P
Pavel
I have a couple of USB Pen Drives and ZIP drive that I wish to use instead
of floppy to boot in emergency to DOS (with the aid of NTFSDOS I can see
NTFS partitions) and also to use the same drive to transport sensitive
documents that are stored on this drive under NTFS formatted partition.
Since NTFS does not allow one to boot in DOS, I decided to have one
partition for DOS formatted in FAT and one formatted in NTFS for my data.
I will refer to Pen Drive in the next paragraphs but same applies to my Zip
drive. I also use Partition Magic but there are other programs similar to
Partition Magic that will do the job.
If you have an average Pen Drive you probably already know that it will
not format in NTFS an also it can not be partitioned in a way that WindowsXP
would see anything else but one partition.
The problem with NTFS format is that when you try to format Pen Drive it
only shows you FAT and FAT32 as an option. The way to get around this is to
format it in FAT32 (not FAT) followed by "CONVERT drive /FS:NTFS" or format
the drive with Partition Magic. The only problem with Partition Magic is
that if you try to do this from Windows, depending on the brand of the Pen
Drive, it will not see the drive, so you will have to use the DOS version.
And even then it may not be able to see it. The way I found to get around
this problem where the drive is not seen even from DOS is to clear the Boot
record of the Pen Drive with disk editor (debug will probably work too).
Now the partitioning problem. Right away, you will find that the Windows
Disk Manager will absolutely not let you create more than one partition on
removable media. Fdisk and also Partition Magic will, providing your Pen
Drive cooperates. There is one step that Fdisk can not do so you will still
need Partition Magic. In order to have it your way, that is to have one
partition for DOS programs and one partition that WindowsXP can see and use
you need to do this in order. By the way, no matter what you do, WindowsXP
will still see only one partition so you need to make sure that the correct
partition is visible to WindowsXP.
The trick to this is to place the DOS partition after the partition that
is to be seen by WindowsXP. Under Partition Magic, create this DOS partition
at the end of the available space by means that Partition Magic lets you to
do. Once this DOS partition is created, mark it as Active. Marking this
drive Active will allow the system to see that this is the partition to boot
from. Now create your second partition. Create this partition as physical
partition, not logical. You can do this right away in NTFS. Once created,
mark this partition as Un-Hidden.
That's it. Once you are booted to DOS, you can use couple of utilities
such as NTFSDOS to read the NTFS partition if you wish. When you boot to
WindowsXP you will see only the first partition. Under the Disk manager, you
will also see the second DOS partition but if you try to give it a drive
letter, it will refuse and give you some message to make it active, that you
have to reboot, which does not work.
Since the DOS parturition is not visible from Windows, you will have to
copy to/from this partition while in DOS only.
This may not work for everyone. Also, I have played with partition that is
logical and did not have good results but I did not test it much.
of floppy to boot in emergency to DOS (with the aid of NTFSDOS I can see
NTFS partitions) and also to use the same drive to transport sensitive
documents that are stored on this drive under NTFS formatted partition.
Since NTFS does not allow one to boot in DOS, I decided to have one
partition for DOS formatted in FAT and one formatted in NTFS for my data.
I will refer to Pen Drive in the next paragraphs but same applies to my Zip
drive. I also use Partition Magic but there are other programs similar to
Partition Magic that will do the job.
If you have an average Pen Drive you probably already know that it will
not format in NTFS an also it can not be partitioned in a way that WindowsXP
would see anything else but one partition.
The problem with NTFS format is that when you try to format Pen Drive it
only shows you FAT and FAT32 as an option. The way to get around this is to
format it in FAT32 (not FAT) followed by "CONVERT drive /FS:NTFS" or format
the drive with Partition Magic. The only problem with Partition Magic is
that if you try to do this from Windows, depending on the brand of the Pen
Drive, it will not see the drive, so you will have to use the DOS version.
And even then it may not be able to see it. The way I found to get around
this problem where the drive is not seen even from DOS is to clear the Boot
record of the Pen Drive with disk editor (debug will probably work too).
Now the partitioning problem. Right away, you will find that the Windows
Disk Manager will absolutely not let you create more than one partition on
removable media. Fdisk and also Partition Magic will, providing your Pen
Drive cooperates. There is one step that Fdisk can not do so you will still
need Partition Magic. In order to have it your way, that is to have one
partition for DOS programs and one partition that WindowsXP can see and use
you need to do this in order. By the way, no matter what you do, WindowsXP
will still see only one partition so you need to make sure that the correct
partition is visible to WindowsXP.
The trick to this is to place the DOS partition after the partition that
is to be seen by WindowsXP. Under Partition Magic, create this DOS partition
at the end of the available space by means that Partition Magic lets you to
do. Once this DOS partition is created, mark it as Active. Marking this
drive Active will allow the system to see that this is the partition to boot
from. Now create your second partition. Create this partition as physical
partition, not logical. You can do this right away in NTFS. Once created,
mark this partition as Un-Hidden.
That's it. Once you are booted to DOS, you can use couple of utilities
such as NTFSDOS to read the NTFS partition if you wish. When you boot to
WindowsXP you will see only the first partition. Under the Disk manager, you
will also see the second DOS partition but if you try to give it a drive
letter, it will refuse and give you some message to make it active, that you
have to reboot, which does not work.
Since the DOS parturition is not visible from Windows, you will have to
copy to/from this partition while in DOS only.
This may not work for everyone. Also, I have played with partition that is
logical and did not have good results but I did not test it much.