Changing partition size

[Dennis]

I have a drive partitioned into C: and D:. I need to make D: larger and,
of course, C: smaller. What is the easiest way to do this. This is a
dual boot system with Windows XP Pro on D: and Windows 98SE on C:.

 

[Gilgamesh]

I have a drive partitioned into C: and D:. I need to make D: larger and,
of course, C: smaller. What is the easiest way to do this. This is a
dual boot system with Windows XP Pro on D: and Windows 98SE on C:.

I'd use EASEUS Partition Master (http://www.partition-tool.com/)]
The Home edition is free

 

[John Inzer]

I have a drive partitioned into C: and D:. I need to make D: larger
and, of course, C: smaller. What is the easiest way to do this. This
is a dual boot system with Windows XP Pro on D: and Windows 98SE on
C:.

========================================
Maybe the following freeware would be worth a try:

EASEUS Partition Manager
http://www.partition-tool.com/download.htm

 

[Bob Harris]

Use of a few third-party (non-Microsoft) partition managers.

Norton's Partition Magic is probably the best known of these programs.
However, it has not been updated for about half a decade, so I would not
recommend it for larger disks.

My current favorite is Easeus Partition Manager. It handles very large
disks and lets you write a bootable CD, which can then change partitions
outside the operating system. Easeus will also perform some partition
changes from within XP.

Note that while Partition Magic seems to work from within Windows, it really
reboots the PC to do the work. Under 98 it booted into DOC; under XP it
seems to boot into a low-level of XP, similar to the mode used by CHKDSK
when acting on the partition containing the operating system.

Other managers are listed at http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads8.html Also
at this website are defraggers, recovery software, boot software, cleaners,
etc.

In most cases you will need to do the changes in two steps:

(1) reduce the size of C:.
(2) increase the size of D:.

The first operation will go faster, if you defrag C: and thereby squeeze
files to the front of C:.

A slightly different approach would be to make an image of each partition on
an external USB or eSATA disk using a program such as True Image, then
format each, then change partition sizes (using a bootable CD), then restore
the images.

Of course, be sure to backup both partitions, or at least your personal
data, before attempting to change size.

 

[Dennis]

Thanks for the reply.

EASEUS Partition Master does not list Win98. Can it still be used to
make C: smaller if C: is a Win98 partition?

I have a drive partitioned into C: and D:. I need to make D: larger and,
of course, C: smaller. What is the easiest way to do this. This is a
dual boot system with Windows XP Pro on D: and Windows 98SE on C:.

I'd use EASEUS Partition Master (http://www.partition-tool.com/)]
The Home edition is free

 

[Tim Meddick]

Win98 partitions are 'Fat' or 'Fat32' and they will be labelled as such
within EAESUS Partition Manager's interface. Yes you can do the normal
range of operations as you can on a WinXP - 'NTFS' partition.

--

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

Thanks for the reply.

EASEUS Partition Master does not list Win98. Can it still be used to
make C: smaller if C: is a Win98 partition?

I have a drive partitioned into C: and D:. I need to make D: larger and,
of course, C: smaller. What is the easiest way to do this. This is a
dual boot system with Windows XP Pro on D: and Windows 98SE on C:.

I'd use EASEUS Partition Master (http://www.partition-tool.com/)]
The Home edition is free

 

[Bruce Chambers]

I have a drive partitioned into C: and D:. I need to make D: larger and,
of course, C: smaller. What is the easiest way to do this. This is a
dual boot system with Windows XP Pro on D: and Windows 98SE on C:.

Using either Win9x's or WinXP's native tools, there's no way to do
this without completely wiping the hard drive and starting afresh. It's
be a lot quicker to use a 3rd party partitioning utility to resize the
existing partitions.

For a fully functional, free, 30-day evaluation version, BootItNG
can't be beat:

Terabyte Unlimited's BootItNG
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.html


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot

 

[Twayne]

Use of a few third-party (non-Microsoft) partition managers.

Norton's Partition Magic is probably the best known of these programs.
However, it has not been updated for about half a decade, so I would
not recommend it for larger disks.

Actually, Norton's PM is working well for me on large disks (1 teraByte)
and not blinking an eye, but I can't say there aren't things one might
attempt that it would have a problem with. It also handles an internal
500 Gig just as handily. I'm not aware at least of any large disk
problems - yet. I think if PM were having problems with disk sizes is
something that would be screamed about a lot on the groups and forums
but it isn't AFAIK.

My current favorite is Easeus Partition Manager. It handles very
large disks and lets you write a bootable CD, which can then change
partitions outside the operating system. Easeus will also perform
some partition changes from within XP.

Not one to burn bridges behind me though, EASUS is turning up more and
more in the places I frequent and I'm going to check it out. My
original interest in PM was its simplicity of use and error checking
abilities; if easus can meet or beat that, they may well have another
supporter. Unlike MS strategy, it's always nice to have multiple
sourece for anything.

Note that while Partition Magic seems to work from within Windows, it
really reboots the PC to do the work. Under 98 it booted into DOC;
under XP it seems to boot into a low-level of XP, similar to the mode
used by CHKDSK when acting on the partition containing the operating
system.
Other managers are listed at
http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads8.html Also at this website are
defraggers, recovery software, boot software, cleaners, etc.

That is also an EXCELlent site! Highly recommended.

HTH,

Twayne

 

[Gilgamesh]

Actually, Norton's PM is working well for me on large disks (1 teraByte)
and not blinking an eye, but I can't say there aren't things one might
attempt that it would have a problem with. It also handles an internal 500
Gig just as handily. I'm not aware at least of any large disk problems -
yet. I think if PM were having problems with disk sizes is something that
would be screamed about a lot on the groups and forums but it isn't AFAIK.

Disk size isn't so much a problem as partition size. Norton PM xan't handle
partitins greater than 300Gb, this is listed in their own documentation.

 

[Dennis]

Thanks for the reply.

EASEUS Partition Master does not list Win98. Can it still be used to
make C: smaller if C: is a Win98 partition?

I have a drive partitioned into C: and D:. I need to make D: larger and,
of course, C: smaller. What is the easiest way to do this. This is a
dual boot system with Windows XP Pro on D: and Windows 98SE on C:.

I'd use EASEUS Partition Master (http://www.partition-tool.com/)]
The Home edition is free

I used EASEUS Partition Master to resize my C: partition smaller so
that I can make D: larger. Now Windows 98SE no longer will boot up
on C:. Any ideas?

 

[Tim Meddick]

Dennis,
I'm really sorry to hear that. Can I ask, as you're talking
about dual boot with Win98 on drive C: (which isn't normal, as usually you
would be taking advantage of Win XP's built-in dual boot capabilities) what
boot manager are you using? However, as that is not the case, then the D:
drive would be inaccessible without a third-party boot manager installed (to
switch or choose active partitions at boot time). A really good [free] and
tiny one is called Partita (available through the "Interesting DOS Programs"
website). If C: drive (Win98) needs to boot up normally first, then I hope
[and pray] that you have a Win98-style Boot Disk handy. If you have, it's
as simple as booting from it [the floppy] and, if you can 'see' drive c:,
just typing the command:

sys a: c:

....at the DOS-Prompt that appears. Reboot, and all should be well with the
win98 partition. If you cannot 'see' the c: drive at all then you need to
run fdisk from the boot floppy and make the win98 partition the 'active'
partition. Then reboot again from the floppy and type the 'sys a: c:'
command. After Win98 is running again, then install a boot manager to be
able to switch active partitions.

IF YOU HAD INSTALLED XP on top of Win 98, it would have automatically
configured a dual boot system.
IF YOU DO NOT have a Win98 boot disk you need to get to a working Win98
installation and type 'bootdisk' at the Win98 DOS Prompt. *NB* a XP
bootdisk will NOT do it.

I do hope this helps some, unfortunately, you have gotten yourself into a
position that I would find rather taxing to remedy. But, although you may
well need to learn a few more skills, it IS a fixable situation.
--

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

Thanks for the reply.

EASEUS Partition Master does not list Win98. Can it still be used to
make C: smaller if C: is a Win98 partition?

I have a drive partitioned into C: and D:. I need to make D: larger
and,
of course, C: smaller. What is the easiest way to do this. This is a
dual boot system with Windows XP Pro on D: and Windows 98SE on C:.

I'd use EASEUS Partition Master (http://www.partition-tool.com/)]
The Home edition is free

I used EASEUS Partition Master to resize my C: partition smaller so
that I can make D: larger. Now Windows 98SE no longer will boot up
on C:. Any ideas?

 

[Bill in Co.]

Dennis,
I'm really sorry to hear that. Can I ask, as you're talking
about dual boot with Win98 on drive C: (which isn't normal, as usually you
would be taking advantage of Win XP's built-in dual boot capabilities)
what
boot manager are you using? However, as that is not the case, then the D:
drive would be inaccessible without a third-party boot manager installed
(to
switch or choose active partitions at boot time). A really good [free]
and
tiny one is called Partita (available through the "Interesting DOS
Programs"
website). If C: drive (Win98) needs to boot up normally first, then I
hope
[and pray] that you have a Win98-style Boot Disk handy. If you have, it's
as simple as booting from it [the floppy] and, if you can 'see' drive c:,
just typing the command:

sys a: c:

...at the DOS-Prompt that appears. Reboot, and all should be well with
the
win98 partition. If you cannot 'see' the c: drive at all then you need to
run fdisk from the boot floppy and make the win98 partition the 'active'
partition. Then reboot again from the floppy and type the 'sys a: c:'
command. After Win98 is running again, then install a boot manager to be
able to switch active partitions.

IF YOU HAD INSTALLED XP on top of Win 98, it would have automatically
configured a dual boot system.

Really? I'm surprised, unless that was offered as an *option* only. I
would have assumed the default behavior would be to install XP directly over
98 (and replace it).

 

[Tim Meddick]

Bill in Co,
Yes, "'really"'. The guy has two partitions already! If XP
were installed with two existing partitions on the drive it would re-format
the partition it was allocated to - NOT the whole drive. It would also
recognise the Win98 installation on the other partition and create a
dual-boot menu with Windows 98 as a boot-menu item.

--

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

Dennis,
I'm really sorry to hear that. Can I ask, as you're talking
about dual boot with Win98 on drive C: (which isn't normal, as usually
you
would be taking advantage of Win XP's built-in dual boot capabilities)
what
boot manager are you using? However, as that is not the case, then the
D:
drive would be inaccessible without a third-party boot manager installed
(to
switch or choose active partitions at boot time). A really good [free]
and
tiny one is called Partita (available through the "Interesting DOS
Programs"
website). If C: drive (Win98) needs to boot up normally first, then I
hope
[and pray] that you have a Win98-style Boot Disk handy. If you have,
it's
as simple as booting from it [the floppy] and, if you can 'see' drive c:,
just typing the command:

sys a: c:

...at the DOS-Prompt that appears. Reboot, and all should be well with
the
win98 partition. If you cannot 'see' the c: drive at all then you need
to
run fdisk from the boot floppy and make the win98 partition the 'active'
partition. Then reboot again from the floppy and type the 'sys a: c:'
command. After Win98 is running again, then install a boot manager to
be
able to switch active partitions.

IF YOU HAD INSTALLED XP on top of Win 98, it would have automatically
configured a dual boot system.

Really? I'm surprised, unless that was offered as an *option* only. I
would have assumed the default behavior would be to install XP directly
over 98 (and replace it).

 

[Bill in Co.]

OK. I missed that!

Bill in Co,
Yes, "'really"'. The guy has two partitions already! If
XP
were installed with two existing partitions on the drive it would
re-format
the partition it was allocated to - NOT the whole drive. It would also
recognise the Win98 installation on the other partition and create a
dual-boot menu with Windows 98 as a boot-menu item.

--

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

Dennis,
I'm really sorry to hear that. Can I ask, as you're talking
about dual boot with Win98 on drive C: (which isn't normal, as usually
you
would be taking advantage of Win XP's built-in dual boot capabilities)
what
boot manager are you using? However, as that is not the case, then the
D:
drive would be inaccessible without a third-party boot manager installed
(to
switch or choose active partitions at boot time). A really good [free]
and
tiny one is called Partita (available through the "Interesting DOS
Programs"
website). If C: drive (Win98) needs to boot up normally first, then I
hope
[and pray] that you have a Win98-style Boot Disk handy. If you have,
it's
as simple as booting from it [the floppy] and, if you can 'see' drive
c:,
just typing the command:

sys a: c:

...at the DOS-Prompt that appears. Reboot, and all should be well with
the
win98 partition. If you cannot 'see' the c: drive at all then you need
to
run fdisk from the boot floppy and make the win98 partition the 'active'
partition. Then reboot again from the floppy and type the 'sys a: c:'
command. After Win98 is running again, then install a boot manager to
be
able to switch active partitions.

IF YOU HAD INSTALLED XP on top of Win 98, it would have automatically
configured a dual boot system.

Really? I'm surprised, unless that was offered as an *option* only. I
would have assumed the default behavior would be to install XP directly
over 98 (and replace it).

 

[Tim Meddick]

Not a problem. I just wish I was better at explaining what to do with two
installations, on two partitions and non of them set to 'Active'. It's
fairly straightforward if you have a Win98 boot disk,with 'fdisk.exe' and
'sys.com' on it. But then again there's the issue with XP not handing the
dual-boot, so making the need to have third-party boot-managing software. As
I said before - 'partita' is one [free] good one, I used it for a long time
on my last computer.

--

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

OK. I missed that!

Bill in Co,
Yes, "'really"'. The guy has two partitions already! If
XP
were installed with two existing partitions on the drive it would
re-format
the partition it was allocated to - NOT the whole drive. It would also
recognise the Win98 installation on the other partition and create a
dual-boot menu with Windows 98 as a boot-menu item.

--

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

Tim Meddick wrote:
Dennis,
I'm really sorry to hear that. Can I ask, as you're
talking
about dual boot with Win98 on drive C: (which isn't normal, as usually
you
would be taking advantage of Win XP's built-in dual boot capabilities)
what
boot manager are you using? However, as that is not the case, then the
D:
drive would be inaccessible without a third-party boot manager
installed
(to
switch or choose active partitions at boot time). A really good [free]
and
tiny one is called Partita (available through the "Interesting DOS
Programs"
website). If C: drive (Win98) needs to boot up normally first, then I
hope
[and pray] that you have a Win98-style Boot Disk handy. If you have,
it's
as simple as booting from it [the floppy] and, if you can 'see' drive
c:,
just typing the command:

sys a: c:

...at the DOS-Prompt that appears. Reboot, and all should be well with
the
win98 partition. If you cannot 'see' the c: drive at all then you need
to
run fdisk from the boot floppy and make the win98 partition the
'active'
partition. Then reboot again from the floppy and type the 'sys a: c:'
command. After Win98 is running again, then install a boot manager to
be
able to switch active partitions.

IF YOU HAD INSTALLED XP on top of Win 98, it would have automatically
configured a dual boot system.

Really? I'm surprised, unless that was offered as an *option* only.
I
would have assumed the default behavior would be to install XP directly
over 98 (and replace it).

 

[John John - MVP]

Thanks for the reply.

EASEUS Partition Master does not list Win98. Can it still be used to
make C: smaller if C: is a Win98 partition?

I have a drive partitioned into C: and D:. I need to make D: larger
and,
of course, C: smaller. What is the easiest way to do this. This is a
dual boot system with Windows XP Pro on D: and Windows 98SE on C:.

I'd use EASEUS Partition Master (http://www.partition-tool.com/)]
The Home edition is free

I used EASEUS Partition Master to resize my C: partition smaller so
that I can make D: larger. Now Windows 98SE no longer will boot up
on C:. Any ideas?

You have to rebuild the Bootsect.dos file. This file contains
information about the partition size and its starting and ending
locations, when you resized the partition the information in the file
became invalid.

To rebuild the file you have to write a Windows 9x boot sector to the
partition and return the boot mechanism to the Windows 98 IO.sys file.
You can write the boot sector with a Windows 98 startup floppy and the
sys c: command.

After you write the Windows 9x boot sector to the partition you can boot
into the Windows 98 installation and rebuild the bootsect.dos file with
the ancient Debug command:

From Windows 98 start an MS-DOS Prompt and navigate to the root of the
System drive (C:\) and issue the following commands, pressing enter
after each:

debug
L 100 2 0 1
N C:\BOOTSECT.DOS
R BX
0
R CX
200
W
Q

You can run the above commands at the debug screen, but an even easier
way is to just copy them to a file and have debug run them
automatically. Copy the stuff *between* the === lines and save it in a
notepad file as READ.SCR, save the file in an easy to find and navigate
to directory, the root folder of the drive (C:\) is as good a place as
any other:

READ.SCR

============================================
L 100 3 0 1
N C:\BOOTSECT.DOS
R BX
0
R CX
200
W
Q
============================================

Now, from the Windows 98 inatallation start a command prompt session
and navigate to the folder where the READ.SCR file is located (C:\) and
issue the following command:

debug <read.scr

This will create a C:\BOOTSECT.DOS file from the boot sector of the
Windows 98 installation on partition. Now you have to return the boot
mechanism back to ntldr, you have to write the NT boot sector to the
partition.

Exit the Windows 98 installation and using your Windows XP CD boot to
the Recovery Console and issue the FIXBOOT command on the active
partition (the drive hosting the Windows 98 installation, C:\), that
will write an NT boot sector to the partition and you should now be able
to boot to either of your operating systems when you boot the computer
from the hard drive. If you find that it doesn't boot then boot to the
Recovery Console again and issue FIXMBR and FIXBOOT. If needed you
may also find the BOOTCFG command to be useful, but bear in mind that
the BOOTCFG command cannot find and add Windows 9x installations to the
boot.ini file.

Of course if all of the above is a bit too complicated you can always
try the easy way, use a third party utility to automate the task!

http://thpc.info/dual/bootsectdos.html

John

 

[John John - MVP]

Whoops! I mad a mistake in the READ.SCR file, it should read:

READ.SCR

============================================
L 100 2 0 1
N C:\BOOTSECT.DOS
R BX
0
R CX
200
W
Q
============================================

Thanks for the reply.

EASEUS Partition Master does not list Win98. Can it still be used to
make C: smaller if C: is a Win98 partition?

Gilgamesh wrote:
I have a drive partitioned into C: and D:. I need to make D: larger
and,
of course, C: smaller. What is the easiest way to do this. This is a
dual boot system with Windows XP Pro on D: and Windows 98SE on C:.

I'd use EASEUS Partition Master (http://www.partition-tool.com/)]
The Home edition is free

I used EASEUS Partition Master to resize my C: partition smaller so
that I can make D: larger. Now Windows 98SE no longer will boot up
on C:. Any ideas?

You have to rebuild the Bootsect.dos file. This file contains
information about the partition size and its starting and ending
locations, when you resized the partition the information in the file
became invalid.

To rebuild the file you have to write a Windows 9x boot sector to the
partition and return the boot mechanism to the Windows 98 IO.sys file.
You can write the boot sector with a Windows 98 startup floppy and the
sys c: command.

After you write the Windows 9x boot sector to the partition you can boot
into the Windows 98 installation and rebuild the bootsect.dos file with
the ancient Debug command:

From Windows 98 start an MS-DOS Prompt and navigate to the root of the
System drive (C:\) and issue the following commands, pressing enter
after each:

debug
L 100 2 0 1
N C:\BOOTSECT.DOS
R BX
0
R CX
200
W
Q

You can run the above commands at the debug screen, but an even easier
way is to just copy them to a file and have debug run them
automatically. Copy the stuff *between* the === lines and save it in a
notepad file as READ.SCR, save the file in an easy to find and navigate
to directory, the root folder of the drive (C:\) is as good a place as
any other:

READ.SCR

============================================
L 100 3 0 1
N C:\BOOTSECT.DOS
R BX
0
R CX
200
W
Q
============================================

Now, from the Windows 98 inatallation start a command prompt session
and navigate to the folder where the READ.SCR file is located (C:\) and
issue the following command:

debug <read.scr

This will create a C:\BOOTSECT.DOS file from the boot sector of the
Windows 98 installation on partition. Now you have to return the boot
mechanism back to ntldr, you have to write the NT boot sector to the
partition.

Exit the Windows 98 installation and using your Windows XP CD boot to
the Recovery Console and issue the FIXBOOT command on the active
partition (the drive hosting the Windows 98 installation, C:\), that
will write an NT boot sector to the partition and you should now be able
to boot to either of your operating systems when you boot the computer
from the hard drive. If you find that it doesn't boot then boot to the
Recovery Console again and issue FIXMBR and FIXBOOT. If needed you
may also find the BOOTCFG command to be useful, but bear in mind that
the BOOTCFG command cannot find and add Windows 9x installations to the
boot.ini file.

Of course if all of the above is a bit too complicated you can always
try the easy way, use a third party utility to automate the task!

http://thpc.info/dual/bootsectdos.html

John

 

[Dennis]

I installed Windows 98 on C: then installed Windows XP on D: and when
I start the computer it gives me the choice of just letting it boot
to XP Pro on D: or changing it to boot to Windows 98SE. If it was more
complicated my brain wouldn't figure it out.

 

[Dennis]

That's what I did. Only I installed XP on a different partition.

 

[Tim Meddick]

Hi Dennis,
In that case it's a matter of rebuilding the boot partition.
The Partition table is sometimes written over be programs that resize
partitions. Unfortunately, this is where XP writes a tiny bit of code to
start the boot menu that you [used to] see when your computer starts up. To
repair this you need your XP installation disk. Configure your BIOS
settings to be able to boot from the cd. Put the cd in the drive and boot
from it. When it gives you the choice - select the item: "Repair XP with
Recovery Console". After it starts you will be prompted for the
Administrator password, so beforehand you should know what this is. If you
have never configured a password for Administrator, it will have remained
'blank' and just pressing [ENTER] when the password is required will be
fine. Then you will be faced by a DOS-style "C:\>" prompt. This is NOT
the same as DOS and for a list of available commands type "help" and press
[ENTER] for more help on a command type the command followed by a /?
forward-slash / questionmark 'switch'. So for the 'fixboot' command help
would look like:

fixboot /?

...and you would get::

Writes a new bootsector onto the system partition.

FIXBOOT [drive:]

[drive:] Specifies the drive to which a boot sector
will be written, overriding the default
choice of the system boot partition.

.....etc. Then type:

fixboot c:

....at the prompt and press [ENTER] reboot. Your boot.ini file listing the
available bootable Windows installations (i.e. XP and 98) should be intact
on you XP drive, and all should be as it was with regards to your boot
process.

Good luck with this. Re-post with the results of your exploits and/or any
[further] problems.

--

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.

I installed Windows 98 on C: then installed Windows XP on D: and when
I start the computer it gives me the choice of just letting it boot
to XP Pro on D: or changing it to boot to Windows 98SE. If it was more
complicated my brain wouldn't figure it out.

Dennis,
I'm really sorry to hear that. Can I ask, as you're talking
about dual boot with Win98 on drive C: (which isn't normal, as usually
you would be taking advantage of Win XP's built-in dual boot
capabilities) what boot manager are you using? However, as that is not
the case, then the D: drive would be inaccessible without a third-party
boot manager installed (to switch or choose active partitions at boot
time). A really good [free] and tiny one is called Partita (available
through the "Interesting DOS Programs" website). If C: drive (Win98)
needs to boot up normally first, then I hope [and pray] that you have a
Win98-style Boot Disk handy. If you have, it's as simple as booting from
it [the floppy] and, if you can 'see' drive c:, just typing the command:

sys a: c:

...at the DOS-Prompt that appears. Reboot, and all should be well with
the win98 partition. If you cannot 'see' the c: drive at all then you
need to run fdisk from the boot floppy and make the win98 partition the
'active' partition. Then reboot again from the floppy and type the 'sys
a: c:' command. After Win98 is running again, then install a boot
manager to be able to switch active partitions.

IF YOU HAD INSTALLED XP on top of Win 98, it would have automatically
configured a dual boot system.
IF YOU DO NOT have a Win98 boot disk you need to get to a working Win98
installation and type 'bootdisk' at the Win98 DOS Prompt. *NB* a XP
bootdisk will NOT do it.

I do hope this helps some, unfortunately, you have gotten yourself into a
position that I would find rather taxing to remedy. But, although you
may well need to learn a few more skills, it IS a fixable situation.