# How to Create FAT16 Partition for DR-DOS?



## cbseries2 (Aug 15, 2007)

Hello All, 

I have a 60GB harddrive.

I'm interested in dual booting DR-DOS 7.03 (light version) and Windows Me.

Extended Operating System Loader (XOSL) I've chosen to be the boot loader.

I need to create one primary drive partition in FAT16. I want this FAT16 partition to be 500 megabytes in size. The rest of the harddrive will be FAT32, including the primary drive for Windows Me, and the logical drives.

I would rather use FDISK than a third party partition manager to create the FAT16 primary partition for DR-DOS but I do not know how to go about doing it. _I'm assuming_ I will need to use the installation disc of DR-DOS to create its FAT16 partition and format it, but once the FAT16 primary partition is created, how do I back out of the process to then start using the 'Windows Me emergency start up disc' to continue with the primary and logical drive creation in FAT32?

I've had this computer for six years and I've only used Windows Me on it, and I've only had one primary drive. When the primary drive for DR-DOS is made, it will be hidden. Is it o.k. to give the two primary drives the same volume label name, or should they be different names? There may be times when I want Windows Me's drive to be the hidden one. Am I correct in thinking that both primary drives will be considered C: drives?

I'm still in the planning/learning stages of this. It is nothing I am going to do today, or tomorrow.

Maybe eight months to a year from now I'm considering getting Windows XP, and one of the logical drives I make will be for it. Haven't decided yet if I want XP, or not.


----------



## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

You can simply boot up the DR-DOS disk, use FDISK to create a single primary FAT16 partition, format it with DR-DOS and copy it's stuff over. Just leave the rest of the disk unformatted.

Then you boot from the ME disk and create it's partition.


----------



## hawkuletz (Aug 15, 2007)

I'm not sure wether this would work and I think that you *should* use 3rd party partitioning.
The reason for this is that usually for multiboot configurations you need all the boot partitions (2 in your case) to be primary partitions. Unfortunatelly neither DRDOS fdisk nor Me fdisk will allow you to create *two* primary partitions, but instead force you to create an *extended* partition, which usually is not bootable even using boot managers.


----------



## cbseries2 (Aug 15, 2007)

hawkuletz said:


> I'm not sure wether this would work and I think that you *should* use 3rd party partitioning.


I think you are correct Hawkuletz, it will probably be more wiser for me to go with an all-in-one partition manager/multi-boot program.

Even if what I would like to do is doable, someone with more skill probably can, on reflection it is a much more complicated process for me than I care to get into just to make a partition for DR DOS. And if there were future complications XOSL would be no help, I think, in sorting them out.

I'll have a look around at third party programs.


----------

