IMPORTANT!!! PLEASE READ THIS DOCUMENT WORD BY WORD, SINCE EVERYTHING WRITTEN HERE IS IMPORTANT TO YOUR DATA'S SAFETY. ESPECIALLY, PARTS QUOTED IN TRIPLE ASTERISKS ***>ARE CRITICAL<***. DISCLAIMER: This program is freeware. You may freely copy it and distribute it, as long as it remains unchanged and it is distributed with its original document files. The author is not responsible for any damage caused by the use of this program. Using this program is completely at your own responsibility. First things first: Before you run this program =============================================== Partition Resizer is the safe and easy way to repartition your hard disk, without erasing its contents. But, since it is playing with your valuable data, you should strictly follow the instructions given, in order to avoid any harm to your data. The program has been tested in several machines, and with many different drive types, and it has proven to be safe (it has been sucessfully tested on IDE, EIDE and SCSI disks, but I don't see why it wouldn't run on any other disk type, if there is one). Since it uses the standard bios routines to access the disk, it is completely safe and compatible with every 8086 or better DOS or Windows running system. ***>It should run on every hard disk up to 2TB of size, that supports the standard LBA interface (Int13h Extensions)<***. It also has a reset protection system, which allows it to restore it's work even if the machine's power supply goes off. This is really important, since the resizing process can take almost an hour in some cases, and of course, not everyone has a UPS on his/her machine... In order to run this program you must do the following, to ensure data protection: 1. Copy this program, along with the DOC files on a bootable DOS floppy disk. This floppy should contain the following files: Boot System files (whatever your DOS or Windows version is) FDISK.EXE FORMAT.EXE SYS.COM PRESIZER.EXE PRESIZER.DOC README.1ST TROUBLE.DOC MORE.COM or any ascii file viewer DELTREE.EXE (if DOS version >= 6.00) CHKDSK.EXE a Disk Editor if possible your disk's device driver program, if it has one, and in this case a proper config.sys file. You should also leave enough space (20-30K) for the log file and the rescue file (quite small) that will be created by the program. ***>The program MUST NOT be run from the partition which is being resized or moved, nor from a compressed or any other device driven drive who's data resides in the working partition. This means that you shouldn't invoke the program from the DOS prompt while being in that partition (even if Partition Resizer is in the path), neither you should have Partition Resizer installed in that partition. In case you resize or move your system's boot partition, you MUST run it from a bootable floppy disk. If you are not resizing or moving your boot partition, then you may as well run this program from a hard disk, but NEVER from the partition which is being resized or moved. Running Partition Resizer from the partition which is currently being resized or moved WILL cause harm to your data. Make sure that the disk which you run Partition Resizer from, is NOT write-protected. This is because Partition Resizer uses the disk to write some information, and it will not proceed if the disk is write protected. You should not run Partition Resizer from a ramdrive.<*** 2. Check the partition you want to move or resize with a disk diagnostics program, like Norton's Disk Doctor or PC Tools DiskFix (chkdsk should do fine, too).***>Proceed ONLY if the partition has no errors. It would be a good idea to test the partition's surface for defective sectors. YOU SHOULD NOT USE PARTITION RESIZER ON DAMAGED DISKS. Partition Resizer checks for defects the whole area that will be read or written on request, and it will refuse to continue if it finds any bad sectors<***. 3. Defrag the partition. This is not absolutely necessary, but will save you much time, and it will allow you to free more space from the partition. If you decide to do it, you will have to fully optimize the drive, so that all data is moved at the beginning of the partition. Make sure that all files (including unmovable - hidden, read-only and system) are moved. This can be done by changing the files' attributes, optimizing, and putting them back again. See number 4 for more details. Some new defragmentation software products, move some files to the end of the partition when performing a full optimisation. In this case, you should use the "unfragment free space" option provided. 4. ***>There are some files that will be damaged if moved. Such files are IO.SYS, 386SPART.PAR etc<***. IO.SYS is always at the beginning of the partition, so you don't have to move it during the optimization. But, 386SPART.PAR (the Windows 3.1 swapfile) will be damaged if moved, not only during the optimization process, but also during the resizing or moving process. So you will have to delete it, and make a new one after you finish with resizing or moving. STACVOL.* files can be freely moved or optimized, so you won't have to worry about those. If you have doubts about your system files, read the TROUBLE.DOC for more information. 5. To use Partition Resizer, it is recommended that you boot with a clean configuration. If you use a DOS version older than 6.00, you should rename config.sys and autoexec.bat in order to skip them during boot time. If you use DOS version 6.00 or later (that is for MS DOS) you may press F5 at the "Starting MS-DOS..." message to bypass config.sys and autoexec.bat. If you boot from a floppy, you should not put any autoexec.bat or config.sys files in the disk. ***>If you disk needs a special driver to operate with DOS, then you MUST load this driver in your config.sys<***. This can be done by using F8 to confirm loading each device line. ***>You must also disable ALL boot sector virus protectors, including BIOS's virus checking option and virus protection boards<***. This is vital since Partition Resizer writes information at the MBR, which causes these programs to give a false alarm, and sometimes prevent Partition Resizer from writting that information. ***>IMPORTANT: If you're using a bios alarm program, you MUST disable it before running Partition Resizer<***. After you have done all the above, you may run and use Partition Resizer. 6. If Partition Resizer is terminated abnormally when resizing or moving a partition (power failure, computer freezes, hard disk fails, virus protector reboots etc.), ***>do not run any disk repairing program. Just reboot your computer, and re-run Partition Resizer FROM THE LOCATION YOU RUN IT BEFORE. Then, the program will resume the operation normally<***. 7. ***>After running Partition Resizer, and IF you are using mirror or any other program you're using that keeps track of your partition information, you have to re-run it to update its files<***. This will renew the data files of the program. This should also be done with any partition saving program you're using, since any old partition information will be invalid after running Partition Resizer. If you have any questions or doubts, you may find the answers in the rest documents (especially PRESIZER.FAQ). You should now read PRESIZER.DOC, to get more vital info on Partition Resizer. You'll also have to read INCOMPAT.DOC, to get information concerning incompatibility with other software. In case you face any difficulties during the resizing process, refer immediately to TROUBLE.DOC. If you want to read some simpler instructions, read STARTERS.DOC.