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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.rmit.EDU.AU!news.unimelb.EDU.AU!munnari.OZ.AU!news.mel.connect.com.au!news.syd.connect.com.au!gidora.kralizec.net.au!not-for-mail From: bde@zeta.org.au (Bruce Evans) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: Solution for missing support for DOS extended partitions Date: 21 Dec 1995 16:38:59 +1100 Organization: Kralizec Dialup Unix Lines: 44 Message-ID: <4bartj$3ug@godzilla.zeta.org.au> References: <Pine.SOL.3.91.951218160634.379B-100000@ulab-3> NNTP-Posting-Host: godzilla.zeta.org.au In article <Pine.SOL.3.91.951218160634.379B-100000@ulab-3>, Vladimir Mencl <vmen3237@ulab-3> wrote: > I'm using two 500MB harddisks, and the first one is divided into two >DOS partitions. Because DOS'es FDisk doesn't let you create two primary >partitions, the 2nd of them was Extended. > But then I installed FreeBSD, and it cannot mount extended partitions. FreeBSD (versions >= 2.0.5) can mount (logical drives within) extended partitions. E.g., # First logical drive within an partition. # For DOS drive D:, perhaps. cd /dev; sh MAKEDEV sd0s5 mount -t msdos /dev/sd0s5 /dosD ... # 23rd logical drive within an extended partition. # For DOS drive Z:, perhaps. cd /dev; sh MAKEDEV sd0s27 mount -t msdos /dev/sd0s27 /dosZ ... # 26th logical drive within an extended partition. # For FreeBSD, perhaps. cd /dev; sh MAKEDEV sd0s30 mount /dev/sd0s30 /usr3 >But DO I REALLY NEED THEM to be Extended ? > No! Even DOS ones!? >... > All you need is just an binary diskeditor (I would recommend MSDOS's >DISKEDIT from Norton Utilities, but you can use nearly anything, probably >including FreeBSD's fdisk, but I don't know how would you force it to >give you data from the extended partition about your logical drives). FreeBSD's fdisk can't do that directly, but you can use it to force the driver into printing the values: enter slightly bogus values (off by one sector or something like that), then boot with -v. You can also look at the values as offsets using wizard mode in sysinstall. Bruce -- Bruce Evans bde@zeta.org.au