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We’re not going to spend a lot of time on FIPS here, because the documentation on the accompanying CD-ROM more than adequately explains how FIPS works, its limitations, and the exact procedures for dividing a hard drive. The only caveat we offer is that you should know a little about how PCs deal with hard drive partitions before using FIPS; if you’re a PC neophyte, we suggest you follow the steps detailed in the next section.
NOTE: FIPS will not work with OS/2. The details are contained in the FIPS.DOC file. You should run FIPS from DOS rather than from a multitasking environment like Windows or DESQview. FIPS will also not work with FAT32, a new filesystem Microsoft has included in some newer Windows95 systems. If you’re unlucky enough to have this, you’ll either have to erase your DOS partition to make room for Linux, or add a new hard drive.
The second method to prepare your hard drive for Linux involves various DOS utilities, which you’ll use to create new partitions and configure a floppy diskette you can use to boot your PC with DOS.
The first step involves creating a DOS boot diskette. (You’ve already created a Linux boot diskette; the two are different.) This is a rather simple procedure, involving the following command line:
C:> format /s A:
where A: is your boot drive. This command formats a floppy disk and adds the system files (COMMAND.COM and hidden files IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS) needed to boot DOS from the floppy. If you install a DOS partition, booting from this diskette will give you access to that partition (which will appear as drive C:). It will not, however, give you access to the CD-ROM until you install the CD-ROM drivers on the DOS boot diskette.
NOTE: When you installed OS/2, it should have directed you to create an emergency boot floppy. You may need this diskette if something goes wrong in the installation.
After doing this, you’ll need to copy some additional utilities to the floppy. You’ll need to be fairly selective about what files you copy to the floppy, because the sum of all DOS .EXE and .COM files (essentially, the utility files) in a typical DOS installation won’t fit on a floppy disk. You’ll need to copy the FDISK.EXE and FORMAT.COM files to the floppy drive with the following command lines:
C:> copy \DOS\FDISK.EXE A:
1 file(s) copied
C:> copy \DOS\FORMAT.COM A:
1 file(s) copied
NOTE: You may also want to copy onto a floppy the files that restore your system backup, if you used operating system utilities to create the backup. Check your documentation for the specific files; they differ between operating systems.
What are FDISK and FORMAT?
We’ve told you to copy FDISK.EXE and FORMAT.COM onto the floppy for future use, we should take some time to explain what they do.
FDISK.EXE is the program that creates MS-DOS partitions. Every operating system has a program that does something similar (you’ll use the Linux fdisk command later in this process). You’ll need to use the partitioning software specific to the operating system; for example, you can’t use FDISK to create Linux or OS/2 partitions. FDISK.EXE works very simply: You delete an existing partition or partitions, and you create new partitions in their place.
Creating a partition merely leaves a portion of your hard disk devoted to the particular operating system. After you’ve used FDISK.EXE to create a new DOS partition, you’ll use the FORMAT.COM program to format that partition for use under MS-DOS. If you don’t format the MS-DOS partition, the operating system won’t be able to recognize it.
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