Dilwyn Jones wrote: ... > FAT32 (is you said to FDISK you want large partition) is for partition > up to > ( 2^28 * 4K !! ) = 8 GB. > > So the limitation is 4 GB in FAT16 with cluster of 64 KB ( not > recommended ) > And 8 GB in FAT32 with 4K Clusters and up to 32GB. But be carefull a > FAT32 > partition isn't recoverable with an MS-DOS floppy disk. > > Jimmy. > http://www.jadiam.org > > Ah, I see. > > Does it allow for, say, a 40GB hard drive to be seen as several > smaller partitions by Windows 98SE, say 5 x 8GB partitions?
I was given a Gateway Win98 machine with a dead HD. I replaced it with an 80G (I think) HD and re-installed Win98 with 3 partitions (but not using the whole disk space as I intend to duel (sic) boot it when I get round to installing the other OS(s)). I'm firmly against the idea of a single large partition. This partly comes from my original 386 (now 486) machine with FAT16 to prevent wastage (in terms of cluster sizes - having a few smaller partitions allows for smaller cluster sizes which in turn means less wastage with lots of small files). It also comes from trying to split usages between partitions to assist in preventing data corruption (eg due to a crash). I generally try to have at least 3 partitions: C: - Main boot/OS drive D: - installed programs and data E: - temporary data, including Windwos swap file. Ideally, C: should only ever need writing when OS is updated, D: contains installed programs and gets written quite often with data used by programs, E: is totally volatile - anything stored on it not expected to have any value beyond the moment and can be recreated as necessary (eg temp install directory for unpacking an archive, etc). I have used 15G partitions happily with Win98SE. My duel boot desktop computer has: C: 3G D: 15G E: 7G(ish) C: is only 3G as the machine is quite old and to prevent a possible 1024 cylinder limit (4G) problem for duel booting - the first partition of the other OS is immediately after C: E: was 15G, but my Windwos usage wasn't as large as expected and the other OS needed some extra disk space: I split the partition into 2 of about 7G each - just try doing that if you only had a single large partition for Windwos on a duel boot machine (a much greater headache). > As 40GB drives seem to be the smallest drives around now (looking at > eBuyer site anyway) - at 25 pounds very cheap, it seems silly to put a > 40GB drive on a Win98SE machine if it will only see a few GB and the > rest goes to waste. I know the feeling...my original 486 is having hardware problems with the 1.5G HD I added to the original 525M HD it had. I've got a 10G (I think) HD to replace it, but I haven't got round to doing it yet...partially worried that the machine won't be able to handle it. (The machine has an intended role on my network once I get it fixed, so it is worth doing.) _______________________________________________ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
