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F/Disk a USB Hard Drive

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Name: sirbigb1
Date: May 12, 2006 at 12:07:02 Pacific
OS: XP Home
CPU/Ram: P4/2.4
Product: Sony Vaio
Comment:

I need some help on this big time, my friend has a 40 gig H/D and he was trying to F/Disk on it and made the 40 gigs to a 2 gig hard drive, now I have this hard drive hooked up to my external usb drive and its on my computer as G: Drive so can I do an F/Disk on this on my computer using XP and if so can anyone help me on how to do this? and whator where do I get an F/Disk to do this, also will this mess up my other 2 hard drives as I dont want to loose anything doing this...Thanks B



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Response Number 1
Name: ham30
Date: May 12, 2006 at 12:11:42 Pacific
Reply:

You don't use Fdisk with WinXP.

Go into start>settings>control panel>performance and maintenance>admin tools>comp management>disk management. Right click the drive and select Format. You will have the option to partition and format.

Do yourself a favor BACKUP!!!


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Response Number 2
Name: Mechanix2Go
Date: May 12, 2006 at 12:12:39 Pacific
Reply:

There is no fdisk in XP.

You need to use disk management under admin tools in control panel.


If at first you don't succeed, you're about average.

M2


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Response Number 3
Name: ham30
Date: May 12, 2006 at 12:16:13 Pacific
Reply:

Sorry! Correction to the above:

Go into start>settings>control panel>administrative tools>comp management>disk management.

Do yourself a favor BACKUP!!!


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Response Number 4
Name: sirbigb1
Date: May 12, 2006 at 12:42:25 Pacific
Reply:

Hi I have tried all that and I still only get a 2 gig hard drive?? not a 40 gig any other info Thanks


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Response Number 5
Name: ham30
Date: May 12, 2006 at 12:54:36 Pacific
Reply:

Delete the partition and then repartition.

Do yourself a favor BACKUP!!!


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Response Number 6
Name: sirbigb1
Date: May 12, 2006 at 13:35:05 Pacific
Reply:

I have done that and everytime I do it it says its only 2 gigs, thats the maxiumum size it can do ???


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Response Number 7
Name: wanderer
Date: May 12, 2006 at 14:11:39 Pacific
Reply:

The partition isn't removed.

Personally I would boot up on a boot diskette containing fdisk and start fdisk. Answer YES to large disk support when fdisk asks you [this is the mistake your friend made. He said no which results in a max of 2gig (fat16) partition]

Once all partitions are removed you should be able to make the entire drive one partition with Fdisk. Fdisk also does not have the fat32 limit of 32gig max as imposed by Microsoft. Your friend can always convert to ntfs down the road if desired.

Give a person a fish, they eat for a day. Suggest they internet search and they learn a skill for a lifetime.


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Response Number 8
Name: XpUser
Date: May 12, 2006 at 14:58:25 Pacific
Reply:

wanderer,

Can you really boot from floppy disc in order to fdisk USB external HD?

i_XpUser


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Response Number 9
Name: Mechanix2Go
Date: May 12, 2006 at 17:33:56 Pacific
Reply:

XPU,

You can if you go through the drill of setting up DOS USB support.

BUT... with USB in DOS, it's anything but obvious which drive is which.

Watch out.


If at first you don't succeed, you're about average.

M2


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Response Number 10
Name: Gettin Old
Date: May 14, 2006 at 19:59:16 Pacific
Reply:

Hey
USB hard drives are tricky
You have to convert it to ntfs in order for it to work right
Click on start/programs/acc/command prompt.
To convert a volume to NTFS from the command prompt
Open the Command Prompt window.
In the command prompt window, type
convert drive_letter: /fs:ntfs

For example, typing convert D: /fs:ntfs would format drive D: with the ntfs format.



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Response Number 11
Name: Mechanix2Go
Date: May 15, 2006 at 02:01:32 Pacific
Reply:

Well...

Not quite.

They work fine as FAT in w2k.

And changing the file system won't change the size. The size is in the partition table.


If at first you don't succeed, you're about average.

M2


0

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