Fast method and apparatus for creating a partition on a hard disk drive of a computer system and installing software into the new partition
First Claim
1. A machine-executed method for creating a new partition in a hard disk drive of a computer system, said method comprising:
- (a) reading a diskette during POST contained in a diskette drive of said computer system for detecting the presence of a unique diskette signature on said diskette; and
(b) if said unique diskette signature is found to be present on said diskette,(i) creating said new partition on said hard disk drive during POST; and
(ii) modifying a master boot record associated with said hard disk drive during POST so that said partition can be immediately recognized by an operating system without the need for an intervening reboot.
7 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus for creating a new partition in a hard disk drive of a computer system and installing software (e.g., system software) into the new partition. The method of the disclosed invention reads a diskette for a unique diskette signature which, if present, indicates that the diskette contains software to be installed in a new partition. If the unique diskette signature is found to be present on a diskette, then a new partition is created on the computer system'"'"'s hard disk drive. The new partition can be of any size, and the size can, for example, be either fixed based upon predetermined settings or user-selected. After the new partition is created, it is assigned to logical drive 80h, the DOS boot drive. Once assigned to logical drive 80h, the invention boots to the diskette and the partition installation software contained on the diskette is executed. The installation software contained on the diskette then installs the software into the new partition.
149 Citations
13 Claims
-
1. A machine-executed method for creating a new partition in a hard disk drive of a computer system, said method comprising:
-
(a) reading a diskette during POST contained in a diskette drive of said computer system for detecting the presence of a unique diskette signature on said diskette; and (b) if said unique diskette signature is found to be present on said diskette, (i) creating said new partition on said hard disk drive during POST; and (ii) modifying a master boot record associated with said hard disk drive during POST so that said partition can be immediately recognized by an operating system without the need for an intervening reboot. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 13)
-
-
7. A machine-executed method for creating a new partition in a hard disk drive of a computer system and installing partition-specific software into said new partition, said method comprising:
-
(a) reading a diskette during POST contained in a diskette drive of said computer system for detecting the presence of a unique diskette signature on said diskette; (b) if said unique diskette signature is found to be present on said diskette, performing the following additional steps; (i) creating said new partition during POST on said hard disk drive; (ii) assigning said new partition during POST to logical drive 80h; (iii) booting to said diskette; and (iv) executing partition installation software contained on said diskette having said unique diskette signature, said execution of said installation software causing said partition-specific software to be installed into said new partition. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
-
Specification