PartitionMagic

[shadow]

I just bought PartitionMagic 5.0 at a price I couldn't resist (free after rebates).
I currently have an 8.4GB with only one partition (FAT32) and Win95B on it. I want to dual boot with NT4 workstation after figuring out the best way to use PM on this drive. I have 1.7GB used on my drive right now which I want to keep intact.

I've never used this program but am looking forward to having a 95/NT system. Any suggestions as how you would arrange things with such a setup would be appreciated.

[thekingofpain]

I have it also, (cost me 50$ tho) rtfm is my advice...all 3/4 of an inch of it (im still tryin to get thru it)

[This message has been edited by thekingofpain (edited 10-19-2000).]

[cyclone2]

How ya doing Shadow, hows school for you?
You will love Partition Magic! You say you have 1.7 gigs on your drive that you want to keep. The way I would do it is use the PM floppies and boot with them, then shrink your existing partition to maybe 2 gigs, make as many partitions as you want with remaining space. Then format them with Fat 16 for the one that you want NT to go into {you can make it NTFS when you install NT if you want} and Fat 32 for your Win 95 install and where you will move your existing files.
DONT format your now shrunk C: drive when you do all that. Its easy to understand once your in PM.
After you do all that and reboot into Windows then move all files etc that you want to keep into your new Fat 32 partition.
Then you will Format C: as Fat 16 and reinstall Win 95 into C: or your new Fat 32 partition then install NT4 into your Fat 16 partition[and convert it if you want to NTFS]
The main thing is you need to have C: as Fat 16 for NT4.
eg; I have on one system C:- ME-fat16 D:-NT4 server-NTFS E:-NTFS-storage
on another C:-shared storage-Fat16 D:-ME-Fat32 E:-storage-Fat32 F:-NTFS-NT4 server
Others may do it differently. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

Oh and I found it best to make the extra partitions Extended partitions in PM


[This message has been edited by cyclone2 (edited 10-19-2000).]

[Gene C.]

I have been useing it since ver. 4.0 and I couldn't live with out it. now use it with the 2k version too. but I have used it both ways 1.4's and hdd install. and I myself find it better and have more options with the hdd install.

just watch out what you are doing. or you will lose some stuff. I know I did while learning it. but, than again. I never use manuals.

[shadow]

Thanks for the ideas.
Hi Cyclone, school is going fine, I think it may be getting easier as some of this finally sinks in! On my last week or so of Novell and then onto NT.

I would rather stay away from reinstalling Win95. I'd prefer to shrink the 95 partition and keep it intact but add more partitions and NT4.
Is that possible? Can I convert from FAT32 to 16 without harming data?

[cyclone2]

You took Novell as well aye, how was that?
As far as converting Fat 32 to 16- doesn't work nor NTFS to 16. One wat street 16- 32 or 16 - NTFS. The only way I can think of to retain your 95 setup [and its a big gamble] would be to copy your files and Windows to another partition, Format C: then try to reinstall Windows over itself in the new partition. Might work?
You have other comps in the house you could slap it on?
Others may have some ideas.............

You might ask anyone that has experience with Drivecopy or Ghost to see if you can copy your drive contents to Cd on your Plextor then change your Fat 32 to 16 via format then clone contents back. Don't know if that would take or not.

[Gene C.]

as to not disrespect anyone post here. I would recommend you read the part of the program help file pm5.pdf concering converting partations ect. you will find out you can do what you want to do. I have done it. you will need the acrobat reader to view them ect.

[cyclone2]

No disrepect taken Gene, if he can convert partitions any other way I would like to learn too thats why I "qualify" my answers with "Others may have some ideas............." such as you http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[shadow]

Actually Cyclone, the PM program can convert from ntfs to 16 to 32, from 32 to 16 or any combo you can think of. Thats one reason why I bought it.

I did my partitioning but had some troubles with the NT install so reversed it all for now. I had resized and moved the win95 partition to the end of the disc. Made a 2GB fat16 partition at the front of the disc and tried to install NT in it. I kept getting errors for files missing while loading it and am not sure what happened yet but I will try again someday soon. For a bit there I thought I had messed up my win95 with the botched NT install but PM's rescue disk saved me. I converted the ntfs partition NT had made back to fat16, and now to fat32 and moved it in behind the Win95 partition of which I moved back to the front of the disk. All works well for all the moving and other **** i did.

Thanks for the feedback all!

[Gene C.]

make sure you already have acrobat reader installed first to be able to view them
go to program files
powerquest/
partitionmagic5pro/
docs
click on pm5
click on converting partitions
and there you are. and ""PLEASE"" if it is important data. back it up. before you try these.
also, this is only giving you information on how to do it. and I'm in noway giving advice to do it.

good luck, and may all your partitions have nice and happy clusters.

[Gene C.]

glad to see all worked out for you on it. just always remember if you do a backup. you have nothing to lose. when trying something new. and with member power. all things are possible