Is there a way to use more than 2 meg of the hard drive for the "C:" drive. NT seems to come up and running with about 2 gigs and I want to use the full 9 gigs of the drive as "C:"
Ive heard there is a way to at least join drives in NT to make it look like one even if it is on separate partitions.

NT is limited to a 7.8G system partition under NTFS; under FAT16 it limited to 4Gig.
The boot-partition (where the OS resides)is also limited to 4Gig - under FAT16 or NTFS... during installation; this can be worked around by formatting the drive in another NT system as NTFS and making it upto 7.8Gig. Formatting a drive as NTFS in another NT system and then installing NT (in its own PC), will allow a max of 7.8Gig for the system (active primary) partition which can contain both boot and system (OS)files...

http://www.win.tue.nl/math/dw/personalpages/aeb/linux/partitions/partition_types-2.html

is a very informative document - with copious links to assorted M$ KB articles - explaining in depth the why's etc...

http://www.mds.mdh.se/~dtv96nkz/cih/partition_tables_properties.htm

is another with much of the same info; but there are differences in the embedded links etc...

It is 'less than wise' to use a drive as a single partition; much wiser to have at 'least' two (preferably more) partitions - one for the OS and one (or more) for data...

You can only 'link' (as you put it...) drives/partitions that are not related to the system and boot-partitions; These areas have to be present for the OS to boot.

Volume sets ('linked' partition etc...) are created from within NT after NT has successfully booted up. Similarly with 'striped sets' - two or more HD's used to store data in various (usually) fault tolerant arrangements... They exist/are accessible only after NT has booted up.

A standard way for NT is to either install it as logical-drive in the extended partition (and then it can be more than 2Gig), with a smallish FAT16 C: system area - where its boot/start-up files will reside; or to install it in the Primary partition upto 4Gig as FAT16 - but better as NTFS and still limited to 4Gig. (more efficient use of disk space). However using NTFS for the system partition does rather limit options when attempting recovery/repair options... And as outlined already, formating the c: system partition as NTFS in another NT syste, does allow a larger (upto 7.8Gig) system partition...

Suggest you read through the link above for much more detailed info...

NT Is NOT limited to a 7.8GB hard drive. You must install latest service packs (four or above) for NT to see all of the Drive and then you can partition it.

Highly recommend you get hold of Partition Magic to Merge partitions as you want under NTFS.

my own preference for using a 9gb drive in these circumstances would be to fdisk first under dos6.2 creating a 4gb partition and then another 4gb and a 1gb.
Boot from a dos floppy with cd support and copy the nt cd 1386 folder onto the 1gb drive.Run Then run nt install from the hard disk - this is not only quicker but the path to install extra services and drivers in the future is correct without the cd.
When it gets to where it asks about partinioning and whether fat or ntfs then delete the existing partitions and create an 8gb ntfs partition to install nt into.
Then I would keep the last 1gb as a seperate drive which can be used to put stuff for safe keeping so that in the event of catastrophe you can trash the system without losing stuff. ie you can point personal folders, mailboxes, templates,documents to all go there as default so if you forget to back-up you aren't trying to get things off a duff system before reformatting.
I use this system as a safe-guard. I ghost my entire drive to a seperate partition as a compressed image regularly which takes about 20 minutes. Then if I need to I can format the system drive and re-ghost back giving me back everything identical to when it was working perfectly with no messing with settings/drivers/updates etc.
no worries.

true about the use of Service Pack 4 and above - overlooked that - tanx for the correction...

Rereading Helpers 'correction' I did not state that NT is limited to a 7.8Gig HD; rather that the 'system partition' is subject to the limit - a condition which (I seem to recall reading somewhere) appears to be still present in W2K... This system partition has to start at the begining of the HD if it is to be upto the limit of 7.8Gig.

Re Wolfie's comments.

A 4Gig FAT16 partition is a poor use of HD space; better a smallish C: system FAT16 system (active primary) and then install NT into the Extended (logical-drive/s) area, as either FAT16 or NTFS according to your personal feelings/requirements.

Copying the i386 to the HD (ideally to C: system partition) does make sense - is often the Pro's approach; as the install from there is faster/smoother/fewer problems...

I like the idea a 'storage area' at the end of the HD - for Ghost images. Haven't used Ghost yet, but it does sound to be a good way to go, in terms of having an image to hand should it be required as it were... Most folk seem to put them to CD but on the HD does seem a good place too.

I agree with the Service Pack 4 option.
Just install NT 4.0 with Service Pack 6a
and then use Partition Magic to make the
partition any size you want.

PARTITION MAGIC....PARTITION MAGIC....IT'S MAGIC...