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Conference hydra::amiga_v1

Title:AMIGA NOTES
Notice:Join us in the *NEW* conference - HYDRA::AMIGA_V2
Moderator:HYDRA::MOORE
Created:Sat Apr 26 1986
Last Modified:Wed Feb 05 1992
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:5378
Total number of notes:38326

4959.0. "Reducing Partitions ?" by DEFOE::JAMIE (I'm not a pheasant plucker!) Mon Aug 12 1991 10:11

    This may be a stupid question but since I can't find any occasion in
    this conference where someone else has asked the same stupid question I
    may as well be the one to do it ;-)
    
    I've got a hard drive formatted with 2 partitions. Due to me wanting to
    squeeze as much memory out of the system I'd like to reduce this to
    1 single partition.
    
    Is there a tool that will do this for me without losing any of the data
    on the disk or will I have to back up the disk, reformat then restore ?
    
    
    Thanks
    
    
    				Jamie.
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name		DateLines
4959.199.44% certain...HSSTPT::WILSONTLLead Trumpet (Read that...LEED!)Mon Aug 12 1991 13:314
You'll have to back it up, reformat and restore.  Go ahead and bite the bullet.
It relieves a lot of guilt feelings. 8^)

Tony
4959.2DEFOE::JAMIEI'm not a pheasant plucker!Tue Aug 13 1991 03:5016
    but...but...
    
    can't... can't I just... click my heels together and repeat three times
    "there's no partition like dh0" or something...
    
    I though Amigas were supposed to run on white magic... I'll have to
    return to the black arts of the IBM PC at this rate ;-)
    
    
    
    Cheers,
    
    
    			Acolyte of the Temple of Agnus,
    
    				   Jamie.
4959.3You could probably use QUICKPAMSRC::63643::BARRETTKeith Barrett; DECmessageQ Expertise CntrTue Aug 13 1991 09:224
    Since you already formatted your drive recently, you probably could get
    away with just a FORMAT DRIVE dh0: NAME xxx FFS QUICK command and avoid
    a lengthly waiting period; but you'll still have to backup and restore
    :-)
4959.4Should have to low-level format it.XSNAKE::WILSONTLLead Trumpet (Read that...LEED!)Tue Aug 13 1991 15:222
    I think a low level format will be required for repartitioning the
    drive.
4959.5When to format...TLE::RMEYERSRandy MeyersTue Aug 13 1991 15:4025
Re: .4

>    I think a low level format will be required for repartitioning the
>    drive.

A low level format is unnecessary, and as a previous noter stated, you could
even do a quick AmigaDOS format after the partition.

It might be a good idea to go ahead and do the normal AmigaDOS full format
rather than QUICK.  Since the quick format doesn't overwrite all of the
blocks on the partition, you are left with lots of directory and file
blocks that can confuse a disk recovery program like DiskDoctor or
DiskSalv, if you ever have to run it.

The above problem isn't too bad when going from a larger number of
partitions to a smaller number of partitions, but it is quite annoying
when going from fewer partitions to a greater number.  In that case,
DiskSalv is always stumbling across bits of files from the original
partitions that say, "And the next block in this file is 1239887."
The problem is that block 1239887 is no longer part of this partition
since you decreased its size.  You can get a huge number of complaints.

You are better off letting the AmigaDOS format zap all of the blocks
before restoring everything from backup.  Besides, it will give you a
chance to see that TV program you've been wanting to watch...