need to help to format disk...

  • Thread starter Thread starter Calvin C.
  • Start date Start date
C

Calvin C.

i have a 40gb HD and try to format it before a clean xp isntall. however,
there's only one 38gb partition when i run fdisk, and where is the rest of
about 2 gb space. i assume it's the EISA partition from Novell set up by
previous user ( i saw the wording Novell.....when system startup) or
whatever kind of system partition...

how can I reclaim those spaces?

Thanks

CC
 
I suggest you run Fdisk from a diskette.

i have a 40gb HD and try to format it before a clean xp isntall. however,
there's only one 38gb partition when i run fdisk, and where is the rest of
about 2 gb space. i assume it's the EISA partition from Novell set up by
previous user ( i saw the wording Novell.....when system startup) or
whatever kind of system partition...

how can I reclaim those spaces?

Thanks

CC
 
40gb is the size of the drive in unformatted form.. formatting uses up some
of the space..
 
In
Mike Hall said:
40gb is the size of the drive in unformatted form.. formatting
uses
up some of the space..
Click to expand...


No, this isn't correct. He has a 38GB drive, not a 40GB one.


All hard drive manufacturers define 1GB as 1,000,000,000 bytes,
while the rest of the computer world, including Windows, defines
it as 2 to the 30th power (1,073,741,824) bytes. So a 40 billion
byte drive is actually around 38GB.



Some people point out that the official international standard
defines the "G" of GB as one billion, not 1,073,741,824. Correct
though they are, using the binary value of GB is so well
established in the computer world that I consider using the
decimal value of a billion to be deceptive marketing.
 
You are right, of course.. it is indeed deceptive marketing.. I will reword
my replies in future, although I was always led to believe that it is the
formatting of the drive, or should I say, the way that Windows formats, that
leads to the anomaly between what a person is told they have and the usable
space after formatting.. I have also believed that the format information
does indeed use up some space..
 
I too have a problem with Trying to fdisk and format a new HD with xp pro.
How do I do this when it will not boot up with the cd rom? I can use a win98
boot disk and get the cd to recognize then put in the win xp pro cd and
select setup, but it says this program cannot be ran in the dos mode. Only in
windows but I don't have windows on the new HD. Hopefully someone can help me
with this.
Thanks
 
The XP CD does not include FDISK, you could only run that from a 9x boot
floppy that contains the utility.

That said, if you are simply trying to install XP clean, first, are you sure
the system won't boot from the CD. When you boot, with the CD-ROM first in
line in the BIOS boot sequence, during the boot, when the CD is detected,
you should see a message to press any key if you wish to boot from the CD,
you need to watch for it. In that case, all deleting, creating and
formatting of partitions can be done from XP setup.

If your system cannot boot from the CD-ROM drive, there are sets of boot
floppies for XP Home and Pro to facilitate this type of setup when the
system doesn't support booting from the CD-ROM:
XP Home Edition:
http://tinyurl.com/3azo

XP Pro:
http://tinyurl.com/4d3p

Follow the instructions at the websites for use and installation.
 
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