>David wrote:
Sector size presumably increases with the size of a drive.  In
this case, an upgrade to the BIOS would allow a single primary drive to
occupy the full 30 GB.  There is the option of dividing the drive into
smaller logical drives.
>

I don't think your bios will be needing to set anything relevant, unless you
have set it to another o/s other than dos.

The sector sizes change to larger if you choose to format the drive
partitions as larger sectors by using Dos FAT type partitions.
Normally FAT 16 uses 516 byte sectors (not sure exactly but about 516)
         FAT 32 uses around 2032 or close to that.
The numbers may not be accurate, but you get the picture.
The sector sizes are choosen when you choose which Format type to use for
each partition.

Now for your real question: How to divide this 30GB drive to make it
practical for backup and prevent total destruction of data?

I do suggest at least 2 partitions, 3 if you are comfortable using multiple
partitions. Use FAT32 for your format type.
This can be used for W98, W2k, Wxp, think W95 uses FAT16.

I use 3.0 GB for my o/s partition using W2k.  You may consider 5Gb if you
want to install programs on your o/s partition. This size will allow you to
make a "system recovery" cd using a cloning software like Norton Ghost or
Partition Magic. It will take about 1cd per GB with Max. compression
setting.

C: will be a Primary partiton.

Next, create an Extended partiton with Logical drives in it.
Create 2 logical partitions, 5Gb for D: and 25Gb for E:
I choose 5gb for D so that I can practically back up once all my programs
are installed. This is where I install most application software.  The E:
drive will be for everything else.

This gives you some idea of a plan to use to suit your own preference.

(Note: Win98 very much wants to go on C:, also Wxp. W2k can be installed
very easily on any other logical partition. You may want to dual boot so you
can later divide that 25gb into more logical's and install other o/s's.)

Where will you be in 100 years? If you don't know, I can tell you. (and its
not the grave). Write me.


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