using bootdisk on a second HDD

[ginahoy]

I installed my old HDD in my new Win XP system so I can copy data files to new HDD as needed. The old HDD is 160GB but is only set up with a 32GB primary partition (FAT32). I want to create a ~120GB extended FAT32 partition on that drive and use as a destination for backup images. (I also have an external HDD as my main backup store.)

I downloaded the WinME version of bootdisk from bootdisk.com but I can't figure out how to get FDISK to operate on the second drive.

Advice would be appreciated

David

[Midknyte]

so the old drive is on the xp system? why are you fussing with bootdisks? just run diskmgmt.msc and partition/format from there.

did you use any compatibility jumper settings to restrict the old drive? did you use any overlay software like ezbios?

[ginahoy]

When I installed XP, it would not create an 80GB FAT32 partition. I did some research and learned that the maximum FAT32 partition that XP installer will create is 32GB. Are you saying diskmgmt doesn't have this limitation?

I just checked it out and it shows the old drive with 117GB unallocated. I launched the new partition wizard but it never asked me whether I wanted FAT32 or NTFS, even if I set the extended partition less than 32GB.

If diskmgmt.ms doesn't create FAT32 partitions, I may be able to use FDISK on the second drive by unplugging my C drive.

[Midknyte]

diskmgmt will only allow you to create ntfs partitions if it's larger than 32GB. That is by design.

why do you still need fat32 if you are using winxp now? are you still using win9x after all this?

[Sterling_Aug]

You may want to try using Partition Magic 8.05 to do the create partitions and format with PM.

You really need to use a program with a GUI interface to you can see exactly what you are doing to what drive. It is very easy to delete partitions and format the wrong drive and then there goes your Windows install.

Trust me, been there, done that only once!

[Midknyte]

I don't mean to get on your case, but I was under the impression that you were going to use a VM for winme. You can have a virtual fat32 partition in VM which resides on a real NTFS partition.

You can try swissknife if you are hellbent on making a fat32 partition larger than 32G.
http://www.compuapps.com/download/Swissknife/swissknife.htm

[ginahoy]

My WinME machine does indeed reside in a VM, which now lives on my old HDD in a folder on the primary partition. But since I use the VM mostly to run a couple of applications that I cannot re-install, I don't usually boot the VM every day. Having the old HDD in my machine makes it easy to find old data files until I get around to copying everything over to the new drive.

But the old drive has 117GB of unallocated space that I want to use for older backup archives.

I guess I could use NTFS, but this is all new to me and I wasn't sure if there might be a problem having an NTFS extended partition on the same HDD with a FAT32 primary partition, and also I wasn't sure if my backup software (an old version of Acronis True Image) might have problems accessing an NTFS partition. Plus, my XP drive is formatted FAT32 (a deliberate choice I made after responses to a thread I started last year in the Annoyances.org forum). I figured I'd keep it simple and stick with FAT32.

Thanks for the reference to SwissKnife.

David

[Train]

Yes, we can have Fat32 and NTFS partitions on the same hdd.

I have 98SE installed like that with all the special programs installed there also. Just threw a shortcut to the XP desktop and the programs run fine from XP once they are properly installed in 98.

I got lucky there I think, but they will not work otherwise.

Do not forget the single file size limit in Fat32.

[Sterling_Aug]

Just to clear this up. A Windows 98 or Windows ME OS can not see an NTFS partition and the data on it. Only Windows NT, Win2k, XP, or Vista can access NTFS files.

If you are running the VM with Win ME, then it would not be able to use the extended partition if you set it as NTFS.