Community

SmirkySam

SZ1VP

Hi all.
Has anybody re-partitioned the HDD to provide three partitions?

I have made my recovery disks and created a floppy boot disk with MSDOS commands including FDISK and FORMAT.

I have not loaded any additional software or saved any personal data on the hard drive.

But....
Sony support won't tell me which DOS drivers I need for the DVD or where to get them.

If I keep the recovery partition but repartiton the rest of the HDD, can I reload the software from the F10 key on boot up?

SS:smileywink:

kee-lo_

If I keep the recovery partition but repartiton the rest of the HDD, can I reload the software from the F10 key on boot up?

SS:smileywink:

Not possible I'm afraid, once you start partitioning with FDISK you loose EVERYTHING else as it re-writes the table.

Only make 3 partitions if it's absolutely crucial!

SmirkySam

Thanks for the reply.

So, I can't re-partition using XP itself (without shelling out for extra software).

If I use FDISK to re-partition the extended drive I'll loose everything?

Which DOS files I need on the floppy to access the DVD drive from bootup?

Thanks
SS:smileywink:

kee-lo_

You could try partition magic, but many members said they couldn't use the HDDR as extra space due to the way the machine is set up. They had to do a full recovery.

If you go to bookdisks.com you'll find a Windows XP boot disk which allows you to access optical drives

SmirkySam

Thanks for the info so far.

I don't want to purchase a third party program for just a single use.

Trying to get useful information out of Sony Support is like drawing blood out of a stone.

I'm thinking of removing all of the partitions except the recovery partition (although the laptop will boot from the DVD drive with the recovery disks in, it's just alot slower).
I may have to create a primary partition for XP.

There is a an Fdisk command 'MBR' which repairs the master boot record. Would this prevent, what you meant when you said I would "loose Everything"?

From what i've read, once XP is installed, I can partition the rest of the HDD using the disk management.

SS:smileywink: