Partition problems

[riddlebox]

I have a Maxtor 80gig HD That I recently tried to repartition (I've done this dozens of times with other drives) with fdisk. My problem is it shows I have a 20gig extended partition but when I go to delete it it claims no extended partitions exist. Sure enough I'm missing 20gigs on my drive. What is going on, how do i delete this ghost partition and reclaim my 20 G's?

Thanks
Mike

 

[gargouille]

When you do fdisk(space)/s the whole drive shows?
Find out what BIOS you have and visit the mfr.'s site to make sure the BIOS is equipped to handle this size drive...
it's usually a BIOS restriction that limits this.
There's (unless it's an older computer) usually an updated BIOS (you'll have to flash it) that'll make you good to go. Make sure to read the documentation about backing up the BIOS...and take steps to verify you have before flashing it...if it fails without backup you have beeg beeg problem senor!

 

[edfair]

I normally suggest an earlier version of fdisk, which normally will show it as non-dos type and allow you to delete it. If that fails you could use a zero fill program, either from the manufacturer's site or one running under debug on one of the pc forums here. Then you can fdisk from the beginning. Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[riddlebox]

My BIOS is up to date. I did the original partitioning without problems, I was good to go for about 6 mos. It was only when I tried to delete extended logical drive to resize did I have this problem.

 

[wolluf]

You could try this partitioning utility, see if its any more effective than fdisk.

http://www.lpacomputers.telinco.co.uk/pdisk.exe