Subject: FIPS 0.1 alpha - nondestructive partition splitter
From: Arno Schaefer <[email-masked]>
Date: 14 Apr 1993 12:24:48 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.announce

I have uploaded my program FIPS to sunsite.unc.edu.
The path is pub/Linux/system/Install/fips01alpha.tar.z

FIPS is a program to non-destructively split DOS-partitions.
You will need a defragmentation program to move your data to the beginning
of the partition.

This is the first release of FIPS. The version number is 0.1 alpha.
It has not been extensively tested, so be careful!

>From the doc:

1. Introduction

When installing Linux on a PC that was used for DOS / Windows, many people
want to retain a smaller partition for their DOS software. However, since
most Harddisks contain only one large partition, you would normally be re-
quired to do a complete backup, erase the partition and build two (or more)
new partitions. Then you would restore the backup to one of the new par-
titions. This is a very time consuming activity and requires lots of dis-
kettes (why buy 50+ disks only to once backup and restore your HD?).
FIPS was written to remedy this problem. You can now split a partition
without losing any data, provided there is enough free space for the new
partition at the end of the old partition.

2. Safety

FIPS was specifically designed to provide a maximum of safety. On startup
it checks the Partition Table, Boot Sector and FAT for any inconsistencies.
If it finds anything suspicious, it will tell you so. If there are errors,
FIPS will not proceed.
You have the possibility to write backup copies of your root- and bootsector
to a floppy disk before proceeding. If something goes wrong, you may restore
these with the program 'restorrb.exe'.
After you have entered the start cylinder for the new partition, FIPS will
check if the new partition is completely empty by examining the FAT of the
old one. If it is not, FIPS will stop.
After having calculated the new Partition Table and Bootsector, FIPS will
check them again, so that eventual bugs in the calculation may be detected.
Only if everything is ok, FIPS will ask for permission to write the new
Root- and Bootsector.

3. Restrictions

FIPS will only work with Hard Disk BIOSes that use interrupt 13h for low
level harddisk access. I don't know if there exist others, but if you happen
to have one (large SCSI disks, perhaps?), FIPS will most certainly not find
any meaningful data and thus will exit without attempting to write anything.

FIPS will only work on disks with a sector size of 512 bytes. This is due
to the fact that I don't have any information on disks with other sizes. If
anybody can tell me anything about it, I may incorporate this in a later
release.

FIPS will not split partitions with 12-bit FATs (you would not want to split
partitions with less than 10 MB, would you?).

Partition Table and Bootsector must conform to the MSDOS 3.0+ conventions.
Harddisks with more than 1024 logical cylinders are not recognized (does
anybody have any information on these formats?)

FIPS will only split DOS partitions. This is marked by the system indicator
byte in the partition table, it must have the value 4 (16-bit sector number)
or 6 (32-bit sector number). It will especially *not* split Linux-partitions.

FIPS will not work on extended DOS partitions.

FIPS will not work on PCs with more than two Hard Disks. This is a major
shortcoming, whoever has such a configuration, please contact me.

FIPS will not work if you already have four partitions, since it needs one
free partition entry.

FIPS will not reduce the original partition to a size with less than 4081
clusters, because this would imply rewriting the 16-bit FAT to a 12-bit FAT.

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