Are you feeling a strong tendency to monasticism after reading the manuals?

Are you still mumbling "All I wanted to do was to install Xyz OS (TM), not to
spend the rest of my days reading about partitions and boot sectors"?
Have you read the manuals at all?
NO WORRY!
This is the document for you. This is a step-by-step manual of what you should
do in order to use Partition Resizer successfully. I hope you'll find this
document easy to follow. You will have to read README.1ST of course, and print
it if possible, because you may need it for reference. You should also print
this document too. Just remember to take a good look at INCOMPAT.LST, and
print TROUBLE.DOC to have it handy in case of emergency.
BE WARNED THOUGH:
Follow these instructions precisely. If you need to do something that is not
clarified here, you have to read and understand all the proceedings described
in the other documents. This document is complementary to README.1ST, not a
replacement for it. You're supposed to know all the restrictions written in
README.1ST before reading this document. It's better that you plan the whole
process before actually performing it. This will help you prepare any boot
disks or programs needed for emergency. So, before running the program, read
this document and prepare your system without running Partition Resizer.
START HERE:
- First choose which partition you're going to work with. Let's call
this partition "the working partition".
- OK, let's take a look at your system (you must follow the according
step for each Operating system you've got installed):
- if you have plain DOS installed, jump to "DOS" section.
- if you have OS/2 installed on a fat partition and you're using
dual boot, go to "OS/2 on FAT" section.
- if you have OS/2 installed on an HPFS partition, go to
"OS/2 Normal".
- if you have Windows 95 or later installed, go to "Windows 95".
- if you have Windows NT installed, go to Windows NT".
- if you have Linux installed, go to "Linux".
- if you have any other Operating System, go to "Other OSs".
DOS:
Plain DOS. Let's take a look at your device drivers:
- Check your working partition's integrity with a good Disk Checking
Utility. Norton Disk Doctor or Scandisk will do fine. If you're not
absolutely sure for your disk's surface integrity, perform a
surface scan too.
- You can now go to the "Defragmentation Process" section.
OS/2 on FAT:
- Check your working partition's integrity with a good Disk Checking
Utility. I don't know if there are any restrictions for which
programs you can use. If you're not absolutely sure for your disk's
surface integrity, perform a surface scan too.
- The following apply only to the boot partition. If you're not going
to work with the boot partition, skip this and go to the
"Defragmentation Process" section.
- To reinstall OS/2 startup files, use SYSINSTX.COM.
 - Boot with DOS, and delete the "bootsect.*" file. This will prevent
any accidents. You'll have to reinstall the file after you've
finished (this should be done by running OS/2's FDISK and adjusting
the Boot Manager settings from there).
- Now, go to the "Defragmentation Process".
Windows 95:
- Check your working partition's integrity with a good Disk Checking
Utility. Norton Disk Doctor 32 or Scandisk for Windows 95 will do
fine. If you're not absolutely sure for your disk's surface
integrity, perform a surface scan too.
- You won't face problems running Partition Resizer with Windows 95.
Just remember when following the Defragmentation Process to use
a Windows 95 suitable Defragmentation Utility, since any other
will destroy the long filenames. Also remember that you can't run
Partition Resizer under the multitasking environment of Windows 95.
You must first restart the computer in MSDOS mode.
- Now you can go to the "Defragmentation Process" section.
Windows NT:
- You shouldn't move Windows NT partitions (you can't resize them
anyway), I haven't checked if there are any implications on
the file system integrity, but you won't be able to boot from the
partition (probably you can fix this afterwards with the emergency
disk).
Linux:
- No problems, either with moving a Linux partition, or a swap
partition. Just create a startup diskette, it may become handy
afterwards...
Other OSs:
- Well, nothing is granted from now on. Things to avoid in general:
- Don't move partitions created by other Operating Systems.
- Don't move or resize bootable partitions (not even DOS partitions)
if you're not sure you can reinstall the appropriate system files
and boot managers.
- If Partition Resizer gives you errors concerning these partitions,
take a good look at the log file if you're an experienced user, or
else send me a message with the log file. Don't run Partition
Resizer if you don't understand the problem completely.
Defragmentation Process:
- If defragmenting your disk takes less than 20-30 minutes, read this
section. If it takes more than 30 minutes, just skip it and go
straight to "Running Preparations".
- If this process seems too complicated, skip it and go to "Running
Preparations".
- Run "attrib -s -h -r \*.* /s" at your working partition. It would
be nice to know which files in your disk are hidden or read-only or
system, so that you can set their attributes back to normal when
you've finished.
- If this is your boot partition, run "attrib +s +h +r \io.sys" (it's
\ibmio.sys for IBM DOS).
- If you're running Windows 3.1, and there is a file named
 "386spart.par" in your root directory, delete it (the file, not
Windows...). Don't run windows again, until after using Partition
Resizer. The next time you run windows, you'll have to reinstall
your swapfile (Control Panel/386 Enhanced/Virtual Memory).
- Run a defragmentation utility (like DOS's defrag or Norton's
Speedisk. If you're using Windows 95, you'll have to run Defrag
from within Windows; any other defragmentation program will destroy
the long filenames. Choose "Full Optimization" as your optimization
method. This is not necessary, but it will save time from presizer.
- You can now set the file attributes back to normal.
- Go to the "Running Preparations" Section.
Running Preparations:
- OK, it's D-Day. Get a good diskette, check it for bad clusters you
might have missed, and prepare it as written in README.1ST.
- Print all the manuals if possible. You might need them as reference.
- Don't write protect the disk: Partition Resizer has to write things
on it.
- Create bootdisks for each operating system you've got installed.
You may need them if you can't boot after running Partition Resizer.
- If you're using OnTrack Disk Manager or any SCSI driver, you must
load it before running Partition Resizer.
- Now you are ready to run Partition Resizer.
Running Partition Resizer:
- Boot from the diskette you've created.
- Run Partition Resizer.
- If there are any errors or warnings, the best thing to do is to read
TROUBLE.DOC.
- If there are no errors or warnings, you will be moved to the
program's main menu. From now on, it's up to you to choose what you
need to do.
- If your computer hangs for too long (it has never happened with
version 1.1.2, but who knows...) reset it and immediately rerun
the program.
- If your computer restarts before the program finishes it's work
(due to software conflict, power failure or accidental interruption)
rerun the program (you'd better read TROUBLE.DOC in this case).
- if you have plain DOS or Windows 95 installed, jump to "DOS Final"
section.
- if you have OS/2 installed on a fat partition and you're using
dual boot, go to "OS/2 on FAT Final" section.
- if you have OS/2 installed on an HPFS partition, go to
"OS/2 Normal Final".
- if you have Windows NT installed, go to Windows NT Final".
- if you have Linux installed, go to "Linux Final".
- if you have any other Operating System, go to "Other OSs Final".
DOS Final:
- Try booting from your hard disk. If you're unable to boot, boot from
the boot disk you created. Then change to your hard disk partition.
- Check all your DOS partitions. If you encounter errors, check to see
what they are. If you followed all the precautions mentioned here
and in README.1ST, there shouldn't be any problems. If there are,
contact me. Someone told me that he lost all his data because of
Partition Resizer. Then he told me that he had a boot sector
protection program running along with presizer, he run mirror after
 running Partition Resizer using the old mirror files he had not
deleted, and when he found that he had pressed N when prompted to
write to the boot sector, and that his partition was ruined, he
rerun presizer to undo what he had done... (the funniest thing is
that he finally saved his disk! Among others, he performed a normal
dos format up to 1% (!), an unformat (!!!) and some other things
which worked! So remember to read ALL INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY! I
didn't write 80K of documentation just for fun...
- If your data is OK but you can't boot from your hard disk, run sys
to replace your system files.
- If there are no problems at all, you're ready to use your new
partition configuration.
OS/2 on FAT Final:
- You shouldn't boot your machine now. Boot from a floppy, and check
all your drives. If you have any errors, and you followed all the
precautions precisely, you should contact me.
- If all your drives are OK, reinstall the system files with
SYSINSTX.COM.
- Now you're ready to use your new configuration.
OS/2 Normal Final:
- Boot from the original installation floppies, and use OS/2's FDISK
to reinstall boot manager, just as you did when you installed it
for the first time.
- Check all your drives. If you have any errors, and you followed all
the precautions precisely, you should contact me.
- Now you're ready to use your new configuration.
Windows NT Final:
- Do not boot your machine with the boot manager. Boot from the
installation disks (the three disks you created when you installed
Windows NT) and use the emergency disk to repair boot files.
- Check all your drives. If you have any errors, and you followed all
the precautions precisely, you should contact me.
- Now you're ready to use your new configuration.
Linux Final:
- Boot from a bootable linux diskette. If you're using the boot
diskette you used for the installation, at the lilo prompt type
"mount root=/dev/hd??", where /dev/hd?? is the linux boot partition.
- Rerun liloconfig. Make any changes to the lilo configuration and
reinstall lilo.
- Check all your drives. If you have any errors, and you followed all
the precautions precisely, you should contact me.
- Now you're ready to use your new configuration.
Other OSs Final:
- It's simple: Reinstall system/boot files, check integrity, reboot,
and you're ready.
If you have something to add or correct to this document, please send me a
message (zeleps@usa.net) with your suggestions. This document is not yet
complete, I will add more details as soon as I can.
Best Regards,
Zeleps