Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!burl!codas!killer!mit-eddie!bu-cs!madd
From: madd@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Jim Frost)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Need info - Using large capacity hard disk w/MS-DOS
Message-ID: <20054@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Date: 20 Feb 88 22:48:18 GMT
References: <5561@sgistl.SGI.COM> <4583@ecsvax.UUCP> <3093@cup.portal.com> <396@ontenv.UUCP>
Reply-To: madd@bu-it.bu.edu (Jim Frost)
Followup-To: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Organization: Boston University Distributed Systems Group
Lines: 34

In article <396@ontenv.UUCP> norm@ontenv.UUCP (Norman S. Soley) writes:
>In article <3093@cup.portal.com>, truett@cup.portal.com writes:
>> With regard to MS-DOS being able to handle multiple partitions on a hard disk:
>> 4) It is possible, using third-party software, to create DOS readable
>>    partitions which are larger than 32 MB.  Programs that do this include
>>    VFeature, Speedstor, and Disk Mechanic.  I believe the Mace Utilities can
>>    also do this.
>> 5) As far as I know, none of these can create a DOS bootable (active) partition
>>    which is larger than 32 MB.  Thus, the usual practice is to create a small
>>    DOS boot partition (say 1-2 MB) and either put all the rest of the drive
> 
>I don't know about the other programs but my AT at work has a single
>40MB partition that boots. I did it with Vfeature, the only problem
>with this is that if you want to boot from a floppy for any reason
>your hard disk is useless unless you use a previously created
>"Vfeature knowledgeable" diskette.

This is partially incorrect.  VFeature-created single-disk partitions
are readable with standard floppies.  It is possible to make the disk
unreadable by standard floppies under VFeature as a security
mechanism, and of course multiple drive spanning partitions (ie one
logical 40Mb partition on 2 physical 20Mb drives) will make no sense
at all to standard MS-DOS.

It's really not a good idea to do anything with a VFeature volume
larger than 32Mb using a standard MS-DOS diskette, though, since
MS-DOS really doesn't like it.

We've been using VFeature on a 72Mb drive for quite some time and I've
done all sorts of things with the drive, both with and without the
VFeature driver installed.

jim frost
madd@bu-it.bu.edu