Message-ID: <3761F499.92BB3E37@ica.net>
Date: Sat, 12 Jun 1999 01:48:09 -0400
From: Andre Masella <amasella@ica.net>
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5 [en] (Win95; U)
X-Accept-Language: en
MIME-Version: 1.0
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: Minix: Install Question
References: <37614654.8CF8E906@email.mot.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
NNTP-Posting-Host: tiger5-net209-151-143-ip211.ica.net
Lines: 58
Path: star.cs.vu.nl!newsfeed.amsterdam.nl.net!sun4nl!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!remarQ73!supernews.com!remarQ.com!news.uunet.ca!lightning.ica.net!tiger5-net209-151-143-ip211.ica.net
Xref: star.cs.vu.nl comp.os.minix:35802

Robert Pento wrote:

> I have a laptop (portble).
>
> I'm running WinNT 4.0 on it.  My hard-drive is partitioned as follows:
>
> C: 2.94 GB as NTFS - For Programs mostly
> D: 2.44 GB as NTFS - For data mostly
> E: 500 MB as FAT
>
> I have nothing in Drive E: at all ... it's all for MINIX :)
>
> The README.TXT file says:
>  "Note that this must be one of the four
>   primary partitions, not an MS-DOS extended partition."
>
> I don't know what and MS-DOS extended partion is ?
> Can I just intall MINIX on Drive E: ?
>
> Also, the README.TXT file says:
>  "You have to be absolutely sure  which  one.
>    When  in  doubt, first use the FDISK program under MS-DOS ..."
>
> I did a "Find" on all my hard-drives and can't find "FDISK".
>
> I'm new todisk partioning on Windows,  and do all my development
>
> on a SUN workstation.
> I'm sure these questions are very basic, but before I
> hose-up my laptop, I wanted to verify these simple questions.
>
> I've read the README over several times, but I can't afford
> any down-time with this laptop since I use it at work.
>
> Thank you in advance....

MS-DOS has an extended partition that unlike a harddrive, can hold more
than four partitions. Best can be shown with Linux style naming.
hda1 - DOS Primary Partition (C)
hda2 - Linux Primary Partition
hda3 - Minix Primary Partition
hda4 - Extended Partition
    hda5 - DOS partiton in hda4 (D)
    hda6 - Linux partition in hda4
hdb1 - Primaary partition on second harddrive.
So D & E are probably in a extended partiton Also, be careful! It can be
difficult some times to for Minix to see partitions near the end of a
large drive, and to boot an OS beyond the 1024th cylinder. A way to test,
but the NT Partition Program should tell you, would be to use a Minix boot
disk, but don't start setup, then try to mount /dev/hd3 /mnt If that fails
with an error about a wrong or bad FS, then you can install there, it it
complains about zero length or non-existence, then, you're in a bit more
trouble.
--

-Andre Masella (amasella@ica.net)


