Fdisk & Format

[rond36]

System information:
Mother board DFI P2XLX Rev. AH+
BIOS Award Modular BIOS V4.51PG
BIOS Date 3/4/98
BIOS String i440LX-2A69JD49C-00
Processor Intel PII MMX 333MHz
A:Generic Floppy Drive
B:None
C:15GB Western Digital 7200 RPM Pri Master
D:8GB Quantum 5400 RPM Pri Slave
E:Iomega Zip CD CDRW Drive Sec Master
F:Toshiba DVDROM Drive Sec Slave
384 MB 10ns SDRAM
ATI All-In-Wonder Pro 8 MB AGP video card
Soundblaster Live Value PCI sound card
Linksys 10/100 Network Everywhere PCI network interface card
Paradyne Hot Wire MVL MODEM
OS Windows 98

If I run fdisk and partition my 15GB C drive will I lose the data on on my D drive.
I only use D drive for backup and downloaded programs and my MP3 colection
I don't run any aplications from D drive.
When I run fdisk on C drive to partition it will it change D drive to E drive and E to F and F to G.
I tried Partition Magic and it messed up my drive letters.
It made my pri master C & E pri slave D. I want pri master C & D pri slave D. is there any way I can do this without losing data on D drive

[Rick]

If you do not use option 5 ( Change Hard disks) you will not harm your data on the second drive.
BUT if your second drive is partitioned using a primary dos partition it will continue to be the D: drive.

Now How Fdisk works and the rules it follows.

By Running Fdisk on a drive and using More than one partition you set up a primary and a secondary (extended partition)
this gives you two drives C: and D: If and when you install the second hard drive you will be adding another drive letter and the way that drive is partitioned using Fdisk will determine how your drive letters are effected.

The Primary Dos partition will cause a change in the drive letter order.
IE: Drive 1 has 2 partitions c+d and a second drive with a dos partition and the drive letters change to Drive 1 dos=c: drive 2 dos=d: and drive 1 extended =e:

To avoid the drive letter change you must partition the second and subsequent drives using EXTENDED partitions only.
Drive 1 primary and extended c+d drive 2 extended partition e: drive 3 f: drive 4 g:

You can also limit the size of the logical drives in the extended partition to form multiple drive.
Drive 1 c+d drive 2 e+f By telling fdisk to use a set amount of the drive space for logical drives in the size you wish.( 8 gig using 6 and 2 ) would give you e at 6gig and f at 2 gig)

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To ERR is HUMAN
To REALLY screw things UP, YOU NEED a COMPUTER !

[rond36]

Thanks Rick I was afraid of that. Looks like fdisk both drives and just when I had built up all this junk that I need to get rid of any way. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/eek.gif

[Rick]

At least you can fdisk drive one into 2 drives .
Reinstall your O/S and then backup the data from disk 2 to the second partition of drive one.
Fdisk drive 2 and after a format Just copy it back to drive 2.

Keep your data and even keep the directory structure you have now..

------------------
To ERR is HUMAN
To REALLY screw things UP, YOU NEED a COMPUTER !