause trouble for Windows SETUP.
Please try stay within same version, ESPECIALLY if you NEED to make C: BOOTABLE.
why?
in some instances IO.SYS is not properly refreshed by setup. http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q149/1/10.ASP
In light of this; if you have no matching version boot floppy, you can either create a matching version, OR, simply not use the SYS switch, and/or not run SYS command
This io.sys problem seems to be specific to older DOS versions
(up to and including MsDOS 6.22a)
You should not be using a DOS6.22 booter to prepare your hard disk anyway, since it cannot handle FAT32...
So, if you have a dos 6.22 /win95 booter with CDROM support, make that win98 Emergency Boot Disk straight from CDROM. And then use the win98 EBD.
it will have FAT32 support and you are then able to make partitions greater than 2 Gigabyte
(when EBD doesn’t support your old reader, this DOS 6.xx/win95 booter has a propriatary cdrom driver you can copy to win98's EBD, and you can also copy config.sys and autoexec.bat to the EBD. If you do that right, it will then load the correct driver)
determining which windows version you have in use windows Version numbers (http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q158/2/38.asp)
You can determine which windows CDROM version you have using a working machine...
rightclick setup.exe on the CDROM to look up the version number.
Okay, Fdisk has versions, dos 6x and win95 could not handle FAT32
Fat 32 began with win95 OSR2, which started support for larger drives and partitions.
And yet....there is a limitation in the version present in win98
WHEN YOU WANT TO USE FDISK ON A DRIVE WITH A CAPACITY LARGER THAN 64.8 GIGABYTE, YOU NEED A NEWER VERSION OF FDISK.EXE.
IF your hard drive is larger than 64.8 GIGA, you COPY a newer version of FDISK on this floppy first.
see Microsoft article on issues with Fdisk over 64 giga, where you can download and install it
You can even do this on a puter with smaller drive.
( if you want to retain the original on this machine, FIRST save the old FDISK.EXE, then install ) http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q263/0/44.asp
installing this update will replace fdisk.exe in windows\command and in \windows\options, but not in \command\EBD folder.
Because of this, when you make a floppy from control panel it will NOT have the newer fdisk, so you still need COPY the NEW version of fdisk found in \COMMAND\ over the one on FLOPPY.
and then make a diskcopy (have you found out how useful diskcopy on floppy really is yet?)
one more pitfall
OVERLAY software;
Overlay is used to overcome a BIOS drive size limit.
When you're machine BIOS is set to first try boot from FLOPPY or CDROM, the overlay is bypassed when you do not load the overlay from hard disk.
Overlay software normally gives you an option to boot from floppy, but does that only after it got the options screen while initiating the bootprocess from HARD-DISK
In other words, if you boot straight from a floppy, you may have bypassed the overlay, and the hard disk may "inexplicably" become invisible to DOS...or show a size of 504MB only...
fdisk not giving you the fat 32 option seems to be a giveaway symptom too...
(there are ways to find out if there was/is an overlay which is discussed later in the thread...But this symptomatic info is needed here as well, since you may want to load the overlay during boot time if your disk uses an overlay.)
++++======================================+++
++++======================================+++
RE-PARTITIONING / PARTITIONING
FDISK uses a DESTRUCTIVE METHOD, DATA GETS WIPED
doing this while more than one drive is hooked up is a kinda hairy.
You can disconnect the old system drive if you don't want to mistakenly delete or re-partition the wrong drive.
Another word of warning,
you may think the drive on IDE1 master is system disk C:
This is not always the case.
You have to check this, because windows will set up on the first ACTIVE drive it finds.
Before you start partitioning, consider this;
Whenever you can, you should consider the MANUFACTOR DISK TOOLS.
Some of those they provide at their website can save you a LOT of time.
*******
Knowledge Base >>How to Use the Fdisk Tool and the Format Tool to Partition or Repartition a Hard Disk (http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q255/8/67.ASP)
Okay, I assume you just read the Knowledge base article,
Well, you'll find I've added a few twists, so as to avoid a few pifalls
*******
this procedure assumes you have more than one hard disk, and you want to use a new disk as C: drive.
I repeat, Doing this while another disk with your data is hooked up can be dangerous to your data.
One can disconnect the old drive if you don't want to mistakenly repartition the wrong drive.....
______________
If one has a second or third hard disk still connected...
One begins, pen and notebloc at the ready...
fdisk /status
fdisk
y
4 (show info on drive one)
esc
5 (option to choose other hard-disk, choose the next number)
4 (info on chosen drive)
esc
5 (I once had as many as six hard-drives in a machine....)
4
und so weiter until you have all the details, and then
esc
esc
Better take notes of the results you saw.
You do NOT want to partition / repartition / format any drive by mistake, so you better LOOK, take notes, and be REAL CAREFUL.
If you hit the wrong option and it asks to delete or create a partition,
hit ESC and ESCAPE out of there.
you really want to take these notes.
Similarly, when you are going to format, you better first run a dir command against the driveletters you intend to format. For instance
dir C: /w /o /p
This way you can look if it really is the drive you want to format.
Once you are sure, you can format C:
Similarly, For drive E:
dir E: /w /o /p
check it out, before you run format E:
Believe me, you better take these extra steps since you do not want to format a hard-drive or partition containing data you want to keep.
_______________
the spiel begins....
----------------
so, you checked, and know which drive you want to partition, right?
you have started fdisk, and selected the drive you want...
(drive 1 is default, it may NOT be the one windows is on since windows will be on the first ACTIVE partition)
You should ALWAYS look which partitions you have, which letters it has and which partition shows an A in it (A for active)
if it shows a non dos partition, the drive may have overlay, linux, or NT (see further in thread).
you ought to know... if you do not know why that non dos partition is there, you will have to find out.
LINK about recognising what some partitions are FOR (http://discussions.virtualdr.com/Forum2/HTML/042809.html)
Take notes, and REMEMBER that if a non dos partition exists and is active, you most likely DO NOT want to mess with it with FDISK.
If the non-DOS is NOT active, and you want to repartition, you may have to activate the non-DOS to be able to remove another partition, and later on choose primary dos as active.
You do NOT want to leave the NON-DOS active if it wasn't
I ask to check into all this because you cannot delete an active partition while there are other partitions still present on this drive.
You'll also not be able to delete a primary partition while an extended exists on the drive.
remember about overlay, it needs to load before you pop the floppy in
(this also means that when Overlay is needed, you should not boot straight from CDROM to do the fdisking..)
Onwards....
the following is menu stuff,
since this is just an example to show you what to look out for, you should use your head, and not always blindly follow these steps.
if you need delete partitions
option 3
from the highest letter we work down to C:
for instance
E: (if it isn't active drive)
esc
3
delete logical drive D: (if it isn't active drive)
esc
3
delete extended partition
esc
3
delete primary DOS partition
esc
esc
do a cold boot (it's quite important you reboot)
again fire up fdisk
y
--(if needed, first select drive)--
4
(it shows you have no partitions? good! If a NON-DOS exists and you know why it is there, don't wipe it)
esc
1
make primary DOS partition
well, here is where you decide how you set it up.
I would say "dont let it use all space" because an extra partition is great to put data and installable files on.
so, don't let it use all space.
then, create extended partition (let it use the rest)
it will say there are no logicals defined
make them (select the the sizes you want, or let it use all space)
* if you had to make NON DOS active to remove PRI-DOS, this is the point you make PRI-DOS active *
when you are finished with partitioning
esc
esc
and again do a cold boot
=============================================
you finished FDISK and have REBOOTED
This newly partitioned drive is set active?
after partitioning,
dir C: /w /o /p (if empty, it will give an error)
format C:
dir D: /w /o /p (if empty, it will give an error. However, if it shows data, you found out why I ask to do that...)
if empty.
format D:
dir E: /w /o /p (Honest, you better check...)
format E: (if you need to)
IMPORTANT, after formating, REBOOT
Now run smartdrv (well, I hope you put it on the disk, it speeds up things)
put windows cdrom in tray, and fire away
D:
md win98
cd win98
copy [cdromdriveletter]:\win98\*.*
(this copies the windows setup cabinets to hard drive)
setup
personally, I think it is better to copy cabinet files onto another partition or hard drive.
(Just as long as it is on a hard drive you can access)
to put them on C: you start that sequence with
C:
md win98 etc..
you may have noticed I don't have you do format C: /s
if you can avoid it, don't use the switch.
let windows setup create the system files for you.
(overlay creation tools will ask for a system floppy with the boot system of the windows version you intend to use, and thus C: is made bootable. one more case in which you have make sure the floppy is the correct version.)
Oh, you may need to add another switch at times.
the unconditional
format C: /u
why?
when the new system you gonna set up is another version of windows than you used before, or when Fdisk version was different than the one it was fdisked with before you started, then you may actually NEED that unconditional switch to clean off vestiges of the old second fat copy.
It's rare, but it happens. I seen it, and I know the switch still has its meaning.
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
"PROBLEM" cdrom readers
-----------------------------------
when EBD/setup floppy cannot read data from CDrom, and there is no proprietary cdromdriver on hard disk
yep, what if the standard win 98 start disk and EBD wont read your old drive..
this usually happens with older cdromdrives, and those connected to a soundcard.
one can try;
cdromgod, a self extracting floppy-image, which has a helluvalot of antique/proprietary drivers;
this link has version 5.5 of cdromgod.
http://www.tweakfiles.com/misc/cdromgod.html
this link has an older cdromgod 5.0, but it also had the ULTIMATE BOOT DISK, which has various utilities, and antivirus...
http://www.cybertechhelp.com/pages/downloads.html
http://www.bovistech.com/disks.htm
for some reason Bovistech was forced to remove the bootable versions.
so now They too require a sys command to make the floppy bootable.
:( :(
http://www.bootdisk.com/
http://support.micronpc.com/file_lib/boot.html
please bear in mind that some downloaded floppies may require you to make them bootable.
iow, run sys A:
Of course, you can try find the drivers install disk using hardware model info
you may have to open the case, and look on the reader.
When a cdrom reader ribbon is connected to a soundcard, you'll most likely have to use whatever info you found on the card because you want to install the CDROM controller driver.
(but hey, you may already have such an install floppy.)
Or, you have a old DOS/win95 systemdisk with the driver properly working.
in this case, you can copy the driver.sys, and config.sys and autoexec.bat to the newer version floppy
if the systemdisk was your hard disk, you may need edit the path to point to root of A:
and then TEST the floppy...
---------------------------------------------
Let's assume you have a cdrom install disk.
Well, It's hard to come by, so make a diskcopy of it...
(believe me, one day you'll learn how useful diskcopy on a floppy really is)
SINCE YOU WILL MAKE YOUR HARD DRIVE BOOTABLE, IT WOULD BE A GOOD THING IF YOUR BOOTER IS SAME VERSION AS THE Operating System YOU GONNA INSTALL
Have you made that start disk with smartdrv.exe and diskcopy.com on it ????
make a diskcopy of it
delete A:config.sys
delete A:autoexec.bat
then you open notepad (when you save, you need save with "all file types" option enabled)
[if you still know how to use EDIT in DOS, you can use that too]
create a file called
A:\autoexec.bat
all it really needs is (in notepad this is easy, paste the following into it )
LH smartdrv
save it
again open notepad (or edit in DOS) create
A:\config.sys
this one needs;
device=himem.sys /testmem :off
DEVICE=EMM386.EXE NOEMS
files=10
buffers=10
dos=high,umb
stacks=9,256
lastdrive=z
save it (I'll repeat it, when you save, you need save with "all file types" option enabled)
comment; when you're in a truly big fix, and no windows machine is available, yes, you can do all this having nothing else than a boot floppy.
Write protect that floppydisk by sliding the little plastic tab away fron the hole.
boot the formatted computer from it, and here we go
C:
cd\
md dos
cd dos
copy a:\
cd\
copy C:\dos\
A:
sys C:
Pop cdrom driver for DOS disk in and;
install
you may have to navigate to the dos setup file (usually, but not always called install.exe)
dir install.exe /s should find it.
if not, try dir setup.exe /s
(you could also browse this floppy on your good puter)
Lets say you find it in a folder called FORDOS.
Then you would type
cd FORDOS
install
when it finished, reboot from hard disk.
with a bit of luck, you can read stuff on your CDROM.
Why luck?
Well, the adresses and dma it/you picked can be wrong
if so, assuming it was in FORDOS, again run A:\FORDOS\install
(lets hope you don't need do all this; after all, there is cdromgod, they truly did a great job.)
once you can access your cdrom reader, copy the windows setup cabinets to a harddisk or partition, and launch setup
1+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++1
PARTING SHOTS;
drive manufactor tools are often A LOT FASTER and suitable than above....
western digital tools http://www.wdc.com/service/ftp/dlgtools/EZmaker.exe
found at http://www.wdc.com/service/ftp/drives.html#dlgtools
maxtor.com for maxblast
samsumg.com is a pain to navigate, but DrMDJ found this for you http://www.samsungelectronics.com/hdd/support/downloads/utilities_index.html
quantum.com
seagate.com http://www.seagate.com/ddb/prodgud.shtml#mds
suggestions for procedural and textual improvement STILL welcomed.
this message-text has been edited "halfaquadrizillion" times to incorporate things we later learned about and suggestions/corrections some gentle people offered.
==========================================
some more from same thread...
PASTE
-----
Hi Folks
this is a summary of many things I've collected about USING FDISK
FIRST, some warnings about fdisk /mbr
It is often recommended that one use fdisk /mbr to sort out some problem.
But, you had better known about the possible dangers.
FDISK /MBR can cause serious problems when you
#are using a boot manager for multi OS booting
#have more than 4 (¿¿primary??) partitions
(this has never been clear to me)
#require disk management software (overlay).
#use goback or second chance (or similar)
#use a laptop with a boot util for swappable cdrom and floppy bays
#have a machine wich has a tattoo bios copied on the drive.
what's FDSK /MBR for? undocumented FDISK (http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/kevtronics/undoc.txt)
what jacobsen says (http://www.jacobsen.sdn.dk/fdisk/#/MBR)
Fdisk rewrites the master boot record what microsoft says (http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q69/0/13.ASP)
To kill master boot record infectors, it is often said that fdisk /mbr will kill it.
(even when fdisk was not designed to be used as antivirus tool)
BEWARE, The use of fdisk /mbr is NOT always good for virus removal.
The One-Half virus is a classic example of this dangerous potential. you can read about it here (http://www.suggestafix.com/ubb/Forum9/HTML/000195.html)
Some explanations;
OVERLAY
an overlay is used for older machines, which cannot directly work with a capacious hard drive (a BIOS limitation) When these machines boot, you normally see a message pop up asking something like, "do you want to boot from floppy?" (But not always. You may have killed the options-message software, and still have the overlay.)
How to find out if you have OVERLAY
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q186/0/57.ASP
ABOUT GOBACK
Older versions of GoBack created a problem when one fdisks /mbr while GoBack is active. Newer versions are able to recognize and rehook itself to the mbr without using a copy of one of GoBacks files on a flopy while in DOS.
Naturally GoBack is tied to the mbr, how else could such a program function?
the thing to do that come to mind would be
disable goback for a few sessions,
or fully uninstall goback
NOT listen when someone tells you to do fdisk /mbr
when you uninstall goback, first disable bios anti-virus (which will yell at you when it sees a change to mbr)
while disabling/uninstalling goback, an installed AV program may also want to protect the mbr (mssg in the vein of "changes to boot record", etc)
You would want to allow changes.
But hell, I seen problems when two "services" acted simultaneuously. a mobo AV and AV proggy, when both active, may create serious clashes...)
To disable GOBACK;
1- From the Start menu, click Shut Down, and then select the option to restart the computer.
Hold down the CTRL + ALT keys simultaneously while tapping the G key right after the computer completes its Power On Self Test (POST) and before the GoBack message.
Note: Timing is very important and it may take a few tries.
GoBack prompts if you would like to force GoBack to unhook itself from the MBR.
To have GoBack unhook itself, press the F key.
A message prompting that GoBack successfully unhooked itself appears and the computer starts back into Windows.
A message may appear that prompts that GoBack is currently disabled and would you like to re-enable it. Click Yes.
If a message does not appear or if GoBack does not successfully enable again, follow the normal removal/reinstall procedure for your version of GoBack.
2- There is a method of booting off a flopy while GoBack is active. When you reboot the system there is a window that advices you to hit the spacebar if you want to restore your system. If you do, a menu apears, and one of the items is "boot from flopy".
STILL ABOUT FDISK, and beyond...
to get this info, I asked our fellow members for help.
this is a what I got out of them.
Q- Suppose you want to FDISK a machine
What if you find a non-DOS partition, either active or not, and you don't know why it exists?
What if you find a small DOS partition, either active or not, and you don't know why it exists?
Whatever you find, you must find out why it is there.
So guys, here is the question. What can it be for? And what are the telltales?
For instance, It can be an overlay as used on older machines.
An overlay may even be a small DOS part??
(I remember that in the old days, many larger drives had the utility on them, and booted as a floppy. During the overlay creation process, a real floppy was made)
What does an overlay in older and current drives look like?
We are already aware of this article. http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q186/0/57.ASP
whatever you see, it can also be an NTFS or Linux partition.
It can be a suspend to disk partition as found in many notebooks, and some desktops.
what are the telltales here? The last ones I can think of, are a drive tattoo or a small partition where BIOS is copied onto. (Does that use a small partition? Where will a tattoo be found?)
So here it is.
WHY is it there? And how does one find out what is in there...
oh yeah, the manual may not be available...
yeah, that was the QUESTION....
And I got plenty info
Other Partition TypesThe microsoft family
DOS partitions work in all systems up through Win9x, but they are not always compatible. Versions before windows 95 OSR2 did not support FAT32.
Windows NT and Windows 2000 (in a clean install) uses an NTFS file system. Partitioning of these drive is the along the same lines but you should know one thing. If you choose to install a NTFS onto the partition and later go back and use a Win9x operating system you will have to destroy the partition and start over. The file allocation structures are radically different. The same principle applies when trying to regress from a Windows 98 operating system to an earlier version of Windows. Backward compatibility just ain't there folks.
-------
There are many other types like UNIX, Linux, and NOVELL, to name a few.
--------
Compaqs (a brand of computers) use a non-dos partition for the setup information, so that you dont have to use the Diskettes. Very good unless you forget to put it back after deleting it, to wipe the HD clean. Only about 2mb in size....
Q- how does Compaq setup info on a non dos partition load? Is that little part active or non active? If I try to explain why I wanna know, I have to use laymans Flemish...
In laymens, it's gotta be called to or call out. Also, can it be saved to floppy?
A- On my Compaq I did the status and I found it all there. And yes, I took in the difference between advertised and actual sizes. It is a presario 5222 with a 8.4GB harddrive.
The bomide is the Compaq id that is on the harddisk.
--------
I use Partition Magic to set a small hidden partition on my secondary, so that the drive letters don't go jumping around, while I see how much of the alphabet I can use.
What will that hidden part look like in Fdisk ?
(this remained unanswered)
--------
HOW TO IDENTIFY TYPESI hope you never get in this situation. But when you want to do partitioning and you find the drive was used, the OS got butchered by a botched attempt to use another OS or perhaps a multiOS.
Unfortunately FDISK just won't cut it in terms of being able to show what's what on the "non-standard" partition types.
Partition identifiers; http://www.powerquest.com/support/primus/id233.html
http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/partitions/partition_types-1.html
http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/partitions/partition_tables.html
Ranish is decent tool to find out what partition types you have.
http://www.users.intercom.com/~ranish/part/
If you look at all 4 info areas, you can usually figure out what it is.
Or, boot with the latest slack install cd, login as root, and type cfdisk. It'll show plenty types of partitions.
Q- That says slack install CD.. that's gotta be linux?
Which precautions do we take so as not to molest anything?
A- You just hit the q for quit to exit without changing anything.
Ranish shows many partition types,including novell, and I think all I've seen listed in this thread. It does take some getting used to, the more I understand about hdds, the easier ranish is to understand, because it lists everything. Cylinders, heads, sectors, partition types, mbr, code. Partition Magic is for those who don't want to have to understand the real basics, good for windows, but isn't nearly as powerful. Testdisk is also a very good tool, as is mbrwork. The downside of cfdisk is it doesn't fit on a floppy, I think it needs about 4 megs, but you can create all those partition types with it.
A- Unfortunately FDISK just won't cut it in terms of being able to show what's what on the "non-standard" partition types. Something like RANISH's part.exe that Downtime showed the link to is free, and runs in dos. It can help. There are other such things available too. And in the worst case it is possible to use a small Debug script to examine the info and get the partition type number. Then armed with a list of type numbers, as in the case of the link I provided above, you can see what's there.
IMM wrote;
This one covers the various variations of Unix - the *nix world.
There is source here for FreeBSD and Linux as well as some good links http://www.stud.uni-hannover.de/user/76201/gpart/
I don't know if anyone followed the links from my first post but here is one of the ways to go.
Go to http://www.esiea.fr/public_html/Christophe.GRENIER/testdisk.html and download it.
Unzip the package somewhere. Format a floppy with the basic system files. (FORMAT A: /s)
Copy the cwsdpmi.exe and the testdisk.exe files (form the extracted DOS subdirectory) to the floppy and boot with the floppy - then run the program.
If you're playing with your own system make sure you don't write anything to your disk!
The first link I gave will require a linux boot disk or similar or a compile using djgpp and most people on this board probably don't want to go that route.
The TestDisk stuff I was pointing at doesn't require any Linux - just a floppy with Windows (DOS) system files. For those with a reading knowledge of C - the source code is also included.
Here is some of the readme.
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TestDisk 3.2 checks the partition and boot sectors of your disks.
It is very useful to recover lost partitions.
It works with :
- FAT12
- FAT16
- FAT32
- NTFS (Windows NT)
- EXT2FS (Linux)
- Linux Swap
- IBM Multiboot
- BeFS (BeOS)
- UFS (BSD)
- RaiserFS
TestDisk runs under:
- Dos, Win9x
- Linux
- FreeBSD
TestDisk is under GNU Public License.
Christophe Grenier
grenier@nef.esiea.fr http://www.esiea.fr/pulic_html/Christophe.GRENIER/
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If someone did want a floppy or CD bootable disk to use the Linux utilities then he/she could try http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/system/recovery/!INDEX.html
for the "The most Linux on one floppy." stuff.
His home page is http://ftp.toms.net/rb/home.html
Another member mailed me and pointed me to this utility. http://www.aefdisk.com/
http://covenant-itr.hypermart.net/fdisk-2.htm
http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~trix/Raven/EyeView/SSR02/SSR02-03.htm
and last,
Craig Duckett’s DUG_IDE can come in useful. http://www.lurkhere.com/~nicefiles/index.html
it gets the data from the drive electronics, and shows manufactor, model, and SIZE
this can be useful to determine how much space there should be, and even more useful when one wants the drive manufactor tools but don't know the make.
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for those who wonder about the edits,
this had better be kept up to date, don't ya think? ;)
[This message has been edited by jtdoom (edited 08-03-2001).]
suggestions for procedural and textual improvement STILL welcomed.
this message-text has been edited "halfazillion" times to incorporate suggestions/corrections some gentle people offered.
[ 04 August 2001: Message edited by: jtdoom ]