Older Versions of FDISK Do Not Remove Non-DOS Partitions (37241)
The information in this article applies to:
• Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 2.11
• Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 3.1
• Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 3.2
• Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 3.21
• Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 3.3
• Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 3.3a
• Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 4.0
• Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 4.01
• Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 5.0
• Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.0
• Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.2
• Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.21
• Microsoft MS-DOS operating system 6.22
This article was previously published under Q37241
SUMMARY
In MS-DOS versions 5.0 and later, FDISK.EXE allows non-DOS partitions to be
deleted. For more information on this subject, query on the following
words:
MS-DOS and 5.0 and FDISK and non-DOS and partition
The remaining information in this article applies to Microsoft MS-DOS
versions 2.x, 3.x, and 4.x, but not 5.0 or later.
MORE INFORMATION
As a security measure, the MS-DOS FDISK.EXE utility will not remove or
modify a partition made by another non-DOS operating system (such as
XENIX). If your system contains another operating system in another
partition (in addition to MS-DOS), this implies that this operating
system understands about disk partitions. Instead of trying to get the
MS-DOS FDISK.EXE utility to work with this other operating system, you
should instead rely on the partitioning tools available with the
non-DOS operating system.
For safety purposes, the MS-DOS FDISK.EXE utility prevents you from
modifying non-DOS partitions; however, it is still possible to
accidentally or intentionally modify the partition (or data) of this
other operating system by using the ROM BIOS interrupt 13H (Disk I/O),
or MS-DOS interrupt 25H/26H (Absolute Disk Read/Write).
If you are using MS-DOS version 4.01 or earlier and the non-DOS operating
system does not have the ability to modify its own partition, a program
that uses the ROM BIOS interrupt 13H could be used to modify the partition.
Another method of removing a non-DOS partition is to perform a
low-level format of the disk, thus removing partition information from
the disk.
| Modification Type: |
Major |
Last Reviewed: |
5/12/2003 |
| Keywords: |
KB37241 |
|