USING FDISK TO PARTITION A HARD DISK

USING FDISK TO PARTITION A HARD DISK

Create a Boot Up floppy disk from any Windows 9X computer. Using this floppy disk boot the
computer on which two operating systems will be loaded.

Note
The Boot Up floppy disk created by Windows 9X provides CD-ROM support. Thus
after booting from this floppy, CD-ROM support is available if required.

After the computer boots up from the floppy, the DOS prompt (A:\>) appears. Key in fdisk
and press the ENTER key.

A:\> fdisk ↵

The fdisk utility is invoked from the floppy. It scans the Hard Disk connected to the computer.
If the HDD has a capacity greater than 2048 Mega bytes, a message indicating this is
displayed. In addition the following is prompted:

Do you wish to enable large disk support (Y/N) ....? [Y]

Press the key Y to continue. fdisk loads into memory. Its Main menu options are displayed.

Viewing The Current Partitions

The Main menu option for fdisk is as shown below:

1. Create DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive

2. Set active partition
3. Delete partition or Logical DOS Drive
4. Display partition information

To view the partitions on the HDD (if any), type 4 and press ENTER. fdisk scans the HDD and
lists all existing partition(s).

Deleting Partitions

If existing partitions have to be deleted, type 3 and press ENTER. The menu options for
deleting partitions will be displayed as listed below:

1. Delete Primary DOS partition

2. Delete Extended DOS partition
3. Delete Logical DOS Drive(s)
4. Delete NON-DOS partition

Page 1
INSTALLING REDHAT LINUX 9

Note
The approach is to delete the logical DOS Drive(s) first. Then delete the
Extended DOS partition. Finally delete the Primary DOS partition if required.

The Extended DOS partition cannot be deleted before deleting the Logical DOS
Drive(s) defined in it.

If all the current partition(s) are deleted, it is time to create new partitions. Press the Escape
(Esc) key several times to return to the fdisk Main menu.

Creating New Partitions

To create partition(s), type 1 and press ENTER. The following sub-options are displayed:

1. Create Primary DOS partition

2. Create Extended DOS partition
3. Create Logical DOS Drive(s) in the Extended DOS partition

Type 1 and press ENTER to create the Primary DOS partition. When this is done fdisk scans
the HDD for errors. After the HDD is verified for errors, an option to allocate the total HDD
capacity to the primary partition is displayed. Type N and press ENTER. This tells fdisk that the
entire HDD is not being treated as a primary DOS partition.

Next, enter the capacity of the Primary DOS partition, either as a percentage or in megabytes,
and press ENTER. Having allocated the space for the primary partition, fdisk will return to the
Main Menu.

Tip
If required an Extended DOS partition can be created. The Extended partition should
occupy the balance space on the HDD. Several logical drives can share the Extended
DOS partition or a single logical drive can occupy the entire Extended DOS partition,
as required.

Having partitioned the HDD as required, exit from fdisk by pressing the Escape (Esc) key
until the system prompt re-appears.

Caution
Ensure that the Primary DOS partition is marked as active before exiting to the DOS
prompt. A warning is displayed by fdisk if an attempt to exit to the system prompt is
made without marking the Primary DOS partition as active.

Page 2
 USING FDISK TO PARTITION A HARD DISK

When the DOS prompt appears restart the computer and once more boot up using the same
Boot Up floppy Disk.

Before using the Primary DOS partition it needs to be formatted. At the system prompt key in:
A:\> format C:/S/V ↵

This formats the primary DOS partition, transfers the operating system to it, (which is currently
resident in memory) and finally verifies that the transfer has been done correctly. Remove the
floppy from the drive and reboot. This time let the O/S load from the HDD. This validates that
the operating system was transferred to the HDD successfully.

Page 3