fips, Reclaim free space from a FAT partition
It all started like this. We at twincling were getting ready for our grub and LAMP sessions. We were getting ready to install GNU/Linux on some of the machines, and to our surprise we were at the lab filled with M$ windows. The systems were configured to use the whole hdd for windows, partitioned as c: and some as c: and d:. No unpartitioned space for us to load GNU/Linux
I had the answer it was, fips. But it didn’t come to my mind, as it’s been a long time since I fully shifted to GNU/Linux. We used QEMU for our sessions.
A week later, I was trying to recollect the tool I used and how I came to know of it. As many other GNU/Linux first timers I started, with “The Linux System Administrator's Guide”, which introduced me to fips. Then I did a quick google search, and reach the home page of fips. This is how I rediscovered the tool
So to reclaim free space existing on your Windows FAT partition you can use
fips : (F)irst nondestructive (I)nteractive (P)artition (S)plitting program
Say the situation is that you have a windows machine with 19GB HDD and there is only one partition (C:) In order to install Linux, and you want to resize the windows partition to say 4Gb
Before reclaiming the space you require, you would have to do the following. This is just an extract out of the fips document and don’t try this without reading the FIPS.doc
0) Read FIPS.doc before you continue
1) Take Backups
2) Organize the C: to use no more space lesser than 4Gb
3) Run Scandisk or NDD (Norton disk Dr.) to check for
Bad Sectors
4) Defragment C: *This is very important, as FIPS can only reclaim space available at the end of the disk
5) Create A boot floppy
6) Copy FIPS tools on to the floppy
7) Boot from the FIPS floppy and repartition as
required
8) Reboot the PC and your new partition is available
the newly reclaimed free space is available as a _Primary_ partition which can be deleted, if you want to install Linux on it. And beware that most DOS versions only identify one primary partition
If you want to install Linux on this new partition, delete the partition, and create the required Linux partitions
I had the answer it was, fips. But it didn’t come to my mind, as it’s been a long time since I fully shifted to GNU/Linux. We used QEMU for our sessions.
A week later, I was trying to recollect the tool I used and how I came to know of it. As many other GNU/Linux first timers I started, with “The Linux System Administrator's Guide”, which introduced me to fips. Then I did a quick google search, and reach the home page of fips. This is how I rediscovered the tool
So to reclaim free space existing on your Windows FAT partition you can use
fips : (F)irst nondestructive (I)nteractive (P)artition (S)plitting program
Say the situation is that you have a windows machine with 19GB HDD and there is only one partition (C:) In order to install Linux, and you want to resize the windows partition to say 4Gb
Before reclaiming the space you require, you would have to do the following. This is just an extract out of the fips document and don’t try this without reading the FIPS.doc
0) Read FIPS.doc before you continue
1) Take Backups
2) Organize the C: to use no more space lesser than 4Gb
3) Run Scandisk or NDD (Norton disk Dr.) to check for
Bad Sectors
4) Defragment C: *This is very important, as FIPS can only reclaim space available at the end of the disk
5) Create A boot floppy
6) Copy FIPS tools on to the floppy
7) Boot from the FIPS floppy and repartition as
required
8) Reboot the PC and your new partition is available
the newly reclaimed free space is available as a _Primary_ partition which can be deleted, if you want to install Linux on it. And beware that most DOS versions only identify one primary partition
If you want to install Linux on this new partition, delete the partition, and create the required Linux partitions
posted by gb at 12:21 AM
1 Comments:
Nice post. I will assume it in GPL and use it my blog ;-)
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