Win98 doesn't like it bigger

[snarkbait]

Hi and thanks in advance for any help.

I've re-partitioned my Win98 box so as to install Knoppix 4.0, but after restoring (using partimage) the c: drive it still only recognizes its size as 4G, rather than the new size of 6G. How do I force-feed Win to the new size? I had been using 2 4G FAT32 partitions (of 20G total) for Win, and the rest for Linux flavors. Now I want a full install of Knoppix 4.0 and only 6G in one partition for Win. The c: partition shows as hda1, primary, bootable in qtparted and cfdisk.

Snarkbait

[Harry Kuhman]

This doesn't sound good. If you have changed the partitions, then Win98 should certainly reflect that. As a last effort you might go to the Win98 "My computer" window and select "View" the "refresh" and see if it thinks the partitions are bigger now (but I doubt if that will help).

I don't use the Linux tools on existing Windows partitions, I do my Windows partition work with the typical Windows tools or with Ranish Partition Manager. If you are lucky then the partitions are completely unchanged, you only think you made the changes but didn't do a key "save" step. If your luck is more like mine then you may have serious partition problems now. My advice is to look at the partitions with Win98's Fdisk and even a third party Win/DOS tool like Ranish and see what you can learn about the partition table. You could also run chkdsk, but that might make things worse if the partitions are now corrupt.

As to installing Knopix 4.0: I'm going to assume that you at least have enough sense to have read through the forums a little before decididng to do this, so I'll take it on faith that you have already seen plenty of the warnings that Knoppix is intended as a Live CD and isn't really the right choice for a hard disk install. So I just have one question: Have you actually tried installing a current version of Debian, which is intended for hard disk install, and come up with any reason why you want to install Knoppix instead, so that you are really making an informed choice in going with Knoppix installed to a hard disk rather than Debian, or are you skiping doing this simple step that you could easily undo at this point if you don't like it and instead just going with Knoppix because it's the first thing you've seen, much like a baby duck that follows whatever it sees when it hatches?

[snarkbait]

Well I hope I'm not really hosed, but I don't think so. What I did was use cfdisk to remove the partitions after partimage to backup the hda2 4G Win98 c: drive. I had used cfdisk to create it and it was fine, along with the several other partitions which I've used for tests of Debian, versions of Knoppix since 3.1, etc. I like the "from iso" cheat especially. I'm just a poor guy, distro-whoring my way through antique hardware until someone buys my pickup and I move permanently to the 64-bit world of Debian.

I had had a 128Meg hda1 for use as a boot partition; now I'd like c: and d: 6G each at the nose of the drive, and all else for Knoppix 4, so I can experiment with UFS and compile that AOHell dialer from Linspire, install, and make this all work on the ISP with which I am stuck whilst healing two broken legs. Using AOHell on dialup is MUCH more painful than broken bones, and especially on an old winbox!

I've tried wiping the disk clean again, and using windows fdisk to do the partitioning, and restoring again, but still it only sees 4G. I'd like to try maybe creating one 4G partition, then stretching the partition bigger, but don't know what tools to use, except Partition Magic, which I don't have and can't afford. Any ideas?

Thanks again

snarkbait

[Harry Kuhman]

Any ideas?
Not many. You say Win98. I generally expect that to be Win98se. Is it? When you start fdisk does it ask a question "Do you wish to enable large drive support?" It should and you should answer this yes, otherwise you'll be limited to 2 gig patitions. I personally like Ranish Partition Manager (http://www.ranish.com/part/) (as I've mentioned). But use what tool you like best. Fdisk should be able to do this, as long as you have "large drive support" (I don't know if this was part of original Win98 or only showed up in Win98se, but you should be able to find out with a little searching).

[snarkbait]

Ha! Free Open Source Software to the rescue. Used qtparted to resize the partition, and this forced Win98 to re-read the tables, and recognize the new size. This, btw, is the ugly old version 1, not SE, but both ask for Large Disk Support (same fdisk for both.)

Here's what I ended up doing:

1) Used windows fdisk to create a primary, bootable 6G FAT32 partition.
2) Used windows fdisk to create a secondary partition from the remainder of the 20G drive.
3) Used windows fdisk to create a logical 6G FAT32 partition at the beginning of the secondary partition.
4) Formated these c: and d: partitions with windows format.
5) Booted Knoppix (3.7, actually) with noswap cheat.
6) From root shell, restored c: from /mnt/cdrom1/file.partimg.gz, the partimage file with the win98 data saved from the prior 4G partition.
7) From said root shell ran qtparted, selected the new 6G hda1 c: drive, and selected "resize", then "commit".
8) Rebooted to Win98 boot floppy, sys c:
9) Rebooted to Windows and saw it hunt for drive info, and recognize both c: and d: as 6G.
10 Tested software, it all seems to work.

Next I booted back into Knoppix, used qtparted to create a nice 768Meg linux swap partition, and another ext3 from the remainder of the drive. Commit, reboot, and all is well!

Thanks for your help

snarkbait

[audioaficionado]

You won't be able to manipulate that Knoppix DVD iso in Windows 98 or be able to use anything to save that iso to a FAT32 partition either. You will have to save the DVD iso on another file system with another OS. So I assume you already have the DVD in hand.