how to tell what non-dos partitions are for?

Hi Gentlepeople,

Suppose you want to FDISK a machine

• What if you find a non-DOS partition, either active or not, and you don’t know why it exists?
• What if you find a small DOS partition, either active or not, and you don't know why it exists?

Whatever you find, you must find out why it is there.
So guys, here is the question.
what can it be for??
and what are the telltales?
Esteemed Doctors, you may help a lot of people with your imput.

for instance, It can be an overlay as used on older machines.
An overlay may even be a small DOS part??
(in the old days, many larger drives had the utility on them, and booted as a floppy. During the overlay creation process, a real floppy was made)
What does an overlay in older and current drives look like?
We are already aware of this article. http://support.microsoft.com/support.../Q186/0/57.ASP

whatever you see, it can also be an NTFS or Linux partition.
How do we find out?

And it can be a suspend to disk partition as found in many notebooks, and some desktops.
what are the telltales here?

The last ones I can think of, and IMHO the more dangerous to wipe, are a drive tattoo
(does that use a small partition? Where will a tattoo be found?) or a small partition where BIOS is copied onto.
once again, how do we find out?

so here it is. WHY is it there???.
and how does one find out what is in there...

there are reasons for this topic.
For instance, months ago VDr helped a guy.
at one point he found a 7 MB part after he had botched a win2000 installation and wanted back to win98.
We never learned what that little part was for, nor how it got there...

oh yeah, RTFM https://discussions.virtualdr.com/
it may not be available...

thanks,
Jaak, et al

[This message has been edited by jtdoom (edited 05-18-2001).]

Many reasons why a partition is not a dos partition. As a CNE, I always gave a 25-50MB dos partition to hold certain dos utilities and the rest was non-dos used for novell partitioning.
See if this helps any:
http://covenant-itr.hypermart.net/fdisk-2.htm Good luck.
https://discussions.virtualdr.com/im.../2001/07/2.gif


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"Darnit Jim, I'm a doctor, not a Windows Beta Tester."

[This message has been edited by Nick Grana (edited 05-17-2001).]

The only times I've encountered a non-DOS partition is on a propietary hard drive (or what USED to be one). Figured it was probably a hd diagnostic the company placed on it. (They sometimes show up as a non-dos partition). Would get rid of it only if I was doing a complete software upgrade.

Hi Nick,
how will we tell if there is a NOVELL?

Compaqs use a non-dos partition for the Setup information. So that you dont have to use the Diskettes. Very good unless you forget to put it back after deleting it, to wipe the HD clean. Only about 2mb in size....

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Please remember to let us know if it worked or not...JJ

This may not apply. So, I guess I need to test it when I'm awake.

I use PM to set a small hidden partition on my secondary, so that the drive letters don't go jumping around, while I see how much of the alphabet I can use.

What will that hidden part look like in Fdisk ?

http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~trix/...2/SSR02-03.htm
See if this helps.

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"Darnit Jim, I'm a doctor, not a Windows Beta Tester."

Not entirely sure I'm understanding what you're looking for Jaak, but this is a fairly extensive list of the type identifiers used in partition tables.

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Bookmark your post to make it easier to find.
And remember, please post back whether the problem is resolved or not.

[This message has been edited by DrMDJ (edited 05-17-2001).]

Ranish is decent. http://www.users.intercom.com/~ranish/part/
If you look at all 4 info areas, you can usually figure out what it is. Or, boot with the latest slack install cd, login as root, and type cfdisk. It'll show 150-200 types of partitions.

Thanks DrMDj

oh, it's not a guessing game.

this topic's purpose is to get imput on methods to determine what sort of parts a drive is split into, what they are for, and hopefully to be able to get that info with easy to get FREE tools.
You see, Plenty people do not have partition magic or similar third party utilities.
In many cases, fdisk and drive manufactor disk prepare tool is all they have (if that)

the main assumption is that people want to use windows 98 (maybe ME).
the underlying assumption is they want to fdisk their drive for a fresh setup.
Since there are a "few" pitfalls when one just zaps a drive, I wanted VDr's ideas on how to determine what was/is on a drive.
for instance, one does not want to wipe an overlay if one needs it, neither would one want to kill the tattoo, or whatever vital thing in there...

dodge, compaq users, how does that compaq thing look like in fdisk? fdisk /status
fdisk > y > 4 > esc> esc>

how does it look in HP, PB, NEC, portables, machines with ON NOW/sleep buttons, Emachines.

Plse keep the thoughts coming. It ain't gonna be in vain.

you may brainstorm and you may even assume the worst; like NO working OS on harddisk.

your imput is gonna help people.


[This message has been edited by jtdoom (edited 05-17-2001).]

Didn't install Novell, unix, etc, then you don't have it. If you created multiple partitions on your hard drive, then the first, with OS on it , would show active.
Boot to dos, get to c prompt and type fdisk c: Do you want large disks, say yes. Then choose option 4 for looking at the different partitions, if any, and their size and make up. Good luck.
https://discussions.virtualdr.com/im.../2001/03/1.gif He just paints them on!!

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"Darnit Jim, I'm a doctor, not a Windows Beta Tester."

Hi Nick,
ermm, yes

how will fdisk show whether there was a unix or novell if the OS is not present.

assume the worst.
the drive was used, the OS got butchered by a botched attempt to use another OS or perhaps a multiOS.
iow, a situation where detective work is needed, and where the limited info found in butter won't help much.

Jaak,

I get ya. I thought that's what you were after. Unfortunately FDISK just won't cut it in terms of being able to show what's what on the "non-standard" partition types. Something like the part.exe that Downtime showed the link to is free, and runs in dos. It can help. There are other such things available too. And in the worst case it is possible to use a small Debug script to examine the info and get the partition type number. Then armed with a list of type numbers, as in the case of the link I provided above, you can see what's there.

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Bookmark your post to make it easier to find.
And remember, please post back whether the problem is resolved or not.

Heck Jaak, you've got more info on that butter thing than I even wish to know. Your only concern is if an overlay exists. Check drive mfg, other wise, wax that fool and just start afresh. If the disk is of any significant size, you can use it for many things. If it's an old tiny <500MB, and uses an overlay, throw it at the birds that crap on your car. What if it is a Novell partition? Can you use it? If not, why not just do the above and see if you can salvage anything worth your time and effort. Good luck. https://discussions.virtualdr.com/im...2001/09/11.gif If less that 500MB, this CD hold more than that for a buck.

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"Darnit Jim, I'm a doctor, not a Windows Beta Tester."

This may or may not interest you (it's from the *nix world - there is source here for FreeBSD and Linux as well as some good links) http://www.stud.uni-hannover.de/user/76201/gpart/