Hard drive partition problems

[geek1543]

Working on a friends computer went to format hdd and found 2 partitions. Drive c and d. Went into fdisk it showed same thing so I deleated the partition. Now it shows no partition but only half the size of the hdd ie its a 10 gig drive but only shows up as 5. I tried to partition it again but only shows 5 gig. I loaded in partition magic it shows the another partition but calls it other not fat fat 16 fat 32 or ntfs. The drive is attached to my computer I,m using win Me. Any ideas? I want to get this drive back to 10 gig.

 

[SemperFi]

using fdisk delete all partitions then create a new one using all of the available space.

using partition magic simply resize c using up the free space left by deleting drive d.

 

[geek1543]

I deleated the partition it only showed 5 gig not 10. It shows no partitions 5gig space available not 10gig. When I create a new partition it shows only one with 5 gig.

 

[Wuming]

i think the 5 gig that remained after you deleted the partition has become free space. you should be able to resize your c partition to use up all the free space so that your c partition becomes 10 gb using partitionmagic. you actually see the entire 10 gb in partitionmagic right?

 

[geek1543]

In partition magic it shows 5 gig as other space and 5 gig. It wont let me make it 10gig. I cant extend the 5 gig either 5 gig to make total of 10 gig 1 partition. In fdisk it shows only 5 gig of space with no partition.

 

[donna4456]

sounds like to me that you deleted the primary dos partion but did not delete the secondry partition, or logic dos drive. Or vice sa versa lol So I would go back into fdisk and delete the secondry or logic dos drive and the delete the primary dos partition. I think that they are created in this order primary and then secondry, but are deleted secondry and then primary. go into fdsik and enter the number 4 and then press enter and see what is there to delete good luck

 

[geek1543]

I just tried that again and it says only 1 partition pri dos 5000 meg This is strange. I know this is a 10 gig drive

 

[Edski]

Did the drive work properly before? If it is a fresh install, maybe your bios doesnt support that size drive.

EDIT: If it did work properly before, the drive may have had an overlay on it to make it work with the mobo bios.

 

[geek1543]

I think that is the problem an overlay on the drive My main drive is a 30gig so size is not the problem How do I get rid of the overlay. Its a western digital or check for an overlay. His computer had an old mobo 50mz we installed a new one with duron chip.

 

[SemperFi]

If you don't have a floppy from WD go to their web site and download their utilties. Boot system in safe mode command prompt and start the utility package. There is a option to write zeros to the drive. I use this feature anytime I am going to reinstall windows.

Anyhow this will delete everything on the drive including partitions.

 

[SDsucka]

Reformat the ENTIRE hard drive. You will lose all data, but hey, you get a clean fresh start, a new installation of WinME, all 10GBs, and all the programs that you may have deleted in the 2nd partition won't still be lurking around in the Windows registry.

 

[geek1543]

That is the first thing I did. I tried the wd program writing xo to the disk no help. Still only shows only 5 gig no other partitions. I an trying to RMA the drive. They are getting back to me. Thanks

 

[SDsucka]

The cpu and mobo, what are they? Brand new? or no?

 

[geek1543]

az-11 800 duron at default

 

[geek1543]

I installed the hdd in one of my systems with the same results

 

[SDsucka]

maybe a mobo BIOS update would help any? I recall for some reason on my a7v, the maxtor installation disk tried to install something called EZBios because for some reason it thought my mobo didn't support large hdrives. Possibly try a similar EZBios loadup?

 

[geek1543]

I tried that also with no luck. I brought it to work to see what my fellow tech heads could do. They are stumped too.

 

[SemperFi]

Did the WD diagnostic utility report any problems with the drive?

 

[LumMoose]

.

 

[geek1543]

NO it said the is drive OK I did the low format also. Still waiting for an answer from their tech support. I spoke to someone and they could not figure it out, said they get back to me.

 

[randypj]

Please post what you find out, and how WD support was to deal with. Thanks.
--Randy

 

[geek1543]

They are giving me a new drive. They don't know what wrong with it.