MS DOS Command: FDISK.EXE

Reference from Microsoft MS-DOS cmd help

Description

Starts the Fdisk program, which configures a hard disk for use with MS-DOS.

Fdisk displays a series of menus to help you partition your hard disk(s) for MS-DOS.

Syntax

To start the Fdisk program, use the following syntax:

FDISK

To display partition information without starting the Fdisk program, use the following syntax:

FDISK /STATUS

Switch

/STATUS

/STATUSDisplays an overview of the partition information of your computer's hard disk(s), without starting the Fdisk program.

Remarks

Using Fdisk to partition a hard disk

You can use Fdisk for the following tasks:

• Creating a primary MS-DOS partition
• Creating an extended MS-DOS partition
• Setting a partition to active
• Deleting a partition
• Displaying partition data
• Selecting the next hard disk for partitioning, if a system has multiple hard disks

CAUTION: Do not experiment with Fdisk. If you accidently delete a drive or partition, you will lose data from your hard disk.

Viewing partition information quickly and easily

To display an overview of your computer's partition information without having to start the Fdisk program, use the /STATUS switch. If the /STATUS switch doesn't provide enough detail about your hard disk, then start the Fdisk program without the /STATUS switch and choose option 4.

Changing the size of a partition

To change the size of a partition, you must actually delete the partition and create a new one with a different size.

Maximum partition size

The maximum partition size is 2 gigabytes.

CAUTION: Deleting a partition deletes all the data stored on that partition.

Using Fdisk with SUBST

Fdisk does not work on a drive formed by using the SUBST command.

Limits of Fdisk

Fdisk does not work on a network or an Interlnk drive. Fdisk works only on hard disks physically installed on your computer.

Fdisk and Compressed Drives

If your computer includes compressed drives, Fdisk does not display information about those drives. A compressed disk drive exists on your physical disk as a hidden, read-only system file called a compressed volume file (CVF). The CVF is associated with a drive letter; you can then use the files stored in that CVF. However, to Fdisk, the compressed volume file is not a separate drive; it is a file just like any other file.