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Windows Forum / Windows 98 / Disks / File System / January 2004

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FAT32 conversion and partition questions

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Albert - 14 Jan 2004 20:41 GMT
Mr. Richards or ?,

I have a 6Gb drive that was partioned for me into 4 drives
at 1.99Gb, 1.99Gb, 1.99Gb and 23.4 Mb. I am running W98. I
have been trying to clean up/out the C drive because I
have been getting the message about running out of space
on drive C.

I was thinking that converting all the logical drives to
FAT32 would allow me to repartition to a couple of larger
size drives.

1) Is there a way to repartition now to eliminate the F
drive which can't be converted to FAT32?

2) If I do convert to FAT32, will my idea of
repartitioning work?

3) I started the conversion on Drive C but once it
rebooted in DOS a screen flashed by quickly that looked
like the ScanDisk screen and then it went blank with the
cursor blinking at the top left corner and no HD activity
showing. Is that normal?

Thanks to any and all help!
Tim Slattery - 14 Jan 2004 21:11 GMT
>Mr. Richards or ?,
>
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
>1) Is there a way to repartition now to eliminate the F
>drive which can't be converted to FAT32?

I assume that's the little one. Assuming you want to preserve the data
that's on these drives, you're going to need a third-party tool to do
what you need to do. Partition Magic (www.powerquest.com) is a very
good one, there are others. With such a tool you'll be able to combine
existing partitions and switch them from FAT16 (which I presume they
are using, since none are bigger than 2GB) to FAT32.

>2) If I do convert to FAT32, will my idea of
>repartitioning work?

Yes.

Signature

Tim Slattery
MS MVP(DTS)
Slattery_T@bls.gov

Jeff Richards - 14 Jan 2004 21:23 GMT
You cannot combine partitions with any Windows tools - you need a
third-party utility such as Partition Magic (very good, but expensive) or
BootitNG or Partition Resizer. Your procedure would be to first convert and
combine E and F. You will do this by removing the F partition, converting E
to FAT32, then expanding it into the space that F used, so there is no need
to convert F to FAT32.

I would recommend that you then copy everything from D to E, remove the D
partition, move the start of the extended partition (the container for the
logical drive) up to the start of the new D (the old E), then convert and
expand the C partition up to the same point. This will give you a C
partition of about 4Gb and the rest in D. It looks a bit like this:
CCCCDDDDEEEEF
CCCCCCCCDDDDD
An intermediate option (eg, about 3Gb in each) would work as well.

The reason for this arrangement is that I am guessing that you have a lot of
references in your system to files on D, and much less references to files
on E.  By copying the current contents of D to the new second partition, and
keeping two partitions, the internal refrences to files on D will remain
correct.  If you have references to files on E you will have to fix these as
you find them.

You should run Scandisk to ensure that the file system is OK before making
any changes. Do it from within Windows, and also from a boot to DOS to
ensure that all errors are found.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP W95/W98
> Mr. Richards or ?,
>
[quoted text clipped - 21 lines]
>
> Thanks to any and all help!
Albert - 14 Jan 2004 23:13 GMT
Thank you both for great explanations! Jeff, your diagram
was excellent! What do you consider expensive?

I assume that when I remove a partition it will ask me
where to put the unused space (I could combine it with D
if necessary?) or will it add it to the drive in front of
it?
Did you mean that I should COPY or MOVE everything? (copy
then delete)
Do I hold the F1 key to boot to DOS?

Albert

>-----Original Message-----
>You cannot combine partitions with any Windows tools - you need a
[quoted text clipped - 53 lines]
>
>.
Jeff Richards - 15 Jan 2004 01:58 GMT
For Partition Magic, see:
http://www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic/

If you delete a partition then the space is unused until you allocate it to
a new partition, for instance by extending the end of an existing partition
into the unused space.

Whether you copy or move doesn't really matter, because the old files simply
disappear when the partition is deleted.

You can boot to DOS for running Scandisk by pressing and holding Ctrl before
Windows boots, then selecting Command Prompt Only from the menu.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP W95/W98
> Thank you both for great explanations! Jeff, your diagram
> was excellent! What do you consider expensive?
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
> then delete)
> Do I hold the F1 key to boot to DOS?
Albert - 15 Jan 2004 16:21 GMT
My 6Gb is so full that I can't copy E to D or vice versa,
etc. It's been a while since I installed an additional HD;
If I install a larger HD as a slave, does it ask me to
format it?
Can I use FAT32 on the new drive and then proceed as you
outlined to convert the original 6Gb?
I downloaded Partition Resizer and plan to boot up into MS-
DOS and switch to the 3.25 floppy to run it from. Does
that sound right?

Thanks again,
Albert

>-----Original Message-----
>For Partition Magic, see:
[quoted text clipped - 24 lines]
>
>.
Tim Slattery - 15 Jan 2004 17:17 GMT
>My 6Gb is so full that I can't copy E to D or vice versa,
>etc. It's been a while since I installed an additional HD;
>If I install a larger HD as a slave, does it ask me to
>format it?

When you install any new drive, you first must create one or more
partitions on it (use FDISK). Once partitions exist, the next boot
will assign them "drive letters". Once those exist, you can format
those partitions.

Signature

Tim Slattery
MS MVP(DTS)
Slattery_T@bls.gov

Albert - 15 Jan 2004 18:26 GMT
What size partitions can I create and will FAT 32 vs.
FAT16 be a factor?
Can I run the new drive FAT32 until I convert the original
from FAT16? Can I use Partition Resizer on the original
6Gb and still leave it FAT16?
If I can't un-install W98 after the conversion, will and
upgrade take care of removing it?
Albert
>-----Original Message-----
>
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
>will assign them "drive letters". Once those exist, you can format
>those partitions.
Tim Slattery - 15 Jan 2004 21:05 GMT
>What size partitions can I create and will FAT 32 vs.
>FAT16 be a factor?

FAT16 partitions can be as large as 2.1GB. If you want to create a
partition larger than that, it must be FAT32 (for Win98, anyway).
Answer "Yes" when FDISK asks about "Large disk support". That will
tell it to create FAT32 partitions.

>Can I run the new drive FAT32 until I convert the original
>from FAT16?

Win98 can handle both FAT16 and FAT32 partitions. You can have any mix
of these, the OS will not have a problem.

>Can I use Partition Resizer on the original 6Gb and still leave it FAT16?

I don't know about Partition Resizer, but a FAT16 partition cannot be
6GB.

Signature

Tim Slattery
MS MVP(DTS)
Slattery_T@bls.gov

Jeff Richards - 15 Jan 2004 21:19 GMT
You can create any size partitions you want. If you create partitions larger
than 2Gb then they must be FAT32, otherwise it's your choice (I would
recommend simply accepting the default).

You can run any sort of partitioning you want on  a second drive. It's not
the least bit concerned about the partitioning on the existing drive.

You will not be able to increase the size of any FAT16 partition beyond 2Gb.
You must convert the partition before attempting to make it larger than 2Gb.

Why would you want to uninstall W98 after the conversion?  If you uninstall
W98 the machine won't have an operating system and won't run.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP W95/W98
> What size partitions can I create and will FAT 32 vs.
> FAT16 be a factor?
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> upgrade take care of removing it?
> Albert
Albert - 16 Jan 2004 04:34 GMT
Regarding uninstalling W98; I was concerned that if I try
to upgrade to XP or 2000 or anything, that W98 would still
be left on the disk taking up space.

Otherwise I think I'll install the new drive and then use
it to copy and be able to convert the small drive.

Thanks!
Albert
>-----Original Message-----
>You can create any size partitions you want. If you create partitions larger
[quoted text clipped - 22 lines]
>
>.
 
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