partinioning the harddrive under xp

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

hi guys, would be grate if anyone could help:
i bought a notebook, unfortunately xp was pre-installed and there was
only one partition (c: on the harddrive, which i didn´t like. in lack
of a bootable cd-rom (no floppy drive) i did not manage to do format
c:. i played with fdisk (after booting with an old win 98 cd),
without any good result. now my harddrive looks like this:
partition: c: 1
status: A
type: PRI DOS
MB: 8
System: FAT12
since i have absolutely no idea anymore how to partiton the harddrive
I would like to undo everything i did and have only c:. according to
fdisk, c: is now 8MB, so how do i get my computer to understand that
c: should have 40000MB and not only 8MB??
any help would be grately appreciated, since, thanks to win mx, i
haven´t had one minute of fun with my new notebook. only trouble.
karlo

==============
Posted through www.HowToFixComputers.com/bb - free access to hardware troubleshooting newsgroups.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

"karlo" <karlo16@gmx-dot-de.no-spam.invalid> wrote in message
news:40b4876c_4@news.athenanews.com...
| hi guys, would be grate if anyone could help:
| i bought a notebook, unfortunately xp was pre-installed and there was
| only one partition (c: on the harddrive, which i didn´t like. in lack
| of a bootable cd-rom (no floppy drive) i did not manage to do format
| c:. i played with fdisk (after booting with an old win 98 cd),
| without any good result. now my harddrive looks like this:
| partition: c: 1
| status: A
| type: PRI DOS
| MB: 8
| System: FAT12
| since i have absolutely no idea anymore how to partiton the harddrive
| I would like to undo everything i did and have only c:. according to
| fdisk, c: is now 8MB, so how do i get my computer to understand that
| c: should have 40000MB and not only 8MB??
| any help would be grately appreciated, since, thanks to win mx, i
| haven´t had one minute of fun with my new notebook. only trouble.
| karlo
|

WindowsXP leaves that 8MB space when formatting for the install of XP. The
rest of it is there, you just can't see it because it is an NTFS partition.
What you need is an XP CD image, or of course a bootable restore disk from
your notebook manufacturer. There is no way to make the NTFS partition
visible (that I know of) from a FAT format. It is part of the "security" of
an NTFS partition.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Jason Cothran wrote:
> "karlo" <karlo16@gmx-dot-de.no-spam.invalid> wrote in message
> news:40b4876c_4@news.athenanews.com...
> | hi guys, would be grate if anyone could help:
> | i bought a notebook, unfortunately xp was pre-installed and there was
> | only one partition (c: on the harddrive, which i didn´t like. in lack
> | of a bootable cd-rom (no floppy drive) i did not manage to do format
> | c:. i played with fdisk (after booting with an old win 98 cd),
> | without any good result. now my harddrive looks like this:
> | partition: c: 1
> | status: A
> | type: PRI DOS
> | MB: 8
> | System: FAT12
> | since i have absolutely no idea anymore how to partiton the harddrive
> | I would like to undo everything i did and have only c:. according to
> | fdisk, c: is now 8MB, so how do i get my computer to understand that
> | c: should have 40000MB and not only 8MB??
> | any help would be grately appreciated, since, thanks to win mx, i
> | haven´t had one minute of fun with my new notebook. only trouble.
> | karlo
> |
>
> WindowsXP leaves that 8MB space when formatting for the install of XP. The
> rest of it is there, you just can't see it because it is an NTFS partition.
> What you need is an XP CD image, or of course a bootable restore disk from
> your notebook manufacturer. There is no way to make the NTFS partition
> visible (that I know of) from a FAT format. It is part of the "security" of
> an NTFS partition.
>
>
I have no interest in the company but when I want to play with
partitions, I use PartitionMagic from PowerQuest. But even with PQmagic,
converting an NTFS partition to a Fat32 partition will most often fail.
Getting a CD from your manufacturer, as suggested, is in any way
indispensible, unless you already have an XP disk from other sources.

--
John Doue

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

You have really messed things up. Use the mfgrs. system restore disk(s)
(CDs) to put it back the way that it was.

It's clear that you don't have enough knowledge to be doing this type of
thing, but if the partitioning needs to be changed, the best way is with
Partition Magic.


karlo wrote:

> hi guys, would be grate if anyone could help:
> i bought a notebook, unfortunately xp was pre-installed and there was
> only one partition (c: on the harddrive, which i didn´t like. in lack
> of a bootable cd-rom (no floppy drive) i did not manage to do format
> c:. i played with fdisk (after booting with an old win 98 cd),
> without any good result. now my harddrive looks like this:
> partition: c: 1
> status: A
> type: PRI DOS
> MB: 8
> System: FAT12
> since i have absolutely no idea anymore how to partiton the harddrive
> I would like to undo everything i did and have only c:. according to
> fdisk, c: is now 8MB, so how do i get my computer to understand that
> c: should have 40000MB and not only 8MB??
> any help would be grately appreciated, since, thanks to win mx, i
> haven´t had one minute of fun with my new notebook. only trouble.
> karlo
>
> ==============
> Posted through www.HowToFixComputers.com/bb - free access to hardware troubleshooting newsgroups.

 

[DaveR]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

On 26 May 2004 08:02:52 -0400, karlo16@gmx-dot-de.no-spam.invalid
(karlo) wrote:

>hi guys, would be grate if anyone could help:
>i bought a notebook, unfortunately xp was pre-installed and there was
>only one partition

What's wrong with that? Modern systems typically dedicate the entire
hard disk to a single partition. It's not like the old days of DOS and
WIndows98 where you needed separate partitions all over.

But once you went into FDISK you destroyed all data, so the only way
to get it back is to use the manufacturer's recovery disk, assuming
that it is not dependent on some hidden partition on your drive that
you also messed up. Best to give them a call.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

DaveR <NOSPAM_drubin@NOSPAM_i-2000.com> wrote in
news:iwG1QDUCYTKZiGXaZ215gcg5eBut@4ax.com:

> On 26 May 2004 08:02:52 -0400, karlo16@gmx-dot-de.no-spam.invalid
> (karlo) wrote:
>
>>hi guys, would be grate if anyone could help:
>>i bought a notebook, unfortunately xp was pre-installed and there was
>>only one partition
>
> What's wrong with that? Modern systems typically dedicate the entire
> hard disk to a single partition. It's not like the old days of DOS and
> WIndows98 where you needed separate partitions all over.

using creative progams like photoshop, and any video editing software....
it's usually a good idea to dedicate a 'cache' type drive for
capturing/editing/writing that you can always clean and keep defragged
quickly.... it improves performance greatly.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

>hi guys, would be grate if anyone could help:
>i bought a notebook, unfortunately xp was pre-installed and there was
>only one partition (c: on the harddrive, which i didnŽt like. in lack
>of a bootable cd-rom (no floppy drive) i did not manage to do format
>c:. i played with fdisk (after booting with an old win 98 cd),
>without any good result. now my harddrive looks like this:
>partition: c: 1
>status: A
>type: PRI DOS
>MB: 8
>System: FAT12
>since i have absolutely no idea anymore how to partiton the harddrive
>I would like to undo everything i did and have only c:. according to
>fdisk, c: is now 8MB, so how do i get my computer to understand that
>c: should have 40000MB and not only 8MB??
>any help would be grately appreciated, since, thanks to win mx, i
>havenŽt had one minute of fun with my new notebook. only trouble.
>karlo

How to make your own bootable XP CD:
http/www.techtv.com/screensavers/windowstips/story/0,24330,3662519,00.html

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

DaveR wrote:
> On 26 May 2004 08:02:52 -0400, karlo16@gmx-dot-de.no-spam.invalid
> (karlo) wrote:
>
>
>>hi guys, would be grate if anyone could help:
>>i bought a notebook, unfortunately xp was pre-installed and there was
>>only one partition
>
>
> What's wrong with that? Modern systems typically dedicate the entire
> hard disk to a single partition. It's not like the old days of DOS and
> WIndows98 where you needed separate partitions all over.
>
> ...

Plenty in my opinion. Keeping a single huge partition is a recipe for
disaster,it's keeping all your eggs in the same basket. The fact that
machines are delivered this way does not make it right, it just makes it
more simple (read cheaper) for manufacturers.

With only one partition, one mistake or corruption (or MS update gone
wrong...) can make you loose everything. With several partitions (and of
course the corresponding back-ups), risk is much more limited and backup
is easier.

A wiser approach is to dedicate drive c: to the operating system and
data to other partititions. Every one has its own philosophy in this
regard and I will not claim one is better than another. I personally try
to keep strictly c: for the OS and related utilities, d: for data e: for
major programs like Word, Quicken, and so on. I keep a back up of each
partition. And the beauty is, only my data partition needs to be
backed-up regularly, the others much less frequently since they change
less often.

But in the end, it is a free world out there ...



--
John Doue

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

"DaveR" <NOSPAM_drubin@NOSPAM_i-2000.com> wrote in message
news:iwG1QDUCYTKZiGXaZ215gcg5eBut@4ax.com...


|
| But once you went into FDISK you destroyed all data, so the only way
| to get it back is to use the manufacturer's recovery disk, assuming
| that it is not dependent on some hidden partition on your drive that
| you also messed up. Best to give them a call.

Not true. Going into FDISK does not destroy the partition. The XP NTFS
partition is just not visible from within FDISK booting from a FAT file
system

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

While I agree with you (that one should not use one very large
partition on a large hard drive, in general), in this instance we don't
know the size of the hard drive. For 10 or 20 gigs, one partition is
still reasonable. For 200 gigs, it's not. My own rule (in part because
I still use FAT32 a lot) is to try to hold partitions to 16 gigs in most
cases and 32 gigs is pretty much my max unless there is a specific
reason for a larger one (on my desktop, I have an 80 gig partition for
video editing, where files sometimes exceed 20 gigs (obviously, this is
NTFS)). However, this is a laptop, so it's very possible that the drive
is 30 gigs or less.


John Doue wrote:

> DaveR wrote:
>
>> On 26 May 2004 08:02:52 -0400, karlo16@gmx-dot-de.no-spam.invalid
>> (karlo) wrote:
>>
>>
>>> hi guys, would be grate if anyone could help:
>>> i bought a notebook, unfortunately xp was pre-installed and there was
>>> only one partition
>>
>>
>>
>> What's wrong with that? Modern systems typically dedicate the entire
>> hard disk to a single partition. It's not like the old days of DOS and
>> WIndows98 where you needed separate partitions all over.
>>
>> ...
>
>
> Plenty in my opinion. Keeping a single huge partition is a recipe for
> disaster,it's keeping all your eggs in the same basket. The fact that
> machines are delivered this way does not make it right, it just makes it
> more simple (read cheaper) for manufacturers.
>
> With only one partition, one mistake or corruption (or MS update gone
> wrong...) can make you loose everything. With several partitions (and of
> course the corresponding back-ups), risk is much more limited and backup
> is easier.
>
> A wiser approach is to dedicate drive c: to the operating system and
> data to other partititions. Every one has its own philosophy in this
> regard and I will not claim one is better than another. I personally try
> to keep strictly c: for the OS and related utilities, d: for data e: for
> major programs like Word, Quicken, and so on. I keep a back up of each
> partition. And the beauty is, only my data partition needs to be
> backed-up regularly, the others much less frequently since they change
> less often.
>
> But in the end, it is a free world out there ...
>
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Actually, the NTFS parition IS visible from within FDISK booting from a
FAT file system. It shows up as a "non-DOS" partition, but you CAN see
it, and you can also delete it.


Jason Cothran wrote:

> "DaveR" <NOSPAM_drubin@NOSPAM_i-2000.com> wrote in message
> news:iwG1QDUCYTKZiGXaZ215gcg5eBut@4ax.com...
>
>
> |
> | But once you went into FDISK you destroyed all data, so the only way
> | to get it back is to use the manufacturer's recovery disk, assuming
> | that it is not dependent on some hidden partition on your drive that
> | you also messed up. Best to give them a call.
>
> Not true. Going into FDISK does not destroy the partition. The XP NTFS
> partition is just not visible from within FDISK booting from a FAT file
> system
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

"Barry Watzman" <WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com> wrote in message
news:40B6AAAB.9080300@neo.rr.com...
| Actually, the NTFS parition IS visible from within FDISK booting from a
| FAT file system. It shows up as a "non-DOS" partition, but you CAN see
| it, and you can also delete it.
|
|

Odd, I just checked again on four of my NTFS disks, and not a single one is
visible. Must have somethingto do with FDISK version.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

"Barry Watzman" <WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com> wrote in message
news:40B6AAAB.9080300@neo.rr.com...
| Actually, the NTFS parition IS visible from within FDISK booting from a
| FAT file system. It shows up as a "non-DOS" partition, but you CAN see
| it, and you can also delete it.
|
|
| Jason Cothran wrote:
|
| > "DaveR" <NOSPAM_drubin@NOSPAM_i-2000.com> wrote in message
| > news:iwG1QDUCYTKZiGXaZ215gcg5eBut@4ax.com...
| >
| >
| > |
| > | But once you went into FDISK you destroyed all data, so the only way
| > | to get it back is to use the manufacturer's recovery disk, assuming
| > | that it is not dependent on some hidden partition on your drive that
| > | you also messed up. Best to give them a call.
| >
| > Not true. Going into FDISK does not destroy the partition. The XP NTFS
| > partition is just not visible from within FDISK booting from a FAT file
| > system
| >
| >
|

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

"Barry Watzman" <WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com> wrote in message
news:40B6AAAB.9080300@neo.rr.com...
| Actually, the NTFS parition IS visible from within FDISK booting from a
| FAT file system. It shows up as a "non-DOS" partition, but you CAN see
| it, and you can also delete it.
|
|

And of course the fact still remains, wethether you can see it or not, just
going in to FDISK does noti destroy an NTFS partition.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

> Barry Watzmanwrote:
Actually, the NTFS parition IS visible from within FDISK booting from
a
> FAT file system. It shows up as a "non-DOS" partition, but you CAN
see
> it, and you can also delete it.
yep that´s true. I remember it shoing up as non-DOS and deleting it.
that is when my c: drive turned into a 8MB partition, which is
worthless now to me and which i don´t have a clue how to extend it
again. by the way this harddrive has 40 Gigs.
greetings, karlo

==============
Posted through www.HowToFixComputers.com/bb - free access to hardware troubleshooting newsgroups.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

"karlo" <karlo16@gmx-dot-de.no-spam.invalid> wrote in message
news:40b70e22$1_2@news.athenanews.com...
| > Barry Watzmanwrote:
| Actually, the NTFS parition IS visible from within FDISK booting from
| a
| > FAT file system. It shows up as a "non-DOS" partition, but you CAN
| see
| > it, and you can also delete it.
| yep that´s true. I remember it shoing up as non-DOS and deleting it.
| that is when my c: drive turned into a 8MB partition, which is
| worthless now to me and which i don´t have a clue how to extend it
| again. by the way this harddrive has 40 Gigs.
| greetings, karlo
|
If you deleted the NTFS partition, consider it gone for the most part. If
you had nothing critical on it, easiest thing to do from here, is just
reinstall XP. During the process, The XP setup will recognize it as
"unpartitioned space", and then format it for you. FDISK was not intended
for use with NTFS partitions. You could also do like others have suggested,
and use partition magic, but if you are going to reinstall, you might as
well just let Windows do it for you.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Yep I think thats the problem. There were supplementary FDISK versions
I saw on some site (forgot the URL) that went far beyond the older
FDISK capabilities.
Kokomo Joe


****************************************************
* Ham KH6JF AARS/MARS ABM6JF QCWA WW2 VET WD RADIO *
****************************************************


On Thu, 27 May 2004, Jason Cothran wrote:

>
> "Barry Watzman" <WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com> wrote in message
> news:40B6AAAB.9080300@neo.rr.com...
> | Actually, the NTFS parition IS visible from within FDISK booting from a
> | FAT file system. It shows up as a "non-DOS" partition, but you CAN see
> | it, and you can also delete it.
> |
> |
>
> Odd, I just checked again on four of my NTFS disks, and not a single one is
> visible. Must have somethingto do with FDISK version.
>
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

karlo wrote:

>>Barry Watzmanwrote:
>
> Actually, the NTFS parition IS visible from within FDISK booting from
> a
>
>>FAT file system. It shows up as a "non-DOS" partition, but you CAN
>
> see
>
>>it, and you can also delete it.
>
> yep that´s true. I remember it shoing up as non-DOS and deleting it.
> that is when my c: drive turned into a 8MB partition, which is
> worthless now to me and which i don´t have a clue how to extend it
> again. by the way this harddrive has 40 Gigs.
> greetings, karlo
>
> ==============
> Posted through www.HowToFixComputers.com/bb - free access to hardware troubleshooting newsgroups.
Looks like you need to shell out a few $ and install Partition Magic (or
a competitor's product if you prefer) which will solve your problems.

--
John Doue

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Re: "Must have somethingto do with FDISK version."

Could be. The latest version of FDISK, and the only one that I use, was
a special "maintanence" version put out by Microsoft dated 5/18/2000 --
this was a year AFTER Windows 98 Second Edition. It was released to
support larger IDE drives than had been supported by previous versions,
and it's available as a download from the Microsoft web site.

You can find it here:

http/download.microsoft.com/download/Win98/Update/8266R/W98/EN-US/263044USA8.EXE


Jason Cothran wrote:
> "Barry Watzman" <WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com> wrote in message
> news:40B6AAAB.9080300@neo.rr.com...
> | Actually, the NTFS parition IS visible from within FDISK booting from a
> | FAT file system. It shows up as a "non-DOS" partition, but you CAN see
> | it, and you can also delete it.
> |
> |
>
> Odd, I just checked again on four of my NTFS disks, and not a single one is
> visible.
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

I'd have to agree, as I do a lot of graphics work on my notebooks. On
my TP T21, I had a 40 Gig disk partitioned into three (3) sections;
OS/Programs/Data with W2K and all the ancilary stuff on a 10 Gig "C:\"
partition. Makes for very simple defrags, and even reinstalls if that
was necessary. Conceptually, it seems old-school but many folks use
this technique.

As for the OP's problem, get the Restore CD in there and you should be
fine. Partition Magic can be used with W2K but I haven't had any
experience with XP or XPP.


On Wed, 26 May 2004 17:22:24 -0500, Good Man <heyho@letsgo.com> wrote:

>DaveR <NOSPAM_drubin@NOSPAM_i-2000.com> wrote in
>news:iwG1QDUCYTKZiGXaZ215gcg5eBut@4ax.com:
>
>> On 26 May 2004 08:02:52 -0400, karlo16@gmx-dot-de.no-spam.invalid
>> (karlo) wrote:
>>
>>>hi guys, would be grate if anyone could help:
>>>i bought a notebook, unfortunately xp was pre-installed and there was
>>>only one partition
>>
>> What's wrong with that? Modern systems typically dedicate the entire
>> hard disk to a single partition. It's not like the old days of DOS and
>> WIndows98 where you needed separate partitions all over.
>
>using creative progams like photoshop, and any video editing software....
>it's usually a good idea to dedicate a 'cache' type drive for
>capturing/editing/writing that you can always clean and keep defragged
>quickly.... it improves performance greatly.