deleting an mbr off a drive

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*ProteanThread*

i have a 300G hd that is being improperly seen as a 32G fat32 drive by
windows and no matter how i try i can't get it to read beyond 32G but
how do i delete / remove the mbr from the drive ?
 
Limitations of the FAT32 File System in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314463/EN-US/

Windows XP Does Not Recognize All Available Disk Space
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316505/en-us

How to partition and format a hard disk in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/313348/en-us

--

Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Shell/User }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375
 
*ProteanThread* said:
i have a 300G hd that is being improperly seen as a 32G fat32 drive by
windows and no matter how i try i can't get it to read beyond 32G but
how do i delete / remove the mbr from the drive ?
Click to expand...

Is this the system/boot drive? 32 GB is the largest FAT32 partition you can
create with XP. Run diskmgmt.msc, the disk mangement console. If it's the
system/boot drive then you can create more partitions either FAT32 (max 32
GB) or NTFS. If it's not the system drive and you don't have any data you
want to save on the drive then you can delete the 32 GB partition and/or
create more partitions.

If it is the system drive and you want to get rid of this partition you'll
have to do a clean reinstall of Windows deleting the partition and create a
new NTFS partition of the size you want during the install.

Kerry
 
Kerry Brown said:
Is this the system/boot drive? 32 GB is the largest FAT32
partition you can create with XP. Run diskmgmt.msc, the disk
mangement console. If it's the system/boot drive then you can
create more partitions either FAT32 (max 32 GB) or NTFS.
If it's not the system drive and you don't have any data you
want to save on the drive then you can delete the 32 GB
partition and/or create more partitions.

If it is the system drive and you want to get rid of this partition
you'll have to do a clean reinstall of Windows deleting the
partition and create a new NTFS partition of the size you
want during the install.
Click to expand...


Kerry's answer may be confused by Microsoft's practice of
calling the partition with the boot loader and its associated files
the "system" partition, and calling the partition with the operating
system the "boot" partition.

What I think Kerry is saying is that the "system" partition,
a Primary partition that must be marked "active" to get control
for its boot manager, can be small - just large enough to contain
the boot.ini, ntldr, and ntdetect.com boot files. This can easily
be accomodated by a small FAT32 partition.

The OS and the data files, OTOH, can be put into a different
partition - what Microsoft calls the "boot" partition. This partition
can be either a Primary partition or part of an Extended partition
(i.e. a "logical drive"). This partition can be designated at the
start of the OS installation, and if it is formatted as NTFS, it can
be large enough to fill your new hard drive.

But the standard vanilla arrangement, of course, is to make
both the "system" partition and the "boot" partition the same
partition, and to have a partition large enough to fill your hard
drive, it would have to be an NTFS partition.

*TimDaniels*
 
Hi,

Deleting the mbr would not resolve the problem. Is this a drive that was
added to the system? Or is it a drive that you are trying to partition?
WinXP will only format in FAT32 up to 32GB, you'd have to use NTFS to create
and format a larger partition. You'd have to create the volume with a third
party tool if you want to use FAT32 over 32GB. If this is a drive that was
already partitioned and formatted, try running diskmgmt.msc from the
start/run prompt and make note of how it sees the drive.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
Hi,

Deleting the mbr would not resolve the problem. Is this a drive that was
added to the system? Or is it a drive that you are trying to partition?
WinXP will only format in FAT32 up to 32GB, you'd have to use NTFS to create
and format a larger partition. You'd have to create the volume with a third
party tool if you want to use FAT32 over 32GB. If this is a drive that was
already partitioned and formatted, try running diskmgmt.msc from the
start/run prompt and make note of how it sees the drive.
Click to expand...


BTW, "Nutcase", I've been meaning to ask...

Are you really called "Nutcase", or do you just say that in
here to draw unwarranted attention to yourself?

;-)

(note how I asked a totally ridiculous question merely to
draw attention to myself)

- couldn't resist! (sometimes, we can all use a li'l humer!

Good luck!


Tallahassee
 
*ProteanThread* said:
i have a 300G hd that is being improperly seen as a 32G fat32 drive by
windows and no matter how i try i can't get it to read beyond 32G but
how do i delete / remove the mbr from the drive ?
Click to expand...

note- the 300GB drive is really about 286GB then there's some other
thing that uses a little space. Anyhow, that's not the prob.
The prob is that Win XP installation doesn't allow creating a FAT32
partition > 32GB.
you could use a prog like partiion magic to resize the drive to full
size ~ 286GB

Better to convert the FAT32 to NTFS - Win XP lets you do that using Win
XP. Win XP apparently is unsafe on a massive FAT32 partition. Many
havent' had problems, but it seems many have. I can't give a ratio.
The people that have had probs have horror stories.


Nobody seems to have answered your question how to delete an MBR from a
drive. You wouldn't want this situation, but your question remains.
There is 3rd patry software to write zeros. maybe there's an easier
way.

I think samsung make a free prog called clearhdd , and I think it's
generic so should work for any model of HDD. (perhaps only IDE?)
 
BTW, "Nutcase", I've been meaning to ask...

Are you really called "Nutcase", or do you just say that in
here to draw unwarranted attention to yourself?

;-)

(note how I asked a totally ridiculous question merely to
draw attention to myself)

- couldn't resist! (sometimes, we can all use a li'l humer!

Good luck!


Tallahassee
Click to expand...

He's known as "Nutcase" because he's one of those guys that hang around here
and pretends he knows everything there is to know about computers, but in
actuality knows very little. It's a very apt nickname for this guy.
 
Timothy said:
Kerry's answer may be confused by Microsoft's practice of
calling the partition with the boot loader and its associated files
the "system" partition, and calling the partition with the operating
system the "boot" partition.
Click to expand...

I guess I should have written system or boot instead of system/boot
partition. Either way you can't change a system or a boot partition or
volume using the tools that come with XP. Microsoft seems to want to change
the terminology at will.

Kerry
 
There is no point in posting a reply if you do not know the answer to the
question.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In
 
When all else fail boot with the old Win98 floppy and run Fdisk.
I have 4 drives of 80 Gig each, and all are on Fat32. During Fdisk
viewing, it shows each as 10.1 Gig size but as I boot WinXP or Win98
it shows the actual 80 Gig for each drive. Fat32 drives can be as
large as 80 Gig per section, not 32 Gig. Anyhow, I thought I just
make a comment to join the group. The reason I like Fat32 is - I
can boot Win98 or WinXP and see all the drives. But I am limited
to 80 Gig size.

Orville
 
He's known as "Nutcase" because he's one of those guys that hang around here
and pretends he knows everything there is to know about computers, but in
actuality knows very little. It's a very apt nickname for this guy.
Click to expand...

smirk

choke

chuckle

Ya know, I was about to say that...

But I wasn't sure, since he doesn't have Most Valuable
Player (MVP) after his name.

;-)

You mean, he thinks he belongs to the Ken Blake and Michael
Stevens club. ??

Good luck!


Tallahassee
 
Orville Noah said:
When all else fail boot with the old Win98 floppy and run Fdisk.
I have 4 drives of 80 Gig each, and all are on Fat32. During Fdisk
viewing, it shows each as 10.1 Gig size but as I boot WinXP or Win98
it shows the actual 80 Gig for each drive.
Click to expand...

That shows that you are using an obsolete FDISK that can't handle
large disks (probably has trouble with disks larger then 64GB).
Fat32 drives can be as large as 80 Gig per section, not 32 Gig.
Click to expand...

In fact, a FAT32 partition can be very large, up to terabytes. WinXP
won't create one larger than 32GB, because NTFS is available and is a
*much* better choice for such large partitions.
Anyhow, I thought I just make a comment to join the group.
The reason I like Fat32 is - I can boot Win98 or WinXP and
see all the drives. But I am limited to 80 Gig size.
Click to expand...

True, Win98 can't see an NTFS drive. But see above as to 80GB
restriction.
 
*ProteanThread* said:
i have a 300G hd that is being improperly seen as a 32G fat32 drive by
windows and no matter how i try i can't get it to read beyond 32G but
how do i delete / remove the mbr from the drive ?
Click to expand...

not an mbr problem...
it's just that XP cannot create a fat32 drive larger than 32 gigs...

back up your data, then using disk management delete the drive
then recreate as NTFS
 
Orville said:
When all else fail boot with the old Win98 floppy and run Fdisk.
I have 4 drives of 80 Gig each, and all are on Fat32. During Fdisk
viewing, it shows each as 10.1 Gig size but as I boot WinXP or Win98
it shows the actual 80 Gig for each drive. Fat32 drives can be as
large as 80 Gig per section, not 32 Gig. Anyhow, I thought I just
make a comment to join the group. The reason I like Fat32 is - I
can boot Win98 or WinXP and see all the drives. But I am limited
to 80 Gig size.
Click to expand...

The max partition size with FAT32 is 2 TB not 80 GB. With tools supplied by
Microsoft you'll have a hard time creating partitions over 127 GB. It is
possible using fdisk to get a partition somewhere around 512 GB but you'll
have to ignore the error messages and what the screen says about the size.
This is because fdisk is a 16 bit program and stores numbers as 16 bit
integers. The 32 GB limit is artificially imposed by XP when creating FAT32
partitions. Above 32 GB FAT32 uses 32k clusters which is pretty inefficient.

Kerry
 
NoStop said:
He's known as "Nutcase" because he's one of those guys that hang around here
and pretends he knows everything there is to know about computers, but in
actuality knows very little. It's a very apt nickname for this guy.
Click to expand...

And you're known as NoStop because everyone else wishes you would.

Steve N.
 
no for some reason i can't get it to recognize anything beyond 32G
(ntfs OR fat32) barrier.
 
*ProteanThread* said:
no for some reason i can't get it to recognize anything beyond 32G
(ntfs OR fat32) barrier.
Click to expand...

If the disk management console won't work with the drive then probably it's
a hardware or BIOS problem. Make sure the jumpers are correct on the drive.
Some drives have jumper settings to limit the size reported to the BIOS for
compatibilty with older BIOS'. What size does the BIOS report?

It could also be the BIOS itself. How old is the motherboard? Some older
motherboards can't use drives bigger than 33.8 GB (16 heads, 63
sectors/track, 65535 cylinders).

If all else fails download the drive manufacturer's diagnostics and see what
size is reported. You should also be able to use the same diagnostic program
to clear the drive by doing what some manufacturer's call a low level
format.

Kerry
 
Thanks for the info. Isn't it amazing, that I learn something
everyday. Only problem is, when I take my PC to local tech
shop, they can't help me much, so I have to ask you folks, what
to do and how to do. Any idea why Microsoft moved to NTFS
rather than SCSI ? We live very near to a Seagate plant. Their
engineers wouldn't use their own production of IDE drives !

[Back in 70's and 80's we were so happy with SCSI. We could
open 16 files simulteneously and read/write all of them at the same
time].
 
Orville said:
Thanks for the info. Isn't it amazing, that I learn something
everyday. Only problem is, when I take my PC to local tech
shop, they can't help me much, so I have to ask you folks, what
to do and how to do. Any idea why Microsoft moved to NTFS
rather than SCSI ? We live very near to a Seagate plant. Their
engineers wouldn't use their own production of IDE drives !

[Back in 70's and 80's we were so happy with SCSI. We could
open 16 files simulteneously and read/write all of them at the same
time].
Click to expand...

NTFS is a file system:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS

SCSI is a hardware interface:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCSI

Learning is good.

Steve N.
 
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