LP> DriveName Partition Vtype FStype Status Start Size
LP>
LP> 1 0000003f c: 1 06 2 0 1023
LP> 1 001ffe00 d: 1 06 0 1023 511
LP> 1 002ffd00 e: 1 06 0 1535 511
LP> 1 003ffc00 f: 1 06 0 2047 397
LP> 2 0000003f g: 1 06 2 0 1023
LP> 2 001ffe00 h: 1 06 0 1023 1023
LP> 2 003ffc00 i: 1 06 0 2047 1023
LP> 2 005ffa00 j: 1 06 0 3071 259
LP> 2 00681900 : 0 00 0 3331 5
LP> **BIOS: 504MB
LP>
LP> Does this answer anything?
It confirms my guess. Your guru has, for some bizarre reason, configured four
type 06 primary partitions, which are thus all "visible" simultaneously. As I
mentioned in a previous message, this scheme is incompatible with various
operating systems (as Disc Administrator in Windows NT, which also lets one
configure a disc this way, goes to great pains to point out).
I'm giving your guru the benefit of the doubt by assuming that there is a
valid reason for this arrangement, until I see his rationale. But I should
point out that people have been combining multiple operating systems on a
single PC over a decade now, and have certainly been doing what you want to
do, which is to have OS/2, DOS, and possibly DOS-Windows on a single PC, for
at least 8 years, and of the various FAQs, FGAs, HOW-TOs, and messages I have
seen on the subject over the years, no-one has *ever* needed to have multiple
*visible* primary partitions to get the job done. If there is a reason for
what your guru has done, it must be a highly unusual one. But nothing you
have said so far has indicated anything unusual enough to warrant this in your
requirements.
For what it's worth, I'll repeat the common solution (which one can find in
many places, including the linux HOW-TO on this very subject):
Have two primary partitions and one logical drive in an extended partition.
The first primary partition is Boot Manager, and the second primary partition
is a FAT volume holding DOS which will be given the drive letter C:. The
logical drive in the extended partition is an HPFS volume holding OS/2, which
will be given the drive letter D:. Boot Manager can then be configured to
boot either one.
If adding DOS-Windows 9x to this system, note that as standard DOS-Windows 9x
installs in the same drive as DOS, the primary FAT partition, and uses a
"musical chairs with the configuration files" scheme to allow one to select
which of the two to boot. So one has a two-level boot. One chooses either C:
or D: from Boot Manager, and if one chooses C: one then chooses either DOS or
DOS-Windows 9x.
If adding Windows NT to this system, note that even though the main body of
Windows NT can be installed to any drive, and indeed should be installed to
another logical drive in an extended partition that has been formatted as an
NTFS volume, its boot sector and various boot files (NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM,
BOOT.INI, NTBOOTDD.SYS) are, like those of DOS and DOS-Windows, located in the
primary FAT partition, and it too uses a "musical chairs" scheme (albeit an
entirely different one -- the joys of Microsoft "standards") to select which
operating system to boot once one has chosen to boot from drive C: in Boot
Manager.
Because of the different "musical chairs" schemes, this results in a tri-level
boot if one has installed DOS and DOS-Windows 9x as well. One chooses either
C: or D: in Boot Manager, if one chooses C: one then chooses either Windows NT
or the other two in NT's multiboot scheme, and finally if one chooses the
other two one then chooses either DOS-Windows or DOS in DOS-Windows' multiboot
scheme. (One can hand-edit this into a two-level scheme, by manually moving
the last choice into NT's multiboot scheme. This doesn't happen as standard,
though.)
If adding linux to this system, simply create another logical drive in an
extended partition and format it as an EXT2 volume and add it to the Boot
Manager menu. Then install LILO in "partition boot sector" mode rather than
"master boot record" mode. One then has three choices on Boot Manager: C: for
the Microsoft operating systems (all of them), D: for OS/2 Warp, and E: (or
F:, G:, or whatever, depending from how one has configured Windows NT and any
additional non-boot data partitions) for linux.
The important points here are that (a) there is never more than *1* primary
FAT partition, (b) it is visible in *all* operating systems and given the same
drive letter, and (c) OS/2 Warp, linux, and (most of) Windows NT don't need to
be on the first physical disc at all, if needs be.
Even drive lettering isn't a problem (as long as one doesn't use any other
primary partitions anywhere else). DOS and DOS-Windows use the same lettering
because they are both in fact the same operating system in essence, Windows NT
can be told manually to assign individual letters to drives using Disc
Administrator, OS/2 Warp has a third party utility that allows one to do the
same, and linux ... doesn't use drive letters in the first place.
¯ JdeBP ®
--- FleetStreet 1.22 NR
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* Origin: JdeBP's point, using Squish (2:257/609.3)
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