Hi,
I have an extra drive letter (D). When I run Fdisk I see that I have an ext dos partition, which has been assigned drive d. Can I SAFELY delete this partition and get rid of the drive letter?
Thanks,
John

www.cedargallery.nl

That is more than just a letter. It is a partition on a harddrive. You could try to merge that space into your C drive using third party programs. Why bother? Just use the space to store your files. Depending on exactly what you now have you may need to take one or two more steps in order to use the space. If it is a dos partition it isn't of much use to you. You could use fdisk to delete that extended partition and then create a new extended partition with a logical drive using all available space. Then you need to format the logical drive using FAT32. You can format the drive right from within Win98.

Simply trying to delete the drive letter won't free up whatever storage space is there.

I forgot to ask, does this partition showup in Windows? If so, what formatting does it say is applied to the partition?

If you want to have all the available space combined into your C drive you would need to use a partition manager like Partition Magic or Ranish partition manager. These program are capable but many times things go wrong and your Win98 could become unusable. I recommend you not attempt to combine/ merge these partitions.

another option to get rid of that partition is to reformat and reinstal windows but again its not recomended as you loose every thing, i say just leave is and format that partition....use it for work , school, or if your like me...MUSIC

Hi OtheHill/mherber2,
Yes, windows does show it, as D drive, that's how I became aware of it. It has one file "Recycled", which shows the same content as the C drive "Recycled". FDisk identifies it as a Logical Dos Drive. It's 5 gigs in size. I don't know how to tell what "formatting" it has.
....... john

www.cedargallery.nl

If the partition has a recycle bin then it has to be formatted using FAT32. To check the properties of each drive right click a drive icon in My computer and choose properties. It should show the info there.

As I said above I suggest you just use the partition. You can install programs to it or just store files. Installing programs to that partition just requires that you change the install path that shows when you first start an install. If you are out of room on the C drive you can even uninstall programs and reinstall on the D partition.

Compaqs usually came with a second partition containing their recovery software. Sometimes the contents were hidden so it may not be empty even though it looks like it is.

Or depending on who set it up, it may just be empty space. In either case, as OtheHill says, just keep it for storage.

DAVINCAPS makes a good point. Look in My computer at the D drive. See if the total space and avialable space are the same. If not and you want to see what is using the space, highlight the d icon in My Computer then choose view> folder options> view> hidden files> tick show all files.

I say leave it alone. Its the recovery partition. What model Compaq is it? Some models had the recovery mine aucually had the full restore CD and it came by defalt with a recovery but when i used the full restore CD iot deleted all Patitions.

Thanks

lol i had that thought this morning, hp's i do believe have the same thing, but on hp,s its a hidden partition...shouldn't it be the same on Compaq? i think it may just be an extra partition...cant tell with out looking at it...

Hi,
Well, it shows 8kb used and 4.95 gigs free. And the only file is the Recycled directory.
The problem with leaving it as it is, is that I want to ghost the drive for a backup, and I don't have any drives in the 8gig size. If I can ghost just c:\ as my backup, that's O.K. C:\ is only 2.?? gigs in size. I suppose if ghost c:\ and it doesn't work then I have my answer as to whether this partition is necessary. Right?
... john
P.S. This is a Presario 5717. God I hate Compaq.

www.cedargallery.nl

It sounds like you have never used Ghost before.
I don't see a problem. You can image ONLY the C: partition with Ghost and that is the best way to do it anyway.

I would remcommend that you Ghost to DVDR or CDR. 2+ GB will fit on one DVDR or no more than 3 CDRs. Ghost compresses the files and using the default settings usually results in about a 140% compression ratio. Ghost spans disks so writing to more than one is not an issue.

IMO optical media is a safer form of backup. Once the image is burned to optical you can make one or two more copies just to be EXTRA safe. Keeping one offsite is a good idea too. (edit)

Forgot to add once you start adding files to the D drive you can Ghost that drive independently also.

Thanks OtheHill,
Actually I use Ghost fairly often, to back up several systems, but they always only have one drive, so I wasn't sure if you could pick and choose drives from the same HDD and ghost them independently. But my main concern was really whether the installlation C:\ needs info on D:\ to fuction, i.e. maybe D:\ is a necessary part of the Compaq system??
.... john
P.S. Thanks for the info on using DVD for backups. I was wondering if this could be done. That woould seem to be the simple solution.

www.cedargallery.nl

To clarify what can and can't be done with Ghost. It depends on which version of Ghost you are using. I use 2003 and the procedures I mentioned can be performed from that version forward. I am not sure about versions pre-dating 2003. Each newer version has added additional features.

Hi,
O.K. I Ghosted C: (and D:) to another HDD. (I have Ghost 7.0. It's fairly old.) Then I went into FDisk and deleted the logical drive and the extended partition. Now FDisk shows my primary DOS partition C: is only 73% of my disk. How can I make it 100%?
... john

www.cedargallery.nl

As I stated in my response#1 you will need to use a third party partition manager. There is no good reason to do that. You will not gain any storage space and you gamble that something may go wrong. That is why I advised you not to bother trying to get rid of the D partition.

Hi OtheHill,
Yes, I know; and I apprciate your help; but since I was able to ghost the drive(s), I thought I might fiddle around and see if I can amalgamate everything under one partition.
.... john

www.cedargallery.nl

Partition Magic or Ranish Partition Manager are two. I haven't used Ranish but it is freeware. Once you merge the two partitions future Ghost images will just be larger. Below is a link to DLoad Ranish.
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/fi...

Thanks OtheHill,
I downloaded Ranish, but it's a little confusing for a bdu. Are you familar with it? If so, can you tell me which section to home in on for what I want.
..... john

www.cedargallery.nl

As I stated above I have not used that utility. I use Partition Magic. You do need to take care or you will make the drive inaccessable.

Did you perform an integrity check on your backup images. If you are sure they work correctly (integrity check) then why not just delete both the partitions and apply the Ghost image to the new C drive.

Hi,
O.K. Let me restate what I have. I ghosted the original drive, and put it aside. I then removed the logical drive (D:) and it's extended partition. This left me with just C: which uses only 73% of the HDD. I can do whatever I want with this, because I still have the original.
I don't understand what you mean by this, "why not just delete both the partitions and apply the Ghost image to the new C drive." Are you saying that I can ghost the copy, the one that FDisk shows a 73% Primary DOS partition, to another drive and come out of it with a C: drive who's primary DOS partition is 100%?
...... john

www.cedargallery.nl

Let me repeat that you should verify the image integrity. That is done with Ghost itself. Read the help files on how.

If your version of Ghost will allow you to boot to the CD and restore an image from there, you could delete the D and C partitions and create one Primary partition using all available space. Not sure if formatting would be required, don't think so. You can use Fdisk to delete and recreate the partition. Then you apply the restore using the image on disk. The image will use whatever space is necessary and the remainder is free to use. That is how things work with Ghost 2003. You may want to read the help files accompanying your version before proceeding.

The main caveat with Ghost is that the image be restored back to the same, or identical hardware. Drive size excepted. Ghost images can be applied to drives using a different drive letter too. You do want your boot drive to be C drive though.

Hi,
Just an update. I resolved the problem but I still don't know what caused it. Somewhere along the line I screwed up the OS, so I decided to bite the bullet and do a low level format. So I got Maxtor's (Quantum)utility 'PowerMax' and did that. Then I formatted and installed the DOS partition, but when I tried to run Scandisk, I started getting messages that I had errors, at about 78% completion. Eventually I had to shut down scandisk because I ran out of resources (memory I think); I guess due to saving the fix files. (This was all on the Compaq.) So I tried the same proceedure on my main machine (homemade) and had no problems. So, I don't know what to think. Is it the compaq machine's CMos insisting on some sort or disk structure???
... john

www.cedargallery.nl

You terminoligy is confusing. You can't install a partition. "I tried the same proceedure on my main machine (homemade) and had no problems". Do you mean you low level formatted the drive in your main machine?

You do understand that the Compaq may have a hidden partition with the system restore files on it? Use Fdisk to view exactly what you do have. If the disk was formatted and then you run scandisk with many errors the drive may be bad.

If you are still trying to apply the Ghost image then you need to go back and explain in detail what steps you took in what order.