Mail Archives: opendos/2000/11/28/02:40:50
There may be some solutions for you.
1. Try using Norton's Ghost to make the images.
2. You mentioned Linux. I don't know if you have Linux installed, if so it
can read fat 32
and you can use the Linux dd commant to make images.
3. If you don't have Linux installed you can get a small version of Linux
that will run on top of a DOS partition. It is called DOSLinux. It is about
9-10MB compressed and about 22-25MB when decompressed.
4. Disconnect the C: drive when FDISKing and formatting the second drive.
Sounds like something is not correct in the installation of the two drives.
I have never had a problem with Linux FDISK. When using FDISK and deleting
all partitions, reboot the system before writing the new partition
information. This should clear the partition table without having to zero it
out with debug.
5. DRDOS will allow booting to multiple operating systems with it's boot
loader program. I have done it with 9x,ME and NT.
6. If using Linux on these system(s), do not put LILO in the MBR, put it in
the boot sector of the partition/drive containing the Linux root directory /
with the /boot directory.
7. DOSLinux can also be installed on a FAT 32 partition.
8. If your BIOS permits it, put DOS on the ZIP drive and boot DOS from the
ZIP drive and then install the images that way.
If none of the above seems to be suitable, give us more information about
the hardware setup and Operating systems being used. It's really stupid to
have to pay for software to do this and pay for each computer that uses it.
You should have been able to buy a site license for it for a lot less. But
there is a lot of FREE software that you can use to do this. DRDOS is free
for non commercial use, Linux is FREE no matter what you do with it.
Pat
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Lueck" <mlueck AT lueckdatasystems DOT com>
To: <opendos AT delorie DOT com>
Sent: Monday, November 27, 2000 7:42 PM
Subject: FAT32 and Partitioning question
> I've been busy working with OS/2 for many years, and hand installing
Windows NT
> as needed. Over the past year I've worked on a project to convert the last
1200
> OS/2 boxes I manage via electronic software distribution which I wrote in
Rexx
> / with Windows 2000. The imaging technology I use on OS/2 was greatly
enhanced
> on Win2K / MS DOS 7 (Win98SE) but there are some flaws.
>
> 1) DOSLFNBK runs out of memory at times, and I've recently build a special
> reboot into the load script to run the program w/o ANYTHING else non
critical
> running. So far so good. The author has also quit communicating with us
even
> tho we had bought an 8000 node license of his code. There were some other
> corruption issues which I fould resolutions for before he could find the
acutal
> root of the issue. I would like to eliminate DOSLFNBK if there is a better
> reliable solution to capture the long file names on FAT 32 partitions.
>
> 2) InfoZip 32 for DOS is almost perfect. It drops the 31/2link which is
the
> send to the A drive. DOSLFNBK can see the file / InfoZip can not. I delete
that
> file befor imaging and have a InfoZip Win32 zip of just that file which I
> restore once booted into the GUI. I also had to write some code to recurse
> through the entire drive until no more hidden or system files could be
found,
> as InfoZip could not recurse through such deeply hidden/systemed dirs.
>
> 3) The worst issue, Win2K being installed on D:, DOS on C to install the
OS
> image - will from time to time "trounce" the partitions such that
everything
> looks normal, but running a reload which formats the D drive as a first
step
> does one of two nasty things:
> A) Does absolutely nothing and returns to the prompt. No status or error
> is given. MS DOS 7 does not correctly handle ERRORLEVEL so I can't check
that.
> B) Formats both the D and C drive all at once! Poof, there went DOS, PUKE,
> CRASH!
>
> Going into FDisk shows normal partitions.
> Linux FDisk says everything is clean, Pri Fat32, type F exteneded (LAB
Mode
> Extended) and a Fat32 Logical.
> Deleting the logical and recreating has no affect - thinking that writing
a new
> partition table by actually changing something might help.
>
> The only disk cleanup is a small debug program to zero out the front of
the HDD
> where the partition table sits. Then use the undocumented MS DOS 7 fdisk
params
> to recreate the partitions.
>
> <><><>
>
> 1) Any ideas on how to see what is up with the partitions? If I could see
why
> Format goes crazy very rarely, the possibly we could track down what is
> changing whatever it is that changes.
>
> 2) Any solutions for dumping MS DOS 7 for anther DOS - taking suggestions.
I
> have to be able to boot the DOS on a FAT32 partition, not just access
FAT32 on
> other drive letters.
>
> 3) Backup/restore the LFN's some other way.
>
> TIA!
>
> Michael Lueck
> Lueck Data Systems
> http://www.lueckdatasystems.com/
>
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