Fdisk Not Reporting Correct Partion Info

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JamesJ

I have a bootable floppy with fdisk on it. After I had a new 160gb
hd installed fdisk doesn't report the proper partition info. It reports 1
partition with 15,000 megabytes - nothing else. Any ideas??

Thanks,
James
 
In JamesJ had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:
I have a bootable floppy with fdisk on it. After I had a new 160gb
hd installed fdisk doesn't report the proper partition info. It
reports 1 partition with 15,000 megabytes - nothing else. Any ideas??

Thanks,
James
Click to expand...

Is one of the partitions formatted NTFS?

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/ http://kgiii.info/

"Chance has put in our way a most singular and whimsical problem, and
its solution is its own reward." - Sherlock Holmes
 
JamesJ said:
I have a bootable floppy with fdisk on it. After I had a new 160gb
hd installed fdisk doesn't report the proper partition info. It reports 1
partition with 15,000 megabytes - nothing else. Any ideas??
Click to expand...



Do *not* use fdisk to setup your new drive...

if you are adding it to an existing XP system...use disk management

if you are going to install XP fresh...you can partition and format the
drive from within
the context of the installation
 
I have a bootable floppy with fdisk on it. After I had a new 160gb

JamesJ said:
The enitire 160gb is an ntfs.
My old 40gb hd was reported correctly.
Click to expand...


James:
Your 160 GB HDD is being correctly reflected by FDISK. Presumably FDISK will
report 15262 Mbytes (or thereabouts) for an advertised 160 GB HDD. The fact
that the partition is an NTFS-formatted partition is not relevant since
FDISK will detect an NTFS primary partition.

You could also check this out in XP's Disk Management utility.

Is there some reason you're using FDISK?
Anna
 
Fdisk is a 16 bit program and uses 16 bit integers in it's calculations.
Because of this it has some limitations in the size of disks it can work
with. Microsoft has a modified version of fdisk to work with drives larger
than 64 GB but this version fails at 137 GB. Use a 32 bit program to work
with large hard drives. Fdisk is a thing of the past.
 
Yes! I had a 40gb hd. Recovery Console reported errors in the volume.
that I couldn't seem to eliminate. I was going to upgrade my hd soon
anyway so I decided to get a larger cap. hd and a cd/dvd now.
I told the tech of the problem and told the tech to
check my motherboard also. Well, RC repairs the errors. After
starting xp and then restarting, RC reports these errors again.
(Seem to be ok when I don't boot to RC and check.)
The errors just won't go away!!! Urghhhhhhh

Anyway, Prior to taking my system to the hospital (even gave it a private
room)
I did a 'Raw' install of my 40gb of xp and used FDISK to wipe out the
partition.
That didn't work. So I upgraded. And now the problem persists with the new
hd.
Since the tech copied everything over from old to new I figure the only
thing I didn't wipe off the 40gb hd was a 8 mg partition that I assumed xp
created for
volume info?? So I was going to wipe that off also and reinstall xp.

Doesn't appear to be a virus and I downloaded and ran Seagate disc
diagnostic
software from their site.
I really don't know what else to do.

Thanks,
James.
 
JamesJ said:
Yes! I had a 40gb hd. Recovery Console reported errors in the volume.
that I couldn't seem to eliminate. I was going to upgrade my hd soon
anyway so I decided to get a larger cap. hd and a cd/dvd now.
I told the tech of the problem and told the tech to
check my motherboard also. Well, RC repairs the errors. After
starting xp and then restarting, RC reports these errors again.
(Seem to be ok when I don't boot to RC and check.)
The errors just won't go away!!! Urghhhhhhh

Anyway, Prior to taking my system to the hospital (even gave it a private
room)
I did a 'Raw' install of my 40gb of xp and used FDISK to wipe out the
partition.
That didn't work. So I upgraded. And now the problem persists with the new
hd.
Since the tech copied everything over from old to new I figure the only
thing I didn't wipe off the 40gb hd was a 8 mg partition that I assumed xp
created for
volume info?? So I was going to wipe that off also and reinstall xp.

Doesn't appear to be a virus and I downloaded and ran Seagate disc
diagnostic
software from their site.
I really don't know what else to do.

Thanks,
James.
Click to expand...


James:
I'm somewhat mystified as to what exactly is the problem you're
experiencing.

Re you last post...what has all this got to do with your "new 160 GB" HDD?
Can we assume that you have, or plan to, fresh install the XP OS on that
disk? Is there some connection with your old (apparently problem-laden) 40
GB HDD? Assuming I'm assuming correctly, can't you simply format the latter
(assuming, of course, that it's a non-defective disk) and be done with it?
Or is this a matter where you desire to transfer (clone) the contents of
that 40 GB HDD onto the 160 GB drive?
Anna
 
The 40gb had errors in the volume according to Recovery Console.
Had new 160gb hd installed. Same problem. Recovery Console
can not eliminate the errors in the volume.
 
In JamesJ had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:
The enitire 160gb is an ntfs.
My old 40gb hd was reported correctly.
Click to expand...

FDISK can't recognize NFTS logical drives within an extended partition.
You've likely got two partitions, one is being read - the other is not.

Information on the disk size the entire disk should report:

http://www.matisse.net/bitcalc/?input_amount=160&input_units=gigabytes&notation=legacy

(Using the 1024 as kilo as the above setting.)

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/ http://kgiii.info/

"Chance has put in our way a most singular and whimsical problem, and
its solution is its own reward." - Sherlock Holmes
 
Thanks much,
James

philo said:
Do *not* use fdisk to setup your new drive...

if you are adding it to an existing XP system...use disk management

if you are going to install XP fresh...you can partition and format the
drive from within
the context of the installation
Click to expand...
 
If you're still having trouble, you can do this:
I had something like the same problem...
1.) if you're trying to install windows XP, do ****NOT***** use fdisk.
2.) to install XP, just stick the CD for installing XP in the cd drive
then restart the computer, and press F12 or F11 several times (i cant
remember which...;( )
a box will pop up saying removable disks:
3 1/2 Floppy A
CD-ROM Drive
(also if you have a DVD Drive it will come up here)
select CD Drive (using the arrow keys and press enter to select)
the setup will start; just follow the instuctions on the screen
Benjamin
 
I have a bootable floppy with fdisk on it. After I had a new 160gb
hd installed fdisk doesn't report the proper partition info. It reports 1
partition with 15,000 megabytes - nothing else. Any ideas??
Click to expand...

Fdisk is a big liar. If Fdisk isn't showing empty space on the drive
I wouldn't worry about it. Fdisk (and Format) are incapable of
*REPORTING* space in excess of 64gb and will lie about the capacity of
drives bigger than this. I've used them on drives well past this
without difficulty, though.
 
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