I just installed a new 20 GIG HD in my computer. Windows hasn't detected it by itself, so I used FDISK to try and get it to find it. I can get it to find the drive but not the whole drive, just about 3 GIGs. I need all 20 GIGs to I can use FIPS to change the partition sizes. I plan on partitioning off the 20 GIG for both Linux and Windows. But I can't use FIPS until it is DOS-formatted and I can't get windows to find the whole drive. Can someone help me? If you think this could take a bit to do, I check my email twice a day.

Boot the system from LINUX cd , Run the setup , select the option to remove all linux partions during installation. Then after removing all the existing linux partitions you will get the whole space of the HardDrive.

a) if a disk is larger than 2.1gb you have to use fat32 because of the number of sectors. fat16 has a limit that it can address. b) if you find the pc only recognises some of the hdd capacity (normally 8gb) rather than the total capacity, this generally is a limition in the bios. To overcome this, go the the hdd maker's website and download their drive manager. Often the drive manager also includes the means to partition the hdd as you want. Good luck - keep us posted.

Alright, Is there a way to partition it to FAT32. I did it with FDISK, formatted to FAT16, then used FAT32. I still only got parts. I will try the drive manager idea. And I put in a second hd. Removing the current install from the first hd wouldn't help would it? Dustin

I do not follow when you say the current install from the first hd. If there is already an hdd on the pc, that is working ok, you should not touch it. The object is to get the pc to recognise the new 20gb hdd and all its capacity. A drive manager and/or other programs, normally are available from the hdd maker's website. Normally these look after formatting, fat??, partitioning etc. Good luck - keep us posted.

If you are going to put Linux on the drive, I would avoid using any drive manager. Drive managers are mainly for DOS/Windows systems.

u have the linux partition which cannot be recognized by ur dos or windows only the windows NT or windows 2000 advance server can recognize u just make the disk to how much it is recognizing if it is making the fat 16 what ever it is u just install windows nt then go the disk administration there u can find the whole hard disk then u can format there in either dos partion of ntfs partition which can be recognized by the fdisk command. then u can make the partition depending on ur wish. best of luck