• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Drive Lettering/Partitioning in Win2K

L

LocutusX

Diamond Member
I am about to do a hard drive exchange (remove one, add one) on my Win2K system and I want to make sure it doesn't screw up the drive lettering scheme. Here is what I have right now:

Primary Master: Maxtor 30GB - C: - Primary Partition / FAT32 / Win98 System
G: - Logical Drive in an Ext. Part. / NTFS / Win2K System

Primary Slave: 8GB - D: - Primary Partition / FAT32 / MP3 Storage

Secondary Master: - E: - DVDROM

Secondary Slave: - F: - CDRW

Here is what changes I am making:

- remove MP3 drive (D🙂
- move CDRW to Pri Slave
- move DVDROM to Secon Slave
- Add 80GB WD ATA100 drive as Secon Master
- Setup a 30GB Primary Partition (will be blank/unformatted for now)
- Setup a 50GB Logical Drive in the Ext. Partition
- Format the 50GB logical drive (as either FAT32 or NTFS), & move all my 8.4GB of MP3's to it (it will be installed on my NAT server and accessible through the network)


What I want to know is... after I perform the last step (formatting the new drive's extended partition) will it screw up my lettering scheme. Specifically, I don't want my Windows 2000 drive (G🙂 to change lettering - then all hell will break lose! Let me know what you guys think. The opinions of any partitioning experts are appreciated.
 
Right-click my computer and go to Manage. Click on the folder called "Disk Management".

That's all you'll need to change those letters in case 'all hell breaks loose' 😀
 
I know about the Disk Manager, which I assume is the successor to NT4's Disk Administrator. However, if "all hell breaks loose", I won't be able to log in, as mentioned in Microsoft knowledgebase article #Q249321. That's what concerns me.
 
Do I have a reputation or something? 😛

Here's what I would do:

1. Copy all MP3s and whatever else is on D: to C: or G:. This way, you can take that drive out physically and forget about it.

2. Move DVD and CD drive to letters M: or higher. Just get them out of the way.

3. Make the connection changes and add the new drive.

4. Partition the new drive. If you use Win2K's default tools for partitioning, it will only allow you to make an NTFS dynamic volume for anything over 32GB. If you want that 50GB to be FAT32, use Win98 or PartitionMagic or Ranish something. I would not let Win2K have its way, even if I were to use NTFS.

NOTE: I would first put a single extended partition on the 50GB and then put either a single logical volume of 50GB or a collection of smaller logical volumes. This way, the default lettering will use all of your existing 30GB drive first.

Happy partitioning.

-SUO
 
Thanks for the reply, SUO.



<< 1. Copy all MP3s and whatever else is on D: to C: or G:. This way, you can take that drive out physically and forget about it. >>



Not really possible. 8.0GB of the 8.4GB drive is filled with media files. Only about 1GB free on each of C: and G:. 😉



<< 2. Move DVD and CD drive to letters M: or higher. Just get them out of the way. >>



Okay this one I can do immediately... I assume if I move DVD/CDRW drive letters, my NTFS G: will remain as G: ?

Note: I checked and found out my D: (media drive) is a Primary Partition. That's why it's D:, and G: didn't get D: when I set up my system. 😀



<< 4. Partition the new drive. If you use Win2K's default tools for partitioning, it will only allow you to make an NTFS dynamic volume for anything over 32GB. If you want that 50GB to be FAT32, use Win98 or PartitionMagic or Ranish something. I would not let Win2K have its way, even if I were to use NTFS. >>



Hmmm... is PartitionMagic 6.01 &quot;Win2K-compatible&quot;? Anyways, I highly doubt I'll use FAT32 for the 50GB partition on the new drive. Unless I'm dealing with an antiquated 4GB-per-platter ATA33 drive, my motto is to use NTFS for everything. That's why I went out and got the NTFS driver for Win98 from System Internals. 😀

Also, see what I bolded above... is that different from a &quot;standard&quot; NTFS partition?



<< NOTE: I would first put a single extended partition on the 50GB and then put either a single logical volume of 50GB or a collection of smaller logical volumes. This way, the default lettering will use all of your existing 30GB drive first. >>



I guess I should explain what I'm (eventually) trying to accomplish here.

Notice I have Win98 in the 8GB Primary Partition (C🙂 on my Maxtor 30GB drive. That will always remain there. The remaining 22GB of that drive will become an extended partition for various other uses. Will not contain system files or application files.

I want to blow away my current Win2K setup (it contains a year's worth of bloat!) and reinstall it onto the 30GB partition on my WD 80GB drive. That's why I want to make it a primary partition on the 80GB, so Win2K gets installed onto a &quot;D:&quot; drive. The remaining 50GB on the WD 80GB will be an extended partition to be used for similar purposes to the 22GB partition on my Maxtor 30GB, so it's lettering isn't important.
 
If I remember correctly your Boot.ini which regulates the dual boot doesn't go by drive letter but hard disk and partition number. So, you shouldn't have any problem changing G: to D: or whatever you want. Pull out your CD or DVD temporarily and install the 80GB. Format it and move everything from the 8.4 to the 80. Then rearrange your drives the way you want. You shouldn't have any problems.

-Andy
 


<< Hmmm... is PartitionMagic 6.01 &quot;Win2K-compatible&quot;? >>



Yes it is. PM me if you want more 'info' on it.. 😉 😉
 
OK, I'm back.

You should be fine partitioning with PM6.01. The &quot;dynamic&quot; volume is Win2K's built-in &quot;just-a-bunch-of-disks&quot; software RAID the strings many drives/partitions under one drive letter. For example, if I had a 3GB drive + a 6GB volume on a 10GB drive + 18GB drive, I could make all of that space show up as a single 27GB volume ... and I'd never know things could e spread over three physical disks. Not a bad idea until things break when you remove one of those dynamic pieces. I think the whole thing goes kaput. A &quot;standard&quot; partition should be immune of such potential problems.

I think everything else has beena ddressed, right?

-SUO
 
Yeah, I think I'll just go ahead and try something. The sooner I get this set up the better, my Win2K install has started acting strange and things are starting to fall apart... time to reeeeeeeeeinstaaaaall...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top