Tom's Guide | Tom's Hardware | Tom's Games
 |
 |
 |
According to Micro$oft, I guess I was just supposed to know that FDISK couldn't handle drives larger than 64 gigs. Tried to partition my nice, new 100gb and the next thing I know, not only could I not use the extended partition, but it took out the primary- along with the O/S. The question now is, where is there a utility to get my whole drive back? I did manage to get back 64 gigs worth but would really like to get the whole thing (imagine that!)
The highest capacity utility I've been able to find is Partition Magic at 80 gigs- better, but still not 100. Anyone know another utility to look at?
Well, No Name, the page you sent me had already been looked at. Considering I posted to the WinME forum, I didn't think I needed to say I'm running ME. Q263044 is for Win95, 98 and 98SE.
I was on the phone with Micro$oft for almost half an hour and they have no answer for me, other than to use third-party software- which is why, after trying every query I could think of in the search engines to find such a utility, I decided to post here.
0 
I use system commander to dual boot and it also has tools for partitioning.
but what you could do is goto your hard drives website
chances are they will have tools to help.most retail drives come with such tools but if you got yours bare goto the website
0
Your HD manufacturer should be able to supply you with a boot floppy that will have small programs on it for partitioning/formatting. Before you do that, try using a Window Millennium startup disk. Those have a newer, updated version of the FDISK.exe file, which sees past 64GB. I had the same problem 1 month ago, and the MB manufaturers tech-support told me to use the ME boot-disk. It worked fine. Good luck.
0
Does your current BIOS support 100 gig HD ?
Go to your motherboard's site and check to see if there is a BIOS upgrade to enable use of 100 gig HD
0
You didn't say what brand of hard drive you have. Many manufacturers have their own partitioning software included or available for free download. Here is one example:
http://www.maxtor.com/products/DiamondMax/software/maxblast/default.htm
I have also heard that some people have had good results using GDISK for oversized drives.
0
David - Did you actually read the entire article provided by "no name"?
It has instructions in it for copying the fdisk.exe download from the downloaded "fix" to a floppy so you can use it to see drives over 64GB.
0
Thanks to all for their time on this one. Last one first-
Newgrl- Yes and, again, it doesn't apply to WinME!
Ger- It's a Western Digital and they say it's a Micro$oft problem. I've never heard of GDISK so I will be looking into that.
Krystyna- Not sure what you measn by BIOS "supporting" 100gig- It READS them fine, just won't let me format them correctly.
Kaz- Start up disk is how all this trouble started! What brand of drive did YOU have trouble with?
The Tic- Pleasze read the posts- Partition Magic only supports drives up to 80 Gigs
The Gorx- WD is telling me it's a Micro$oft problem
0
Fdisk.exe has absolutely NOTHING to do with ME.. or 98... or 95... or 3.1 for that matter. It is a MS-DOS application.
It does not matter which operating system you are going to put on the box later. If it would work for you, you could fdisk/format with a windows 95 disk then install ME happily.
I'm just asking if you actually downloaded and followed the instructions to replace the fdisk.exe on your floppy with the one from the Q article.
0
I didn't put my name on the first response because I figured it would be a quick and easy fix. Make sure you are using a boot disk and running fdisk from dos, not from the Windows dos prompt command line. Make sure you know exactly what fdisk does. It is used before you install the operating system because it will most likely destroy existing OS's. Here's a link to another tool worth checking out:
http://www.23cc.com/free-fdisk/
It says it supports drives up to 128GB.
0
running fdisk and basically any partition program from within windows is not a good idea.
since this causes a new drive letter and depending on the type of partition this can really screw up windows drive letter assignments.after adding a new drive I always remove my drives from the device manager in safe-mode.
to make sure they're all assigned correctly.people have alot of misconceptions of the relationship of windows me and DOS.
In this forum it's always a topic.
although in windows me micosoft tries to hide DOS from the enduser it is still used to boot windows me.
And even if it didn't DOS it is a totally independent OS that does't need windows.I and mostly likely everyone else didn't realize you were trying to do this from within windows me.
although this is a Window Me forum
when I see Fdisk I think plain old DOS from outside windows.good luck
TheGorx
0
newgrl-
Sorry if I came off hostile- that wasn't my intention! The Micro$oft page in question wouldn't even LET me download that particular fix! I know- I tried. Message comes back "not for your O/S" (or something to that effect). According to Gates' Buddies, that issue has been resolved in WinME. I think I could argue that point...ger- Thanks! Great lead on what I need! Ever used it? Nothing like a good paranoia when it comes to downloaded software, huh?
gorx- Yes, technically, you're right about this being a DOS issue- but, because I was using a WinME startup disk to get there and, because I run an "ME machine", I figured it qualified for this forum. (Not that too people seem to pay much attention to where they post!)
0
Ger- I hope you're still following this thread- This is where my inexperience really shows (just over a year on the 'pooter). I want to go ahead and use the FDISK from that site you sent me to but, it seems to me that running in while in Windows will still give me the same problem I had before- a limit on hard drive size. Right or not? If so, I assume would I have run the program while in true DOS, right? I read some of the README stuff that came with it and it most definitely isn't within my abilities (yet), so I guess it might have to wait...
0
David -
Please download this file to your desktop:
Put a formatted floppy disk in your floppy drive and double click on the file.
Once the bootdisk is created, leave it in the drive and boot to it.
At the a:\> prompt type:
fdisk
Say yes to large disk support.
Can you handle it from here?
0  |
 |
 |
This post is quite old and has been locked from receiving new replies. Please create a new posting instead.
| Ads by Google |
