103 lines
5.7 KiB
Plaintext
103 lines
5.7 KiB
Plaintext
The Partition Resizer FAQ
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well, after many requests, PRESIZER.FAQ is finally here! I don't have many
|
|
Q&A for the moment, but there will be more soon...
|
|
|
|
Q: Why do I need Partition Resizer?
|
|
A: You don't. You can as well backup all your data, use FDISK to repartition
|
|
your drive, and restore the backuped data in the new partition. But while
|
|
this can take sometimes more than an hour, and this only if you have a tape
|
|
streamer (don't even think about using floppy disks), Partition Resizer will
|
|
do the job in 5-10 minutes in most cases.
|
|
|
|
Q: Where can I find the latest version of Partition Resizer?
|
|
A: It can always be found in any SimTel mirror site, like oak.oakland.edu,
|
|
or nic.funet.fi, in the directory SimTel/msdos/diskutil under the name
|
|
presz???.zip. ??? is the current version number.
|
|
|
|
Q: Why does Partition Resizer move all the data around my disk?
|
|
A: This is done for two reasons. Indeed, moving the data is not necessary
|
|
for shrinking a partition. But leaving the data in it's original place,
|
|
results in unused sectors in the partition's FAT, which is lost space. The
|
|
second reason is that you cannot grow a partition without growing it's FAT,
|
|
and in order to grow the FAT, you have to move the data.
|
|
|
|
Q: Why is it that the program shouldn't be run from the working partition, and
|
|
why the hell doesn't your program check this?
|
|
A: When working, the program writes some data in a file. This file is
|
|
overwritten and deleted when the work is over. But after the data moving,
|
|
DOS doesn't know there are changes, so it tries to write the data back to the
|
|
old position of the file. Worse, when the file is deleted, DOS changes the
|
|
old sectors of FAT, which can be any sector in the disk. You understand of
|
|
course, that these random writes on the disk can be a dissaster to your data.
|
|
Apart from that, the resque file is not deleted properly, so the program
|
|
will find it again the next time it runs, and will falsely ask you to continue
|
|
an unfinished work. You don't want to know what will happen to your data if
|
|
you do the same resizing process twice... As for checking the drive from
|
|
which the program is running, it's fairly impossible, since it could be run
|
|
from a compressed drive that resides in the working partition, which has the
|
|
same results.
|
|
|
|
Q: Is Partition Resizer compatible with drive compression software (like
|
|
Doublespace or Stacker)?
|
|
A: The program itself works fine with these, since it doesn't consider them
|
|
as drives. Partition Resizer scans ONLY physical drives for partitions.
|
|
But it shouldn't be run from a compressed drive that resides in a partition
|
|
that will be resized or moved. If you're uncertain about that, just run
|
|
Partition Resizer from a bootable floppy disk.
|
|
|
|
Q: Why isn't there an undo option?
|
|
A: There's no need for that. All actions done by Partition Resizer can be
|
|
undone easily by doing the opposite thing from what we want to undo, p.e.
|
|
growing undoes shrinking.
|
|
|
|
Q: Partition Resizer shows 3 partitions in my disk, while I've got 2. Is the
|
|
program going nuts, or is it me the one who needs therapy?
|
|
A: Neither. The third partition shown is an extended partition, a structure
|
|
in the partition table that holds logical drives. Since one of your partitions
|
|
is a logical drive, it needs an extended partition to contain it. For more
|
|
information, check the 3rd section of PRESIZER.DOC file to see some detailed
|
|
explaination of the partition structure.
|
|
|
|
Q: Why can't I shrink my extended partition?
|
|
A: It's pretty possible that you have made a common mistake: The extended
|
|
partition is not a data partition. What you might want to resize is a logical
|
|
drive inside the extended partition. Extended partitions are not DOS drives,
|
|
they're just structures that hold logical drives inside them. If you want
|
|
to make more space for a new drive, then you'll have to resize a logical drive
|
|
and not the extended partition. You will only need to resize the extended
|
|
partition if you have resized or deleted a primary partition, and you want
|
|
to use this space inside the extended partition, or if you just shrunk or
|
|
deleted a logical drive, and you want to use the space created for growing
|
|
or creating a primary partition. Just read section 3 of PRESIZER.DOC for
|
|
details.
|
|
|
|
Q: Can I change a partition's cluster size with Partition Resizer, and keep
|
|
my data?
|
|
A: Yes. You have to make a little empty space in the drive by shrinking the
|
|
original partition, and then create a small partition and start moving your
|
|
data in it, while shrinking the old partition and growing the new one. When
|
|
all the data is in the new partition, change the old partition's cluster size,
|
|
and move the data back to the old partition using the same technique. This
|
|
process might take a bit long, since there's a lot of moving and resizing in
|
|
it. But the whole thing is much faster if you have enough empty space in the
|
|
original partition. I haven't heard of a cluster changing program yet, and I'm
|
|
not planning to write one in the near future. So, you'll have to put up with
|
|
this solution, since there's no other known way of changing a partition's
|
|
cluster size without loosing the data in it.
|
|
|
|
Q: Why doesn't Partition Resizer look a bit more fancy?
|
|
A: Partition Resizer is designed to run in ANY PC, including the old XTs and
|
|
monochrome PCs. Using graphics would make it difficult, and sometimes
|
|
impossible to run on such systems. There are many people who still have such
|
|
machines, and I have received messages from some of them who used Partition
|
|
Resizer. I'm thinking of adding some text windows and colors to the program,
|
|
but there are more importat things to do first.
|
|
|
|
Q: Is there life after death?
|
|
A: I don't know that for sure, but I've got a strong hint there isn't...
|
|
|
|
-------------
|
|
zeleps@hol.gr
|