I have an ACER 5101 laptop and this was working fine until the hard drive decided to split its self.I was left with C: 35 gig FAT 32 drive and D: 35 gig NTSF drive.when I tried to return the laptop to its original factory settings using the back up discs created when I first turned it on, it formated the C: drive and reloaded windows XP but now it will not recognize the D: partion.The hard drive has now been reduced to 35 gig instead of the original 80 gig. Is there an easy way to get the computer to recognize the D: partition again or even reformat the whole thing so it is back to 1 hard drive with 80 gig. Any replies or help greatly apprieciated.
look for a program called Partition Magic. It is usually a good tool for formatting partitions on a hard drive. It even has the ability to leave the current partition alone and just format the unused space into a second partition.
Had a walkabout through AD's threads, and found the following info; http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/258214 , this deals with converting FAT32 file system to an NTFS. http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/129382 , this deals with removing a partition. Hope this helps. I had a brief look for some free software, that would make life a little easier, but didn't have much luck. Cheers
Thanks for the replies. Can anyone tell me if the hard drive is better been a FAT32 or NTFS drive and if windows has to boot from a specific format drive? ? ? ? ? ?
The problem I have is I recently recieved a Windows Vista upgrade disk (an original from acer) and after running the vista assistant it said there was not enough space on the C: drive to install vista(this been because the hard drive had partitioned itself). I was informed by a very reputable computer retailer ? ? (PC WORLD) that if I ran the ACER ERECOVERY programme that it would delete the D: partition and reboot from my back up disks. I did this and it cleared my C: drive then reinstalled windows and all the programmes that came on the laptop.The only problem is that the D: drive was untouched and now the partion is not recognized by the computer and to make thing worse the ACER ERECOVERY programme will no longer run(not sure if the programme used a small partition on the C: drive to hide files on but now this has been cleared the programme will not run ! ! ! ) Any help would be greatly received.......
You're in a pickle...no doubts at all. Using the links that I posted previous, look for the "Format a hard drive" guide. Now back up all the files you have, to a device(s) off the machine.(external drive/CD's/DVD's) By reformatting the drive, you'll get back to square one at least. Reinstall your OS, and then go ahead with the vista upgrade, if that is what you intend on doing. This is going to take multiple restarts, so have some patience. Keep us posted on how you get on eh? Good luck. Cheers.
