Shared OS installation

Repartitioning—an example

In this section, we'll go through the mechanics of repartitioning a disk. We'll start with a disk containing a single, complete Microsoft system.

First, run the Microsoft error check utility on the partition you want to split. Make sure no "dead" clusters remain on the disk.

Next, prepare a bootable floppy. When you start FIPS, you will be given the opportunity to write backup copies of your root and boot sector to a file on drive A:. These will be called ROOTBOOT.00x, where x represents a digit from 0 to 9. If anything goes wrong while using FIPS, you can restore the original configuration by booting from the floppy and running RESTORRB.

Before starting FIPS you must defragment your disk to ensure that the space to be used for the new partition is free. If you're using programs like IMAGE or MIRROR, note that they store a hidden system file with a pointer to your mirror files in the last sector of the hard disk. You must delete this file before using FIPS. It will be recreated the next time you run MIRROR. To delete it, in the root directory enter:

C\:> attrib -r -s -h image.idx  for IMAGE
C\:> attrib -r -s -h mirorsav.fil  for MIRROR

Then delete the file.

If FIPS does not offer as much disk space for creation of the new partition as you expect, this may mean that:

• You still have too much data in the remaining partition. Consider making the new partition smaller or deleting some of the data. If you delete data, you must defragment and run FIPS again.
• There are hidden files in the space of the new partition that have not been moved by the defragmentation program. Make sure which program they belong to. If a file is a swap file of some program (for example NDOS) it is possible that it can be safely deleted (and will be recreated automatically later when the need arises). See your manual for details.
• If the file belongs to some sort of copy protection, you must uninstall the program to which it belongs and reinstall it after repartitioning.

If you are running early versions of MS-DOS (before 5.0), or another operating system, such as OS/2, or you are using programs like Stacker, SuperStor, or Doublespace, read the FIPS documentation for other possible problems.

Running FIPS

After defragmenting your Microsoft partition, you can run FIPS:

C:\> D:             changetoCD-ROM
D:\> cd \tools      Make sure you're in the tools directory
D:\tools\> fips     and start the FIPS program
... a lot of copyright information omitted 
Press any key              do what the computer says
Which Drive (1=0x80/2=0x81)?

The message Which Drive may seem confusing. It refers to BIOS internal numbering. Don't worry about it: if you want to partition the first physical drive inthe system, (C:), enter 1, otherwise enter 2. Like the BIOS, FIPS handles only two hard disks.

If you start FIPS under Windows, it will complain and tell you to boot from a floppy disk. It won't stop you from continuing, but it is a Bad Idea to do so.

Next, FIPS reads the root sector of the hard disk and displays the partition table:

This shows that only the first partition is occupied, that it is bootable, and that it occupies the whole disk (19571 MB, from Cylinder 0, Head 1, Sector 1 to Cylinder 2047, Head 238, Sector 63). It also claims that this makes 40083057 sectors. It doesn't: the cylinder number has been truncated, and FIPS complains about a partition table inconsistency, which it fixes. After this, we have:

Don't worry about the "bootable" flag here—we'll deal with that in the FreeBSD installation. First, FIPS does some error checking and then reads and displays the boot sector of the partition:

Checking boot sector ... OK
Press any Key                  do what it says
Bytes per sector: 512
Sectors per cluster: 32
Reserved sectors: 32
Number of FATs: 2
Number of rootdirectory entries: 0
Number of sectors (short): 0
Media descriptor byte: f8h
Sectors per FAT: 9784
Sectors per track: 63
Drive heads: 240
Hidden sectors: 63
Number of sectors (long): 40083057
Physical drive number: 80h
Signature: 29h

After further checking, FIPS asks you if you want to make a backup floppy. Enter your formatted floppy in drive A: and makethe backup. Next, you see:

Enter start cylinder for new partition (35 - 2650):
Use the cursor keys to choose the cylinder, <enter> to continue
Old partition  Cylinder  New Partition
  258.4 MB        35       19313.4 MB

Use the Cursor Left and Cursor Right keys to adjust the cylinder number at which the new partition starts. You can also use the keys Cursor Up and Cursor Down to change in steps of ten cylinders. FIPS updates the bottom line of the display to show the new values selected. Initially, FIPS chooses the smallest possible Microsoft partition, so initially you can only increase the size of the old partition (with the Cursor Right key). When you're happy with the sizes, press Enter to move on to the next step.

In this example, we choose equal-sized partitions:

Рис. 4.1.

To ensure that the partition is recognized, reboot immediately. Make sure to disable all programs that write to your disk in CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT before rebooting. It might be easier to to rename the files or to boot from floppy. Be particularly careful to disable programs like MIRROR and IMAGE, which might get confused if the partitioning is not to their liking. After rebooting, use CHKDSK or Norton Disk Doctor to make sure the first partition is OK. If you don't find any errors, you may now reboot with your normal CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT. Start some programs and make sure you can still read your data.

After that, you have two valid Microsoft partitions on your disk. We'll look at what to do with them in the next chapter. The specific differences from a dedicated install are on page 66, but you'll need to start from the beginning of the chapter to do the install.