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Ranish Partition Manager revived (Announce)

posted by fritz.mueller Homepage, Munich, Germany, 09.01.2023, 20:09

(this is a copy as the first version of this text seems to have died when sending it)

Hi,
I just tested Ranish 2.90.06alpha, read that it should support 2TB HDs and so
tested it with 2,00 TB in virtualbox and on a vmware with 3 TB. At each of the tests
were problems, so I started again and tried to documentate it and to add proposals for
it.
I am aware that the GUI is more than twenty years old and not originally made by
Mr. Böckmann. I think it is not intuitive.

My main request would be a simple text file that explains with which steps you
can create one or two primary partitions. The html file starts with 31 partitions,
but I think it is more important that users understand how the basic GUI works
with simple cases. And I needed a long time to find out the following steps (still not sure if everything is ok).


a) I created a 2,00 TB virtual hd (vhd) with virtualbox.
b) I booted from a FD floppy (img) with part.exe on it (self created).
c) I started part
d) It shows me Disk 1, 2097151 MiB Base, 0, Total 4,294,965.248 sectors
e) I want to create a 2 TB FAT32 partition (max. size)
f) I went to Nr. 1, section "Active" to make it active (spacce bar, till " 1 -Active - YES" is shown.
g) Pressed F2 and get message "MBR was saved to hard disk.
h) goto "File System Type", press "insert" and choose 0x0C FAT-32 LBA
PROPOSALS:
- there is enough space to replace "ins" by "insert",
- "ins": could you add the max size at 0x0B (FAT32, 0x0C FAT-32 LBA) etc.
as it is already done at 0x04, FAT-16 (32 M). Not each user knows
the differences between all this FAT types (etc.) This would make
decisions which format has to be chosen easier.
- "ins": It is not self explaining why some file system types are in blue and
some are in black colour, although the comments say YES YES YES
i) Pressed F2 and get message: "MBR was saved to hard disk.
j) Partition 1 says: Start sector 63, number of sectors: 4.294.965.185,
ending sector: 4.294.965.247 (dots were added by me)
PROPOSAL: adding dot or commas as 1.000.000 separator would be nice.
k) No idea if I also have to press "ENTER" and what to change in the following window.
I decided to do nothing.
Proposals:
(At the end it showed the following:
Minimum partition size: 4173837 sectors = 2,086,918 kB
Current partition size: -2111 sectors = 2,147,482,592 kB
Maximum partition size: 1073739789 sectors = 536,869,894 kB
there was nothing in red, how can there be negative sectors and a current size bigger
than maximum? My failure or a bug? Ah, entering a volume label and F2 made the
current size red! But it is accepted.)
l) I pressed "f" format. Lasts a while.
PROPOSAL: The following window says: "Verifying" - NOT "Formatting",
x percent "verified" instead of "formatted" Is this correct?
m) Got message: "Format correct". Entered "Quit" and then rebooted.
n) After reboot entered C:\, worked. C: is free as expected.
o) Sys c: worked fine too. Created folder: "C:\freedos\bin. Copied all files from
my diskette there.
(I had different results at this point, from crazy filenames, not booting system
etc.
p) Rebooted and tried to install FreeDOS live CD FDT2301. It had problems with the
"move" packet and chkdsk (supports FAT 16 only) reports errors.
q) Rebooted and started live mode and dosfsck:
Dosfsck says: File system has -267 clusters but only space for 1.073.741.566 FAT entries.
(dots were added by me).

Some more proposals from my side:

In most cases you have to enter F2 - Save changes although you do not want to change.
ESC often also does not work so that it is confusing how to make mistakes undone. There
is no "X" (close program) or Alt-F4 or another key available (found none).
It is not really intuitive.

I) / A) / U): Could you replace "Advanced" by "Advanced boot manager"? Would be easier
to understand. Referring to this: I also had problems to understand that the standard
IPL is installed by "doing nothing". But

I checked the vhd with my Win Hexeditor - it shows a 2,0 TB partition but says
"unknown filesystem". So I am sure that anything went wrong (see k)).

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