Partitions

[Tobi]

I have an 8gig primairy HDD
and it has been partitioned for double OS 98/NT
but that sucked big time and I removed it
Now I removed the partitions and that worked
(fdisk => delete prim and ext partitions)
But first I had some problems of fdisk giving '75% used for new partition' used . So I formatted my C: deleted the partition again and made a partition again.
It worked because now fdisk shows my C: drive is 8gig big and 100% used
But then i formatted the hdd again, and in dos it shows only 6 gig? (c:\>dir c
-what went wrong?
-do I have a hidden partition?
-how do I delete all partitions, data, configs EVERYTHING on a HDD? (the only way I know is trowing it into an open fire or placing it next to an magnet :0 )

 

[butchrecon]

DOS will not recognize the entire 8 gig. Actually DOS will only recognize 2 Gig.(More with DOS 7 in Windows 98, but not the entire drive.) Install your OS on the HDD and when it is finished, see how much Hard Drive space their is.

 

[sehiser]

You may have some logical hidden inside extended or some non-dos partitions. It is something with FDISK, keep trying.

 

[KnowlesTech]

What type of drive do you have? If you have one of the bigger name brands (Western Digital, Seagate, Maxtor)use their software to partition and reformat the drive. You can obtain these files from their websites respectively.
Always remember it is very bad to keep formatting a drive. It is always better to simply use the del c:\windows or deltree (the same) and reinstall windows than it is to format. As for DOS, it doesn't realy depend on DOS to tell you what the drive is since DOS queries the BIOS to get the info. Check your BIOS and also make sure your drive shows the correct size in the BIOS to see if a FLASH wouldn't do it some good. REMEMBER, Flashing the BIOS is the FINAL thing to do besides low level formatting.
Hope this helps. Master Frodo

 

[cpuFAILURE]

Deleteing just the windows dir, sometimes can take upto and hour, maybe more, ive seen it in my shop. You can "quickly" format the drive in about 10 secs, by typeing "format c: /q". Nice and fast. Wanne make it bootable too? "format c: /q /s". Sounds like you have a non-dos partition in there, thats about 2 gigs.

 

[teknoguy]

use partition magic. this will show what is on all partitions, whatever it may be.

 

[Student999]

If u are using Fdisk, Fdisk does not see the NTFS logical drive on the hard drive. U can not delete it with fdisk, use partition majic to get rid of the partition and start all over

 

[osuman]

Well, Partition Magic is pretty cool, but it's also around 60 bucks. I don't think you really needs to spend this much money. To directly answer your question Tobi, to blow away everything on a HD (partitions, boot record, etc.) you need what is called a zero-fill utility. These are often incorrectly referred to as low level format utilities. This utility can often be found at the website of your HD manufacturor and will be included in a set of utilities that will also partition and format the drive. Find out who makes it and check thier website, if it's not there, you should do a general search of this site for low level formatting utility as I remember having seen a large forum about where they can be obtained.
To MasterFrodo: Why is it "very bad to keep formatting a drive"? I have never heard this before.
Thanks and good luck. Justin
Feel free to email me at:
beckham@mailbox.orst.edu

 

[helmichv]

If you have created an extended NON-DOS (or NTFS) partition FDISK cannot remove it.
"You will have the situation where you cannot remove the extended partition, with a reason that a logical drive exists. Then if you try to remove the logical drive it does not recognize the logical drive."

If this is your problem look at Article ID Q104205 in the Microsoft Knowledge base.
There are 3 different ways to remove a Extended NTFS partition.

 

[KnowlesTech]

Student 999,"If u are using Fdisk, Fdisk does not see the NTFS logical drive on the hard drive. U can not delete it with fdisk, use partition majic to get rid of the partition and start all over"

You can remove any formatting cept' Linux- with FDISK it has the command to delete Non-DOS partitions and it works with all NTFS 4@5 rev. To get there use "4" then "4" then the letter of drive or partition then "esc", then "1" (for create) then "y" THEN "ESC" AND YOUR DONE!

Thank you, Master Frodo

 

[Guest_imported]

Hey Bob,

Here is some solutions for that hard drive problem. May these will work. I HOPE.

Thanks,
Aunt DD