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Partitioning question
Posted: Thu Jul 18, 2002 11:36 pm
by mikemean
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.
Posted: Thu Jul 18, 2002 11:51 pm
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?
Posted: Thu Jul 18, 2002 11:52 pm
by jumpingrat
The boot disk creates a ramdisk of 2mb and this will cause your drive letters to be shifted.
Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2002 12:01 am
by mikemean
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.
Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2002 12:03 am
by mikemean
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.
Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2002 12:09 am
by mikemean
Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2002 12:17 am
by jumpingrat
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?
Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2002 12:22 am
by mikemean
Originally posted by jumpingrat
Do you have the newest updates for PM7?
Probably not. I haven't used it in a while.
Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2002 12:44 am
by jumpingrat
Yah that might be it then. I finally used XP's built in partitioning utility just to avoid the conflicts.
Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2002 12:46 am
by mikemean
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?
Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2002 12:55 am
by jumpingrat
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.
Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2002 1:09 am
by jumpingrat
Found it. Under local computer management go to disk management. From there you can Format, adjust free space, reasign drive leters ect..ect.
Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2002 7:32 am
by SavageHrt
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
Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2002 12:09 pm
by mikemean
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!
Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2002 4:40 pm
by SavageHrt
Originally posted by mikemean
AH HA! I never thought of that. Thanks!
No problem, glad to help where I can.

Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2002 5:42 pm
by GatoNanashi
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...