fdisk

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fdisk is the name used for several hard disk partition table editor programs for PC compatible computers. Before a hard disk can be used by an operating system on a PC, it must be divided into one or more logical disks called partitions. This division is described in the partition table found in the Master Boot Record in sector 0 of the disk.

1 DOS FDISK
- 1.1 Version Differences
2 UNIX, Linux & Unix-derived fdisk
3 OS/2 fdisk
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] DOS FDISK

MS-DOS FDISK Main Menu

All of the many DOS operating systems, including MS-DOS, PC-DOS and DR-DOS use a partition table manipulator known as FDISK.EXE. The name is a derivation of fixed disk. Most DOS FDISK programs, including the FDISK program that came with the original Windows 95, are only capable of creating FAT partitions of type FAT16.

A derivative of the MS-DOS FDISK was provided with Windows 95, Windows 98, and later Windows Me. Only those FDISK versions shipping with Windows 95B or later are able to manipulate FAT32 partitions.

FreeDOS has its own official Free FDISK which has many advanced features and is free software.

[edit] Version Differences

Unlike the fdisk programs for UNIX, Linux and their derivatives, the FDISK programs for DOS and Windows 9x/Me not only alter data in the Partition Table, but will also overwrite many sectors of data in the partition itself. Users must be sure the correct disk/partition has been chosen before using a DOS/Windows FDISK for partitioning.

[edit] UNIX, Linux & Unix-derived fdisk

Linux needs at least one partition, namely for its root file system. It can use swap files and/or swap partitions. Usually one will want a second Linux partition dedicated as a swap partition. On Intel compatible hardware, the BIOS that boots the system can often only access the first 1024 cylinders of the disk. For this reason people with large disks often create a third partition, just a few MB large, typically mounted on /boot, to store the kernel image and a few auxiliary files needed at boot time, so as to make sure that they are accessible to the BIOS. There may be reasons of security, ease of administration and backup, or testing, to use more than the minimum number of partitions. See also: cfdisk.

[edit] OS/2 fdisk

OS/2 shipped with two partition table managers up until version 4.0. These were the text mode fdisk and the GUI-based fdiskpm. The two have identical functionality, and can manipulate both FAT partitions and the more advanced HPFS partitions.

OS/2 versions 4.5 and higher (including eComStation) can use the JFS filesystem as well as FAT and HPFS, and replace fdisk with the Logical Volume Manager (LVM).