Format HDD Was 20Gb but now 6GB???? 2

[TudorSmith]

Help,

I just installed a new 20Gb HDD in a friends Laptop. All was going swimmingly reinstalling the OS, but then the DVD/CD player decided that it wasn't installed...but that's another issue.

My problem is, the OS now says I only have 6Gb HDD...and yet the BIOS tells me I've got 20048MB (20Gb)

How do I get my other 14Gb back?

All suggestions most welcome!!

birklea ~©¿©~ <><
I know what I know...don't presume that I know what I don't! Smithism!!!

 

[thatrenowned]

What OS? Can you give any other info like this which may be useful e.g. laptop model, HDD model etc

 

[TudorSmith]

The OS will be WIndows 98 Second Edition (If I can get the thing installed properly.

The Laptop is a &quot;TINY&quot; PIII 650 MHz (64Mb RAM)
The HDD Is Fujitsu 9.5mm 20Gb MHN2200AT

Does this help? birklea ~©¿©~ <><
I know what I know...don't presume that I know what I don't! Smithism!!!

 

[thatrenowned]

Go to Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Drivespace and see if there is more than one drive there. What it sounds like is the drive has been partitioned, and only 6 gig of it has been made active.

What was the size of the laptop's original disk? Maybe the M/B can't handle more than 6 gig? Possible solution to this is a BIOS upgrade (dunno if they do this for laptops though).

Most probably the first one...

 

[TudorSmith]

I'll give that a try...let you know. Failing that, can anything be down perhaps using FDISK at the DOS prompt? birklea ~©¿©~ <><
I know what I know...don't presume that I know what I don't! Smithism!!!

 

[kaisali]

hi birklea

just went thru ur posting

boot with a win98 bootable and on a prompt try fdisk and select view partition details what does it show

may be while formatting u did not format the balance 14 gb or u did not create the extended partition.

fdisk will show u ur partition size and the free size.

or start from scratch and delete the 6 gb partition and create a new allocation table create a new primary partition of what ever size and set it active and format it
then create the extended partition with the remaining space and then creatre the extended dos partitions of whatever size u need and format them.

 

[thatrenowned]

Bit of a mess on using FDisk and reinstalling the OS. Easy to do, but if it is a partition problem, why not just free up the other 14 gig?
Could then use the 6 gig for utilities and programs etc, then use the 14 gig for games or media (such as mpegs, mp3s etc) if thats what your friend wants?..

Plus this way, if the first partition fucks up, you've still got all the other files stored safely (and vice versa).

Anyway, all up to you in the end...

 

[TudorSmith]

Thanks guys...

You've both been a great help. I'd give you both a star...but it seems it won't let me if more than one persons responds! - Bummer


birklea birklea ~©¿©~ <><
I know what I know...don't presume that I know what I don't! Smithism!!!

 

[thatrenowned]

It will...go on...be a sport...I

 

[TudorSmith]

I gotcha...I needed to be logged in as my handle/user in order to see the &quot;Give a star&quot; link. There ya go! birklea ~©¿©~ <><
I know what I know...don't presume that I know what I don't! Smithism!!!

 

[irishkiwi007]

You could use partition magic to see your hard drive size then extend it to the full size.

 

[TudorSmith]

Partition Magic...what's that?

birklea birklea ~©¿©~ <><
I know what I know...don't presume that I know what I don't! Smithism!!!

 

[achilleus]

PartitionMagic (now in version 7) is a nifty program that allows you to resize an existing partition without having to format and start over. So lets say you had a 20 gig hard drive that was partitioned into 6 gigs. You could expand the 6 to 20 without having to wipe it! Very useful.

Check out:

http://www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic/

You can try it and see if it helps.

AJ
SA
HS