China DOS Union

Partition King-- sFDISK
Author: Zou Peng
　　
　　 Recently, the author encountered a very useful hard disk partitioning, formatting and multi-system installation software - SMART FDISK2.05 in order to repair a large-foot 1.2G hard disk with a physical bad sector greater than 50MB. After testing, the partitioning function of this software is far superior to the commonly used FDISK, and its formatting function is also stronger than FORMAT. Where FORMAT cannot format, it can smoothly format it. It is called "Partition King" and "Formatting Expert", which is exactly appropriate. It should completely become one of the necessary tool software for managing hard disks in your frequently used toolbox.
　　 SFDISK is quite powerful. It can arbitrarily create primary partitions and logical partitions on your hard disk, and can format partitions. Its quick formatting function can erase all data on the original hard disk in just a few seconds. Through its built-in boot manager, you can also conveniently install multiple different operating systems in different partitions of the hard disk, such as WINDOWS9X, WINDOWSNT, DOS, LINUX, FREEBSD, OS/2, etc. When you start the computer, the boot manager can let you choose the system you need to enter through the menu.
　　 SFDISK supports a maximum partition of up to 2TB, can manage up to 16 hard disks at the same time, and supports a hard disk to be partitioned into different formats such as FAT16, FAT32, LINUX at the same time. SFDISK not only supports booting the system from the primary partition, but also can boot the system from the logical partition, which is something that FDISK and other software have not achieved at all. It not only supports booting the system from the main hard disk, but also supports booting the system from other slave hard disks. When one system has a problem, it will not endanger the safety of other systems.
　　 SFDISK is a DOS application, it is small and exquisite, its size is only 103K, and it is very compatible in the DOS environment of WIN9X. SFDISK is a dual-language software, supporting Chinese startup. Just run Chinese DOS software such as UCDOS first, or type PDOS95 in the C:\windows\command directory to run Chinese DOS under WINDOS. Then start its Chinese panel through the SFDISK/C command, which is very clear and convenient. This is a great good thing for beginners who are not familiar with the FDISK command. Since it is operated in Chinese, the author will not give a detailed description of its several commands. The following only details how to install multiple operating systems after partitioning with SFDISK:
　　 1. Take installing Windows97 and Linux on the same hard disk as an example:
　　 1. Partition the hard disk with SFDISK. The plan is: two primary partitions (one is a FAT32 partition, the other is a Linux partition), two logical partitions (one is a FAT16 partition, the other is a Linux swap partition. Then format the FAT32 and FAT16 partitions, and activate the first primary partition (FAT32).
　　 2. Start the computer with a system floppy disk (MS-DOS 7.1), and then install Windows97 on the C: drive according to the normal procedure.
　　 3. After the installation is complete, start the computer with the Linux CD, and install Linux on the Linux partition (/dev/hda2) according to the normal procedure. Note that Lilo should be installed in the Superblock.
　　 4. After the installation is complete, start the computer with the system floppy disk. Use Smart SFDISK to install the boot manager, and add the partitions of Windows 95 and Linux to the boot menu.
　　 5. Restart the computer with the hard disk, and you will see the interface and boot menu of the boot manager. At this time, you can freely choose the operating system you want to enter.
　　 The logical FAT16 partition can be used as a partition shared by the two systems to store user data.
　　 The installation methods of other systems are basically the same, but the following points need to be noted:
　　 1. If you want to install Windows NT or OS/2 in the primary partition, it is best to install them in the first primary partition. Otherwise, you must hide all the primary partitions in front of it with the boot manager before starting the system.
　　 2. If you install the boot manager first and then install Windows 9X, the boot module of the boot manager will be damaged. At this time, you can use the repair master boot record command (Repair MBR) of Smart FDISK to repair it.