Linda Proulx,

08-Nov-99 14:35:03, Linda Proulx wrote to Andy Roberts
          Subject: Re: Get Going

 LP> I think that I had stated that I sent your comments to my computer guru
 LP> who had set up my hard drives.  Forwarding his reply.
 LP> -----
 LP> From: "Hartmut W Sager" 

 LP>>>> None are seen as extended logical drives

 AR>>> Possible but not likely.

 HS> He's right that it's not "likely", but you are right on this one
 HS> regarding your drives in YOUR machine.  I set it up in this unusual way,
 HS> and gave you a considerable explanation on the matter.  We can talk
 HS> about it again.

 HS> In fact, I plan to print out these messages and go over them with you in
 HS> detail on the phone, partly to help explain what he's saying, partly to
 HS> determine your thoughts, and also to add my thoughts.

LOL.. well it won't be the first nor last time someone else had to explain
what I said.

 AR>>> I think this is a misunderstanding of definitions.
 AR>>> Start by considering it is not the "drive" that is "Extended Logical",
 AR>>> but rather the partitions on the drive that are "Extended Logical".  

 AR>>> OTOH if all your partitions were "primary", then none of them
 AR>>> would be able to see any of the others on the same HD.  [It's after
 AR>>> 1AM, so I hope I got that right.  If not, someone else will correct me,
 AR>>> I'm sure. ]

It's after 1AM again.  So I've got to make this short.

 HS> This is a common belief, but wrong, at least for DOS and Win95.  These 2
 HS> OS's do see all the primary partitions on a single hard drive.  Your 
 HS> machine is living proof (at least for DOS).  I can't swear to it, but I'm
 HS> almost sure that OS/2 would also see them all.

Actually many OS/2 users specifically setup a primary partition for WinXX and
OS/2 just so that WinXX can NOT see the other primary partition and vice
versa.  That prevents WinXX from being able to screw up OS/2.  And it prevents
Win-OS/2 apps from getting confused by looking at WinXX files.  And since
WinXX is nothing but DOS with a GUI, I consider the same rules to apply to DOS
(under normal conditions, which I understand are not in effect for you.)  If
OS/2's FDISK is used to make 2 primary partitions on the same HD then they
will both be assigned C.  Obviously 1 C drive can not see another C drive.

 HS> If you explain this to him, he'll no doubt ask how the heck (and possibly
 HS> why the heck) you created 4 primary partitions on one drive, since FDISK
 HS> will refuse to directly do this.  The answer to "how" is that I used my 
 HS> bag of tricks - a combination of FDISK and Norton Utilities.  "Why" is a
 HS> much longer story.

I am curious as to why.  What advantage does that have over using Logical
partitions?

 AR>>> Normally I would suggest you make both C and D primary

 LP>> From what I gather, all partitions are considered primary, no
 LP>> logical extensions.

 HS> Once again, you are correct.  I gave you a very unusual setup.  It looks
 HS> like, even for this experienced guy, there's always a first time for
 HS> something new.  At least he didn't say "impossible", just "unlikely".

Somehow I have the feeling I'm about to get up to my neck in this issue. 

I'm not a guru, just an old timer.  And although I still run DrDOS6.0 on 1 of
my machines, it's been about 7+ years since I set that up.  So I have long
since forgotten almost all DOS tricks.

There is 1 trick which both Jack and I have mentioned in previous msgs,
that is unique to OS/2.  That is the ability to have all your drive letter
assignments is a straight sequence, without jumping back to D etc for
additional HDs.  That is a significant advantage when adding or removing
additional HDs, without messing up your existing setup.  OS/2 will find the
additional HDs and assign the lettering if they are not specified in your
BIOS setup.  So for IDE you would only specify 1 HD which would have Boot
Manager and OS/2 (and any other OS) on it.  When OS/2 is loaded it will find
all the other HDs.

That may not be to your advantage if you are going to keep DOS or WinXX as
your main OS, since they will not be able to find the additional HDs.

I know I for sure, and probably Jack too, have been using OS/2 with HPFS for
so long that we don't give much consideration to any other OS (other than
leave C available for WinXX.)  Since OS/2 runs virtually all DOS prgms, we
tend to delete DOS.  That makes it very easy to dump all the "DOS-Think"
limits and considerations.  Some of which may have lead to your unusual setup.

Anyway I have not said anything new this time around.  Just emphasizing what
in summary may be an important consideration for someone else helping you
decide how to migrate from your existing setup to OS/2 and accommodate future
growth.

I am curious about another thing.  Are you attempting to learn enough to do
all the Hardware changes and upgrades and installations and re-installations
and setup of various OSs and apps all by yourself?  Or are you going to have
your guru do the work for you?

No slight intended by those questions.  I can see that issue from both sides.
My sister-in-law is probably going to read this and get a good laugh.

     Thanks and Good Luck,        Andy Roberts
                                  andy@shentel.net
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