Joep said:
Where exactly? Free space (I prefer unallocated space) isn't recorded,
that's why it's free space.
Free space is the space that can be included in partitions. Once the maximum
allowed number of partitions is defined, unused space stops being free space.
Free space is what remains outside of areas that are claimed by a partition.
In general. Not with Fdisk.
In practice it depends on how many (primary) partitions are allowed by
the OS that you are using and whether that includes an extended one.
Once a primary and an extended partition are defined and not using the
whole of the drive's available space, that unused space is not free space
in the eyes of Fdisk. That is what I meant earlier with "finalized".
To free-up the unused space you will have to resize the extended par-
tition and probably any other extended one further up in the chain.
That's not an Fdisk thing, it's a BIOS thing.
No, since we are obviously talking about Fdisk here, it is a Microsoft
thing.
Other apps that accept more than one primary may see it different.
Before you ask; yes 'thing' is an existing technical term.
If you say so.
It isn't, partitions are defined at 'partitioning time'.
And so is the usable space once the Extended partition is defined.
Is this the same Folkert who always tells people to get their facts straight
by referring to the various ATA and whatever specs he can come up with?
Yup, and I already admitted that I'm probably wrong.
As a matter of fact, Yes. Can't you tell?
And as it appears, so have you. Watch your bloodpressure.
I quote OP: "The BIOS limits the system to seeing only 8GB".
We're talking about a BIOS limitation here.
Yes, and I was talking about what that limitation might have caused to free
space being available or not. Once you define an extended partition during
the 8GB limitation the unused space will still be unavailable once you go into
an environment that hasn't got that limitation. That is what I overlooked and
what made me think that Fdisk was recording the seen capacity somewhere.
And in sense that makes me right afterall even though I didn't understand
it properly before.
Also, how DOS sees a disk or Windows are entirely different matters.
When your bloodpressure drops your eyes will clear and you'll notice
that I wasn't talking about the 8GB bios limitation at all, but about
what Fdisk sees once 2 partitions in the MBR have been defined.
And you don't wonder why they do?
Read back from where exactly? Are you referring to Ptedit? If so, you humor
me and you read it back to us. I bet without even looking that Ptedit will
not mention a 'free space partition' anywhere.
Fraid so, although by implication, not exact words.
Are you Joep@diydatarecovery saying that you have never used PTEdit?
Shame on you, Joepie.
In the right place. Are you Joep@diydatarecovery saying
that you never used Fdisk and don't know where to look?
If that works, then I consider that an Fdisk bug.
What, you didn't check?
It implies that I could edit the partition table to add numbers (start and
end values) to an unused entry that exceed the physical capacity of the
physical disk,
You didn't check, did ya.
and that after that Fdisk would happily
create partitions in non existing space.
Don't know about that (yes, I did not check) but it happily ac-
cepts it to be bigger than that part of the drive in reality is.
When Fdisk is run in Windows, the BIOS limitation doesn't apply so there
would be no need for your Ptedit voodoo.
There still may have been some "need" if he had an extended partition defined.
But yes, he doesn't have one so the free space will probably be available for
partitioning then, as I already mentioned.
(you just repeated what I already spoonfed to you, below)
Yes, even without all your ptedit hocus pocus.
And now you are repeating yourself.
However, the issue that the BIOS does not support disks > 8 Gb remains.
Well, as long as they are incompatible with use under some
Low Level OS that is relying on the BIOS, he can't care less.
artitions overlap.