Win98 Boot Boundary?

[Toshiro]

Here's my setup:

Win98 on FAT32 HDD Partition C (almost 2GB)
Second FAT32 HDD Partition D (rest of the drive, about 35.2 GB)

My partition C just ran out of space (it's where I keep Windows and all my Program Files, but EVERYTHING else goes on D). I have Partition Magic 8, and I want to shrink the front of partition D, then expand the end of partition C (which I know how to do), but there's one thing bothering me. The little arrows telling me of the "2GB Boot Boundary." I tried to Google this but I didn't get anything specific about what would happen if I raised this to say, just under 8GB (as I also found out about some sort of 8GB Boot Boundary, which looks like it would fall right at the "1024 cylinder boundary" mark). This seems strange to me, as I've had several computers with single partitions of 10, 20, 40 GB, etc and they boot fine, and I've never heard of this boot boundary stuff before now...

Is it safe so long as the first 2GB are within C? I don't think I'll need more than 8GB, but is it safe to exceed the limit if need be? I'm assuming the computer would be non-bootable or something if I mess this up.

Really this is my question: is it safe (with this setup) to set my C partition to about 7.5 GB? Will this "2GB boot boundary" cause any problems if I do?

If so, I guess I'll just uninstall all my Program Files stuff and reinstall it somewhere on D... I'd like to know first before I have to reset all my programs, though... kinda sounds a little tedious to have to do something that. Any relevant info is much appreciated!

 

[Alvin.C]

Hello,

The 2GB Boot Boundary you see when you highlight the black arrows is simply the area where the MBR (Master Boot Record) and PBR (Partition Boot Record) is stored. Configuring your drives is perfectly safe. But don't forget to make a set of Rescue Disks.

There are however, two critical files which are required by DOS, to be within the first three sectors of the 2GB Boot Boundary: IO.SYS and NTLOADER.EXE. When resizing partitions, this area may be spaced, consequently shifting these files out of the 2GB Boot Boundary. As long as you don't shrink the 2GB Boot Boundary, you'll be fine . So your proposal wouldn't pose any risks at all.

I have three partitions on my HDD, two operating system partitions and one for personal data. The first is 60GB, which contains the MBR and PBR for my Windows XP and Windows 2000 Partitions...and my system works fine.

 

[Toshiro]

I've made some Rescue Disks already (did that before setting up the second partition in the first place!).

Thanks for clearing that up!