PartitionMagic

PartitionMagic by PowerQuest Version 3.03 Copyright (c) 1994-1997, PowerQuest Corporation All Rights Reserved. Patents Pending. This file explains changes made since the printing of the manual. TABLE OF CONTENTS ----------------- 1. License Types 2. Updates 3. Technical Support Issues 4. General Usage Notes 5. FAT32 Usage Notes 6. Boot Manager vs. PQ Boot 7. Windows NT and the Partition Copy function 8. UnInstaller Mover by MicroHelp 9. Partition Magician Newsletter 1. License Types ---------------- The Personal License Version is a machine-specific license that allows modifications on one specific computer. See the *User Guide* for the license agreement. The Pack License Version is available for use on a specific number of computers; refer to the specific license for the number of active users allowed. The Professional License Version is available for modifying an unlimited number of computers, one computer at a time. The Enterprise Version is available for organizations requiring remote or unattended configuration capabilities at multiple sites. For information on the Pack, Professional or Enterprise Versions of PartitionMagic, contact PowerQuest Corporate Sales at (801) 226-8977. 2. Updates ---------- To consistently give you the best available version of PartitionMagic, minor updates are provided periodically. We recommend that you check regularly our home page (www.powerquest.com), FTP site (ftp.powerquest.com), BBS (801-226-5608) or CompuServe (OS2AVENDOR, Other Vendors section) for the latest bug fixes and minor improvements. 3. Technical Support Issues --------------------------- A. To run PartitionMagic 3.0 on a computer that has ONLY Windows NT do the following: -Boot the computer into Windows NT. -Install PartitionMagic 3.0 to the hard drive. -Create a bootable DOS floppy diskette. -Copy PQMAGICT.EXE (PartitionMagic text mode version) to the bootable DOS diskette. -Exit Windows NT, reboot your computer using the DOS bootable diskette, type A:\PQMAGICT and press Enter. B. If you are unable to access your CD-ROM drive after partitioning your hard drive see page 173 in the PartitionMagic 3.0 manual. C. If PartitionMagic does not start properly or your computer locks up when starting PartitionMagic see page 170 in the PartitionMagic manual for information on freeing up conventional memory. If the steps listed on page 170 do not solve the problem, try running PartitionMagic with the /NSS switch (PQMAGIC /NSS). D. If you are receiving Error #110 and have an HP Pavilion, HP Vectra or Digital Computer, please run PARTINFO according to the instructions on page 197 in the PartitionMagic 3.0 manual and contact PowerQuest Technical Support (801-226-6834) for instructions on how to solve the problem. 4. General Usage Notes ---------------------- - Don't forget to backup your hard drive before using PartitionMagic. While PartitionMagic has been thoroughly tested and is quite safe, power failure, operating system bugs, and hardware design bugs can put your data at risk. No software program, including PartitionMagic, is perfect. Before using any utility that makes such extensive changes to your hard drive, you should backup your data. - If you use Windows 3.1 and find that your mouse does not work in PartitionMagic, a Microsoft compatible mouse driver is supplied with PartitionMagic. To access the mouse driver exit to DOS and type "C:\PQMAGIC\MOUSE" or insert this line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. - If you run PartitionMagic from DOS: Turn off 3rd party disk caches. Deactivate or unload any TSR programs that access or modify the partitions being changed. Do not run PartitionMagic from a compressed drive. - After using PartitionMagic, it is normal to get an error message when starting Windows 3.1 stating that the swap file is corrupt. Windows 3.1 is designed knowing that disk utilities may move the clusters of the swap file. When a move is detected, the error message is given. To fix the swap file, click on the 386 Enhanced icon in Control Panel, then on the Virtual Memory button then delete the swap file and create it again. - This release of PartitionMagic handles ASCII filenames. PartitionMagic does not yet handle double byte character sets such as Japanese, resulting in two known limitations: (1) Converting a partition from FAT to HPFS can produce incorrectly translated filenames. (2) An attempt to specify or set the Volume label may fail. - Sometimes changes made by PartitionMagic confuse Windows NT 3.5x, which then assigns drive letters incorrectly. This bug is fixed in Windows NT 4.0. NT 3.5x users should use Disk Administrator to assign the drive letters back to the values you prefer. - Progress bars are an estimation only and can pause for several minutes, even though PartitionMagic is still working correctly. If you think your computer has locked up, please be patient and PartitionMagic will finish the operation. 5. FAT32 Usage Notes -------------------- - The following operating systems support FAT32: Windows 95B - OSR2 Windows 97 - If you are using an Operating System that supports FAT32 together with an operating system that doesn't support FAT32 (i.e. Windows 3.11, Windows 95, Windows NT) you may wish to disable FAT32 support. Operating systems that don't support FAT32 will be unable to see FAT32 partitions. FAT32 support can be set in the preferences. - OS/2 does not support FAT32 partitions. Also, if you convert a partition to FAT32 and convert it back to FAT16, all OS/2 extended attributes (EAs) will be lost. - The minimum size for a FAT32 partition is about 260 MB. - Please note that the memory requirement (16 MB) for modifying FAT32 partitions is true in most circumstances. However, in some extraordinary circumstances more memory may be required. 6. Boot Manager vs. PQ Boot --------------------------- PartitionMagic 3.03 ships with both Boot Manager by IBM and PQ Boot by PowerQuest. When you install Boot Manager, PartitionMagic will create a separate primary partition and mark it active. When the computer starts, Boot Manager displays a startup menu that allows you to choose the partition to boot. PQ Boot is a command line utility to switch between bootable primary partitions. When a primary partition is selected using PQ Boot, it is set active and PQ Boot reboots the computer. Both boot utilities are useful for different situations. For example, Boot Manager requires an additional primary partition while PQ Boot does not. Boot Manager allows you to choose which operating system to boot each time you start your computer. PQ Boot, on the other hand, is ideal for users who will only occasionally change the active partition. Boot Manager allows OS/2 installation to a logical partition and can boot OS/2 and a few other operating systems from a logical partition. PQ Boot will only boot primary partitions. If both are used together, using PQ Boot to boot a partition other than Boot Manager will deactivate Boot Manager. To reactivate it, use PQ Boot, PartitionMagic or some other method to set Boot Manager as the active partition. Boot Manager will not correctly boot from a FAT32 partition if other primary FAT/FAT32 partitions are present. To boot a FAT32 partition, set it active with PartitionMagic or with PQ Boot. 7. Windows NT and the PartitionCopy function --------------------------------------------- PowerQuest's PartitionMagic does not update the Windows NT BOOT.INI file in either the source or destination partition after a Copy operation. Therefore Windows NT may NOT boot from the new copy. To make the partition bootable, you must fix the BOOT.INI file to point to the new partition. Also, a Copy Operation does not update drive letter references in the destination partition Registry. You must fix some (not all) driver letter references in the Registry. Fixing the drive letter references is non-trivial and we do not recommend it. 8. UnInstaller Mover by MicroHelp ---------------------------------- For all UnInstaller Mover technical support questions, please contact MicroHelp between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Eastern Standard Time at (770) 591-6448 or send e-mail to tech@microhelp.com. 9. Partition Magician Newsletter --------------------------------- PowerQuest has a monthly electronic newsletter that is dedicated to official announcements regarding PartitionMagic. Signing up on the list will give you all the information you need regarding product tips, bugs, and patches. Just go to our home page (www.powerquest.com), enter your email address into the space provided and hit the "Sign me up" button. You will be e-mailed a response verifying your subscription.