From: maspab@gdr.bath.ac.uk (P A Broadbery) Subject: How to non-destructively change the size of a DOS partition Date: 12 Feb 1993 14:02:44 GMT
The following technique worked for me (I have only done it on machines
that are relatively new, with only a couple of extra directories):
You need MSDOS-5 install disks, a defragmenter, and some quantity of faith.
0. Backup everything if possible, and unfragment your dos disk to ensure
that the area to be repartitioned is clean.
1. Copy your c:\dos directory and config+autoexec files to somewhere
safe. You'll be kissing these goodbye otherwise.
2. Repartition your disk using linux fdisk. This only affects the
partition table (nought else). You can use SLS disk a1, or HJ's
disk, or whatever for this bit. Remember to work in sectors, and
preserve the start posn of the DOS partition.
3. Power cycle (not just CTRL-ALT-DEL) your machine. It should come
back into DOS, with the
size of the DOS filesystem unchanged. Be careful here.
4. Boot your MSDOS-5 install disk, and install dos as normal.
5. Check using chkdsk on c drive. Reinstall original dos+config+autoexec
This worked for me on a couple of machines. I guess there is some
useful oddity in the DOS install code. The only important part seems
to be to power cycle to re-read the partition table. It may be best to
try this on a spare PC before doing the real thing.
I would appreciate knowing if this works on machines other than the
ones I have here.
Pete
pab@maths.bath.ac.uk