I have a huge probelem with Harddrive..Please Help

[Nastusha799]

Hi..

I have an old computer at home..so yesterday I decided to format c drive...while I was doing that windows98 said that it cant install windows back to the computer because computer has partitions. I went to the dos ..removed partitions. So windows insalled to the computer but...I Have 9GB harddrive...but when I go to C properties..it showes that I have only 2GB harddrive... Can you please help me with that? Thanks a lot!!

 

[Nastusha799]

Anyone?

 

[edfair]

If you are an organized person, the best solution is to run fdisk, create an extended partition in the remaining space which will then create 3 or 4 additional drives of up to 2 gb each, format them after the next reboot, and use them as separate drawers of a filecabinet.
The alternative is to blow the installation away and put it back on with large drive support.
Your error message probably wasn't about partitions, more likely about the previous installation of windows. Or it could be that the previous installation was using a drive overlay that wasn't available. Drive overlays jigger the file system to allow larger drives to be used in machines that can't support them natively.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[Nastusha799]

"The alternative is to blow the installation away and put it back on with large drive support."

I did that..and its still 2 gb

 

[wolluf]

So did it show as 9GB previously? How old is old? (there's an old mobo HD limit of 2.1GB).

If you used large drive support with fdisk, you should now have a fat32 partition - is that in fact the case?

 

[Nastusha799]

"So did it show as 9GB previously? How old is old? (there's an old mobo HD limit of 2.1GB).

If you used large drive support with fdisk, you should now have a fat32 partition - is that in fact the case?"

Before formating it showed 9Gb. Its from 1997(HP pavilion)

Yes now I have fat32...

 

[wolluf]

So - is rest of drive unpartitioned (what does fdisk show)? As Ed mentioned, you could just create extended partition in the rest of space (if it allows).

Did you actually remove all partitions before creating new one?

 

[Nastusha799]

"If you are an organized person, the best solution is to run fdisk, create an extended partition in the remaining space which will then create 3 or 4 additional drives of up to 2 gb each, format them after the next reboot, and use them as separate drawers of a filecabinet."

Im planning to give this computer to my sis..and she is an organized person...therefore I cant do this option

 

[Nastusha799]

Yes..I removed all the partitions befor creating a new one...

 

[wolluf]

You could try this partitioning tool to delete/create partitions - see if you have any more success:-

http://www.lpacomputers.telinco.co.uk/PD.zip

 

[Nastusha799]

Couldnt open the link..page not found..thanks anyway =)

 

[braddds]

"If you are an organized person, the best solution is to run fdisk, create an extended partition in the remaining space which will then create 3 or 4 additional drives of up to 2 gb each, format them after the next reboot, and use them as separate drawers of a filecabinet."

"Im planning to give this computer to my sis..and she is an organized person...therefore I cant do this option "

Actually this is the best solution if the person is organized! I use a system with several partitions; one the OS, another for swap/temp files, programs, games, data...all have the own individual partitons. Makes backups a breeze. If she "is" an organized person then this could be an ideal system setup. It takes a little longer setup for your OS and programs but only marginally and the payoff's are a faster and uncluttered system.

Cheers

 

[edfair]

And the other solution is to get the drive overlay software from the hard drive manufacturer and use it before you try to install the OS.
It will create your 9gb partition and allow you to install the OS on it.

What is the response when you do fdisk, option 4. Should show your 2gb partition active and also show the total drive size of 9gb. The 7gb missing is unallocated.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.