fdisk not recognising full disk capacity

  • Thread starter Thread starter Emlyn
  • Start date Start date
E

Emlyn

I thought I had this issue sorted last time it arose. Previously
fdisk didn't recognise the full size of a disk because I was using an
older version of DOS on a boot disk. I got a win98se boot disk and
everything was fine.

Now I've moved to an Asrock ez upgrade mobo and put a SATA drive on
it. The drive is 200gb but the win98se boot disk I have now only
recognises 60gb. Aaaargh.

Any suggestions as to why the win98se disk (using fdisk) doesn't see
the full disk size?

Thanks.

K7Upgrade-880
Athlon xp 2500
512mb 333mhz ddr
Seagate barracuda 200gb SATA
 
I thought I had this issue sorted last time it arose. Previously
fdisk didn't recognise the full size of a disk because I was using an
older version of DOS on a boot disk. I got a win98se boot disk and
everything was fine.

Now I've moved to an Asrock ez upgrade mobo and put a SATA drive on
it. The drive is 200gb but the win98se boot disk I have now only
recognises 60gb. Aaaargh.

Any suggestions as to why the win98se disk (using fdisk) doesn't see
the full disk size?

Thanks.

K7Upgrade-880
Athlon xp 2500
512mb 333mhz ddr
Seagate barracuda 200gb SATA
Click to expand...

Updated fdisk from should fix it :)
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=263044

HTH :)



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Emlyn said:
I thought I had this issue sorted last time it arose. Previously
fdisk didn't recognise the full size of a disk because I was using an
older version of DOS on a boot disk. I got a win98se boot disk and
everything was fine.

Now I've moved to an Asrock ez upgrade mobo and put a SATA drive on
it. The drive is 200gb but the win98se boot disk I have now only
recognises 60gb. Aaaargh.

Any suggestions as to why the win98se disk (using fdisk) doesn't see
the full disk size?

Thanks.

K7Upgrade-880
Athlon xp 2500
512mb 333mhz ddr
Seagate barracuda 200gb SATA
Click to expand...

Although there is an updated version of fdisk to correct the 64 GB
indication bug, there are issues with installing Win 98SE (or pre win2k SP2
or XP SP1a versions of windows) on HDD partitions larger than 137 GB. If
you're just wanting to delete partitions in preparation for a Win2k or XP
install then delpart.exe will do that simply (and a websearch will find
where it can be downloaded). For further info look here:
http://www.48bitlba.com/win98.htm

Paul
 
Shep / Paul

Thanks for the tips.

Paul: It's a disk I'm starting with from scratch, so there aren't any
partitions to delete. I'll keep your tip in mind.

Shep: I went to the MS website and I notice in the fix, that it says:
"NOTE: This hotfix is ... not supported on hard disks larger than 137
GB"

My disk is 200gb, so I'm not sure it's going to work. I'll give it a
go and post the results here.

Thanks!
 
Shep,

I downloaded the hotfix from MS and it wouldn't run. It says that
program is not suitable for my version of windows (xp). I've copied a
version of fdisk from Partition Magic to see if that works. Again,
I'll post the results.

Regards.
 
I downloaded the hotfix from MS and it wouldn't run. It says that
program is not suitable for my version of windows (xp).
Click to expand...

That's not surprising: systems based on Windows NT (NT, 2000, XP, 2003,
and Longhorn) don't give applications such as fdisk the ability to
directly access a hard disk. DOS-based systems (Windows 9x and ME), on
the other hand, expect that partitioning will be performed by utilities
that do just that.

If you've got a working Windows XP system (which is apparently the case
since you report that it complained about fdisk), why not use its built-in
disk management to do the partitioning?

Incidentally, the Microsoft update noted upthread (KB article 263044)
gives the date stamp for the files it offers as May 2000. The copy of
fdisk that ships with Windows ME is slightly more recent and might
be able to handle your disk, but my contact with ME has been only
superficial (I set it up once, tried it, and immediately scrubbed
the hard disk, and the CD has been sitting in the MSDN binder ever
since) so I don't know what disk capacity limits it might have.

Joe Morris
 
Emlyn said:
Shep,

I downloaded the hotfix from MS and it wouldn't run. It says that
program is not suitable for my version of windows (xp). I've copied a
version of fdisk from Partition Magic to see if that works. Again,
I'll post the results.

Regards.
Click to expand...

If you're wanting to install the HDD in a Windows XP machine (or with Win XP
on it as a boot drive) then fdisk isn't required at all. Please explain
precisely what it is you intend to do (and why) as its not clear from your
posts this far. Have you any experience with installing your OS of choice?

Paul
 
Shep,

I downloaded the hotfix from MS and it wouldn't run. It says that
program is not suitable for my version of windows (xp). I've copied a
version of fdisk from Partition Magic to see if that works. Again,
I'll post the results.

Regards.
Click to expand...

If you downloaded the patch from this page,
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=263044
or another link but same patch,
http://download.microsoft.com/download/win98/update/8266r/w98/en-us/263044usa8.exe

(or actually, it doesn't even matter if that's where you
found it)

You can download the newer FDISK.EXE file itself (which can
then be copied to your existing floppy or
wherever-you-have-it, overwriting the older version of
FDISK.EXE. On the following page but it takes some reading
to find the link I provided too.
http://radified.com/Files/

http://radified.com/Files/FDISK.EXE


Another alternative would be to open that "263044usa8.exe"
file via an alternate method, like with some popular
ZIP/other compression program and extract the contents of
the 263044usa8 file to a folder. Having extracted it, the
folder would have a file named "fdisk.98s".
You can simply rename fdisk.98s to fdisk.exe, then as above
you'd copy it to your floppy or wherever, overwriting the
original.
 
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