September 23, 2011

Guys/Gals,

   I'm about to embark on the proverial "Big Build" from my current

Windows 98SE to Windows 7, and have to get these questions straight

before I buy my storage Hard Drive.

   FYI: Iam NOT a gamer.  I plan on just editing, viewing and

burning  movies to DVD (no Blu Ray) to watch on my TV.

   My new box will have 2 Hard Drives... a 45 Gig Maxtor that will

hold my C: with Windows 7 and POSSIBLY and second partition to install

my programs on.  By doing that, if I have to do a restore, the time

will most likely be cut in half.

   SOMETIME in the future the 45 Gigger will be cloned to a 64 Gig SSD.

   The second HDD will be a 2TB having multiple partitions, but none to

   exceed 300 Gigs

   My Ghost 2003 DOS is Build v793.

   With the warning about NOT letting Windows 7 partition a new HDD,

AND the pitfalls of the 2TB SATA drives and partitioning, I did a

little bit of digging and came up with this:

   It's not a 2TB drive, per se, but a 2TB PARTITION that causes all

of the trouble.  If you pre-partition a 2TB HDD and THEN install

Windows 7, all will be well.

   My plan was to attach my new 2TB drive to my Windows 98SE box

(without any other HDD attached) via a PATA To SATA converter, pop

in a DOS boot floppy with the new hi-capacity "FDisk" and do the

creation of logical drive and extended partitions from there.

   However, remembering how long it took doing that to my 500 Gig

Seagate and the fact the 2TB is SATA and needs drivers to be seen

in DOS, I went looking for a partitioning program to do the deed

and all I ran into for Bootable media is a USB stick.  BUT, I have

no USB on my present box.


   Soooooo.... here I am looking for the answers to the following:

1.  Does anybody know of a (free ??) partitioning program that has

    a DOS version included, such as the old Partition Magic did?

2.  Where do I get the SATA drivers to add to my DOS Floppy so FDisk

    can see the 2TB HDD?

3.  Is Ghost 2003 able to work with pre-partitioned 2TB HDD's?

4.  Could I just use Ghost 2003 to make the logical and extended

    partitions and eliminate using FDisk altogether?

5.  If yes, the "step-by-steps", please.

6.  If I DO cut my 45 Gigger up into two partitions, will I be able

    to use this configuration from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/51978

    without any problems with the 2TB:

    * Drive 1:
      C: 20 MB primary MS-DOS partition
      D: 20 MB logical drive 1 in extended MS-DOS partition

      Drive 2:
      E: 20 MB logical drive 1 in extended MS-DOS partition
      F: 20 MB logical drive 2 in extended MS-DOS partition


Thanks in advance for any help you can be.



                                          Big Al

Brian, I checked out BootIt and wasn't impressed, sorry.

Do you have any advice on using Ghost 2003 on my

storage 2TB?  How about my partitioning question?

Anyone else have any input?

Big Al

Big_Al wrote on Sep 23^rd, 2011 at 11:52pm:

Not to be judgmental, but if you weren't impressed by BootIt BM, then nothing will impress you . . . and that makes it all the harder to fathom why you'd rather settle for Ghost 2003.  BootIt BM is light-years ahead of Ghost 2003, and can handle your present *and future* needs with aplomb.

Ghost 2003 was never designed to handle Windows 7 or 2TB drives, so you're going to have to spend hours and hours fiddling, repairing, and redoing things over and over in an attempt to work around its shortcomings--and it won't be an easy learning curve for someone who hasn't been through it before.

Besides, no matter what you do, Ghost 2003 will not be able to do it all by itself.  You'll always have to use some additional tool to cover what Ghost 2003 can't do.  So if you've got to use another tool anyway, why not use one that can handle the whole job without a lot of pain and bother?



Quote:

My best advice is, "Don't."



Big_Al wrote on Sep 23^rd, 2011 at 6:18pm:

That's not true.  DOS makes no distinction between EIDE vs SATA.  Whether or not it's SATA is irrelevant, as far as DOS is concerned.

Unlike Windows, DOS uses the motherboard's BIOS driver, so all that matters is whether the BIOS can read and write to the drive.  If the BIOS can see it, then DOS can see it. 

Not all BIOS's can see SATA, but it's a sure bet that if the motherboard supports SATA drives at all, then the BIOS is going to be capable of seeing them.



Quote:

The Microsoft link you're referencing regards how drive letters are assigned, so if you're asking if these are the drive letters that will be assigned, the answer is yes, that's how DOS would assign drive letters with that particular layout of primary and extended partitions.