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Ranish Partition Manager Version 2.38 Beta 1.91 March 14, 2000
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
I. BETA VERSION NOTES
II. KEYS AND FUNCTIONS REFERENCE
- Keys reference
- Installing boot manager
- Installing patch fot booting NT, DOS, etc. from partitions above 2G
- Resizing partitions (Please, READ this section - it is important!!!)
III. WARRANTY, COPYRIGHTS, AND REGISTRATION
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
I. BETA VERSION NOTES
First of all, I suggest this BETA version only to the EXPERIENCED users.
This version is a fully functional shareware. Even if you don't register it
you still get the program. However, if you would like to encourage me to work
on this project you could register the program. I would like if you send me a
postcard of your town - if you would like the program. Also, if you register I
will answer your questions.
For non-registered user I will answer the questions only if I have time.
Usually, I don't have free time and messages would pile up for months until
I could get to them them. Therefore, please,
- Read Partition Manager Primer, Help and FAQs and this README file !!! -
The newest version of the program and its documentation could be found at:
http://www.users.intercom.com/~ranish/part
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note 1: There is an older version of this program (version 2.37.xx) that
you will find on my home page. The version 2.37 has some features that this
version (2.38) doesn't have implemented yet, however it is limited to disks
with size of 8G. Please, bear with me and wait until the new version will be
able to do all that: create more than 4 primary partitions, customisable
boot menu, passwords, etc... I am working on it at my best...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note 2: If you are using a memory manager (like emm386.exe or qemm386.sys)
and you don't have any DPMI host running (for instance Windows 3.x or Win95
provide DPMI services, or 32rtm.exe that comes with Borland is a DPMI host)
then upon running Partition Manager you will get the following message:
"CPU is running in protected mode, but DPMI is not available."
In this case you will need to run CWSDPMI.EXE before the Partition Manager.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
II. KEYS AND FUNCTIONS REFERENCE
Run "part" without options to start GUI.
Run "part -p" to print partition table.
Run "part -p -r" to print detailed information about all partitions.
Run "part -d 2 -p" to print information about the second hard drive.
When you get into the GUI the following keys are functional now:
Use Arrow keys, End, Home, PgUp, PgDn, and Tab to move around the table.
B - toggles Boot flag on/off - selects active partition (marked with '>')
H - Hide / Unhide - changes file system type for FAT partitions and NTFS.
C - Copy partition
D - Duplicate entire disk
S and L - Save and Load MBR - do not work yet. To save information about
partitions, please, run "part -p -r" and then print the output.
INS - Changes file system type. When you press it the list of all known
partitions appears. You can use first characters of file system
name for quich search or hit INS again to enter hexadecimal code
of the file system.
To create a new partition you simply have to move the cursor to
the unused space, press INS and select partition type (i.e. FAT-32).
Then, if you don't want to give it all free space, you may change its
starting and ending cylinders. You don't have to worry about heads
and sectors, because partition manager will take care of it.
After you created a new partition you will have to save partition
table (F2), format this partition and then reboot computer from a
setup floppy to install a new OS, or use command sys.com to install
system files manually.
DEL - Clears record in the table, but doesn't delete partition on the disk.
All changes that you are doing are in memory and will not be saved to
the disk until you press F2.
F2 - Saves partition table to the disk. By writing new partition information
to MBR and all Extended partition records (EMBRs). If some of the
records are invalid additional dialog box will popup and warn you.
You can press ESC and fix all errors before saving.
F3 - Undo. This key simply rereads all partition information from the disk.
F4 - Change display modes between Cylinder Head Sector (CHS) mode and
Logical Block Addressing (LBA) mode.
F5 - Switches to the next disk. Alternatively, you can start program with
the option "-d 2" then it will go directly to the second disk.
V - Verifies partition or unused space for bad sectors. If there are bad
sectors on the partition the function will display list of the first
nine bad sectors and exit. If you verified entire disk and there is
no bad sectors you can use Quick Format option when you format
partitions, which will save you a lot of time.
F - Formats FAT-16 and FAT-32 partitions. Currently there are no options
for this function, but I will add more in the future ( volume_label,
fat_size, root_size, cluster_size, etc... )
X - Toggles Primary/Logical flag on the partition
A - Install Partition Manager on floppy such that you could boot it without
any operating system and go directly into Partition Manager. Optionally,
you could have DOS/Windows installed on a floppy and boot it by default,
and load Partition Manager (bypassing OS) only if 'Ctrl' key is pressed.
For instance, I put Partition Manager on the first NT 4.0 setup floppy,
so that by default it boots NT Setup, and if I press and hold 'Ctrl'
while booting it goes directly to Partition Manager screen.
(Note that if you use this feature you should not compress PART.EXE by
any executable file compressor, such as PKLITE).
ENTER - invokes specific setup functions for each file system. Currently
there are two setup modules. One for Initial Program Loader (IPL),
which resides in MBR, and the other for FAT-16 and FAT-32 file
systems.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Setup options for IPL (Initial Program Loader - executable code in the MBR)
First option tells which IPL currently resides in MBR. The choices are:
- Standard IPL - this one comes with MS-DOS 6.22 fdisk.exe, selecting
this IPL is equivalent to running "fdisk /mbr"
- Unknown IPL - your current IPL, which Partition Manager cannot
recognize. It could be IPL that comes with Win95,
LILO that comes with Linux, or even some older
version of one that comes with Partition Manager.
- Boot Manager - once Boot Manager is selected you have to set which
of the interfaces you want to use:
- Compact - this choice will install only IPL: Initial Program
Loader - executable code that resides in MBR along
with the partition table.
This little program (446 bytes) that is smaller
than one sector (512 bytes) fits into MBR. It doesn't
have as much functions as the GUI version of Boot
Manager, but it still has more of them than some of
the existing boot managers (see description below).
- Text 25x80 - this version of boot manager has text mode menu driven
interface. It doesn't have mouse support and cool
video effects, but it has all advanced functinality
of the boot manager. And it is definitely faster than
the GUI version.
- GUI 640x480 - same as previous one, but it has graphics and mouse
support and takes several seconds to load.
(this one is not finished yet)
If you want to use "Text 25x80" or "GUI" boot menu you have to create a
small (couple of megs) partition for the Boot Manager (type 0xF0).
That partition could be located anywhere on the disk and could be either
primary partition or a logical disk inside extended partition.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Options for Compact Boot Manager:
Check for boot viruses - when enabled it instructs boot manager to
check interrupt vectors 0 to 1Ch (Keyboard, Timer, Disk, ... )
and 4Ah and 70h (Alarm and Real-Time Clock) for the valid
adddress pinting to BIOS. If any of them point below BIOS
memory to the conventional RAM the IPL will show warning
" Virus! _"
and wait until you press Enter. This gives you a chance to
turn off the computer and run antivirus program from a clean
floppy disk. However, not only viruses hook onto the interrupt
vectors. For example, some old SCSI adapters place their code
on top of conventional memory and point disk interrupt vector
to it. In this case you have to disable virus check.
Boot Manager's timeout - this option specifies how much time boot manager
will wait before it gives control to operating system. When
BIOS loads boot manager from the first sector on disk (MBR)
and gives control to it, boot manager displays the prompt
similar to this:
"Booting HD1/3 ..."
It means that boot manager is about to load operating system
from Partition 3 on Hard Disk 1. At this prompt you can either
wait timeout's second or press ESC to load OS immediately. If
you hit keys '1-4' or 'A', instead of booting Partition 3 it
will boot from another partition or from the 'A' drive.
After you make your choice boot manager will save your
selection back to MBR, so that it will use it next time.
However it will not save it if you choose 'A'.
Note that if you install boot manager's IPL you can change
boot sequence in BIOS to "C:,A:" so that your computer will
always start to boot from C: and it will not start from the
infected floppy by accident. If YOU want to boot from floppy
you would simply press 'A' at the boot manager's prompt.
If your BIOS has boot sector write protection it might give
you warning, that somebody is trying to write to MBR. Obviously
if you want to use boot manager you have to disable that write
protection.
Also, you can press TAB to boot from the second hard drive
or SPACE to stop and wait for your choice.
All other keys will cause boot manager to load OS and let it
interpret that key. For example, you can press F8 or F4 when
booting Windows 95 to have it display its boot menu (F8) or load
previous version of MS-DOS (F4).
If you pressed SPACE or there was an error loading boot sector
for some OS boot manager will stop with the following prompt and
wait for your input:
"Booting HD1/_"
The choices you make here are similar to those on the running
dots' prompt:
1-4 - boot from another partition
A - boot from the floppy drive A:
TAB - boot from the next hard drive
However, if you keep entering wrong keys for 1960 times at a
row IPL will get tired of you and will boot last valid choice.
Just kidding, it won't get tired, but it will boot your system
even if a book lies on the keyboard and nobody is in the office
to take it off. Very usefull thing for the servers, and delay is
only a minute.
Default boot choice - this option lets you specify the partition that you
want boot manager to boot by default no matter what the user
have selected last time. For example, if your kids play on your
computer you may set it to Windows 95, then if you are not home
it will always boot Windows 95, even though last time you chose
to boot from the Linux partition.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you choose "Text 25x80" boot manager interface then you could use the
following keys:
Space - stop and wait for the user's input
ESC - boot highlighted choice without delay
A - boot from the floppy disk
0 - run partition manager
1-9 - select another menu choice
Enter - boot highlighted choice without delay
All other keys will be passed to the booting OS.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Settings for FAT file systems. There are three values that you can set in
FAT-16/FAT-32 boot sector.
Starting sector - its value should correspond to starting sector (hit F4)
of the partition for the primary partitions and is 63 for logical
drives. If you want to turn logical drive into a bootable primary
partition among other things you will need to change this value.
Drive number - you need to edit this option if you want to boot DOS
or Windows from the second hard drive. This number must be set
to 128 (80h) for the first hard drive and 129 (81h) for the
second. Also, note that you have to hide all primary FAT
partitions on the first hard drive in order to boot DOS or
Windows 95 from the second.
Partition size - this one is the most interesting number for us. It
tells us how many sectors there is in the partition. If we make
it smaller DOS (or Windows 95) will think that the partition is
smaller, thus we can shrink partitions (see below).
Hint: if you press 'X' all three, starting sector, drive number, and
the partition size, will be set to their expected values.
The final FAT-16 option is a patch for DOS boot sector - it resolves
the problem when DOS cannot boot from the partitions over 2G from
the beginning of the disk. In addition to this, it allows you to
dual boot MS-DOS and OSR2, which was not possible before, since
OSR2's FAT-16 boot sector has bugs. Press "F6" to install the patch,
then choose OS that you wish to run and press F2 to save changes
to the boot sector.
The patch was tested with MS-DOS 6.22, PC-DOS 7.00, DR-DOS 7.02
Windows 95 OSR2, Windows 98 (Aug98), and Windows NT 4.0 (SP0-5).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Installing NT to partitions above 2G from the beginning of disk.
1. Prepare empty space or primary FAT-16 partition for NT.
2. Hide any other primary FAT-12 / FAT-16 partitions.
3. Boot from the NT Setup Floppy Disk #1
4. When NT asks whether you want FAT or NTFS file system choose FAT.
5. Let NT copy all the files from the CD-ROM.
6. Upon the reboot run Partition Manager and install special patch for
Windows NT into FAT-16's boot sector. To do that first select NT's
partition and press Enter, then press F6 to install patch, then,
in the dialog box choose "Windows NT" and finally press F2 to save
changes to the boot sector.
7. For the first time reboot from NT partition while holding down
'Ctrl' key. (This will load alternative NT loader "$LDR$").
Let NT finish the setup procedure and ask you to reboot.
8. Reboot computer. Everything should work now.
If you need to install NT 4.0 above 4G then you must either have SP5
or get at least files "NTDETECT.COM" and "NTLDR" from SP5 and update
them on the hard drive after the first reboot.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In order to RESIZE (shrink) FAT partition you have to do the following steps:
1. Defragment the partition. This will bring all the files to the
beginning of partition. If you use DEFRAG.EXE under Windows 95
you have to select option "Advanced / Consolidate free space."
Under Windows 98 uncheck "Settings / Rearrange files ... "
2. You have to change partition size in TWO places: in the partition
table on top and in the boot sector on the bottom. (In the later
versions resize will be, obviously, done automatically). Anyhow,
first you have to change partition size in the partition table. Then
press ENTER to go into boot sector screen. Change the size, but make
sure it does not drop below the minimum partition size.
There are several other numbers. Green number is the total space
occupied by files in the partition. Minumum size calculated from
the location of the last cluster on the disk - you may not make
partition smaller than this number, because if you do that file
is going to be outside of the partition and windows is going to
crush. The third number, maximum partition size, is calculated
from the size of FAT tables - the larger is FAT the more clusters
you can have on the disk. Since we cannot change size of the FAT
nor cluster size with this version of the program, we have to
accept that limitation. However, there is an option to format
which lets you create large FAT in advance so that you can enlarge
the partition later.
3. Save all the changes you've made and reboot computer. Then run some
sort of diagnistic utility, such as SCANDISK or NDD to check that
everything is ok before it is too late :). On FAT-32 it will always
report incorrect amount of free space, but this is normal, since we
did change that number.
That's all. I hope to get the real resize procedure soon - then it will
be much easier to do this sort of things.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
III. WARRANTY, COPYRIGHTS, AND SHAREWARE REGISTRATION
WARRANTY: There is absolutely NO WARRANTY attached to this program. You
should use it only at your own risk. However, there is an open source code
that is available on my home page, so you can look at it to know what it
does and compile it yourself if you don't trust the executable.
DISTRIBUTION: You can redistribute this program free of charge as long as
you do not modify any of the files included in the package, and do not charge
additional fees, other than to cover costs of physical distribution. You may
use parts of the source code free of charge in the other open source or
non-commercial project, with the condition that you clearly indicate from
where it was taken. If you want to use whole program or its parts in the
commercial product you must get my permission for that.
REGISTRATION: Ranish Partition Manager version 2.38 is distributed as the
shareware. You may evaluate the program for the period of time and then you
pay for it if you like it.
Private users, educational and non-profit organizations may evaluate the
program for the period of 10 years, then they must pay registration fee of
$10 per household/classroom/department or stop using the program. If you
cannot afford $10, you may send me a postcard with a nice view of your city,
and I will count you as a registered user. If you are a poor student,
than the postcard with a view of your university is definetely the best way
to register the program.
Commercial organizations, governments, and military units may evaluate
the program for 30 days. Then they must pay registration fee of $20 per
each department or technical unit, that uses it, or stop using the program.
If Boot Manager, that comes with this program, is installed on more than
three workstations then $3 must be added for the workstations 1-20, $2 - for
workstations 31-60, $1 - for 61-90, and 10 cents for each one over 90.
Once the program is registerd the registation is valid for all subsequent
versions of the program.
If, for some reason, you cannot use version 2.38 - the last freeware
version 2.37 will remain available for download at my home page, with the
source code in the Public Domain.
To register Partition Manager send US checks, money orders, or postcards to
Mikhail Ranish Include your name and e-mail address so I can
P.O.Box 140404 send you confirmation of your registration.
Brooklyn, NY 11214 USA ranish@intercom.com
Partition Manager Announcements only list: partman-announcements@onelist.com
Partition Manager Discussion and Questions: partman-discussion@onelist.com
Archives are available at http://www.onelist.com/group/partman-discussion
http://come.to/ranish -> http://www.users.intercom.com/~ranish/part
