Mysterious extra disk

[DomTrix]

Hi there, I have a 80 GB disk, partitioned in two, 10MB and 70MB and when using FDISK, only these two partitions are displayed. Partition 1 for OS, other for the rest. Heres the thing, there appears to be three partitions, one of which displays the error when I try to access it in windows:

"H:\ is not accessible. The parameter is incorrect."

I had left it unnoticed as it didnt seem to be doing any harm.

Then, I am doing a clean reinstall of Windows on partition 1 using EZ OS and an error message comes up about not being able to determine the info on drive 1, do I want to format it now type thing. It then said that the size of this disk was -10MB. I had just used FDISK to delete the first partition and recreate it and then formatted it to FAT32. Nowhere in FDISK did I see this mysterious third disk.

Well, I managed to install windows manually but this mysterious disk is still here.

I am backing up my HD now and am going to completely reformat it. But before I do, any suggestions?

Thanks in advance

DT

 

[DomTrix]

Hm, some extra info that may be of help.

When I use Computer Management -> Disk management, the drive does not appear in the list of drives.

The drive only appears in windows explorer and assossiated dialogs (file open, save, etc.).

I can view properties for the disk which reveals:

Type: Local Disk
File System: RAW
Used space: 0 bytes
Free space: 0 bytes
Capacity: 0 bytes

 

[Freestone]

Very strange, indeed. What software did you use to create the 10MB and 70MB partitions? That would be my first suspect.

 

[DomTrix]

I used FDISK, cant imagine you can go too far wrong with that?

 

[Freestone]

Agreed, but what OS version of FDISK? Windows 98?

If you are feeling adventurous, after backing up your data and before reformatting, you may want to explore the disk with XP's command line utility DISKPART. It may reveal something, though what I am not sure at all.

 

[DomTrix]

Ok, so if I reboot using xp cd I use system restore to get to that command?

Ive no idea what OS version of FDISK. I used EZOSINSTALL CD so whatever version is on that.

So, I think Ill try fixmbr first, then see what diskpart reveals, then complete format.


thnx

 

[DomTrix]

I mean recovery console, not system restore sry.

 

[DomTrix]

Oh just ran diskpart, it seems i need to enter commands for it, leaving that and trying the fixmbr road. Thanks again.

 

[Freestone]

Yes, fixmbr seems the next course. Please post your results. Thanks.

 

[DomTrix]

Aha, I hadnt quite painted the entire picture . I also had another physical drive but seeing as it had only one partition I foolishly counted it out of the equasion.

Running FDISK again and changing the fixed drive that it was viewing revealed 2 partitions on it. The 1st partition was this mysterious 0 byte partition, in FAT12 format - found that most bizarre indeed. Well I deleted it and the drive is still functioning properly and the mystery is gone .

This does however lead me to a second issue I had when using FDISK. I had decided to erase both partitions on disk 1 and went to do so. Erase primary dos partition, fine. Erase extended dos partition, 'must erase logical drives first'. OK. Erase logical drive in the extended partition: 'no logical drives defined'. Catch 22 ERROR! Damnit.

Well eventually I found a hidden few tools in my EOSINSTALL cd one of which allowed me to wipe all partitions in the drive, great. I then recreated my setup and all working fine.

The only difference is that I now ave 2 partitions on the 1st drive, both of which are formatted as FAT32 (previously the 2nd partition was NTFS). Ive not had any problems but my questions for this post (sorry, I tend to rant on..):

1) Is it preferrable to have NTFS partitions or FAT32?
2) Why was FDISK saying I had logical drives when I wanted to delete my extended partition, and saying I didnt have one when I wanted to delete it?!

Thanks for your help

dt

 

[Freestone]

FAT32 has a 4GB file size limit, NTFS has 16TB limit.

NTFS by default uses a 4KB allocation unit size, whereas FAT32 allocation size varies by partition size, so there will be be more slack (wasted) space in FAT32.

NTFS volumes cannot be accessed from a DOS environment (DOS, Windows 98, ME) without a third-party tool, and then usually accessed read-only.

Note the maximum FAT32 volume size that Windows XP Professional can format is 32GB. I wonder why Microsoft imposed that limit on XP?

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prkc_fil_tdrn.asp

As far as the extended partition problem, I have no answer. I have to suspect the software used to partition the drive, or a drive error in the MBR, or a virus. There may have been tools to pinpoint the problem, but since you've reformatted and partitioned, that option is out.

 

[garebo]

Re, the extended partition problem. I have run into that a few times. In the end i found a fix. Go to the relevant hard drive mfgrs diagnostic utility program and run the the "fill hard drive with zeroes" routine and after that fdisk will do what you want. I dont know why i only know it works for me and never fails.



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