What is a placeholder/dummy/proxy partition?
Placeholder, dummy, and proxy are interchangable terms used to describe a partition created in order to cause a desired letter shift. A letter shift is sometimes desired when a system is first configured with fewer than the ultimate number of hard disks and partitions expected, and removed or hidden after additional are added. Another situation where they are useful is when Warp 3 or 4 is installed to a logical drive on a system using FAT32 for a Windows® partition. Only later versions of IBM Boot Manager will cause a letter to be reserved for the FAT32 partition, but one cannot be installed in conjuction with the appropriate OS drivers that match the letter assignments until after the initial installation is complete, since the original Warp 3 and 4 installers will ignore FAT32 partitions. A dummy partition can bridge that gap during initial install, and be removed or hidden afterward. These single cylinder partitions are created in front of a partition which is desired to have a high
