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(Documentation for the BASIC Mode=FDISK menu)
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(Mode=FDISK)


Mode=FDISK Menu: [FDISK style basic partition management]

Disk and media overview

From main menu: Mode=FDISK -> Disk and media overview

Display of attached partitionable media, disk geometry and partition maps

Menu item screenshot(s)


    This will display an overview of the partitionable media in table
    form, plus extensive geometry and size information for each disk.

    For each disk a pseudo-graphical map will be shown, with each
    partition or freespace area sized and colored according to its
    real size and type of filesystem being used.

    Some key information for each area will be shown inside each
    partition or freespace area displayed.
    Note that a 'disk' can be any partionable media supported by
    DFSee, like physical disks, virtual-disks, images and others ...

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    Press <F1> again for more help; Some options may require switching to 'Expert mode'

   



Create new partition

From main menu: Mode=FDISK -> Create new partition

Create a new partition defined by freespace selection and prompted values

Menu item screenshot(s)


    When any freespace area exists that could be used to create a new
    partition, this will present you with a list of freespace areas.

    When a specific freespace area is selected, the actual CREATE dialog
    will be presented that allows further specification of the partition
    to be created.

    In the selection list, freespace areas that are either too small, or
    located such that no partition could be created there, are listed
    but cannot be selected (they are disabled, black text).

    If all entries are disabled, no partitions can be created at all.

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    Press <F1> again for more help; Some options may require switching to 'Expert mode'

   


Selection of this item leads to a dynamic created submenu, to select a freespace area to be used

Delete partition

From main menu: Mode=FDISK -> Delete partition

Delete a partition from the partition-tables and (primary) LVM-information

Menu item screenshot(s)


    A partition can be selected here that will be DELETED from the
    partition-tables. This will result in the space occupied by the
    partition becoming FREESPACE that can be used again to create
    new partitions.

    For primary partitions on LVM-systems, the related LVM-information
    is cleared as well, to avoid consistency problems later when a new
    partition is created at the same position.

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    Press <F1> again for more help; Some options may require switching to 'Expert mode'

   


Selection of this item leads to a dynamic created submenu, to select a partition to be used

Set partition Status to

From main menu: Mode=FDISK -> Set partition Status to

Set partition properties: ACTIVE, HIDDEN, VISIBLE, MULTIPLE-VISIBLE-PRIMARY


    Set one of a few related properties for a partition:

     - ACTIVE
       This will set the selected partition the ACTIVE (startable)
       one, so it will be the one booted by the BIOS for this disk.
       There should only be ONE active partition on each disk,
       and this should be a PRIMARY partition

     - HIDDEN
       A partition can be selected here that will be HIDDEN for the
       operating system by manipulating the partition-type.

     - VISIBLE
       A partition can be selected here that will be made VISIBLE for
       the operating system by manipulating the partition-type.
       Other visible primaries on the same disk will be hidden.

     - MULTI-VIS
       A partition can be selected here that will be made VISIBLE for
       the operating system by manipulating the partition-type.

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    Press <F1> again for more help; Some options may require switching to 'Expert mode'

   


Active, BIOS-startable

From main menu: Mode=FDISK -> Set partition Status to -> Active, BIOS-startable

Make partition the ACTIVE (startable) one, started by default by the BIOS


    A PRIMARY partition can be selected here that will be made
    the ACTIVE one for the disk, meaning the BIOS would start
    the operating system in this partition at boot time.
    Selecting a LOGICAL will result in an error message.

    There should only be a single active partition on every disk.
    When the system starts, the BIOS will usually boot from
    the ACTIVE partition on the first disk.

    In IBM BMGR/LVM terms the active partition is called STARTABLE.

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    Press <F1> again for more help; Some options may require switching to 'Expert mode'

    


Selection of this item leads to a dynamic created submenu, to select a partition to be used

Not active, clear flag

From main menu: Mode=FDISK -> Set partition Status to -> Not active, clear flag

Make partition NOT ACTIVE, clearing the status flag, NOT booted by the BIOS


    A PRIMARY partition can be selected here that will be made
    NOT ACTIVE, meaning it will NOT be started by the BIOS.
    Selecting a LOGICAL will result in an error message.

    There should be at most ONE active partition on every disk.
    When the system starts, the BIOS will usually boot from
    the ACTIVE partition on the first disk.

    In IBM BMGR/LVM terms the active partition is called STARTABLE.

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    Press <F1> again for more help; Some options may require switching to 'Expert mode'

    


Selection of this item leads to a dynamic created submenu, to select a partition to be used


Hidden, using part-type

From main menu: Mode=FDISK -> Set partition Status to -> Hidden, using part-type

Make partition HIDDEN by manipulating the partition-type (non-LVM method)


    A partition can be selected here that will be HIDDEN for the
    operating system by manipulating the partition-type.

    The type is changed by adding 0x10 to the value (0x06 ==> 0x16)
    and will result in the partition not being seen anymore by most
    operating systems.

    This method will work for partition-types 0x01 through 0x0e only,
    with the 'hidden' values being in the range 0x11 through 0x1e

    Operating systems like Windows-XP and LVM-aware OS/2 and eCS will
    still see those partitions however, since they use a different
    mechanism to hide and show partitions.

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    Press <F1> again for more help; Some options may require switching to 'Expert mode'

    


Selection of this item leads to a dynamic created submenu, to select a partition to be used

Visible, allow just one

From main menu: Mode=FDISK -> Set partition Status to -> Visible, allow just one

Make partition VISIBLE by manipulating the partition-type (non-LVM method)


    A partition can be selected here that will be made VISIBLE for the
    operating system by manipulating the partition-type.

    The type is changed by subtracting 0x10 from the value (0x16 ==> 0x06)
    and will result in the partition being seen again.

    This method will work for partition-types 0x01 through 0x0e only,
    with the 'hidden' values being in the range 0x11 through 0x1e

    If the partitions is a PRIMARY one, other primary partitions on the
    same disk will be hidden by default.

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    Press <F1> again for more help; Some options may require switching to 'Expert mode'

    


Selection of this item leads to a dynamic created submenu, to select a partition to be used

Visible, allow Multiple

From main menu: Mode=FDISK -> Set partition Status to -> Visible, allow Multiple

Make partition VISIBLE, allow multiple visible primaries (non-LVM method)


    A partition can be selected here that will be made VISIBLE for the
    operating system by manipulating the partition-type.

    The type is changed by subtracting 0x10 from the value (0x16 ==> 0x06)
    and will result in the partition being seen again.

    This method will work for partition-types 0x01 through 0x0e only,
    with the 'hidden' values being in the range 0x11 through 0x1e

    When the partition is a PRIMARY, the other primaries on the same
    disk will NOT be affected. This may result in multiple-primary
    partitions being visible, which could be a problem for some older
    operating systems.

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    Press <F1> again for more help; Some options may require switching to 'Expert mode'

    


Selection of this item leads to a dynamic created submenu, to select a partition to be used


New MBR code, KEEP tables

From main menu: Mode=FDISK -> New MBR code, KEEP tables

Write new MBR bootcode to selected disk(s), but KEEP all partitions intact

Menu item screenshot(s)


    The boot-code in the master-boot-record (MBR) for the disk to be
    selected here will be refreshed to generic extended-int-13 aware
    bootcode by DFSee.

    This will get rid of any MBR virii, but would also remove MBR
    resident bootmanagers like LILO, GRUB or AirBoot as well as
    disk-translation software like Ontrack diskmanager.

    The partition-tables which are also in the same MBR sector are NOT
    affected by this action, so all partitions will still be there.

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    Press <F1> again for more help; Some options may require switching to 'Expert mode'

   


Selection of this item leads to a dynamic created submenu, to select a disk to be used , including 'ALL disks'

Wipe start of disk to ZERO

From main menu: Mode=FDISK -> Wipe start of disk to ZERO

Wipe the start (10 MiB) of the selected disk completely clean to all ZEROES


   This will WIPE the first 10 megabytes of the selected disk to 
   all ZEROES, completely removing remains of MBR partition-tables
   as well as any bootmanagers living in the MBR area, LVM info and
   the partitions tables and bootsectors for the first partition.

   Useful when installing a new (picky) operating system that uses
   the old information in unexpected ways :-)

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    Press <F1> again for more help; Some options may require switching to 'Expert mode'

   


Selection of this item leads to a dynamic created submenu, to select a disk to be used


Cleanup partition tables

From main menu: Mode=FDISK -> Cleanup partition tables

Cleanup multiple/incorrect ACTIVE flags and EXT container sizes and offsets


    Partition-table flag values for PRIMARY partitions will be
    checked and corrected where needed, avoiding multiple ACTIVE
    partitions and non-standard flag values. Both could cause
    boot-failures ...

    All, partition-table entries in the extended-container chain
    will be checked, recalculated and rewritten when needed.

    - Any EMPTY containers (EBR without a logical, just a link)
      will be removed from the chain.

      This will allow the freespace area that the EBR was in, to be
      used for new primary partitions, or as COPY/MOVE destination.

    - ACTIVE extended containers (status flag 0x80) will be RESET

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    Press <F1> again for more help; Some options may require switching to 'Expert mode'

   


Selection of this item leads to a dynamic created submenu, to select a disk to be used , including 'ALL disks'

Fix CHS values to Geometry

From main menu: Mode=FDISK -> Fix CHS values to Geometry

Update CHS values in partition-tables to match disk-geometry and CHS-style

Menu item screenshot(s)


    All CHS-values for the disk to be selected here will be checked
    against the current disk-geometry, and be corrected to match that
    geometry when needed.

    it will also make sure ALL partition-table entries on the selected
    disk(s) will use the SAME CHS-style IBM/PQ/MS for dummy entries.
    You may get an extra dialog allowing selection of the desired style,
    depending on previous selections made ...

    This may fix 'partition-tables on disk may be corrupt' messages
    from FDISK/LVM or errors and warnings by other tools.

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    Press <F1> again for more help; Some options may require switching to 'Expert mode'

   


Selection of this item leads to a dynamic created submenu, to select a disk to be used , including 'ALL disks'


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(to DFSee main pages)  |  File  |  Edit  |  Actions  |  Image  |  View  |  Scripts  |  Set  |  Help  |  (to EXPERT menu)
Mode=FDISK  |  APFS  |  AUX  |  DUMPFS  |  EXTn  |  EFAT  |  FAT  |  HFS+  |  HPFS  |  ISO  |  JFS  |  NTFS  |  REISER  |  SWAP  |  XFS
(Mode=FDISK page) DFSee menu documentation for pulldown : Mode=FDISK
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