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As a precaution, before proceeding to use any Tips, Programs, or making any changes, from any links contained therein and before opening any Hidden Windows System Settings, it is advisable to perform a full backup of the system even though Windows XP comes with a life-saving 'SYSTEM RESTORE' feature. Always remember to create a System Restore Point before making any changes to your PC. Once that's done it should be safe to proceed with any tweaking you wish, but you do so entirely at your own risk.
Fdisk Notes
CAUTION: Using FDISK to modify or delete partitions on a hard drive renders all the data associated with that partition unavailable.
Before a hard disk can be recognized by DOS (or any other compatible operating system), a Master Boot Record (MBR) must be established. The MBR defines areas of the disk to be: a Primary Partition and/or an Extended Partition.(if needed or used)
In turn, an Extended Partition has to be designated as containing one or more Logical DOS Drives.
FDISK assigns consecutive drive letters (starting with C:) according to the following hierarchy:
1. Primary Partitions starting with Disk 1 and going down the list;
2. Logical Dos Drives in Extended Partitions starting with the Drives on Disk 1 and going down the list.
The undocumented switches (/PRI, /EXT, and /LOG) can be used from the command line or in a batch file and could be useful if a number of new drives are to be prepared similarly.
FDISK is the MS-DOS utility used to create an MBR by defining the size and nature of a hard drive's partitions. "Use the Fdisk - walk though" for a screen-by-screen review of the program. With FAT 16, FDISK will only allow the creation of one Primary Partition and one Extended Partition. The Extended Partition can contain up to 23 Logical Dos Volumes. The maximum partition size is 2 Gb.
It is not possible to change the size of a partition or logical drive directly. Instead it is necessary to delete the partition/logical drive and then create a new one of the required size.
Deleting a partition/logical drive will make all data on that partition/logical drive unavailable. However, data in other logical drives will not be affected.
If the combined partition sizes are less than the total capacity of the disk, the disk will work just fine - but at the reduced capacity.
If a partition/logical drive is specified that is greater than the available capacity, the size of the partition/logical drive is automatically reduced to that of the available capacity.
FDISK should only be used on hard disks physically installed on your computer. Most removable media uses it's own software for partitioning.
FDISK does not display information about compressed drives (these being, in reality, somewhat special hidden, read-only, system files). Furthermore, when a drive is compressed (using the Win95 Drivespace utility, at least) typically the compressed drive is given the letter of the old uncompressed drive, and the "host" drive is given a new letter. However, as far as FDISK is concerned, nothing has changed - ie. the new drive letter(s) are not recognized.
Q: I have lost my parition somehow but I need to get some information back how can I get this data?
A: Download and Run Test disk, if this fails to help you the only choice you may have is to contact a professional to recover the data for you.
Q: I have FAT32 on my hard drive how do I change it back to FAT16.
A: Enter Fdisk Say no to the Large disk support question, and delete the FAT32 partitions you have. Then recreate your partitions and reboot then format.
Setting up a Dual Boot System. There are a few questions you need to ask yourself.
1. Is this going on one harddrive?
2. Are you planning on using any FAT32 or NTFS partitions?
This is long but fairly simple process. (2-3 hours depending on system speed)
This set up is for installing more than 1 OS on 1 Hard Drive
1. Use Fdisk to create the Win98 partitions. However the Primary partition must be FAT16. If you plan on using FAT32 for Win98 you will need to make this primary partition 100mb reboot and format your primary partition.
2. Go back to Fdisk and create your FAT32 extended partition then the Logical partitions make sure to leave plenty of unpartitioned space for NT, those partitions will be created later. Reboot format your FAT32 logical partition.
3. Install Win98 to the D: drive(if your using the 100mb Primary Partition), install the unsupported device drivers if you want but I always wait till I'm done and wait on the other programs till you have all of your OS's installed.
4. Start the NT install thru Win98 and follow the directions as they appear on the screen.
5. Once you reboot and inside the NT setup, create your NT partitions. Partition the rest of your drive at this time as well. Keep in mind that the NT partitions should be all of FAT16 type and not NTFS. You can convert the drives to NTFS later.