Simple question; forgot the answer

[oldman]

I want to take an internal 1TB SATA WD Hard drive and format it into about
five 100 GB partitions for use on PII laptop having 98se with the rest
formated into larger partitions for use under an XP desktop such that the
smaller partitions will be workable with both XP and 98SE computers. I have
a USB adapter that will recognize the drive from most USB ports.

Is that possible? Anyone give me some hints on easiest way to do that?
I do know the desktop bios is capable of 1TB drives, but the bios for the
laptop is pretty old, so probably not anything above 100 GB (I am
guessing?).

Thanks for any help.

 

[Rod Speed]

I want to take an internal 1TB SATA WD Hard drive and format it into
about five 100 GB partitions for use on PII laptop having 98se with
the rest formated into larger partitions for use under an XP desktop
such that the smaller partitions will be workable with both XP and
98SE computers. I have a USB adapter that will recognize the drive
from most USB ports.

Is that possible?

Yes, and there is no need to format it into multiple partitions either.

Anyone give me some hints on easiest way to do that?

Just format it FAT32 since 98SE cant see NTFS formatted partitions.

Since XP isnt happy with a single 500GB FAT32 partition,
you will have to format it using the 98SE computer.

98SE can handle a single 1TB partition fine if you want to go that route.

You'll need to use the latest FDISK if you want to partition it as you specified,
I wouldnt bother myself, I'd just format it as a single 1TB partition by right
mouse clicking on the drive in Mt Computer in the 98SE computer.

I do know the desktop bios is capable of 1TB drives, but the bios for the
laptop is pretty old, so probably not anything above 100 GB (I am guessing?).

That isnt relevant with a USB external drive. All you need is USB2 ports on
the laptop. It wont be very useable if its only got USB1 ports, much too slow.

 

[mm]

I want to take an internal 1TB SATA WD Hard drive and format it into about
five 100 GB partitions for use on PII laptop having 98se with the rest
formated into larger partitions for use under an XP desktop such that the
smaller partitions will be workable with both XP and 98SE computers. I have
a USB adapter that will recognize the drive from most USB ports.

Is that possible? Anyone give me some hints on easiest way to do that?
I do know the desktop bios is capable of 1TB drives, but the bios for the
laptop is pretty old, so probably not anything above 100 GB (I am
guessing?).

Thanks for any help.

I don't know about sizes. All I know is don't use Easeus Partition
Master to move, copy, shrink, enlarge, or do anything else with a
system-filled win98 partition, or it won't work anymore. Their
documentation makes clear that you have to run EPM from XP or higher,
or at least not 98 or ME, but says only in some obscure pplace that if
you run from XP and fiddle with 98, youll get messed up. (I had to
run fixMBR, one other step, fixBOOT, and defrag to get it working
again.

I'd also be wary of any partitioning program written after win98 was
no longer popular, and I'd get a copy of Partition Magic if I needed
to move, shrink, enlarge, a partition with win98 in it. Or copy. I
think it copies.

I think you can still use recent programs to create empty win98
partitions, or to change the label or volume number.

 

[Rod Speed]

mm wrote

I don't know about sizes. All I know is don't use Easeus Partition
Master to move, copy, shrink, enlarge, or do anything else with a
system-filled win98 partition, or it won't work anymore. Their
documentation makes clear that you have to run EPM from XP or higher,
or at least not 98 or ME, but says only in some obscure pplace that if
you run from XP and fiddle with 98, youll get messed up. (I had to
run fixMBR, one other step, fixBOOT, and defrag to get it working again.

I'd also be wary of any partitioning program written after win98
was no longer popular, and I'd get a copy of Partition Magic if
I needed to move, shrink, enlarge, a partition with win98 in it.

Its much more error prone than say Acronis True Image or Acronis Disk Director Suite.

Or copy. I think it copies.

I think you can still use recent programs to create empty
win98 partitions, or to change the label or volume number.

You can use any properly designed app to do anything you want.

FAT32 partitions are FAT32 partitions.

Its only XP and later that wont create FAT32 partitions bigger than
32GB but they will use them fine if you create them with something else.

 

[oldman]

Yes, and there is no need to format it into multiple partitions
either.


Just format it FAT32 since 98SE cant see NTFS formatted partitions.

Since XP isnt happy with a single 500GB FAT32 partition,
you will have to format it using the 98SE computer.

98SE can handle a single 1TB partition fine if you want to go that
route.

You'll need to use the latest FDISK if you want to partition it as you
specified, I wouldnt bother myself, I'd just format it as a single 1TB
partition by right mouse clicking on the drive in Mt Computer in the
98SE computer.


That isnt relevant with a USB external drive. All you need is USB2
ports on the laptop. It wont be very useable if its only got USB1
ports, much too slow.

Thanks for your reply Rod. Do you happen to know if Bootitng can partition
and format 100 GB partition under 98SE?

Why won't XP do a 500GB partition? What happens with that?

Also this page says you can use any Fdisk IF you format the partitions
using a percentage size rather than specify in GB? Is that true?
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/482

So you're saying that the 137GB limit under 98SE does not apply if drive is
accessed via USB?

Can you please give me an idea of how slow "too slow" is on a USB 1.1 which
is what the old laptop has for say a 2GB file transfer?

 

[Rod Speed]

oldman wrote

Thanks for your reply Rod. Do you happen to know if Bootitng
can partition and format 100 GB partition under 98SE?

Cant remember, dont use it myself.

Why won't XP do a 500GB partition?

MS has silly ideas about what sized partitions are viable with FAT32.

What happens with that?

It just refuses to allow you to create a partition bigger than 32GB with a FAT32 partition.

Its happy to use one tho when you create it with something else.

Also this page says you can use any Fdisk IF you format the partitions
using a percentage size rather than specify in GB? Is that true?
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/482

Yeah, the problem is with how it sees the size in GBs etc.

So you're saying that the 137GB limit under 98SE
does not apply if drive is accessed via USB?
Correct.

Can you please give me an idea of how slow "too slow" is on a USB
1.1 which is what the old laptop has for say a 2GB file transfer?

Its too slow to be useable in the opinion of most. Its 40 times slower.

 

[mm]

mm wrote



Its much more error prone than say Acronis True Image or Acronis Disk Director Suite.



You can use any properly designed app to do anything you want.

But how do you know until it is too late if it is properly designed or
not? Looking at it another way Easeus Partition Master is not
properly designed. And it gave no warning message either.

FAT32 partitions are FAT32 partitions.

Even though iirc I had defragged the win98 fat32 partition and pushed
everything to the "left", Easeus still said it was moving files around
at the end, and when it was done, win98 woudln't boot. The details of
getting dual boot to XP and 98 restored are complicated and I don't
want to state them wrong, but since I wanted my dual boot back, they
required running FixMBR, FixBoot, and an esoteric series of Debug
commands from XP Recovery Console. Then it would boot to the DOS of
win98 but coudln't get to windows itself and couldn't read a lot of
the files, even though I could read and write the same files while in
WinXP. EVenatually I ran defrag on the win98 partition, just in
preparation for something else, and to my surprise, win98 was fine
after that.

I can find the thread in another ng I"m sure that deals with this if
anyone is interested.

Its only XP and later that wont create FAT32 partitions bigger than
32GB but they will use them fine if you create them with something else.

In this case the partition was less than 32G and was being made
smaller, and Easesus Partition Master messed it up.

 

[Rod Speed]

mm wrote

But how do you know until it is too late if it is properly designed or not?

You have a full backup of the drive you are reconfiguring.

With modern hard drives so cheap, it doesnt cost much to do a full
image of the entire physical drive before making a change like that.

Looking at it another way Easeus Partition Master is not
properly designed. And it gave no warning message either.

Yes, and neither does PM when it ****s up either.

Even though iirc I had defragged the win98 fat32 partition and pushed
everything to the "left", Easeus still said it was moving files around
at the end, and when it was done, win98 woudln't boot. The details of
getting dual boot to XP and 98 restored are complicated and I don't
want to state them wrong, but since I wanted my dual boot back, they
required running FixMBR, FixBoot, and an esoteric series of Debug
commands from XP Recovery Console. Then it would boot to the DOS
of win98 but coudln't get to windows itself and couldn't read a lot of
the files, even though I could read and write the same files while in
WinXP. EVenatually I ran defrag on the win98 partition, just in
preparation for something else, and to my surprise, win98 was fine
after that.

And if you had had a full image of the entire physical drive, you could
have just restored that and tried again with something else instead.

I can find the thread in another ng I"m sure that deals with this if anyone is interested.

In this case the partition was less than 32G and was being
made smaller, and Easesus Partition Master messed it up.

Yes, anything like that should have a full image of the entire physical drive
done first before you do something like that, because that sort of thing
doesnt get done often enough to ensure that all bugs are quickly sorted out,

They never did get fixed with PM, they went bust eventually.