i have a 40 gig hd...but it says i have a 2

Discussion in 'PC hardware help' started by longjonsi, Jun 16, 2004.

  1. longjonsi

    longjonsi Member

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    ok....i just formated my computer and i was goin to reinstall a program and it said it didnt have enough space to do it...so i knew that was wwrong but i went a looked in my computer and sure enough it said i had a 2 gig hard drive and its supposed to be a 40....where did the other 38 gigs go????
     
  2. The_OGS

    The_OGS Active member

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    When you format FAT16 you get 2.0GB maximum size.
    It is a nice system partition to have. You could dual-boot Windows and Linux, for example.
    Just install your Windows into the 38GB unclaimed space.
    My Leafs died this year! Oh, man...
    L8R
     
  3. longjonsi

    longjonsi Member

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    ok....so is there anyway i can fix this without unistalling windows....or do i have to format again??

    and another thing i forgot to say earlyer (idk if this will help) but i have 2 hard drives and when i formated i only did teh c drive....and the other one was called teh g:....but now that ive formated the g has chaged its self to d: and the d partion that i had before is gone

    i wish teh leafs could have gone furtehr too....but i like the flyers more so i was happy with the out come of that but not that they got matched against eachother
     
  4. The_OGS

    The_OGS Active member

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    Yes this is what happens, your drive letters can get rearranged but the Volume Label should be the same.
    That 2GB is a system partition containing your boot files - it's too small for your boot partition. Windows (NT / XP) likes unclaimed (unpartitioned) space: just point it at the empty 38GB.
    I was just saying, the 2GB FAT partition is a good thing; you can edit your boot.ini from DOS, run NTFS volumes and dual-boot different OSs.
    Flyers 1976: Clark, Barber, Leach, Dave 'The Hammer' Schultz...
     
  5. longjonsi

    longjonsi Member

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    ok ....so im still a little confused....how do i find this 38 gigs cause its not in my computer....and what do i do next time i format to prevent this....cause i formated the same way on some other computers and i didnt have this problem.

    i like bobby clark but he made me mad whith the lindros thing...and bill barber was ok until he coached and didnt do very well.....but theres no way anyone cant not like dave...unless you were the one geting the $hit beat out of you
     
  6. The_OGS

    The_OGS Active member

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    Yes it's funny to see Tiger Williams doing his TV commercials for The Garden Weasel or whatever he calls the little horticultural device...
    OK so you get a brand new HD from the store, it has no partitions on it; it's more than just empty, it's blank. So you make the largest FAT partition possible, you end up with 2GB Fat16 and 38GB remaining blank.
    Forget formatting, first you have to create a partition before you can format it, right? But you have 1 partition, C:\ (active) and whatever is left, blank. Unpartitioned.
    Windows Install will find C:\ (2GB Fat16), and 38GB (unpartitioned). Windows Install likes to claim the 38GB, partition it and format it, by itself! Use FDISK to make a system partition if you wish, which you have done (there are advantages to this as I have stated). Then let Windows Install take it from there.
    Tip: copy I386 directory to system partition & run WINNT.EXE from there (but, tricky if you have no knowledge of DOS, CDRom drivers, smartdrv.exe etc.)
    But WTF, I just tell you what's best not what's easiest. Easiest to boot from Windows CDRom, but then you are not in control...
    What d'you think, Tampa Bay be back next year? They could be very good for many years.
    Regards
     
  7. longjonsi

    longjonsi Member

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    ok...someone told me to boot into command prompt and type in "fdisk" but taht didnt work (it said it didnt recongnize it as a command)....ive never really messed with this before....all the other times i formated it came out fine.....so what your saying is i should just boot from the windows cd and do it over again?
     
  8. kebabs

    kebabs Guest

    Hi,
    Do you have a win98 or me bootdisk either floppy
    or cd if not look on google for it.
    Remove the second disk to make the next bit easier.


    FDISK WILL DESTROY ALL DATA ON THE DISKS

    you need to boot from that and get to a command
    prompt and type fdisk answer yes to the next screen
    then type 4 and enter to see partitions it should show
    your c: as being 2gb and the rest unpartioned.
    press escape and type 3 to delete a partition then press 1 and follow instructions when finished press esc
    and type 1 then 1 again it will start counting up
    the size of the hard drive when that has finished
    it will ask whether to use all space choose no
    it will start counting again then type in size and enter when finished press esc and type 2 and choose
    c: to set active then press esc type 1 again and choose
    extended partion answer yes to use all then it is upto
    you what size or how many logical partitions to make
    when finished keep pressing esc to get to c: and reboot
    then format drives do the same for second drive bot
    just create extended and logical drives unless
    installing linux.
    i hope this helps if not repost
     

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