I need some help on how to partition my hard disk without formatting it. On my hard disk already some software was Installed. Thanks in advance for your help.
... I thought if you wanted to simply add a new partition, you could do that with fdisk and it would not interfere with the data stored in already established partitions ... Is that not so?...
...(Not to muddy the waters - I just wanted to get clearer)
you can use partition resizer, its free and works great. will move partitions, expand partition, shrink partitions, create partitions, delete partitions, works well for primary, extended, and logical partitions.
I'm not sure on how much better or worse it is compared to partition magic, however I'm very pleased with what it can do.
Just make sure that you have done a thorough scandisk/checkdisk and defrag before starting and partition resizing/creation.
HI People, I am not so much answering this as asking another question but based on partitioning. If this is inappro priate Please let me know
The problem follows its a bit convoluted so please forgive me.
1] I had already copied across all my files and programs to a new HDD [30gb]. However I have since had problems accessing some of these files, programs. I think I should have uninstalled the programs and reinstalled them onto my new HDD. IS That true?
2.] I saved my photographs from my digital camera [so no hard copies] on CDRom using ECCDCreator 5.
However I recently used fdisk to unpartition the old 8gb hard drive. it was in 4 X 2gb.s
So now the letters identifying the drives are different. and I think this is the reason I can not access any of my photgraphs, the disc is coming up as empty. But I know they are on there cos I have used them before.
NOW do I have to repartition this Drive
Can I do this with fdisk or do I need to get Partition magic or the other program abovefunds are low at the moment and then copy everything back, uninstall, read off and copy my photos to the 'c'drive and then fdisk the whole thing again, reformat reinstall the programs and go from there.
Any ideas would be gratefully received.
from what you're saying you did it right to begin with, although it may be because you have the original hard drive still connected, try disconnecting it and all should be alright, the reason is that dos and win9x will make the second hard drive the d: drive (your 3rd hard drive will be the e: drive and so on) then will go back to your primary drive and assign the other partitions its drive letters, then on to the next hard drive and so on. This could be what is messing up the links and association. If you want to keep your second hard drive, then there are programs out there that can help with this, or you can do it by hand and change the properties, re associate links, change file associations, and so forth, or you can go direct to the source and just change the registry.
If that doesn't work let me know there are other workarounds.
In any case you should invest in a good backup program like Norton's Ghost, Powerquest's Drive Image, NIT Drive Backup! these are mirror backup and the best way to backup your hard drive, you can also use Veritas Backup Exec, not a mirror but will do a good job of backup too. The secret is they use dos or non windows os to backup windows,linux, etc. and this ensures that protected files are backed up as well. Protected files can not be copied while it is in use.
Depends on what you're using it for. Some people like one giant hard drive, some like multiple partitions. I'm with the second camp. This is how my 60g hard drive is partitioned, c: drive is win98, d: drive is win2k, e: drive is programs, f: drive is backup/data, g: drive is cdrw, h: drive is installation programs, i: drive is other/junk/test/etc.
Here are the reasons;
1. multiple os should have their own partitions.
2. faster maintenance, defrag/chkdisk/etc. and you can target a particular drive.
3. faster rebuilds, backups, and restore, only what I need and not the entire hard drive, ex: win98 crashes, I just rebuild or restore that partition, all programs, other os, other partitions are unaffected. Same with backup.
4. for multiple os I save space by installing to same partition/folder.
5. cdrw, while not as important today with burnproof technology, I still keep a clean partition for burning, all burning/temp/builds go here before/during/after burning, burning is also faster while increasing reliability on a clean defragged drive.
6. quick move to new system/new hard drive. Back up or burn the individual partitions and restore/copy to new system/hard drive. btw this is my last resort as I have programs that do a hd xfer between drives and systems.
Hello again Fastoon. thanks for your reply, have been to the US so that is why I am late getting back to U so R U saying that I do have to repartition before I can access all my old Cdroms with photographs on, or are they drive independent?
Sorry to ask more but I wasnt quite sure from your last response and I dont really want to have to undo everything unless I really, really have to.
No you don't have to repartition (although a clean rebuild would be best, just back up your data partitions.)
You just have to reassociate the shortcuts, programs, etc to the right places, seems like from your post that you created more partititions than you originally had, so as example if your icons/programs were pointing to drive E for the photos, and now its on drive G then it will not find them on drive E. There are programs that will do this, however I have not used these nor do I know of any off hand, just start a search and see what comes up. In addition if you can find the photos/data and you double click it and it comes up then the associations are still good, you just need to change the icons/shortcuts for the program itself. If you can bring up the programs but can't find your data, you can use explorer to find the data and point the default saved folder within the program itself.
For partition changes use Partition Resizer (presizer) instead of Partition Magic, again try a search engine, its free and you can move the data around to different partitions, merge/expand/shrink/delete/etc. partitions, it takes a little time to move stuff around so make sure you have a day to do it. You need another program to move the data or use dos or windows to move the data around. Keep in mind that you can't move the c: drive without major modifications or problems (I'm assuming your os is in the c: drive).
I have a good back up program so I can play around with restoring data to different partitions and its no problem, what is a problem for me is restoring the program partition every time I add a new partition for os, unless I add the new os partition to the end then its ok.
Like you I'm not into spending money if I don't have to. If you have AMD and or are upgrading to AMD then you should look into Soltek Motherboards, especially the SL-75drv2, 4 or 5 versions, they come bundled with Powerquest Partition Magic and Drive Image 4, as stand alone they are $60 per program, with the motherboard combo they are $92 to $120 and comes with Trend Micro AntiVirus and Virtual Drive. So for about $100 or so you get a great motherboard and some major quality programs.
Also do you still have the old hard drive? Is the data still intact? I like to use the hard drive utilities to xfer hard drive, my favorite is maxtor's maxblast plus and is a free download, it works on all drives to my knowledge, seagate, western digital, ibm, samsung, etc. all have their versions of it, but most don't work on other makes of drives, so if you still have that old hard drive and it still has the data on it, you might want to try that route.
Thanks Fastoon. not sure what I should eb doing now its a long story. I originally had the 8gb hard drive, My system crashed in that I couldnt get any icons on the screen so couldnt access the HD at all.
The drives then were
A: Floppy
B: not present
C: main drive with OS
D: photograph stuff
E: DTP
F: more Art work stuff when I ran out of space on D and E
G CD/WRiter
H: CDrom
I: removable drive[ my card reader]
I put it into my local computer shop, They couldnt find out how to fix it either.
I decided to put in a new hard drive of 30 gb as my system wouldnt recognise a 40.
I transferred everything to my new drive not realising about all the old pointers to programs. I wanted to let my husband use the old hard drive for his video editing. that way I knew how much space i had and what he could use and we wouldnt lose his stuff, he has not used computers for long except WP and spreadsheets at work.
I then used fdisk to unpartition the old drive, reformattted it and put his program Pinnacle studio with firewire card onto it.
My drives now are
A: Floppy
B: not present
C: my 30gb main with OS
D: the 8gb slave
E:CD/RW
F:CDR
G: Removable
Does this change any advice?
I then discovered that I couldnt access my old cdroms with the photos on. So that is where I am at the moment.
trying to read your answer left me rather dizzy I dont think I am as technical as you think.
this was my first go at unpartioning etc.
BUt I will print out the answer and read it more carefully and get back to you if I need to.
Thank you for your help.
Regards
shirley
That helps, seems like all of the old hard drive data was combined into one big new hard drive, so your paths would have changed,
1st step, do your programs work, try with the icons, desktop, start>programs,
if that doesn't work then open windows explorer find the folder where the programs are installed, open it up and look for a program exe file and click on that(at this point you need to change the paths for the shortcuts, right click icon>properties>Target, change the target path),
Once you get the program working then you can move on to the next step,
open up the configuration/options/etc from the program task bar, what you want to find is where does the program save files.
Look for the existing files from search for files (start>serarch>find files), you can just enter the extension (ex: *.bmp for picture/paint files). Write down where those files are located or just leave search window up.
Use the programs configurations to point to the files you just found with windows explorer.
Click save on all configurations.
Close all windows.
use your normal way of opening the programs, and your normal way of opening files. If it all works then you are done.
Repeat for all other programs/files that are not working properly.
Hi fastoon, All my programs work as I reinstalled them if they didnt, what is happening is that the work on my discs is not available, So would doing what you suggest in your last answer help? OIf not I have heard of a program that should allow me to acccess work on any CD which I may have to resort to buying. ho hum!!!
If you can't get at stuff on your CDs, I assume that they were ones you burned yourself?
If so, you may have had DirectCD, or something similar installed.
You may need to re-install your CD-Burner and all software to be able to access the CDs, if they were formatted with, eg PacketCD format. I haven't used EZ CD Creator 5 - I use v3.5 and am happy with it, so haven't "upgraded". It's possible that this program autoformats CDs in a PacketCD format.
Or, it's also highly likely that the sessions were not closed, if you continued to add work to the CD. If this is the case, then the CDs cannot be read in a system that does not have the appropriate software installed (ie DirectCD).
HI Fastoon, I cant rememebr if I used EZCD% or Direct CD, so will try reinstalling EZCD5 and see what happens.
Thanks so much for all your help
Regards
shirley
Can some one please help me out ? A CD from AOL was try to installed on a Packer Bell win 98 well it crash I can get into bios and os the os message is please put media disk in right drive I can used my win cd to get to dos and it said no fdisk installed then I get message win 98 detected drive c don't have valid fat or fat 32 partition it show to only have 1 drive What can I do to get this to boot up I can't even get into safe mode Thanks BJ
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