FDISK

Starts the Fdisk program, which configures a hard disk for use with the operating system.

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

FDISK [/ACTOK] [/FPRMT] [/MBR] [/PARTN] [/STATUS] [/X]

FDISK /CMBR DriveLetter:

FDISK /CMBR n

FDISK [/X] DriveNumber [[/PRI:n] | [/PRIO:n]] [/EXT:n] [[/LOG:n] | [/LOGO:n]] [/PRMT | /Q]

DriveLetter: (v7.00)

Drive to write/re-write.

DriveNumber (v7.00)

Drive number, starting at 1 (for C:).

/ACTOK (v7.10)

UNDOCUMENTED. Skip disk integrity check.

/CMBR (v7.00)

UNDOCUMENTED. To rewrite the Master Boot Record of NON-PRIMARY drive (drive:). (Can be used to get rid of a Boot Sector Virus).

/CMBR n (v7.10)

UNDOCUMENTED. To rewrite the Master Boot Record of physical drive number n. (Can be used to get rid of a Boot Sector Virus).

/EXT:n (v7.00)

UNDOCUMENTED. Create EXTended partition (size in Mb). Limit one (1) per physical hard drive.

/FPRMT (v7.10)

UNDOCUMENTED. Bypass startup screen and enables FAT16/FAT32 support.

/LOG:n (v7.00)

UNDOCUMENTED. Create LOGical DOS volume in extended partition (size in Mb). Limit twenty three (23) per extended partition (one for each drive letter C through Z, A and B reserved for diskette drives).

/LOGO:n (v6.00)

UNDOCUMENTED. Create LOGical DOS volume in extended partition (size in Mb). Limit twenty three (23) per extended partition (one for each drive letter C through Z, A and B reserved for diskette drives). Overrides FAT16/FAT32 support.

/MBR (v5.0)

UNDOCUMENTED. To rewrite the Master Boot Record of PRIMARY drive. (Can be used to get rid of a Boot Sector Virus).

/PARTN (v6.00)

UNDOCUMENTED. Save partition information to text file named: PARTSAV.FIL.

/PRI:n (v7.00)

UNDOCUMENTED. Create PRImary partition (size in Mb). Limit one (1) per physical hard drive. Maximum size: using FAT16 is 2Gb, using FAT32 is 2000Gb. Win95 limited to 32Mb? Win98 limited to 64Mb?

/PRIO:n (v6.00)

UNDOCUMENTED. Create PRImary partition (size in Mb). Limit one (1) per physical hard drive. Maximum size: using FAT16 is 2Gb, using FAT32 is 2000Gb. Win95 limited to 32Mb? Win98 limited to 64Mb? Overrides FAT16/FAT32 support.

/PRMT (v7.00)

UNDOCUMENTED. Prompt for actions.

/Q (v5.0)

UNDOCUMENTED. Quiet, do not display messages. Prevents rebooting after altering partition information.

/STATUS (v2.0 Win95)

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

/X (v7.00 Win95)

Ignores extended disk-access support. Use if disk-access or stack overflow errors occur.

none.

• Changing the size of a partition
• Fdisk and Compressed Drives
• Limits of Fdisk
• Maximum partition size
• Using Fdisk to partition a hard disk
• Using Fdisk with SUBST
• Viewing partition information quickly and easily

You can use FDISK for:

• Creating a primary operating system partition
• Creating an extended operating system 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

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.

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

The maximum partition size was 2 gigabytes.

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

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

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

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.

none.

none.

External

DOS

v2.0 v2.01 v2.05 v2.10 v2.11 v2.11R v2.12 v2.2 v2.25 v3.0 v3.20 v3.05 v3.1 v3.21 v3.25 v3.30 v3.3A v3.3R v3.3T v3.31 v3.40 v4.0 v4.01 v4.01A v5.0 v5.0A v5.00.02 v5.001A v5.01 v5.02 v6.0 v6.10 v6.2 v6.21 v6.22 v6.23 v7.00 v7.0R1 v7.10 v8.00

Windows

Win95 Win98 WinME

Windows NT

none