Question regarding Ranish Partition Manager

[John Corliss]

Has anybody tried the 2.43 beta? Any problems? I'd much prefer to use
it instead of 2.40 because of the following from the RPM FAQ:

"Version 2.40: can work with disks greater than 8GB but does not
support more than 4 primary partitions (this is same as version 2.38
but just the version number got changed)

Version 2.43: can work with disks greater than 8GB; also, it can
support up to 30 primary partitions."
___________________________________________________________

Ranish Partition Manager:

http://www.ranish.com/part/

Ranish Partition Manager FAQ for versions 2.37 and 2.40:

http://www.ranish.com/part/faq.htm

Ranish Partition Manager FAQ for version 2.43:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/partman/files/faq.txt

(you must be subscribed to the appropriate Yahoo group to access it
and when you click on the link, you'll be prompted to do so if you
haven't already.)
___________________________________________________________

Again, my question is has anybody tried the 2.43 beta? Any problems?

 

[B. R. 'BeAr' Ederson]

Has anybody tried the 2.43 beta? Any problems? I'd much prefer to use
it instead of 2.40 because of the following from the RPM FAQ:

[Snip]

Used twice shortly after 2.43 was on the net. (Disks were larger than
8 GByte.) No problems at all. Since that time I wasn't in need of
such tool. So I can't say anything about modern > 160 GByte disks.

But keep in mind:
Everything goes well with these hardcore sysutils as long as you have a
decent backup of your data. Otherwise... ;-)

BeAr

 

[John Corliss]

Has anybody tried the 2.43 beta? Any problems? I'd much prefer to use
it instead of 2.40 because of the following from the RPM FAQ:
[Snip]

Used twice shortly after 2.43 was on the net. (Disks were larger than
8 GByte.) No problems at all. Since that time I wasn't in need of
such tool. So I can't say anything about modern > 160 GByte disks.

Oh well, my two drives are only 60 gb each.

But keep in mind:
Everything goes well with these hardcore sysutils as long as you have a
decent backup of your data. Otherwise... ;-)

Heh. Yep! Ainiduhtroot. Thanks for repying.

 

[JP Loken]

Has anybody tried the 2.43 beta? Any problems? I'd much prefer to use it
instead of 2.40 because of the following from the RPM FAQ:

"Version 2.40: can work with disks greater than 8GB but does not support
more than 4 primary partitions (this is same as version 2.38 but just
the version number got changed)

Version 2.43: can work with disks greater than 8GB; also, it can support
up to 30 primary partitions."
___________________________________________________________

Ranish Partition Manager:

http://www.ranish.com/part/

Ranish Partition Manager FAQ for versions 2.37 and 2.40:

http://www.ranish.com/part/faq.htm

Ranish Partition Manager FAQ for version 2.43:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/partman/files/faq.txt

(you must be subscribed to the appropriate Yahoo group to access it and
when you click on the link, you'll be prompted to do so if you haven't
already.)
___________________________________________________________

Again, my question is has anybody tried the 2.43 beta? Any problems?

Tried it only perhaps 10 times, but no problems that wasn't self inflicted.
)
When possible, I've preferred Partition Resizer or Fips. RPM, in my
opinion, demands quite a lot from the user.

 

[John Corliss]

Tried it only perhaps 10 times, but no problems that wasn't self inflicted.
)
When possible, I've preferred Partition Resizer or Fips. RPM, in my
opinion, demands quite a lot from the user.

Thanks for replying. Yes, I just found and downloaded Fips, but hadn't
heard of Partition Resizer:

http://www.zeleps.com/

Thanks!

 

[B. R. 'BeAr' Ederson]

On Sun, 08 Aug 2004 08:49:06 -0700, John Corliss wrote:

[Ranish PartMgr]

Oh well, my two drives are only 60 gb each.

If you have 2 drives with 60 GByte and have a considerable part of them
unused (lets say 20 GByte or more) you are maybe better off the task you
want to achieve (whatever it is ;-) ) by copying your data back and forth.
If you can free whole partitions this way you can use FDisk or the disk
management snap-in of the management console in Win2k / WinXP to delete
and recreate your partitions.

Disks are that large now, I always used this method for the last about
2 years. It's a lot saver than fiddling with resizing (although Zeleps
PartitionResizer for instance is very straightforward at this task and
Ranish PartMgr does a fine job as well).

But above all: The 'copy -> delete -> recreate' way is quicker in most
situations, too!

BeAr

 

[Achim Nolcken Lohse]

Has anybody tried the 2.43 beta? Any problems? I'd much prefer to use
it instead of 2.40 because of the following from the RPM FAQ:

I've gone a few rounds with Part243, but never on a disk larger than
8GB. One problem I've run into is that Ranish can create Linux
partitions, but can't do anything with them afterward.

More troubling is a recent glitch where Part243 refused to look at the
third disk (or the fourth) on my system because the second 'doesn't
have an active partition'. It gave me the option of 'going back' or
proceeding, but neither option led anywhere. "Proceeding" just kicked
me back to the first disk.

That said, Part243 has on occasion helped me fix problems I couldn't
get at with FDisk or Partition Magic. I've used Zeleps also, and
although it also generates some weird and uninformative warnings, it's
much better documented, and can be quite useful.

 

[REM]

John Corliss <[email protected]#> wrote:

Again, my question is has anybody tried the 2.43 beta? Any problems?

I tried it with no problems John. If I'm not mistaken this is written by a
different person and he released it as shareware though

 

[John Corliss]

John Corliss wrote:

[Ranish PartMgr]

Oh well, my two drives are only 60 gb each.

If you have 2 drives with 60 GByte and have a considerable part of them
unused (lets say 20 GByte or more)

Heh. *Lot's* more in fact. However, I use XXCopy to clone the C:\
drive onto the D:\ drive. Kinda like "RAID on demand".

you are maybe better off the task you
want to achieve (whatever it is ;-) )

Install Linux onto a partition on the C:\ drive.

by copying your data back and forth.
If you can free whole partitions this way you can use FDisk or the disk
management snap-in of the management console in Win2k / WinXP to delete
and recreate your partitions.

But I don't use either XP or 2000. I use ME.

Disks are that large now, I always used this method for the last about
2 years. It's a lot safer than fiddling with resizing (although Zeleps
PartitionResizer for instance is very straightforward at this task and
Ranish PartMgr does a fine job as well).

But above all: The 'copy -> delete -> recreate' way is quicker in most
situations, too!

The XXCopy method of cloning is a very good way to safeguard data.

http://www.xxcopy.com/

 

[John Corliss]

Thanks for replying. Yes, I just found and downloaded Fips, but hadn't
heard of Partition Resizer:

http://www.zeleps.com/

Thanks!

And by the way, the home page for Fips is here:

http://www.igd.fhg.de/~aschaefe/fips/

 

[John Corliss]

I've gone a few rounds with Part243, but never on a disk larger than
8GB. One problem I've run into is that Ranish can create Linux
partitions, but can't do anything with them afterward.

Well! That's certainly something worth knowing! Thanks.

More troubling is a recent glitch where Part243 refused to look at the
third disk (or the fourth) on my system because the second 'doesn't
have an active partition'. It gave me the option of 'going back' or
proceeding, but neither option led anywhere. "Proceeding" just kicked
me back to the first disk.

In light of the first problem you mention with 2.43, this pretty much
covers enough problems to discourage me from attempting to use it. And
of course, it is after all, a beta.

That said, Part243 has on occasion helped me fix problems I couldn't
get at with FDisk or Partition Magic. I've used Zeleps also, and
although it also generates some weird and uninformative warnings, it's
much better documented, and can be quite useful.

Thanks for your input, Achim. Very helpful.

 

[John Corliss]

I tried it with no problems John.

Unfortunately, Achim Nolcken Lohse has posted a message listing
problems with the version.

If I'm not mistaken this is written by a
different person and he released it as shareware though

Hmm. Well, here's the home page. Yes, that version was written by
Muthu, but I don't see any mention of it being shareware:

http://www.ranish.com/part/

Also, having just scanned the included readme243.txt file, I noticed
no mention of the 2.43 version being shareware. Am I missing something?

 

[REM]

Unfortunately, Achim Nolcken Lohse has posted a message listing
problems with the version.

There is a fairly easy workaround. Just use linux to create the partition and
swap drive. Leave the partition empty and non-fdisked if you want to dual boot
with Linux.

Hmm. Well, here's the home page. Yes, that version was written by
Muthu, but I don't see any mention of it being shareware:

Also, having just scanned the included readme243.txt file, I noticed
no mention of the 2.43 version being shareware. Am I missing something?

My mistake, it's version 2.40 where I saw that. It's basically postcardware if
you want to send one (I did), but he terms it shareware???

" This version is the latest version of Partition Manager. There is
no other "full" version in exsistance (I wish there was). This version is
a fully functional shareware. Even if you don't register it you still get
all the functionality of the program. However, if you have found part.exe
to be a handy tool and would like to register, please, send me a postcard
of your town (or even better - your college, if you are a student)."

That's splitting hairs. He just used shareware instead of optional postcardware.

 

[REM]

(e-mail address removed) (Achim Nolcken Lohse) wrote:

I've gone a few rounds with Part243, but never on a disk larger than
8GB. One problem I've run into is that Ranish can create Linux
partitions, but can't do anything with them afterward.

More troubling is a recent glitch where Part243 refused to look at the
third disk (or the fourth) on my system because the second 'doesn't
have an active partition'. It gave me the option of 'going back' or
proceeding, but neither option led anywhere. "Proceeding" just kicked
me back to the first disk.

I've never tried it with more than 2 disk drives. I wonder if you can hide drive
2 in a boot mangler and then run Ranish?

XOSL was the boot manager I used and it was pretty nice.

 

[John Corliss]

There is a fairly easy workaround. Just use linux to create the partition and
swap drive. Leave the partition empty and non-fdisked if you want to dual boot
with Linux.

That makes sense to me. Thanks.

My mistake, it's version 2.40 where I saw that. It's basically postcardware if
you want to send one (I did), but he terms it shareware???

" This version is the latest version of Partition Manager. There is
no other "full" version in exsistance (I wish there was). This version is
a fully functional shareware. Even if you don't register it you still get
all the functionality of the program. However, if you have found part.exe
to be a handy tool and would like to register, please, send me a postcard
of your town (or even better - your college, if you are a student)."

That's splitting hairs. He just used shareware instead of optional postcardware.

Totally understandable assumption on your part since he did indeed use
that terminology in the readme for 2.40. Thanks for the clarification.
And thanks for your input! 80)>

 

[B. R. 'BeAr' Ederson]

On Mon, 09 Aug 2004 05:31:42 -0700, John Corliss wrote:

[Partitioning]

Heh. *Lot's* more in fact. However, I use XXCopy to clone the C:\
drive onto the D:\ drive. Kinda like "RAID on demand".


Install Linux onto a partition on the C:\ drive.

Two (nearly?) identical drives with nearly identical data? I just would
ensure that I can boot off both drives. Afterwards I would make a last
backup between these two. *And* extern (CD, Floppies) for important data.
Now one disk can be killed and newly set up with Fdisk. Only the (now
smaller) primary partition for your WinME must be created. (Give Linux
unpartitioned space. It will know, what to do with it.) The next boot
has to go to the other disk. Xxcopy brings your programs and data back
to the (now smaller) primary partition of the empty drive. (It seems,
you'll have enough space to do so.) Now a test boot to this recovered
system will show you if all went okay. Afterwards boot your Linux-Setup.

Remember to give Linux at least *two* partitions. One for progs and
data and the second as a special Swap-partition. (Generally, 128 to
256 MByte will do for the latter).

And just an afterthought: FAT32 doubles cluster size on 8 / 16 / 32 GByte
boundaries (4 / 8 / 16 / 32 kByte). Nearly every file on your disk will
waste an increasing amount of space if you cross one of these borders.
Therefore you should choose your partition size carefully. It is often
better to set up two or more different partitions just for your WinME.

-> Create the second and so on inside an extended partition. But be sure
to use *all* the remaining space for the extended partition! Linux
creates its partitions as secondary partitions inside your extended
partition. To avoid a mess with your drive letters you may want to
disable the 'active' state of your second HD just after you reset your
WinME on your primary disk.

If you don't mess things up on your way, you'll be *much* quicker
than by resizing. And it should be a safe way to go, as long as you
don't fiddle with your backup drive while the primary is temporarily
"out of order". ;-)

But I don't use either XP or 2000. I use ME.

No problem. Use Fdisk and let Linux do its partitioning on its own.
Problems with Fdisk arise only when Linux or Ntfs partitions are
already on disk.

The XXCopy method of cloning is a very good way to safeguard data.

Yes, it is!

Hm. Maybe it is more confusing than helpful. Sorry, I'm a bit shaken
by days work and the temperatures... ;-)

But most of the above you have to do, anyway (this way or another).

BeAr

 

[John Corliss]

John Corliss wrote:

[Partitioning]

Heh. *Lot's* more in fact. However, I use XXCopy to clone the C:\
drive onto the D:\ drive. Kinda like "RAID on demand".


Install Linux onto a partition on the C:\ drive.

Two (nearly?) identical drives with nearly identical data? I just would
ensure that I can boot off both drives.

I can. When I got the new drive, I hooked the old one up as slave, the
new one as master. Then I made the new one bootable too and formatted it.

Afterwards I would make a last backup between these two.
*And* extern (CD, Floppies) for important data.

I have. CDRs. I've forsworn CDRW as a totally untrustworthy media.

Now one disk can be killed and newly set up with Fdisk. Only the (now
smaller) primary partition for your WinME must be created. (Give Linux
unpartitioned space. It will know, what to do with it.)

What I want to do is to have the master disk have three partitions.
One (~30 gb)for the existing Windows, the other two (~15 gb ea.) for
Linux, one for root and one for swap.

The next boot
has to go to the other disk. Xxcopy brings your programs and data back
to the (now smaller) primary partition of the empty drive. (It seems,
you'll have enough space to do so.) Now a test boot to this recovered
system will show you if all went okay. Afterwards boot your Linux-Setup.

Remember to give Linux at least *two* partitions. One for progs and
data and the second as a special Swap-partition. (Generally, 128 to
256 MByte will do for the latter).

I've read up to 512 mb is good.

And just an afterthought: FAT32 doubles cluster size on 8 / 16 / 32 GByte
boundaries (4 / 8 / 16 / 32 kByte). Nearly every file on your disk will
waste an increasing amount of space if you cross one of these borders.
Therefore you should choose your partition size carefully. It is often
better to set up two or more different partitions just for your WinME.

-> Create the second and so on inside an extended partition. But be sure
to use *all* the remaining space for the extended partition! Linux
creates its partitions as secondary partitions inside your extended
partition. To avoid a mess with your drive letters you may want to
disable the 'active' state of your second HD just after you reset your
WinME on your primary disk.

If you don't mess things up on your way, you'll be *much* quicker
than by resizing. And it should be a safe way to go, as long as you
don't fiddle with your backup drive while the primary is temporarily
"out of order". ;-)


No problem. Use Fdisk and let Linux do its partitioning on its own.
Problems with Fdisk arise only when Linux or Ntfs partitions are
already on disk.


Yes, it is!

Hm. Maybe it is more confusing than helpful. Sorry, I'm a bit shaken
by days work and the temperatures... ;-)
But most of the above you have to do, anyway (this way or another).

Thanks for your post BeAr. I appreciate your suggestions and will keep
them in mind.

 

[B. R. 'BeAr' Ederson]

What I want to do is to have the master disk have three partitions.
One (~30 gb)for the existing Windows, the other two (~15 gb ea.) for
Linux, one for root and one for swap.

With Linux you don't use the Swap partition for anything else. It's
marked with a special partition identifier to ensure, no program
writes accidentally onto it. So there's no need to split into two
15 GByte for Linux. On the other hand: You can create 3 partitions
for Linux: System, Data, and Swap.

[Swap-Size]

I've read up to 512 mb is good.

Uh. If you do excessive video editing or such memory intense things.
Otherwise 128 to 256 MByte will suffice. But as you seem to have
plenty space you can play it *very* safe and use these 512 MByte. ;-)

Thanks for your post BeAr. I appreciate your suggestions and will keep
them in mind.

Am glad to be of some help. - Even when feeling a bit dizzy... ;-)

BeAr

 

[John Corliss]

With Linux you don't use the Swap partition for anything else. It's
marked with a special partition identifier to ensure, no program
writes accidentally onto it. So there's no need to split into two
15 GByte for Linux. On the other hand: You can create 3 partitions
for Linux: System, Data, and Swap.

ACKK! Now it's my turn to claim dizziness. I meant one of the two to
be 512 mb and the other the remaining amount of that half (~30 gb
minus 512 mb).

[Swap-Size]

I've read up to 512 mb is good.

Uh. If you do excessive video editing or such memory intense things.
Otherwise 128 to 256 MByte will suffice. But as you seem to have
plenty space you can play it *very* safe and use these 512 MByte. ;-)

I got that figure from this page:

http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6603_7-5141497-7.html?tag=nav

I know that their article is cursory at best, but still, it's a
starting point.

Am glad to be of some help. - Even when feeling a bit dizzy... ;-)

Must be contagious. 80)>

 

[Richard Steven Hack]

Install Linux onto a partition on the C:\ drive.

John, most of the current Linux distros (not sure about Debian, if
that's what you're installing) can resize and create partitions from
within the install process. Even NTFS with Mandrake (but you're using
ME so I assume you're using FAT32.)

However, I see from the Debian 3.0 install manual that they only use
fdisk (the Linux version) or cfdisk (a slightly enhanced version) to
do their partitioning. Apparently no GUI version like QTparted.

You might want to consider booting Knoppix and running parted or
QTparted. You might even be able to boot the Debian CD into "rescue
mode" if it has one and run parted from there if they allow that - I
can't find any indication in the install or user manuals that they do,
however.

Although Ranish can probably do the job. I've used Ranish (both
versions, I believe, as I have them both) and never had a problem with
it, although I admit to not having done much resizing with it. When I
resize things, I tend to use BootItNG which is off-topic as it's not
freeware or I use my old magazine CD version of PM 5.0 - when I can
get that piece of junk to even read my partition table - which has
been never for the last year or so!)