PDISK V0.99 - Partition Utility

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Contents:

1. What is PDISK?
2. What are Primary Partitions?
3. What are Extended Partitions and Logical Drives?
4. Using PDISK
	a. Warning!
	b. Before running PDISK
	c. Running PDISK
	d. Error messages
5. What next?


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1. What is PDISK?

This is a version of PDISK that allows you to define up to 10 partitions in 
any hard disk in your PC.

Of the 10 partitions, up to 4 can be primary partitions, meaning that you can
install operating systems like MSDOS in any (or all) of them and boot.

If your hard disk is larger than 2GBytes, you can also choose to use FAT32 or 
not in defining your partitions.


2. What are Primary Partitions?

Primary Partitions are partitions in which you can install an operating system 
like MSDOS or Windows95 and then boot from it.

MSDOS and Windows95 must be installed in a Primary Partition so that you can 
boot. 

If you want to install more than one operating system in your PC, you will need 
to create more than one Primary Partition on your first hard disk. Each
operating system you install will then reside in its own primary Partition.


3. What are Extended Partitions and Logical Drives?

Extended Partitions define the rest of the hard disk space that is not occupied 
or used by a Primary Partition. Most systems will have at most one Extended 
Partition.

To make Extended Partitions useable, Logical Drives are defined within an 
Extended Partition.

A Logical Drive can occupy the Entire Extended Partition or you can have more
than one Logical Drive in the Extended Partition. Each Logical Drive is given 
a drive letter by the operating system.

Logical Drives are usually used to store data or programs.

Some operating systems like OS/2 Warp or Linux can be installed in a Logical
Drive and still be able to boot. 
 

4. Using PDISK

PDISK is a very small program. There are no special installation instructions.

You can use run from a diskette or a hard disk. To uninstall it, just delete 
from the directory or disk where it is found.


a. WARNING!

Before you start using PDISK, you must realise that you can destroy information 
on your hard disks if you partition the wrong drive.

Therefore, find out more about your PC, especially the sizes of the various 
hard disks you have installed and what drive letters they use. This is so that
when you are running PDISK, you know which drive to select for partitioning.

If you are going to repartition a hard disk that already has information on it, 
you might want to back up its contents. Alternatively, explore the use of
Partition Magic or Partition-It for non-destructive means of repartitioning
your drive.

Using PDISK on a hard disk that has already been partitioned will destroy its
contents!


b. Before running PDISK

Before running PDISK, plan on how you are going to partition your drive.

If you are going to install more than one operating system, you will most
likely want to create one primary partition for each operating system.

If you want your different operating systems to share data, you might want to
create a logical drive in an extended partition. You would put all your
common application software and data into this logical drive.

If you need more than 3 partitions, a version of PDISK is available that lets
you create more partitions. This version is available free for registered users
of Power Boot.

Finally, plan on how much disk space to allocate to each partition.

If you only want to install the operating system files in the primary 
partitions, you might want to allocate only about 200-300MBytes of space for 
each primary partition and then give the remaining space to one or more 
logical drives. If MSDOS is one of the primary partitions, it might only 
require 50-80MBytes if you are going to install Windows 3.1 as well.


c. Running PDISK

PDISK is a DOS program and needs to be run in a DOS box under Windows95 or
in MSDOS mode.

When you start up PDISK, it will check with the BIOS on all hard disks that 
have been detected and display then on the screen as Drive 0, Drive 1 etc.

Drive 0 would be your Drive C.

You will then use the up/down arrow keys to highlight the drive you want to
partition. Press ENTER to make the selection.

PDISK will display the size of the drive that has been selected. It will also
check if the drive has already been partitioned and warn you about it.

If you still want to partition the drive, presss 'Y'.

If the hard disk is larger than 2GBytes, you will be shown the following 
message:

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	DOS & early versions of Win95 only allow partitions of up to 2048 
	MBytes.
	You can create up to a maximum of 3 partitions including extended 
	partitions.

	Do you want to use FAT32? Y/[N]

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When you answer Y(es), the partition ID used will be that of a FAT32 partition.
This is so that when you format the drive later on, the format program, 
assuming it is FAT32-aware, will format the partition using FAT32.

You will then be prompted if you want to create one single partition. If you
answer Y(es), the entire hard disk will be used for a single primary partition.

If you answer N(o), you will then be allowed to select the size of each 
partition.

The first prompt you will see is this:

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	Create primary/boot partition(MBytes, max/default x MBytes) :

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x is the maximum or default size for that partition. Pressing ENTER
without entering a number will create a partition using the default size.

Note that the maximum partition size you can create is 2GBytes whether or
not you use FAT32. This will change in a later version of PDISK.

If you want smaller partition size than the default, just type in the size
in megabytes you need and press enter.

The second prompt you will see is this:

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	Create second partition(MBytes, max/default x MBytes) :

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Press ENTER or type in a value and press ENTER.

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	Is this an alternate primary partition? Y/[N]',0

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If you are creating more than one primary partition, press 'Y' to define this
second one as a primary partition.

If you answer N(o), an extended partition will be created instead. Once you
create an extended partition, you cannot create another primary partition.

You will be prompted to define new partitions until there is no more hard disk
space left or until you have reached the limit of 3 partitions.

You will then see a summary of the partitions defined:

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	Partitions defined are:
	- x MBytes
	- y MBytes
	- z MBytes

	LAST CHANCE! Confirm partition drive [Y/N] ?

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Answering Y(es) will overwrite data on the hard disk. So think before you do
anything here.

Answering N(o) will not do anything to the hard disk. You can also press ESC to
quit.

When you decide to answer Y(es), the new partition data will be written to the
hard disk. You should see:

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	Disk Successfully Partitioned

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Press any key to quit.

You must now restart your computer so that the operating system will recognise 
the new partitions.

If you just want to use the partitions without installing any operating 
systems, do not forget to format the partitions first.

Note that at any point, should you change your mind and want to abort the 
operation, press the ESC key.



d. Error Messages

You may see one of two error messages:

	a. Error writing to disk
	b. Error reading from to disk

In either of the cases, check your hard disk with a good diagnostic program.



5. What Next?

What next for PDISK?

The current free version is a very simple program. You might already have 
noticed some limits to it like the 2048MB limit.

PDISK will be upgraded in the future. However, priority will still be 
given to products like Power Boot and The Z-pA/ZppA.

On the other hand, if you feel that PDISK is useful and you really want 
better/more features, please let us know about it so that we have an excuse 
to upgrade it earlier than planned.





















 

