The program that DOS supplies for setting up hard disk partitions is called FDISK,
which I believe stands for "fixed disk", an older term for hard disk. FDISK is
used only for DOS (FAT) partitioning, and allows you to perform the following functions:
- Create Partitions: FDISK allows you to create a primary DOS partition or logical
DOS volumes. To create a logical DOS volume you must of course first create an extended
DOS partition, since the logicals are contained within the extended partition.
- Set Active Partition: You can use FDISK to set the primary partition on your boot
disk active, so that it can boot. It's quite silly that FDISK doesn't do this
automatically when you create the boot primary partition (since there can only be one
primary DOS partition anyway), but in fact you must do this manually in many cases. (At
least FDISK warns you when no disk is set active, via a message at the bottom of the
screen.)
- Delete Partitions: FDISK will let you delete partitions as well. This is the only
way to change the size of a partition in FDISK: delete the old one and create a new one
with the new size. If you want to change the size of the primary DOS partition using FDISK
you must delete every FAT partition on the disk and start over...
- Display Partition Information: The last option that FDISK gives is to display the
partition information for the system. It will first show the primary and extended
partitions and then ask you if you want to see the logical drives within the extended
partition. In fact, if you want to see this information, you can just do "FDISK
/STATUS" from the DOS command line. This will show you the partition information
without actually taking you into FDISK, and therefore, you run no risk of accidentally
doing something you'll wish you hadn't.
Some important points that you should keep in mind when using FDISK:
- Be Careful: With just a few keystrokes, FDISK can wipe out part or all of your
hard disk. Generally speaking, don't use FDISK unless you need to, and make sure you
understand what you are doing before you begin.
- Run It From DOS: Windows 95 allows you to run FDISK direct from the graphical
user interface, and even while other applications are open and running. Since FDISK alters
critical disk structures at a very low level, running it while files are open and other
applications are using the disk is asking for trouble. To be safe, always exit to DOS
("Restart the computer in MS-DOS mode") before using FDISK (except for using
"FDISK /STATUS", will work safely from within a DOS box in Windows 95).
- FAT32 Support: The version of FDISK that comes with Windows 95 OEM SR2 supports
the creation of partitions that use the FAT32 enhanced file system for larger volumes.
Some clever person at Microsoft decided not to call it FAT32 however within this program.
Instead, when you run FDISK on a system that has Windows 95 OEM SR2 installed, and a hard
disk over 512 MB (the minimum for using FAT32), you will receive a message asking you if
you want to "enable large disk support". If you answer "Y" then any
new partitions created in that session will be FAT32 partitions.
Note: It is often useful to
include FDISK as one of the programs on a bootable
floppy. This way you can use it when setting up new hard disks.
Considering how important it is, FDISK is a rather primitive program. It works, but
it's cryptic and hard to use. Anything you can do in FDISK you can do more flexibly and
easily using a third-party program like Partition Magic. FDISK will not allow you to
select or change cluster sizes, resize partitions, move partitions, etc. FDISK's primary
advantage is, of course, that it is free (well, built-in anyway).
Windows NT uses a program called Disk Administrator to handle disk setup tasks.
In essence, this is an enhanced version of FDISK that allows you not only to manipulate
partitions, but also access some of NT's unique disk management features. For example, you
can set up software RAID using the Disk Administrator.
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