ALHOLK Posted May 23, 2003 Report Share Posted May 23, 2003 Hi! I too have been a software engineer for 20+ years. I have frequently noticed that he makes posts on various technical issues without having a clue. I don't know if he's trying to help anyone but I do know that spreading desinformation is of no help regardless if it is intentional or due to lack of knowledge. why don't you just tell how it should work? That was prcisely what I did before he posted his rantings. I didn't post detailed information about how to get W2000 to work whith Thai fonts as I'm not a Windoze specialist. In fact the last 4 years I have worked mainly with Unix/Solaris/Linux. There are others on the board who can can describe this much better than I can. I did try to give the bloke some advice on how to repartition his HD if this actually would be neccessary. I do this several times a year both at home and at work. WYD bears a grudge against me since a couple years back when I wouldn't take shit frome his mate without answering back. regards ALHOLK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ALHOLK Posted May 23, 2003 Report Share Posted May 23, 2003 Hi! FDISK is still a good tool if one needs to find out about the disk geometry. I sometimes boot up Linux (fdisk is still there) just to run The Linux version of it. Porting a console application from a 16 to a 32 bit executeable shouldn't involve any major problems. The disk geometry and the recognized partition tyeps are still the same. True that FDISK isn't very user friendly but it was probably never intended for use by an average user. Ofcourse one can destroy information with a disk partitioning tool. This can even happen with Partition Magic if there is a power failure while it's working. The word 'REPARTITIONING' may have been ill chosen but you obviously have some knowlede in this area so I think you can recognize the difference between deleting and recreating a partition vs. editing the partition table to change a partition size.. regards ALHOLK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 23, 2003 Report Share Posted May 23, 2003 Well, it's conceivable that fdisk could have been ported but that would have been more trouble that just writing a GUI Win32 app from scratch for several reasons. 1) Fdisk is written largely in assembler (16 bit assembler, for that matter). One of the important goals for WinNT was platform portability, i.e., compile one set of source code to target x86, MIPS, Alpha, etc. So all that assembly code would all have had to be rewritten in C anyway. 2) The way fdisk communicates with disks under DOS -- use of the int13 BIOS interface -- is completely different in NT, which uses Win32 APIs and IOCTLs. In other words the guts of fdisk would have had to be rewritten. 3) Fdisk is not really a "console" application. There's no notion of a console in DOS, just a bunch of direct screen poking or int10 BIOS calls. All that is a pain in the ass to port to the Win32 console APIs. 4) A console app couldn't fit into a nice tools suite, wouldn't be remotable, etc. Those things were considered at the time, even if the full promise in these ares was never realized. As for disk geometries, yes, that can be interesting, but these days such geometry is often just the way the disk controller presents itself to the outside world and bears little resemblance to the physical characteristics of the disk. Also, the latest interfaces (and partitioning schemes) no longer deal in cylinders, heads, and sectors, but in simple sector numbers. Anyway we've gotten off-topic: it's good that the original poster didn't need to do any partitioning work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bibblies Posted May 23, 2003 Report Share Posted May 23, 2003 I must have a different keyboard. No such key for me. No such trouble switching either though. Just to check, you did just want to write a bit of Thai on your PC, didn't you? Not do the whole partition-your-system/reboot your system to get every program running with Thai menus, etc... I've a very strong feeling that some hardcore techies are wanking themselves silly with FDisk, etc, over something you're very unlikely to want! Still, fun to watch! :: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
check_bin_krap Posted May 23, 2003 Report Share Posted May 23, 2003 For those who use Windows XP there is a nice tool which can run from the command prompt, DISKPART. It also has the capability to increase the size of a basic partition, something which the graphical Disk management tool can not. Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ALHOLK Posted May 23, 2003 Report Share Posted May 23, 2003 Hi! Disk geometries can still be of interest if you are working with other operating systems. Something that I do quite frequently. I didn't know that fdisk was coded in assembler but even so it should be an undertakeable task to port it to 32 bits. regards ALHOLH P.S. Not really a problem as Linux FDISK works fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
check_bin_krap Posted May 23, 2003 Report Share Posted May 23, 2003 Diskpart pretty much solves this in both Windows 2000 and XP. Unlike FDisk you don't have to boot up in DOS to use it, just open a command Window. Its really Fdisk ported to NT. Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
think_too_mut Posted May 23, 2003 Report Share Posted May 23, 2003 >I have frequently noticed that he makes posts on various technical issues without having a clue. I don't know if he's trying to help anyone but I do know that spreading desinformation is of no help regardless if it is intentional or due to lack of knowledge. Let it rest. If we, techies, are a lousy fuckers or terrible bar-finers, in this forum, we are techies who can help the rest of the community. I am also with "adult" operating systems. Wins are there to stay, come to everybody's home.... What a laugh would MVS guys have over you and me with our Unix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
check_bin_krap Posted May 23, 2003 Report Share Posted May 23, 2003 "If we, techies, are a lousy fuckers or terrible bar-finers, in this forum, we are techies who can help the rest of the community. I am also with "adult" operating systems. Wins are there to stay, come to everybody's home...." Its as easy as this: Whats a good choice for 1 person or one company (or one task) might be a lousy one for another... There are always factors to be considered, there is never one "best" product which fits all. Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ALHOLK Posted May 23, 2003 Report Share Posted May 23, 2003 Hi! As I use WindowsXP mainly for writing documents and playing games I have never used Diskpart. However if I know anything about Microshaft it probably won't recognize partition types from other operating systems. With several system on a HD I'm probably better served by Partition Magic of Linux partitioning tools. An exclusive windoze user is probably just fine with the native tools and to be fair, how many PC users will ever have a need to partiton their disk? regards ALHOLK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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