Laptop Won't Recognize more than 8.4GB HDD

[jaclaz]

Just as a recent prove that Murphy's Laws do apply to non-standard setups :

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=144947

jaclaz

[JorgeA]

Just as a recent prove that Murphy's Laws do apply to non-standard setups :

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=144947

jaclaz

jaclaz,

Well, that's a pretty good argument for avoiding a second primary partition. Who needs that headache?

Suppose that I do create an extended+logical partition. In case I need to boot with a DOS (7.10) diskette for some reason, will it know what's going on with the HDD, or will the new structure confuse it?

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

rloew,

I like the flexibility that you describe for RFDISK. Based on what you know about the level of expertise I have shown in this thread, do you think that I could probably use it to set up the extended+logical partition without messing up royally?

--JorgeA

The Program is not the easiest to use. It is intended for Power users and has no GUI.

Read the MANUAL.TXT File in the Demo to get an idea of it's complexity.

You can run the Demo on your existing Hard Drive without any risk by using the Debug Option.

I am currently finishing up a Major Upgrade that will support Hard Drives larger than 2TiB.

rloew,

Thanks for the description.

I'm certainly comfortable with command-line computing (see my long post to jaclaz), as long as I know what I'm doing. A demo should help a lot in that regard.

This might be like asking the Greeks what they think of Turks, but -- what do you think of the Ranish Partition Manager in comparison? I see that that's a popular solution for partitioning needs.

--JorgeA

[jaclaz]

Suppose that I do create an extended+logical partition. In case I need to boot with a DOS (7.10) diskette for some reason, will it know what's going on with the HDD, or will the new structure confuse it?

Naah, that's as said - a "standard" setup, compatible with *everything*.

Not at all to put down the nice app by rloew, but it repesents an "advanced tool" to do "advanced things".

If you decide to go "standard", you can use "standard" (FDISK) or "super" (RPM) and need not "hyper" (RFDISK), just like to commute every day to work you may use your current car or (maybe ) a Porsche 911 , but don't *need* a Koenigsegg CCR or CCX, (mainly because you wouldn't be able to spell it's name )

jaclaz

[rloew]

Suppose that I do create an extended+logical partition. In case I need to boot with a DOS (7.10) diskette for some reason, will it know what's going on with the HDD, or will the new structure confuse it?

Naah, that's as said - a "standard" setup, compatible with *everything*.

Not at all to put down the nice app by rloew, but it repesents an "advanced tool" to do "advanced things".

If you decide to go "standard", you can use "standard" (FDISK) or "super" (RPM) and need not "hyper" (RFDISK), just like to commute every day to work you may use your current car or (maybe ) a Porsche 911 , but don't *need* a Koenigsegg CCR or CCX, (mainly because you wouldn't be able to spell it's name )

jaclaz

RPM is about as far as you can get from "Standard". By default, it creates Partitions that are not aligned on Cylinder Boundaries, and can cause some BIOSes to switch to 240 Heads per Cylinder Mode. Versions later than 2.4.0 don't work on all systems.

For "Standard" you are limited to FDISK, RFDISK or something else entirely.

FDISK will not allow you to convert the Logical Partition to a Primary Partition at a later date.

Whether I go with two primary partitions, or one primary + one extended partition -- will either choice present a problem to DOS? Sometimes I find that I have to use a DOS floppy, to boot or just to copy files, so I'd like to use the choice that won't confuse DOS. Now if they are equally confusing to DOS, or neither one is a problem, then I'll have to decide based on some other factor.

A DOS Floppy uses the same IO.SYS as Windows 98, so any Valid Partition structure is OK.

There are some discrepancies between DOS and Windows 98 but they apply to very specifically sized Partitions.

Just as a recent prove that Murphy's Laws do apply to non-standard setups :

http://www.msfn.org/...howtopic=144947

I have posted a reply to this thread. I believe the phantom Partition is due to a bug I have identified in IO.SYS. It occurs when mixing Nob-DOS Logical Partitions and multiple Primary Partitions.

[JorgeA]

If you decide to go "standard", you can use "standard" (FDISK) or "super" (RPM) and need not "hyper" (RFDISK), just like to commute every day to work you may use your current car or (maybe ) a Porsche 911 , but don't *need* a Koenigsegg CCR or CCX, (mainly because you wouldn't be able to spell it's name )

jaclaz

jaclaz,

That's a nice analogy you draw there, to various types of cars. (And that's a GORGEOUS one that you mentioned at the end.)

To continue the analogy, here's what I'm thinking. An auto is sometimes an "aspirational" purchase, reflecting the owner's view of where he would like to be. So I just might go for the super-duper wheels, RFDISK. B) Let's just say that driving it will be part of the learning/experimentation process.

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

Hello,

I just want to report that I successfully partitioned my Win98SE notebook's new hard disk drive over the weekend, using rloew's RFDISK.

Using this utility was likened to getting behind the wheel of a high-end sports car. If so, then I'd say that the driving experience was a bit scary at first, but great fun from start to finish! B) The Build command to create a script file, and the command to read it, worked like a charm and I got to watch the new extended and logical partitions coming into existence. Thanks to RFDISK I have reclaimed almost half of the real estate on my HDD, which would otherwise have lain fallow. Count me as a happy user.

--JorgeA

[jaclaz]

Thanks to RFDISK I have reclaimed almost half of the real estate on my HDD, which would otherwise have lain fallow.

Well, NO.

You have NO elements to backup the bolded statement, had you also tried ALL the other alternatives and ALL of them had failed, you may have a point.

Anyway happy you succeeded.

For the record and for future memory, this is related to this thread:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=144754

jaclaz

[dencorso]

For the record and for future memory, this is related to this thread:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=144754

Right! In fact, so related that it ought to be a new reply, not a new thread. But this is easy to remedy: topics merged!

And, BTW, I'm glad you succeeded, too!

[JorgeA]

jaclaz,

Thanks for the good wishes. This has been a very educational experience.

What I had in mind when I wrote that the space on the HDD would have remained unused otherwise, is that it would have remained unused had I not done *something* to reclaim it, but thanks to the something I did do (using RFDISK, which worked great) I can now access it. Thanks for the opportunity to clarify.

And thank YOU and everyone else who participated for being so patient with a relative novice's elementary questions, and so willing to share your expertise.

--JorgeA