Fdisk Command: ( Dr Vikram for Shivalikan ) ( Note : Different from FORMAT COMMAND )
Meaning:
Fdisk is one of the more commonly used MS-DOS commands, even today with Windows operating system. Fdisk allows the user to delete and/or create partitions on the hard disk drive. However MS-DOS 3.3x and below used fdisk.com and MS-DOS 4.x and above uses fdisk.exe
Availability
The fdisk command is an external command that is available for all Versions of MS-DOS AND Windows operating systems ( Dr Vikram for Shivalikan )
Syntax
The command Configures a hard disk for use with MS-DOS. It sysntax is as below.
C: > FDISK [/STATUS]
Where : /STATUS Displays partition information.
Uses of the fdisk Command : ( Dr Vikram for Shivalikan )
When fdisk command is executed the screen windows appears with the following 5 options for the user to choose.
1. Creating DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive – This option allows the user to create a partition on your computer hard drive. If you are planning to recreate your partition you will first need to choose 3 to delete the partition.
2. Set active partition - If the user has created multiple partitions on your hard drive, this option allows the user to specify which partition you want to be the active partition. This is used to specify which partition the computer is going to look at to boot from. If this partition does not have an operating system you will receive "Non system disk" when booting up your computer. When choosing option 2 to set active partition, you will see a listing of the current partitions; choose the number representing the partition you wish to set active, the default is one.
3. Delete partition or Logical DOS Drive - This option is used if user needs to delete partition(s) from the computer's hard disk drive.
4. Display partition information - This option is needed to look at the current Fixed disk drive partition information. If user has multiple drives, he will need to choose option 5 before being able to display the other hard drive's information.
5. Change current fixed disk drive - This option will only show if user has multiple drives within the computer. Using this option you will be able to toggle from one fixed drive to another.
Some fdisk switches ( Dr Vikram for Shivalikan )
FDISK /MBR Command used to rewrite the Master Boot Record.
FDISK /CMBR <DISK> Recreates the Master Boot Record on specified disk. FDISK 1/PRI:100 Creates a 100MB DOS partition on the hard drive.
FDISK 1/EXT:500 Creates a 500MB meg extended DOS partition on the hard drive.
FDISK 1/LOG:250 Creates a 250MB logical drives on the hard drive.
FDISK /Q Prevents fdisk from booting the system automatically after exiting fdisk.
FDISK /STATUS Shows you the current status of your hard drives.