Re: [tomsrtbt] Resizing paritions using tomsrtbt

[This list is broken use robert not lists]

On Tue, 20 Jul 1999, Ed G. wrote:

> Does anybody have any experiences in this area they'd care to 
> share?

<cringe> I think my method was easier ...

I was actually using Debian installed to a zip disk so details may 
need to be changed.

1) Make a windows panic floppy, make sure it has format and fdisk.
2) Copy the _files_ to the remote machine, I did it like this:
    mount -t vfat /dev/hda1 /mnt
    cd /mnt
    tar czf - . | rsh bighost 'cat > win_95.tgz'
    cd /
    umount /mnt

3) DESTROY THE HARD DISK CONTENTS
    dd bs=64k if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda

    You only need to hit the partition table, but I decided to polish off
    the entire disk; cause I've never done it before :-)
    It was quite nice scrubbing all traces of Windows from that drive, 
    I was a little disappointed to put windows back on :-)

   Alright, you actually only have to delete the partitons and perhaps an
   fdisk /MBR, but it's not as satisfying!

3) Reboot the WinPC from the panic floppy
4) Run fdisk and create the new partition, choose FAT16 or FAT32 at this
   point, it CAN be different to before. Make sure it's active.
5) Reboot the WinPC from the panic floppy
6) format c:
    Note for Win95 you _dont_ need the "/s" !?
7) Restart Linux
8) Copy all the files back.
    mount -t vfat /dev/hda1 /mnt
    cd /mnt
    rsh bighost cat win_95.tgz | tar xzf - 

9) reboot.

This does reposition every file on the disk, so a few copy protected
and low level applications may not not survive the process. For example
my suspend to disk utility has to re-create it's memory image file and
special boot's or disk device drivers (OnTrack ?) may need reinstalling.
You should take an image copy first time - just in case.

BUT DOS 7/Windows 95 will survive as should DOS 5/WIN 3.1

The advantage ? I've now got a completely defragmented FAT32 partition.

Oh, and a full backup for when Windows commits suicide!

PS: Note, you can't put Win95 CVF's on FAT32 and old WinNT's can't read FAT32

-- 
Rob.                          (Robert de Bath <http://poboxes.com/rdebath>)
                    <rdebath @ poboxes.com> <http://www.cix.co.uk/~mayday>

> Last Friday I used tomsrtbt to delete an unused partition and grow 
> another partition using the newly freed space.  Since many people 
> on this list have expressed an interest in using tomsrtbt to copy 
> partitions, I thought I would share my experience with a different 
> kind of partition problem.
> 
> Background:  A year ago I split an active Windows 95 partition in 
> two using the freeware utility 'fips'.  One half continued to run 
> Windows 95; the other was reformatted and repartitioned to run 
> Linux.  After a year it became apparent that 1) the Windows 95 
> partition was running out of space and 2) the linux partition was not 
> being used.
> 
> The problem:  How to combine the two partitions back into a single 
> Windows 95 partition, without disturbing the existing Windows 95 
> data?
> 
> The solution:  
> 
> I carefully read the fips documentation to get an idea of how fips 
> splits partitions.  I concluded that apart from obvious changes to 
> the partition table, fips merely changes the total sector count in the 
> Dos Boot Record (DBR) to match that of the new partition table 
> entry and leaves the FAT (file allocation table) alone.  Apparently 
> DOS simply ignores FAT entries which point to clusters beyond 
> the end of its data area.
> 
> I then consulted Scott Mueller's excellent *Upgrading and Repairing 
> PCs* in order to determine the layout of the partition table and dos 
> boot record data structures.  As a concession to my paranoia, I 
> verified that the existing FAT was the right size for the entire disk 
> drive  and conversely was larger than necessary for the existing 
> partition.
> 
> As further insurance against disaster, I used netcat to make a 
> complete byte for byte copy of the disk drive onto a machine with a 
> large disk drive.  I described my method for doing this is in an 
> earlier posting.
> 
> Using tomshexd, the hexdump utility supplied with tomsrtbt, 
> hexadecimal dumps of the partition table and dos boot record were 
> printed as well as saved to diskette.
> 
> I then deleted all the partitions (yes, including the active Win95 
> partition!) using fdisk and created a single partition spanning the 
> entire drive.  The Partition Id was changed to '6' (DOS 16-bit >= 32 
> M) and the boot flag enabled for the new partition.
> 
> Scott's book in hand, I used tomshexd to look at the new partition 
> table.  The total number of sectors contained by the new partition 
> were determined and then written down.
> 
> Using the vi supplied on tomsrtbt, I then edited the hex dump of the 
> dos boot record, replacing the total sector count with the count 
> listed in the new partition table.  The -o option of tomshexd was 
> used to create a binary image of the boot record which was written 
> out to disk using dd.
> 
> The computer was booted up in Windows. I checked the capacity 
> of the drive:  the new disk space was there!  A scandisk was done 
> and no errors were found.  New Windows software was installed 
> without incident and the computer has worked without a problem 
> since then.
> 
> I was struck once again by the ease with which tomsrtbt handled a 
> project which otherwise would have required expensive proprietary 
> tools.  Having successfully merged partitions, I am curious to hear 
> other ways that people have used tomsrtbt to manipulate partitions. 
>  
>