Preserved Topic: Win95 drive partitions?

Sorry, I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to Windows matters, having used Macs wince 86. In another post where I was bitching about IE5.5 frying my comp, bitdamaged mentioned making a seperate partition so that the main drive can be initialized at will.

Sounds great, but I have no idea how to do this. Do I need to download a seperate utility, mess around with the BIOS, or reformat my HD? I finally got my home comp working again, but I'm scared to install internet explorer again without a seperate startup partition. Any help would be much appreciated.

If you have a single HDD now and it only has one partition you will have to wipe it and start again, unless the partition isn't using all the free space. I really need to know more to help you though. What version of Win95 are you using? sr1 sr2? Is your current partition FAT32? There is a program called Partition Magic that can modify/create/delete partitions. I would still back up your data files though.

The best way to do this is before reinstalling. The DOS command line utility is called fdisk but This is for advanced users (or a HD that is expendable, it won't kill it but it will kill data)

Partition Magic is your best bet for creating partitions in Windows without destroying data


Walking the Earth like Kane

Okay, well, first of all. I am not sure what version of windows 95 I am running. I just re-installed from disks (22 of em, dated 1996), and it is a bit more primitive than the Win95 I have on CD, so I'm guessing SR1. How do I check this?
How do I check if my HD is FAT32?

Tonight I plan on taking all my important files from my HD, zipping em, and sticking em in my shell directory while I do a total reformat and clean install. I want to end up with 2 partitions, each having their own install of windows on them so that I can still start windows if the OS fries again. So the question is will Partition Magic be good enough that I can start windows from either partition, or will I get a 'lower-level' partition (i.e. able to view it in the boot order in the BIOS) from fdisk?

BTW - Thanks for the help, I have nowhere else to turn, and a big Myth 2 tournament match coming up on Sunday.

To check your version, hit start, run, and type " command " then type " ver ". After that, post the numbers it says <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/smile.gif"> I can't remember which is the new version.
I'm not sure what a Fat32 partition is.. sounds like windows jibberish.. always the number 32...

- Dan -

If you want to be able to boot from BOTH partitions you will need a boot manager program like System Commander. Your best bet would be to create two partitions and install windows on the boot partition and keep your data on the other. If your OS takes a dump again all you would need to do is re-format the first partition and re-install windows.

If your installing from floppies I doubt you even have SR1 and your current partition is more than likely FAT16. Win95 SR2 would be the one to use if you have access to it. If you do, create your new partitions with FAT32 unless you still use DOS for some reason.


Let me know if you need more help.

CP

Well I finally am up and running again after 3 days of headaches (previous messages posted from work, on a MAC <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/smile.gif">. In the end I was able to backup my data, partition and format my HD, and install IE5.5.

I learned quite a bit in the process too. Thanks for the suggestion about partitioning my drive as I feel much more confident about installing new updates now. Still, considering how close I got to being completely screwed it is a miracle that I am sitting here typing this now. I hate having the usability of my computer hinge on the good condition of a single high-density floppy.

All I have to say is that next time I run fdisk I'll be sure to have a floppy with the format program on it <img border=0 align=absmiddle src="http://www.ozones.com/forum/smile.gif">

I know it might sound a bit kludgelicious, but for all of the 3D Renering and stuff I do, I have a quad boot system, bassically, I have 3 HDD's and I have windows 95 and 98 dual booting on one drive, Windows NT installed on another and Dos on a 3rd. I made my own startup menu so that I can select the OS I want when I boot up. If I don't select one in 30 seconds it automatically boots into the most frequently used one, which is Win98. I like it, but it took me nearly a week to setup properly, so I don't recommend it if you are not REALLY experienced (I was one of the people who helped setup my schools network of 120 computers. I never before that time realised how incredibly hard it is to network Macs and PCs together. nearly impossible. But we have a fully trained PC Electronic Engineer there and a software engineer. I like my school).




What's mine is mine, and what's yours is mine to - First Rule of a Dictatorship

mmmm a Fat32 system has 32-bit adresses for the files in the fat (file allocation table).
So now you can have more adresses on your harddisk... so the parts are smaller, thus on a lot of small files, you gain some storage room. example:
On a fat16 system you're 1kb file uses about 4kb storage. On a fat32 sytem it uses multiple blocks together about 1Kb big.
Now you could store some 3 more files on the same hdd.
Remember in the old day's hdd's where a lot smaller. just like file storage-blocks so hdd where more efficient.


See you soon on the darkside of the moon (when the Alchemists don't blow it up that is)

[This message has been edited by Rinswind 2th (edited 14-08-2000).]