HOWTO OS/2 FDISK and Boot Manager

The OS/2 FDISK and Boot Manager is one of the best on the market. You also get that Boot Manager with Patition Magic and many computer users bought OS/2 only to be able to use it.

FDISK

The OS/2 FDISK can see and recognise all sorts of file systems, you can create more then one Primary Partitions (unlike DOS or Windows 95/98). In fact you can create up to 4 Primary Partitions or 3 Primary and as many Logical Partitions as you like. You don't need to create an Extended Partition to be able to create Logical drives (again unlike DOS, Windows 95/98 and NT). Oh, and don't forget, it is very easy to use. You just select one part of your hard drive and press Enter to get Window to be able to edit the Partition. By the way if you have an NTFS Partition on your system it would be seen as HPFS file system. However, you get one backdraw. To be able to run FDISK you have to boot from the installation disks (warp3=2disks + you needthe CD-ROM; warp4=3disks).

Boot Manager

The OS/2 Boot Manager takes up between 0.3% and 1% of your HDD but at least 1.5MB. You can place it either on the on the beginning or the end of your disk of even sommewhere between Primary (not Logical) Partitions. With WARP Server you can place the Boot Manager only as first Partition. You also have to be aware that the Boot Manager is a Primary Partition. Keep this in minde when you plan your system. However if you want to install NT on your hard drive you would be advised to place NT on the beginning and the Boot Manager on the end. You can boot many operating systems with it but to be hornest I don't know how many but I have a list with a few operating systems.
NOTE: You don't have to install OS/2 to use its Boot Maanager

Operating System Partition Note
OS/2 Client Pri/Log you can install it where ever you want
OS/2 WARP Server Pri you can not install WARP Server on a Logical drive as you would install only one OS on a Server
DOS Pri you can install DOS only on a Primary Partition
Windows 95/98 Pri you can install Windows 95/98 only on a Primary Partition
Windows NT Pri even though you can install NT on a Logical drive you can not boot it from the Manager, you got to use NT's Bootloader on a Primary; if you install NT on a Pri you are advised to place it on the beginning of the HDD; NTFS is seen as HPFS
Linux Pri/Log have a look at Linux's HOWTOs; ext2 FS is seen as type64 or someting simulare
SCO Unix N/O not pssible to start SCO from a Boot Manager
SUN Solaris Pri Even though I never tried it I have heared you can boot SUN with the Boot Manager if SUN is the first OS on the HDD
IBM AIX Pri/? same as SUN never tried it
Novell N/O not possible, you need to start Novell from DOS