Partitioning question

mikemean · Post by **mikemean** » Thu Jul 18, 2002 11:36 pm

I'm not sure where this goes so I'll ask here. I have a 20 gig drive. I partitioned it to have a 6 gig backup drive (d) and the rest OS and programs (c). In windows it shows my c: drive as my main os drive (c) and my d: drive as my backup drive (d)---the way I want it to be. When I use a boot disk and go to c: it comes up as my backup partition. Why does it show my d:BACKUP as c: when using a boot disk? Last time when re-installing I almost wiped out my backup partition because the disk showed my d: partition as the c: partition.

In fdisk it says that my extended DOS partition (my D:Backup drive) contains logical dos drives. So I go to view the logical DOS drives and all it is is my backup partition. I'm confused.

EvilAngel · Post by **EvilAngel** » Thu Jul 18, 2002 11:51 pm

D: is your Logical drive and C: is your Primary.

Not sure what's going on with your fdisk, did you partition with PM7? Or any third party software?

jumpingrat · Post by **jumpingrat** » Thu Jul 18, 2002 11:52 pm

The boot disk creates a ramdisk of 2mb and this will cause your drive letters to be shifted.

mikemean · Post by **mikemean** » Fri Jul 19, 2002 12:01 am

Originally posted by EvilAngel
D: is your Logical drive and C: is your Primary.

Not sure what's going on with your fdisk, did you partition with PM7? Or any third party software?

Yes I used Partition Magic 7. I am going to buy a second HD to use as a backup and then merge the partiotins.

Give me a few so I can reinstall PM and get a screenshot.

mikemean · Post by **mikemean** » Fri Jul 19, 2002 12:03 am

Originally posted by jumpingrat
The boot disk creates a ramdisk of 2mb and this will cause your drive letters to be shifted.

It did the same thing when installing the OS from the Windows cd.

mikemean · Post by **mikemean** » Fri Jul 19, 2002 12:09 am

jumpingrat · Post by **jumpingrat** » Fri Jul 19, 2002 12:17 am

I've used PM7 in the past, and I vaugely recall that there may be an issue with how some versions of PM report drive letters as opposed to how windows does. I may be off base here though. Do you have the newest updates for PM7?

mikemean · Post by **mikemean** » Fri Jul 19, 2002 12:22 am

Originally posted by jumpingrat
Do you have the newest updates for PM7?

Probably not. I haven't used it in a while.

jumpingrat · Post by **jumpingrat** » Fri Jul 19, 2002 12:44 am

Yah that might be it then. I finally used XP's built in partitioning utility just to avoid the conflicts.

mikemean · Post by **mikemean** » Fri Jul 19, 2002 12:46 am

Originally posted by jumpingrat
Yah that might be it then. I finally used XP's built in partitioning utility just to avoid the conflicts.

XP has built in partitioning?

jumpingrat · Post by **jumpingrat** » Fri Jul 19, 2002 12:55 am

Well xp-pro, but since it's part of the OS setup I imagine that all versions do. I did my install on a HD formated with PM7 and one of the options during setup was to create partitions and file structures (because xp did'nt like PM's setup???). It's been a few months but I remember it doing it as part of the install.

jumpingrat · Post by **jumpingrat** » Fri Jul 19, 2002 1:09 am

Found it. Under local computer management go to disk management. From there you can Format, adjust free space, reasign drive leters ect..ect.

SavageHrt · Post by **SavageHrt** » Fri Jul 19, 2002 7:32 am

Originally posted by mikemean

Another problem may be that your primary partition is formatted NTFS and your backup is FAT32. When you boot to your boot disk DOS 'ignores' the NTFS partition because DOS cannot read NTFS and doesn't see it.

Sav

mikemean · Post by **mikemean** » Fri Jul 19, 2002 12:09 pm

Originally posted by SavageHrt

Another problem may be that your primary partition is formatted NTFS and your backup is FAT32. When you boot to your boot disk DOS 'ignores' the NTFS partition because DOS cannot read NTFS and doesn't see it.

Sav

AH HA! I never thought of that. Thanks!

SavageHrt · Post by **SavageHrt** » Fri Jul 19, 2002 4:40 pm

Originally posted by mikemean

AH HA! I never thought of that. Thanks!

No problem, glad to help where I can.

GatoNanashi · Post by **GatoNanashi** » Fri Jul 19, 2002 5:42 pm

That weird, I used PM7 and I partitioned my 40 into two 20's and then changed my mind and merged them, it went off without a hitch....one of the few things to ever do so granted...