Command: fdisk
FDISK creates one or several partitions on a hard disk. After this,
the partitions can be formatted and are ready to work with FreeDOS.
Syntax:
fdisk [options]
FDisk can be used in two ways:
* Without options. FDisk provides an interactive menu.
* With options.
Note that an exception is that the /MONO option is used
with the interactive menu mode.
Options:
General Notes on the Options:
* partitions, partition types and drives are all specified by
numbers.
* sizes are specified in Mega Bytes, or as a percentage if followed
by ,100. For example 50 would be 50MB and 50,100 would be 50%.
(no options) Runs in interactive mode.
/REBOOT Reboots the Computer
/? [/NOPAUSE] Displays this help information.
Interactive user interface switches:
/ACTOK Skips integrity checking.
/FPRMT Prompts for FAT32/FAT16 in interactive mode.
/MONO Forces the user interface to run in monochrome mode.
/Q Keeps the system from rebooting after you exit FDisk.
(Note: FDisk will not reboot after you exit unless
rebooting is enabled in the "fdisk.ini" file.)
/X Do not use LBA partitions.
/XO Enables extended options.
Creating primary partitions and logical drives:
Sizes are in MB or [,100] in percent.
/PRI:'size'[,100] [/SPEC:'type#'] [drive#]
Creates a primary partition.
/PRIO:'size'[,100] [/SPEC:'type#'] [drive#]
Creates a primary FAT16 partition.
/EXT:'size'[,100] [drive#]
Creates an extended DOS partition.
/EXTO:'size'[,100] [drive#]
Creates an extended DOS FAT16 partition.
/LOG:'size'[,100] [/SPEC:'type#'] [drive#]
Creates a logical partition in the extended
partition.
/LOGO:'size'[,100] [/SPEC:'type#'] [drive#]
Creates a logical FAT16 partition in the extended
partition.
/AUTO [drive#]
Automatically partitions the disk.
[/SPEC:'type#']
Specifies the partition type number.
Activating/Deactivating partition tables:
/ACTIVATE:'partition#' [drive#]
Sets 'partition#' active.
/DEACTIVATE [drive#]
Deactivates all partitions on 'drive#'.
Deleting partitions - USE WITH CAUTION!
/CLEAR [drive#]
Deletes all Partitions.
/CLEARALL [drive#]
Deletes all Partitions and the Master Boot Record.
/DELETE {/PRI[:#] | /EXT | /LOG:'partition#'|/NUM:'partition#'}
[drive#]
Deletes a partition (primary, extended, logical).
Note: Logical drives start at /NUM=5.
MBR (Master Boot Record) modification:
/AMBR [drive#] Writes the MBR stored in the "boot.mbr" file to
'drive#'.
/BMBR [drive#] Writes the BOOTEASY MBR to 'drive#'.
/CMBR [drive#] Creates the MBR.
/MBR [drive#] Writes the standard MBR to 'drive#'.
/SMBR [drive#] Saves the current MBR on 'drive#', into a file
called 'boot.mbr'.
/RMBR [drive#] Removes the MBR from 'drive#'.
Partition table modification
/MODIFY:'partition#','type#' [drive#]
Changes partition type to 'type#'. Logical drives
start at "5".
/MOVE:'source_partition#','dest_partition#' [drive#]
Moves the entry in the primary partition table,
from source_partition to destination_partition.
/SWAP:'first_partition#','second_partition#' [drive#]
Swaps two partition entries.
For handling flags on a hard disk:
/CLEARFLAG[{:'flag#'} | /ALL} ] [drive#]
Resets 'flag#' or all on 'drive#'
/SETFLAG:'flag#'[,'flag_value'] [drive#]
Sets 'flag#' to 1 or 'flag_value'
/TESTFLAG:'flag#'[,'flag_value'] [drive#]
Tests 'flag#' for 1 or 'flag_value'
For obtaining information about the hard disk(s):
/DUMP Dumps (displays) partition information from all
hard disks (for debugging).
/INFO [/TECH] Displays partition information from 'drive#'.
/STATUS Displays the current partition layout.
Comments:
As FDISK creates / deletes partitions you should handle it carefully.
If you want to make a HD bootable, don't forget to set the 'Active'
flag. FreeDOS supports only one primary partition. If you want to
create more than one partition on a HD you should first create a
primary partition, then an extended partition and in this extended
partition one or more logical partitions.
FDISK has the following EXITCODES (ERRORLEVEL):
0 Normal program completion, no errors
1 Syntax error
3 Error in the fdisk.ini file
4 Error in the part.dat file
5 Non-existant hard disk
6 Buffer allocation failure
7 Hard disk is already partitioned. (This is only
returned if the "/AUTO" function is used and there are
already partitions other than a Compaq Diagnostic
Partition on the hard disk.)
8 Error reading from or writing to the boot.mbr file.
9 Miscellaneous error. It is best to examine
the output printed to the screen from Free FDISK to
determine the exact cause of the problem.
20 Flag has been set (see /SETFLAG, /TESTFLAG, and
/CLEARFLAG for details)
21 Flag has not been set (see errorlevel 20, above)
Examples:
fdisk
fdisk /status
See also:
format
label
mirror
undelete
unformat
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Copyright (C) 2003 Brian E. Reifsnyder, updated 2008 by W. Spiegl.
This file is derived from the FreeDOS Spec Command HOWTO.
See the file H2Cpying for copying conditions.