Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 11

Thread: What is a DOS PARTITION?

  1. #1
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Posts
    2

    What is a DOS PARTITION?

    Newbie here...

    Booted my Knoppix 3.1 CD, hardware all OK, but have only 64 MB of RAM.
    So it wants a "DOS partition" for a swap file.
    I made one of 448MB with BootitNG, but there were several variations of FAT12 FAT16 etc available. I tried most of them. Knoppix can't locate this drive. Any idea why?
    Can I just try to mount it anyway? It should be the 3rd partition on my HDD. (1st is for BootitNG. 2nd is for Win98.)
    What command line should I try.

    Thanks,
    Ross

  2. #2
    Junior Member registered user
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Posts
    19
    rossnixon,
    Typically a fat32 drive will work fine to resolve this issue. Make sure that the partition is not only created but also formatted and healthy. What knoppix wants to do is create a file on this fat32 partition to use as a swap file. I haven't ever used BootitNG but you can use the utilities "fdisk" and "format" off of any windows boot disk to create this. One note though...running knoppix this way (without adequate memory) does not work very well. In my experience it is very slow, almost to the point of not being usable. Best of luck

    fsl

  3. #3
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    157
    These are the File Alocation Tables that the Win OS' are able to read and write to.

    FAT 12 = Floppy Disk FAT all WinOS'
    FAT 16 = all WinOS'
    FAT 32 = Win98 Win2k WinXP (I think Win95B also)
    NTFS = WinNT Win2k WinXP

  4. #4
    Junior Member registered user
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Posts
    19
    @Hunkah,
    True, but in this particular case, KNOPPIX cannot use an ntfs drive to make a swap file; a fat32/16 would be more suitable correct?

  5. #5
    Senior Member registered user
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Location
    Salt Lake City, UT, U.S.A.
    Posts
    1,338
    WSC-fsl,

    Here is what I would do...

    Run your BootitNG, display your partitions, determine which drive letter it is assigning to your newly created 448meg FAT32 partition.

    Exit out of BootitNG, and boot your Win98 operating system...

    Start a MS-DOS window, or you could boot to a COMMAND PROMPT ONLY (not Safe Mode, just the normal Command Prompt Only option)... At the DOS prompt, type:

    format [drive]:

    (replace [drive] with the drive letter you got from when you were in BootitNG - probably either D: or maybe E: or something) -=- NOTE the [:] "colon" after the drive letter - Windows isn't case sensitive, so you can type the command and drive letter in upper or lower case, it doesn't matter to Windows, not like Linux, Unix, etc...

    Format [should] yell at you about: You are going to erase everything on "non-removable" disk media, and (being sure that you have the correct drive letter), press Y, not sure if it will want you to press [enter] as well, or not?

    Once format starts its magic, ensure that the MEG that it is formatting is something around 448 [plus or minus] - this will guarentee that you "still" have the right drive.

    When format completes, and you are back at the DOS prompt, you might want to run scandisk on the drive letter - to ensure the health of the drive...

    One last point - When Knoppix creates its "Swap" - it will be a file, viewable, and removable, from within Win98 - you could just let Knoppix create the Swap on your Win98 disk, and when you are done using Knoppix - boot into your Win98, and remove the file. (I did this when I was running Win98 and Knoppix from the CD)

    Hope this helps,
    Cuddles

  6. #6
    Junior Member registered user
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Posts
    19
    @Cuddles,
    Yeah I got it, it was rossnixon that initiated the post. ... But thanks! I think your post will prove to be the most helpful for him/her.

  7. #7
    Senior Member registered user
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Location
    Salt Lake City, UT, U.S.A.
    Posts
    1,338
    DOH

    Sorry bout that, I didn't scroll down the topic far enough, I do the dumbest things sometimes ( it proves I have blonde roots - but only my Salonist knows this )

    Cuddles

  8. #8
    Junior Member registered user
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Posts
    19
    No Problem! I'm sure your post will still prove to be very helpful no matter who it is addressed to.

    fsl

  9. #9
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Posts
    2
    PROBLEM SOLVED !

    What I had done was create the swap partition as another primary partition. When I created an extended dos partition, and made a drive on that instead - it worked fine... used fat32.

    Cheers,
    Ross

  10. #10
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    157
    Sorry I was at work all day and missed keeping up with this...

    I forgot to mention in my last post that a DOS based partition is somthing that DOS based OSes can read. DOS based OSes are DOS, Win3.x, Win95A&B, Win98&98SE, WinME so therefore a DOS based partition is a FAT 12, 16 & 32.

    WinNT and WinXP are not considered DOS based, therefore a NTFS partition is not a DOS partition.

    It seemed that you didn't know what all this stuff was and I was just schooling you on the Partition crap.

    Hope I helped, if not... maybe someone?!

Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast

Similar Threads

  1. /usr partition
    By lupe in forum Hdd Install / Debian / Apt
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 07-09-2005, 12:33 PM
  2. How to Partition HD ?
    By marshalx in forum Hdd Install / Debian / Apt
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: 12-09-2004, 09:38 AM
  3. Partition
    By Quite in forum General Support
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: 09-23-2004, 01:36 AM
  4. Partition Help
    By Quite in forum General Support
    Replies: 12
    Last Post: 08-22-2004, 10:40 PM
  5. How can I use other FAT partition?
    By rrfish72 in forum General Support
    Replies: 12
    Last Post: 08-05-2004, 07:09 AM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  


DELL PowerEdge R630 8SFF Server 2x E5-2680v4 2.4GHz =28 Cores 128GB H730 4xRJ45 picture

DELL PowerEdge R630 8SFF Server 2x E5-2680v4 2.4GHz =28 Cores 128GB H730 4xRJ45

$346.00



Dell PowerEdge R630 Server 2x E5-2680 V4 = 28 Cores S130 32GB RAM NEW 480GB SSD picture

Dell PowerEdge R630 Server 2x E5-2680 V4 = 28 Cores S130 32GB RAM NEW 480GB SSD

$256.99



Dell PowerEdge R630 Server 2x E5-2640v3 2.60Ghz 16-Core 64GB H330 picture

Dell PowerEdge R630 Server 2x E5-2640v3 2.60Ghz 16-Core 64GB H330

$182.65



Dell Poweredge R730xd 3.5 2x E5-2666 v3 2.9ghz  128gb  H730  14x Trays  2x 1100w picture

Dell Poweredge R730xd 3.5 2x E5-2666 v3 2.9ghz 128gb H730 14x Trays 2x 1100w

$519.99



Dell PowerEdge R420 2 2.5 6C,16GB,8TB,RAID5,IDRAC7 ENT,2PSU picture

Dell PowerEdge R420 2 2.5 6C,16GB,8TB,RAID5,IDRAC7 ENT,2PSU

$150.00



Dell R630 8 SFF Server 2x E5-2650 V4 2.2GHz = 24 Cores 64GB DDR4 SATA Only 1x PS picture

Dell R630 8 SFF Server 2x E5-2650 V4 2.2GHz = 24 Cores 64GB DDR4 SATA Only 1x PS

$256.00



DELL POWEREDGE R630 8 x 2.5'' 2X E5-2680V4 32GB RAM IDRAC ENT & NDC 2X 495W PSU picture

DELL POWEREDGE R630 8 x 2.5'' 2X E5-2680V4 32GB RAM IDRAC ENT & NDC 2X 495W PSU

$179.95



Dell PowerEdge R720xd 26HDD 300gb  2.5-inch E5-2697  X 2CPU 384RAM 7.2 Tb HDD  picture

Dell PowerEdge R720xd 26HDD 300gb 2.5-inch E5-2697 X 2CPU 384RAM 7.2 Tb HDD 

$180.00



DELL PowerEdge R430 8SFF 2x E5-2680v4 2.4GHz =28 Cores 32GB H730 4xRJ45 picture

DELL PowerEdge R430 8SFF 2x E5-2680v4 2.4GHz =28 Cores 32GB H730 4xRJ45

$296.00



Dell Poweredge R630 2x Xeon E5-2680 v4 2.4ghz 28-Cores / 128gb / H330 / 2x 1TB picture

Dell Poweredge R630 2x Xeon E5-2680 v4 2.4ghz 28-Cores / 128gb / H330 / 2x 1TB

$334.99