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		          EFDISK v2.8 DOCUMENTATION      
		     Copyright (c) 1997-1999 Nagy Daniel 
		          Release date: 06-28-1999       
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Ŀ
 CONTENTS 


		Disclaimer............................ 1

                Copyright............................. 2

		Introduction.......................... 3

		Features.............................. 4

		Requirements.......................... 5

		Usage (IMPORTANT!).................... 6

                Partition types....................... 7

		History............................... 8

		Technical information................. 9

		Contact, about the author............ 10


Ŀ
 DISCLAIMER  1 


        Using this program comes without any warranty. The author
        and distributors will not accept responsibility for any
        damage incurred directly or indirectly through use of this
        program.
        Use at your own risk!

Ŀ
 COPYRIGHT  2 


        All copyrights are exclusively owned by the author, Nagy Daniel.
        This program is a part of the MasterBooter package. Distributing it
        separately is not allowed. You can distribute the whole unmodified
        shareware MasterBooter package only with all files intact!
        Distributing the registered version is not allowed!
        For other distributing information see the MasterBooter
        documentation.

Ŀ
 INTRODUCTION  3 


        EFDISK (Extended FDISK) is a disk partitioning program. With EFDISK
        you can create or modify primary partitions on your harddisks.
        EFDISK supports many partition types, however you cannot make
        logical drives and extended partitions with it. The original
        FDISK program doesn't allow you to create more than one primary
        partition. EFDISK does, therefore it's a powerful tool to help
        installing more operating systems on your PC.
        The registered version can create partitions by automatically
        calculating the remaining free space. This can be extremely useful
        for system administrators, schools and computer store employees.
        EFDISK is a support program of MasterBooter.

Ŀ
 FEATURES  4 


        - Displaying partition information of all drives in your system

        - Creating or editing partitions (causes data loss!)

        - Compatibility with all partition types, including:
             FAT16, FAT32 (DOS, Windows, Windows95/98, OS/2)
             Hidden FAT, NTFS/HPFS
             HPFS (OS/2)
             Ext2FS (Linux)
             Linux swap (Linux)
             NTFS (Windows NT)

        - Easy-to-use user interface

        - Usable via command line options (use /? option for help)

Ŀ
 REQUIREMENTS  5 


     - 80286 processor or up
     - MS-DOS or compatible operating system
     - At least one harddisk
     - Keyboard
     - VGA adapter

Ŀ
 USAGE  6 


     Note: Playing with partitions is a risky job! Use this program only
           if you know what you're doing! Be sure to read the documentation!

     1) Installation

        You can copy these files (this docs and the executables) together
        wherever you like. This program doesn't need any additional
        settings. Just execute it.
        Copying this program to a system floppy can be useful.


     2) Usage information

          For safety:
          0) BACK UP ALL IMPORTANT DATA!
          1) Make a system disk by typing: 'format a: /s'
          2) Run the program MRESCUE.COM. Choose the 'Create rescue disk'
             option. It will copy important information about your disks
             and the MRESCUE.COM itself to floppy, so you can restore your
             previous configuration later if necessary.
          3) Now you can safely run EFDISK. If anything goes wrong, boot
             from the floppy you've just created, run MRESCUE.COM and
             choose 'Restore original configuration'.
             This will reset all modifications.
             Send me a mail if something is not working, and write
             all steps you've done unless I won't be able to correct the
             problem. Thank You!

        Before running EFDISK quit all multitasking environments
        (i.e. WindowsNT or OS/2 DOS box) and run plain DOS, because these
        operating systems won't let programs to modify the Master Boot
        Record.

        EFDISK gathers information about your harddisks and partitions.
        It shows a list of all primary partitions of all harddisks and
        their parameters. From this list you can choose the partition
        you want to change.
        In the upper right window, the program shows the number of cylinders,
        heads and sectors of each harddisk.

        The highlight can be moved with the up/down arrow keys.
        Press ENTER to change the parameters of the highlighted partition.
        All data in a changed partition will be lost!
        After pressing ENTER on a partition, EFDISK asks several questions.
        These are:
        - The hexadecimal type ID of the partition. EFDISK will show you
          the most common types and IDs. Type the value, and press ENTER.
          Check out section 7 in this documentation for more types.
        - Starting cylinder number of partition (the minimum is 0).
          If the previous partition is ending on cylinder 'x' then set
          this to 'x+1'. This number is decimal. Type and press ENTER.
        - Ending cylinder number of partition. EFDISK will show you the
          maximum cylinder number available for the actual harddisk.
          This number is also decimal. Type and press ENTER.

        The number of heads and sectors per track values are determined
        automatically for each disk, you don't have to mess with them.

        Pressing SPACE will activate the highlighted partition, pressing DEL
        will clear the whole highlighted entry.

        Pressing 'h' over a FAT partition will cause hiding/unhiding it.
        This can be important if OS/2 is used, or if you don't want
        Windows95/NT to recognize other primary FAT partitions.

        After preparing all partition entries, press F10 to save the new
        partition table to the harddisk.

!!   Usage note: - EFDISK doesn't check for partition errors! It's not an
!!                 'intelligent' program. You have total freedom to set all
!!                 parameters, even if they are incorrect or useless!
                
     3) Command line usage

        Since v2.1 EFDISK can be used with command line options. With
        command line options, one can create, delete and activate partitions,
        and hide/unhide primary FAT partitions. This can be very useful for
        system administrators, hardware/software stores or schools.
        Note that the changes will take effect only after a reboot.

        If there was an error, then the return value is 1, else 0.

        The syntax is:
        efdisk command <partition_number> [harddisk_number]

        Defining the partition number is always compulsory except for the
        'delall' command, where is must be omitted.

        The commands are:
        /create type starting_cyl. ending_cyl. - to create
        /crsize type size_in_MB                - to create (registered only)
        /delete                                - to delete
        /delall                                - to delete all
        /activate                              - to activate
        /hidefat                               - to hide primary FAT
        /hident                                - to hide primary NTFS/HPFS
        /unhidefat                             - to unhide primary FAT
        /unhident                              - to unhide primary NTFS/HPFS
        /mbr                                   - to install new MBR loader
        /print                                 - to print the partition table
        /?                                     - to get help

        - Only one command is allowed per command line.
        - The type is hexadecimal, the cylinders are decimal numbers.
        - Partition number is a number from 1 to 4. Only one partition number
          is allowed per command (don't use this parameter for delall, mbr
          and print commands).
        - Disk number is a number from 1 to 4. If omitted, the default is 1.
          Only one disk number is allowed per command.
        - The /crsize command calculates the new partition's starting
          cylinder from the previous partition's ending cylinder. Therefore
          always be sure, that the previous partition entry defines an
          already existing valid partition, or you will loose your data!
          If the new partition is the first partition, then the
          starting cylinder number will be 0.
          This command is only available in the registered version.
        - The /mbr, /delall and /print commands only need a harddisk number
          (the default is the primary master harddisk if not specified)


        Examples:
        --------
        - To create a primary BIGDOS partition (type 6) with starting
          cylinder 12, ending cylinder 265 in the 3rd partition entry on
          the 2nd harddisk, type:
          efdisk /create 6 12 265 3 2
        - to create a 165MB BIGDOS partition in the 2nd entry (1st must be
          a valid existing partition) on the 1st harddisk, type:
          efdisk /crsize 6 165 2   (registered version only)
        - To delete the 2nd partition on the 1st harddisk, type:
          efdisk /delete 2   (note that the disk number can be omitted if 1)
        - To delete all partitions on the 3rd harddisk, type:
          efdisk /delall 3
        - To hide the 4th partition (must be FAT) on the 1st harddisk type:
          efdisk /hidefat 4


        Creating automatically calculated partitions (registered version only):
        ----------------------------------------------------------------------

           The registered version can automatically calculate partition size
           upon creating one. The 'create' command accepts '*' characters
           instead of the starting and the ending cylinder numbers.

           In this case the starting cylinder number will be the ending
           cylinder number of the previous partition + 1, and the ending
           cylinder number will be the maximum cylinder number of the harddisk.
           Because of this, all partitions beyond an automatically
           calculated one will be lost!

           If you specify 1 for the partition number then the starting
           cylinder number will be 0 (because there is no previous existing
           partition) so this command will create a partition which will
           use all harddisk space. In this case, all data will be lost
           after formatting this partition!

           For example:
           efdisk /create 6 * * 3 2
           The above command will create a BIGDOS partition in the third entry
           on the second harddisk, with the automatic calculation of the
           starting and the ending cylinders using all remaining space after
           the second partition.

           This feature can be useful when there is a need for creating
           hundreds of same systems with different harddisk sizes, which
           already contain a fixed sized smaller partition (for example
           Compaq machines with a diagnostic partition).

           Notes about automatic partition creation:
           - Never leave off a single '*'! If you use '*' then both cylinder
             numbers must be '*' characters. It is not possible to define
             either cylinder number and use '*' for the other, i.e.
             'efdisk 6 12 * 2 1' is not valid.
           - If the partition number is 2, 3 or 4, then the starting cylinder
             value will be calculated from the ending cylinder value of the
             previous partition. If the partition number is 1 then the
             starting cylinder number will be 0.
           - Be sure that there are no existing partitions after an
             automatically created one, because it will use all remaining
             space, therefore partitions after the automatically created one
             would be erased.


     4) General notes about partitioning

        - If the computer doesn't boot after using EFDISK or other
          partitioners don't recognize partitions created with EFDISK,
          then do an 'efdisk /mbr' command. This problem may occur with
          brand new harddisks, which don't contain the proper loader
          routine and the 0AA55h MBR signature in their MBRs yet.
          This command erases an existing boot menu!
        - If there's data in the other partitions of your harddisk than
          the partitions you'll change then create backups of your
          partition tables with MRESCUE for safety.
        - You can have only one active partition in your harddisk's
          partition table. If you activate a partition, EFDISK will
          automatically clear the other partition's 'active' flag.
        - There's no point to activate extended partitions
        - hiding/unhiding works only with primary FAT, NTFS/HPFS partitions
!!      - Don't use EFDISK to resize, move or change the type of such
!!        existing partitions that contain data you need! Once you alter
!!        an entry (except activating or hiding/unhiding it) the data
!!        in that partition will be lost!


     5) Notes about various systems

        Windows(95/NT)/DOS:

        - DOS cannot boot if its partition begins beyond 2Gb.
          It's a bug in DOS's boot sector.
        - Create a BIGDOS partition before installing Windows NT,
          because NT can convert it to NTFS during installation if needed.
          So creating an NTFS partition with EFDISK is unnecessary.

        OS/2:

        - Create a BIGDOS partition before installing OS/2, because
          OS/2 can convert it to HPFS during installation if needed.
          So creating an HPFS partition with EFDISK is unnecessary.

Ŀ
 PARTITION TYPES  7 


        These are the currently known partition types. These values are
        from Ralph Brown's interrupt list. (A big thanks goes to him for
        maintaining that impressive documentation!)

        ID      Name
              
        00h     empty
        01h     DOS 12-bit FAT
        02h     XENIX root file system
        03h     XENIX /usr file system (obsolete)
        04h     DOS 16-bit FAT (up to 32M)
        05h     DOS 3.3+ extended partition
        06h     DOS 3.31+ Large File System (16-bit FAT, over 32M)
        07h     QNX
        07h     OS/2 HPFS
        07h     Windows NT NTFS
        07h     Advanced Unix
        08h     OS/2 (v1.0-1.3 only)
        08h     AIX bootable partition, SplitDrive
        08h     Commodore DOS
        08h     DELL partition spanning multiple drives
        09h     AIX data partition
        09h     Coherent filesystem
        0Ah     OS/2 Boot Manager
        0Ah     OPUS
        0Ah     Coherent swap partition
        0Bh     Windows 95 with 32-bit FAT
        0Ch     Windows 95 with 32-bit FAT (using LBA-mode INT 13 extensions)
        0Eh     LBA VFAT (same as 06h but using LBA-mode INT 13)
        0Fh     LBA VFAT (same as 05h but using LBA-mode INT 13)
        10h     OPUS
        11h     OS/2 Boot Manager hidden 12-bit FAT partition
        12h     Compaq Diagnostics partition
        14h     (using Novell DOS 7.0 FDISK to delete Linux Native part)
        14h     OS/2 Boot Manager hidden sub-32M 16-bit FAT partition
        16h     OS/2 Boot Manager hidden over-32M 16-bit FAT partition
        17h     OS/2 Boot Manager hidden HPFS partition
        18h     AST special Windows swap file
        1Bh     Hidden Windows 95 with 32-bit FAT (not official!)
        1Ch     Hidden Windows 95 with 32-bit LBA FAT (not official!)
        1Eh     Hidden Windows 95 with LBA BIGDOS (not official!)
        21h     officially listed as reserved
        23h     officially listed as reserved
        24h     NEC MS-DOS 3.x
        26h     officially listed as reserved
        31h     officially listed as reserved
        33h     officially listed as reserved
        34h     officially listed as reserved
        36h     officially listed as reserved
        38h     Theos
        3Ch     PowerQuest PartitionMagic recovery partition
        40h     VENIX 80286
        41h     Personal RISC Boot
        42h     SFS (Secure File System) by Peter Gutmann
        4Fh     Oberon
        50h     OnTrack Disk Manager, read-only partition
        51h     OnTrack Disk Manager, read/write partition
        51h     NOVEL
        52h     CP/M
        52h     Microport System V/386
        53h     OnTrack Disk Manager, write-only partition???
        54h     OnTrack Disk Manager (DDO)
        56h     GoldenBow VFeature
        61h     SpeedStor
        63h     Unix SysV/386, 386/ix
        63h     Mach, MtXinu BSD 4.3 on Mach
        63h     GNU HURD
        64h     Novell NetWare 286
        65h     Novell NetWare (3.11)
        67h     Novell
        68h     Novell
        69h     Novell
        70h     DiskSecure Multi-Boot
        71h     officially listed as reserved
        73h     officially listed as reserved
        74h     officially listed as reserved
        75h     PC/IX
        76h     officially listed as reserved
        80h     Minix v1.1 - 1.4a
        81h     Minix v1.4b+
        81h     Linux
        81h     Mitac Advanced Disk Manager
        82h     Linux Swap partition
        82h     Prime
        82h     Solaris
        83h     Linux native file system (ext2fs/xiafs)
        84h     OS/2-renumbered type 04h partition (hiding DOS C: drive)
        86h     officially listed as reserved
        87h     HPFS Fault-Tolerant mirrored partition
        93h     Amoeba file system
        94h     Amoeba bad block table
        A1h     officially listed as reserved
        A3h     officially listed as reserved
        A4h     officially listed as reserved
        A5h     FreeBSD, BSD/386
        A6h     officially listed as reserved
        B1h     officially listed as reserved
        B3h     officially listed as reserved
        B4h     officially listed as reserved
        B6h     officially listed as reserved
        B7h     BSDI file system (secondarily swap)
        B8h     BSDI swap partition (secondarily file system)
        C1h     DR DOS 6.0 LOGIN.EXE-secured 12-bit FAT partition
        C4h     DR DOS 6.0 LOGIN.EXE-secured 16-bit FAT partition
        C6h     DR DOS 6.0 LOGIN.EXE-secured Huge partition
        C7h     Syrinx Boot
        D8h     CP/M-86
        DBh     CP/M, Concurrent CP/M, Concurrent DOS
        DBh     CTOS (Convergent Technologies OS)
        E1h     SpeedStor 12-bit FAT extended partition
        E3h     DOS read-only
        E3h     Storage Dimensions
        E4h     SpeedStor 16-bit FAT extended partition
        E5h     officially listed as reserved
        E6h     officially listed as reserved
        EBh     BeOS partition
        F1h     Storage Dimensions
        F2h     DOS 3.3+ secondary partition
        F3h     officially listed as reserved
        F4h     SpeedStor
        F4h     Storage Dimensions
        F6h     officially listed as reserved
        FEh     LANstep
        FEh     IBM PS/2 IML
        FFh     Xenix bad block table

Ŀ
 HISTORY  8 


        Version:

        1.1 - First official release in the MasterBooter package

        1.2 - If the starting cylinder of a partition was 0, then the
                'relative starting sector' and 'number of sectors' value
                in the partition table were incorrect. Now they're correct

        1.3 - Fixed a small bug, that sometimes caused incorrect 'number
                of sectors' value

        1.4 - Now the 'Space' key can be used to activate a partition,
                so no need to retype all parameters
            - With large hard drives, sometimes the partition sizes were
                incorrect. Now they are always correct

        1.5 - Added partition deleting. Just press DEL over a partition.
                Setting all partition parameters to zero is the same
            - Now it is possible to set a partition active on the slave disk.
                One partition per disk can be made active. This is very
                useful when partitioning a slave disk, which will be used as
                master in an other PC

        2.0 - Added 'h' key to hide/unhide a FAT partition

        2.1 - Now supporting up to four harddisks
            - Fixed a bug which caused incompatibility with some SCSI disks
            - After writing the new Master Boot Record, pressing ESC will
                quit to DOS (doesn't reboot)
            - Added command line options for creating, deleting, activating
                and hiding partitions (use the /? option for more information)

        2.2 - Fixed a small bug, which occurred at entering the partition ID
            - Added support for hiding/unhiding FAT32
            - Added support for FreeBSD
            - The logical characteristics of the harddisks are shown
                in the upper right window

        2.3 - Now works in Windows95 DOS box
            - Added support for many partition types
            - Added /crsize command to create partitions by size
                (registered version only)
            - Registered version can automatically calculate partition sizes
                when creating partitions from command line

        2.4 - Added /mbr command to install the standard DOS MBR loader

        2.5 - Added /print command to print the current partition table
            - Fixed a bug in the /mbr switch
            - Fixed a FAT32 creation bug. FAT32 needs 3 boot sectors...

        2.6 - Added NTFS/HPFS partition hiding (command line too)

        2.7 - SPACE now toggles active flag if a partition is already active
            - The /mbr command unhides hidden partitions

        2.8 - New FAT32 bug fixed
            - Added Oberon support
            - Added BeOS support

Ŀ
 TECHNICAL INFORMATION  9 


        General information:
        

        A harddisk can contain up to four primary partitions. The partition
        table (which resides in the very first sector of your harddisk)
        describes the type, bootability and starting/ending cylinder number
        of the partitions. In bootable partitions, the first sector is
        always the so called 'boot sector' which contains a small OS loader.
        In these partitions you can install any operating system in theory.
        But in the real world some operating systems don't allow you to
        create more than one primary partition, or to boot another operating
        system. So creating multiple primary partitions and choosing the
        operating system at boot time is quite difficult.
        That's why I wrote EFDISK and MasterBooter.

        About FAT types:
        

        There are four types of FAT (File Allocation Table).

        1: FAT12 is now obsolete, used on floppy disks and on partitions
           smaller than 16Mb.
        2: FAT16 is the next step. It can be used if a DOS partition
           is between 16Mb and 32Mb.
        3: BIGDOS is also a 16-bit type, but allows larger partition sizes.
           Plain DOS and Windows95 use this type nowadays (OS/2, WindowsNT
           and Linux can also be installed over FAT, but there is no point
           for doing that). The maximum partition size is 2Gb.
        4: FAT32 is the newest, it is introduced in Windows95 OEM Service
           Release 2. It allows really big partition sizes (8Gb), but it's
           quite incompatible with the older types.

Ŀ
 CONTACT  10 


        If you have any problems, questions or suggestions you can
        contact me through snail mail or e-mail.
        Bug reports, ideas are also welcomed!

        Currently I'm a student at the University of Veszprem,
        department of Information Technology. I'm 25 (in 1999).

        Postal address:            Internet E-mail address:
                    
        Nagy Daniel                masterbooter@cyberjunkie.com
        2011 Budakalasz
        Ciklamen u. 19
        Hungary

        Fax: (36) 26 340-472       WWW homepage:
                                
                                   http://www.cyberjunkie.com/masterbooter
