With all the hype and hoopla over microsoft and what they're doing to the
"computing" world, it always gives me a chuckle that they've never figured
out how to "play well with others" when it comes to disk partitions :)

[nor, for that matter, how to be the "borg" and simply assimilate/overwrite
"FOREIGN/SCRATCH" VOLUMES]

Using the fdisk that comes with Linux, you can change the TYPE of the
partition to a more DOS/windows friendly format -- you can even do this
without "deleting" and then re-installing the partition.

I presume the disk IS bootable under linux.  I'll also presume that this
"unused" partition is truly "unused" and not actually a "swap" [virtual
memory] partition.  If these assumptions are valid, log on as the "root"
user and type "fdisk" [again, some more presumptions: this disk is an IDE
drive on the primary controller and linked into linux as "/dev/hda"; if this
is not valid, you must supply a path to the device, which is similar to the
"hardware path" to disk drives and such under MPE/ix]

At the prompt, you can type "m" to get a menu of commands.  I believe the
command you are looking for is "t" to change the "t"ype of the partition --
also take a look at the "l" command to "l"ist known partition types.  Follow
the prompts given to change the type from "unknown" [or perhaps
"known-to-linux"] to one of the microsoft-supported DOS formats, such as DOS
16bit.  "w"rite the partition table and "q"uit, then issue the command:

   shutdown -r now

after the computer shuts down, it will AUTOBOOT -- insert a DOS diskette
into drive A: and you should now be able to use the microsoft-supplied
FDISK.EXE program to "finish up" the partitioning to DOS's liking [such as
making it the "active" partition] and then use FORMAT.EXE to prepare the
surface.  You can then INSTALL a new OS to that partition

Tom [who's wondering if he's included e-nough MPE/iX references to make this
a valid post] Emerson

> -----Original Message-----
> From: P ARRECHO1 [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Monday, February 21, 2000 3:38 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Second Drive
>
>
> I forgot to mention that there are 2 partitions on this HD
> both of them are of
> the non-Dos type that is the information that I get when I
> run Fdisk on this
> drive. They were created when I installed Linux
> Partition #1 is the unused one, the one I want Windows to
> use, it is 103
> Mbytes, partition #2 is the one that contains Linux and it is
> 2872 Mbytes.
> My question is can I delete partition #1 and recreate it but
> with a Dos type?
> Whiteout erasing the whole HD? Do I need to set this
> partition as the active
> one?
> TIA
>