Use the following steps to resize or combine your extended partition and logical drives. Make sure that you have a reliable backup of any important data that you have on your extended partition and logical drives before you proceed. If you want to combine your entire hard disk in one partition, use the steps to partition and format a Master hard disk.

NOTE: When you use this method, two or more partitions are left on your hard disk, a primary partition (usually drive C) and an extended partition. Even if you use the FAT32 file system, there is an 8-GB partition limitation unless you obtain a BIOS upgrade that fully supports interrupt 13 extensions. For additional information about why there is an 8-GB limit, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 153550 Hard Disk Limited to 8-GB Partition

If you have a hard disk that is larger than 8 GB and you are not using a disk overlay program or disk management software, you need to partition and format the space that is remaining after you create each 8-GB partition:

1. Place the Startup disk in your floppy disk drive, restart your computer, and then use one of the following methods, depending on your operating system.
   For a Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, or Windows Me Startup disk:
   1. When the Microsoft Windows 98 Startup menu is displayed, select the Start computer without CD-ROM support menu option, and then press ENTER.
   2. At a command prompt, type fdisk, and then press ENTER.
   3. Go to step 2.
   For a Windows 95 Startup disk:
   1. At a command prompt, type fdisk, and then press ENTER.
2. If your hard disk is larger than 512 MB, you receive the following message:

   Your computer has a disk larger than 512 MB. This version of Windows includes improved support for large disks, resulting in more efficient use of disk space on large drives, and allowing disks over 2 GB to be formatted as a single drive.

   IMPORTANT: If you enable large disk support and create any new drives on this disk, you will not be able to access the new drive(s) using other operating systems, including some versions of Windows 95 and Windows NT, as well as earlier versions of Windows and MS-DOS.
   In addition, disk utilities that were not designated explicitly for the FAT32 file system will not be able to work with this disk. If you need to access this disk with other operating systems or older disk utilities, do not enable large drive support.

   It is still possible, however, to use software and utilities that support drives above the 512Mb limit.

   Do you wish to enable large disk support (Y/N)?

   If you want to use the FAT32 file system, press Y and then press ENTER.
   If you want to use the FAT16 file system, press N, and then press ENTER. By replying N, the Fdisk tool will only partition 2 GB of space at a time.
   For additional information about the FAT32 and FAT16 file systems, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 118335 Maximum Partition Size Using FAT16 File System 154997 Description of the FAT32 File System
3. After you press ENTER, the following Fdisk Options menu is displayed:

   1. Create DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive
   2. Set active partition
   3. Delete partition or Logical DOS Drive
   4. Display partition information
   5. Change current fixed disk drive
   (this option is only available if you have two physical hard disks in the computer)

4. Press 3, and then press ENTER. The following menu is displayed:

   1. Delete Primary DOS Partition
   2. Delete Extended DOS Partition
   3. Delete Logical DOS Drive(s) in the Extended DOS Partition
   4. Delete Non-DOS Partition

5. Press 3, and then press ENTER.
6. The Delete Logical DOS Drive(s) in the Extended DOS Partition screen is displayed with a chart that describes the attributes of your hard disk, as shown in the following example.

   Drv	Volume Label	Mbytes	System	Usage
   D:	(User Defined)	2047	FAT16	100%
   E:	(User Defined)	2047	FAT16	100%
   F:	(User Defined)	2047	FAT16	100%
   G:	(User Defined)< /TD>	2047	FAT16	100%
   H:	(User Defined)	2047	FAT32	17%
   I:	(User Defined)	1498	UNKNOWN	13%

   Total Extended DOS Partition size is XXX Mbytes (1 MByte = 1048576 bytes).

   WARNING! Data in a deleted Logical DOS Drive will be lost.

   What drive do you want to delete? Type the letter for the drive that you want to delete, and then press ENTER.
7. When you are prompted to type the volume label for the drive, type the volume label if the drive has a volume label.
   NOTE: You must type the exact label or press ENTER if there is no volume label. If you type an incorrect label name, you receive the following message:

   Volume label does not match.
   Enter Volume Label?

   If you type the correct volume label, you receive the following message:

   Are you sure (Y/N)?

   The default answer to this message is N. You must press Y, and then press ENTER to delete the drive. The words "Drive deleted" are displayed in the chart next to the drive letter that you deleted.
8. Repeat steps 3 through 7 until you have deleted all of the drives that you want to delete. When you are finished, press ESC. If you remove all of the logical drives, you receive a "No logical drives defined" message and a chart of drive letters that you changed or deleted. Press ESC to continue.

   NOTE: If you want to resize the logical drive or drives by making them larger or smaller, do this now. If you want to remove the extended partition, continue with step 11.

9. Press 1 to select the Create DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive menu option from the Fdisk Options menu,
   press 3 to select the Create Logical DOS Drive(s) in the Extended DOS Partition menu option from the Create DOS Partition or Logical DOS Drive menu, and then press ENTER. When you do this, you receive a "Verifying drive integrity" message with a percentage-complete counter.

   NOTE: When you use this step, the extended partition is not deleted, only the logical drive or drives in the extended partition are deleted. You do not need to remove the extended partition to resize the logical drives. For example, if you have one logical drive in the extended partition and you want to make two logical drives, delete the logical drive and create two logical drives in the extended partition first. Note that you are still limited to the total space in the extended partition.

10. After the drive verification procedure is finished, you receive the following message:

    Total Extended DOS Partition size is XXX Mbytes (1 MByte = 1048576 bytes)

    Maximum space available for logical drive is XXX Mbytes (X%)

    Enter logical drive size in Mbytes or percent of disk space (%).

    The "maximum Mbytes available" is the default size, however, you can change the number if you type the number for the partition size that you want to create, and then pressing ENTER.
    Press ESC, press ESC to quit the Fdisk tool and return to a command prompt, and then view step 11.

11. If you want to remove the extended MS-DOS partition, press ESC to return to the Fdisk Options menu. Press 3 to select the Delete DOS Partition or Logical DOS Drive menu option, press ENTER,
    press 2 to select the Delete Extended DOS Partition menu option, and then press ENTER.
12. The screen shows the current fixed disk drive and information about it. The extended partition is listed in the Type column. For example:

    Partition	Status	Type	Volume	Label	Mbytes	System	Usage
    C:	1 A	PRI	DOS	(your label)	1200	FAT16	50%
    2		EXT	DOS	(your label)	1200	UNKNOWN	50%

    Total disk space is 2400 Mbytes (1 Mbyte = 1048576 bytes)

    You also receive the following warning message:

    WARNING! Data in the deleted Extended DOS Partition will be lost.

    Do you wish to continue (Y/N)?

13. Press Y, and then press ENTER to delete the partition. You receive the following message:

    Extended DOS Partition deleted
    Press ESC to continue

    NOTE: If you try to delete your extended MS-DOS partition before you remove all of the logical drives, you receive the following error message:

    Cannot delete Extended DOS Partition while logical drives exist.

    If you receive this error message, repeat steps 3 through 6, and then follow steps 9 and 10 to delete the extended MS-DOS partition.

    The Fdisk Options menu is displayed. If you leave disk space unpartitioned on your hard disk, Windows may not display the full size of your hard disk, only the amount of space that is available.

    IMPORTANT: After you change the Fdisk options or delete partitions, the data that was on the partition is deleted and cannot be retrieved. Be very sure that you understand this procedure before you attempt to follow it.

    If you want to start with a clean configuration or if you want to redo your current configuration, back up everything that is important to you before you use the Fdisk tool.

14. If you want to use the unpartitioned space on your hard disk, you must format the drives. When you successfully run the Format.com utility, you receive the following message:

    WARNING, ALL DATA ON NON-REMOVABLE DISK DRIVE X: WILL BE LOST!
    Proceed with Format (Y/N)?

    Press Y, and then press ENTER to format the drive.
15. After the format procedure is finished, you receive the following message:

    Volume label (11 characters, ENTER for none)?

    NOTE: This is an optional feature that you can use to type a name for the hard disk. You can either type an 11-character name for the drive, or leave it blank and press ENTER.