only can format part of a hard drive

[keak]

Hi there,
I just got an 80G samsung harddrive.
I formatted it using windows98 boot disk (fdisk) with the following command
fdisk/mbr
(reboot the computer)
format C:


and it only show that I have around 10G of space.
Did anyone have the same kind of issue? and if so, how can I possibly resolve this?


I am doing this on a ibm think center with a P4 3.0HT, and I think it should be able to recognize a 80G harddrive.

 

[Freestone]

You have to create a partition with fdisk (leave off the /mbr), though I'm not sure Windows 98 can handle this size drive.

 

[keak]

I formatted and chose to use the maximum available space for my primary partition, but I still seem to get around 10G of space.

If the windows98 boot disk cannot suppport this hard drive size (actually it worked for my previous 40g hard drive), is there an alternative to this?

 

[faller1955]

When you boot up with your win98 boot disk just type in FDISK at the command prompt,you have to make a primary
dos partition. When asked if you want to use the max allowed say yes. You might have to delete the existing partition first.

 

[keak]

That is what I am doing exactly and getting this 10G space thing on an 80G drive.

I deleted all primary/logical/external partitions, and then chose the 'use max allowed space' for the primary partition and that primary partition ends up to be a 10g space ....

Is this really because of my bootdisk not being able to support a large hard drive?

I am using the bootdisk that was created during my previous winxp pro installation.

 

[mainegeek]

keak,
Have a look in the bios and see what size is being detected in there.


What version of Win98 was the bootdisk created with?
What OS are you planning on installing.
Did you get a utility cd with the new drive.

 

[micker377]

If a Win98 boot disk won't handle the hard drive size, just use a Windows ME boot disk. It will handle the larger size. Check the master/slave jumpers - sometimes there is a "limiting" jumper designed for the older computers. Next boot to the BIOS setup, and see what size drive is recognized. If the drive is recognized as full size, it is a format problem. If it is recognized as real small, it is a drive or BIOS update problem.

 

[kkoda]

Came across this info thought it may help:


10. Fdisk reports wrong size when using drives larger then 64GB
According to Microsoft KB article Q263044, "When you use Fdisk.exe to partition a hard disk that is larger than 64 GB (64 gigabytes, or 68,719,476,736 bytes) in size, Fdisk does not report the correct size of the hard disk.

The size that Fdisk reports is the full size of the hard disk minus 64 GB. For example, if the physical drive is 70.3 GB (75,484,122,112 bytes) in size, Fdisk reports the drive as being 6.3 GB (6,764,579,840 bytes) in size."

 

[G0AOZ]

I have a 200Gb hard disk which I initially quick formatted FAT32 to about 40Gb through Windows 2000 Disk Management. I then used Partition Magic to increase it out to the full 200Gb. I can boot up with a WIN98 SE floppy boot disk and access the full content of this drive.

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[Freestone]

Thanks for that information, Roger. But what I wonder is what would WIN98's FDISK do with all that space? I'm betting it won't partition it correctly. I'm going to have to find a large spare drive somewhere and experiment...

 

[G0AOZ]

The disk I'm using is a Maxtor DiamondMax Plus9 200Gb IDE drive, with just one 200Gb FAT32 partition. This drive currently has about 160 Gigabytes of data (PQDI images) on it, which I read and write to quite regularly. Booted up with a WIN98 SE floppy, FDISK agrees it has a single partition, but says it's only 63482Mb in size, FAT32, and 100% Usage!

So it would be useless to try partitioning and formatting its full size in DOS. Make a small partition and format it, then use Partition Magic to increase it to the max...

ROGER - G0AOZ.