Partitioning requiring use under DOS (Windows XP)

[Daniel Hoult]

I have been trying to partition a 200gb hard disk on a new machine with
Partition Magic 8.

Because the drive has a hidden partition by the manufacturer (backup by
Packard Bell) that does not have a letter, Partition Magic produces error
117. The Symantec site says:

"The solution is to run PartitionMagic from DOS or from MS-DOS mode (in
Windows 95 or Windows 98). When PartitionMagic runs from DOS or from MS-DOS
mode, it does not need to be able to find the drive letter for each
partition. Thus, if the problem indicated by this error message is the only
problem, PartitionMagic can run successfully."

I understand that running the DOS command line under Windows XP is not true
DOS. What is the easiest way to run DOS, or as near as to achieve what I
want? (The machine has no floppy drive, but I could make a bootable CD-R if
needed)

TIA for any advice,

Dan.

 

[Randy Harris]

I have been trying to partition a 200gb hard disk on a new machine with
Partition Magic 8.

Because the drive has a hidden partition by the manufacturer (backup by
Packard Bell) that does not have a letter, Partition Magic produces error
117. The Symantec site says:

"The solution is to run PartitionMagic from DOS or from MS-DOS mode (in
Windows 95 or Windows 98). When PartitionMagic runs from DOS or from MS-DOS
mode, it does not need to be able to find the drive letter for each
partition. Thus, if the problem indicated by this error message is the only
problem, PartitionMagic can run successfully."

I understand that running the DOS command line under Windows XP is not true
DOS. What is the easiest way to run DOS, or as near as to achieve what I
want? (The machine has no floppy drive, but I could make a bootable CD-R if
needed)

TIA for any advice,

Dan.

Dan, without a floppy drive, your best bet is to make the bootable CD. You
might also want to consider creating a bootable DOS partition on your drive
for future use. That is what I use, very successfully. Use PQboot to boot
it. (I found Boot Magic extremely unreliable and strongly recommend not
using it, use Boot-IT or Boot-US if you want to manage additional boot
partitions)

HTH,
Randy

 

[Terry]

On 1/8/2005 3:14 PM On a whim, Daniel Hoult pounded out on the keyboard

I have been trying to partition a 200gb hard disk on a new machine with
Partition Magic 8.

Because the drive has a hidden partition by the manufacturer (backup by
Packard Bell) that does not have a letter, Partition Magic produces error
117. The Symantec site says:

"The solution is to run PartitionMagic from DOS or from MS-DOS mode (in
Windows 95 or Windows 98). When PartitionMagic runs from DOS or from MS-DOS
mode, it does not need to be able to find the drive letter for each
partition. Thus, if the problem indicated by this error message is the only
problem, PartitionMagic can run successfully."

I understand that running the DOS command line under Windows XP is not true
DOS. What is the easiest way to run DOS, or as near as to achieve what I
want? (The machine has no floppy drive, but I could make a bootable CD-R if
needed)

TIA for any advice,

Dan.

Then go to bootdisk.com and download what you need and burn it to a
CD-R. I was under the impression that later releases of PM 8 don't use
the DOS version any longer. I have an early release and can boot it from
a floppy. If you still can great, that should take care of it.


--
Terry

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[Terry]

On 1/8/2005 3:26 PM On a whim, Randy Harris pounded out on the keyboard

Dan, without a floppy drive, your best bet is to make the bootable CD. You
might also want to consider creating a bootable DOS partition on your drive
for future use. That is what I use, very successfully. Use PQboot to boot
it. (I found Boot Magic extremely unreliable and strongly recommend not
using it, use Boot-IT or Boot-US if you want to manage additional boot
partitions)

HTH,
Randy

It's always our experience that forces our reason, but I've never had an
issue with Boot Magic and I've been using it for years. I also have a
Win9x DOS partition (along with win9x, winMe, w2k, xp, linux) that loads
a config.sys menu for PM, Drive Image, Ghost and other utilities.


--
Terry

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[Randy Harris]

On 1/8/2005 3:26 PM On a whim, Randy Harris pounded out on the keyboard


It's always our experience that forces our reason, but I've never had an
issue with Boot Magic and I've been using it for years. I also have a
Win9x DOS partition (along with win9x, winMe, w2k, xp, linux) that loads
a config.sys menu for PM, Drive Image, Ghost and other utilities.

Ya, I guess this is one of those "your mileage may vary" situations. Where
I had the problems with Boot Magic was in setting partitions hidden while
selecting the boot partition. I got inconsistent results. Perhaps I didn't
give it enough of a chance.

Randy

 

[Dan]

On 1/8/2005 3:26 PM On a whim, Randy Harris pounded out on the keyboard


It's always our experience that forces our reason, but I've never had an
issue with Boot Magic and I've been using it for years. I also have a
Win9x DOS partition (along with win9x, winMe, w2k, xp, linux) that loads
a config.sys menu for PM, Drive Image, Ghost and other utilities.


--
Terry

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Terry: Do you mean that you have all those operating systems or are you
using virtual machine or something else? Thanks in advance for the answer.

 

[Terry]

On 1/9/2005 4:56 AM On a whim, Dan pounded out on the keyboard

Terry: Do you mean that you have all those operating systems or are you
using virtual machine or something else? Thanks in advance for the answer.

Yes, I have them. Since there are differences in the GUI of all of them,
sometimes a support call requires going into the OS the client is using
to walk them through t-shooting an issue. Silly little differences most
of the time, a different dialog tab name, etc. Others are more complex;
i.e. how to access SR settings on WinMe are different than XP. And I
can't remember all of them so it's easy to have a 3-5 gig partition of
the OS. All data is on another hard drive shared by the OS's and all the
programs are on yet another hard drive shared by the OS's. That way the
OS partitions can be kept small. I keep redundant partition backups on
the other drives as well as data & programs.



--
Terry

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[Dan]

Wow, that is quite a lot of operating systems. I can see why you want them.
My 98SE and XP Pro. dual-boot system has all I need. :>