NetWare partitions can be created on any hard drive and can coexist with other partitions such as DOS, Windows NT, or UNIX. Disk space not assigned to NetWare partitions can be used for the Novell Storage Services file system.
When there is a DOS partition on the drive, it should always be the first partition. The NetWare partition should always be the last partition on the drive.
You can have as many as four partitions on the same drive, including multiple NetWare partitions.
If you have partitions from previous versions of NetWare that you are no longer using, you can delete them and create a new NetWare partition. (See Deleting NetWare Partitions for more information.)
WARNING: When creating a disk partition, never specify a partition size larger than the actual size of the disk. If you specify a larger size, NetWare will eventually try to use the excess disk space. When it determines there is no corresponding disk location, it deactivates the volume stored on the disk.
At the server console prompt, enter
[LOAD] NWCONFIG
Select Standard Disk Options > Modify Disk Partitions and Hot Fix. If you have more than one disk, the Available Disk Drives list appears. If this list appears, select the disk you want to partition. A list of existing partitions appears, along with the Disk Options menu. Select Create NetWare Disk Partition. You can create more than one NetWare partition per disk. If the disk has more than one free partition area, select an area for the NetWare partition. A screen containing disk partition and Hot Fix information with their default values appears. The cursor is on the Partition Size field. If you don't want to use all the available space for NetWare, type a smaller value in the Partition Size field. The difference between the original size and the smaller size becomes new free space on the disk. If you want to use the NSS file system, be sure to leave sufficient free space; a minimum of 10 MB is required. The NSS file system resides only in free space. To change the size of the partition's data area, use the arrow keys to move the cursor to one of the Data Area fields and then type in a new value. One field contains the size of the data area in blocks, the other in megabytes. When you change the value in one field, the system changes the corresponding value in the other field. To change the size of the Hot Fix redirection area, use the arrow keys to move the cursor to one of the Hot Fix redirection area fields and then type in a new value. To specify no Hot Fix redirection area, enter 0. One field contains the size of the area in blocks, the other as a percentage of the partition. When you change the value in one field, the system changes the corresponding value in the other field. WARNING: If you do not specify a Hot Fix redirection area, you cannot add one later without deleting the volumes on the partition, nor will you be able to mirror the partition. If there is no Hot Fix redirection area, you can save partition space, but your partition will not be software fault tolerant. You must determine whether the increased risk is worth the savings in disk space and performance.
Press Esc to display the Create NetWare Partition? window. Select Yes. Press Esc to redisplay the Available Disk Options menu. To create NetWare partitions on additional disks or additional partitions on the same disk, repeat Steps 2 through 9. When finished, press Alt + F10 to exit.
Once you have created one or more partitions, you can do one of the following: