Unallocated HDD space

  • Thread starter Thread starter Larry B
  • Start date Start date
L

Larry B

I have W98Se and Partition Magic 6.0.

I had created an unused partition on the HDD in order to keep the c: drive
unemcumbered by too much free space. I used PM 6.0 to move some of the space
to the c: drive and it created, instead, 15Gb of unallocated space. How do I
allocate that to the c: drive?

Thanks, Lar
 
I tried it again and it gave me "Error 2003: File size does not match FAT
allocation for file". Once I saw that I ran Scandisk and ran PM6 again. I
ran it to reallocated free space and it successfully merged that unallocated
space with the c: drive. Why it did not do that the first time is unknown.

At this point I wanted to complete the thread for anyone's future reference.
 
I tried it again and it gave me "Error 2003: File size does not match FAT
allocation for file". Once I saw that I ran Scandisk and ran PM6 again. I
ran it to reallocated free space and it successfully merged that unallocated
space with the c: drive. Why it did not do that the first time is unknown.
Click to expand...

PM has been a piece of crap since day one. The last I heard you have
to call them and after you prove you own it legitimately, they send
you a copy that works better.

That's one way to thwart pirates. Sell crap.
 
I should also report that I just spent a day fixing my computer after I
"successfully" merged the unallocated free space to the c: drive on PM6.
Turns out that I could no longer open a few of my more important programs
including Norton SWS. Since the Norton uninstall would not complete by
itself, as well, I had to manually purge my computer to get a success
reinstall. I will think twice next time. Are there reliable alteratives to
PM that I should consider or is repartitioning just fraught with potholes?
 
I should also report that I just spent a day fixing my computer after I
"successfully" merged the unallocated free space to the c: drive on PM6.
Turns out that I could no longer open a few of my more important programs
including Norton SWS. Since the Norton uninstall would not complete by
itself, as well, I had to manually purge my computer to get a success
reinstall. I will think twice next time. Are there reliable alteratives to
PM that I should consider or is repartitioning just fraught with potholes?
Click to expand...

Repartitioning with PM usually works fine. I've done it
tons of times.

If you successfully merged the partitions and had only
certain programs misbehaving afterwards, but that you are
sure worked prior to this operation, it seems most likely
your system has memory errors and has corrupted files while
rearranging the data. There might be other possibilities
that don't occur to me at the moment but I would run
memtest86 for several hours... actually would've done so
before redoing the system since there might still be memory
error induced (new) file corruption.

FWIW, I don't use PM6 anymore but v8. Heres's how I'd have
done the operation you did:

1) IF the system is using a drive overlay (software to
extend HDD capacity support for the motherboard), be sure
you boot from the HDD, not a floppy so the overlay loads.

2) Once PM is loaded, there's no point in trying to resize
empty partitions, just delete it, that logical extra
partition and the extended partition it's in, leaving only
the Primary C partititon alone for this step.

3) Primary C partition is the only one virtually existing
on the PM screen and you choose to resize it larger. PM
does things sequentially so if you still wanted the other
partition, the NEXT step in the sequence you choose is to
create the extended partition in the remaining space
(presuming you wanted it to fill entire remaining space),
and then IF you want any logical parititons in it, create
those.... I see no real reason NOT to create the logical
partitions, even if you have no immediate need they might as
well be accessible space already available for a future use.

4) You click apply and PM makes the remaining changes. If
it can't do ALL of them at that time, you may need reboot
to PM, and complete the remaining steps.


5) Of course, if you had memory errors, your method
might've worked fine otherwise and the steps I just
described might not work any better.
 
kony said:
Repartitioning with PM usually works fine. I've done it
tons of times.

If you successfully merged the partitions and had only
certain programs misbehaving afterwards, but that you are
sure worked prior to this operation, it seems most likely
your system has memory errors and has corrupted files while
rearranging the data. There might be other possibilities
that don't occur to me at the moment but I would run
memtest86 for several hours... actually would've done so
before redoing the system since there might still be memory
error induced (new) file corruption.

FWIW, I don't use PM6 anymore but v8. Heres's how I'd have
done the operation you did:
Click to expand...

Everything worked prior to the PM6 problem. I just ran Memtest86- no errors.

I have PM8, too, in readiness for a new xp Pro computer soon. I have not
installed that PM8 as I figured that PM6 might be better for W98SE and that
I had used it many times before without issue.
1) IF the system is using a drive overlay (software to
extend HDD capacity support for the motherboard), be sure
you boot from the HDD, not a floppy so the overlay loads.
Click to expand...

Do not have that.
2) Once PM is loaded, there's no point in trying to resize
empty partitions, just delete it, that logical extra
partition and the extended partition it's in, leaving only
the Primary C partititon alone for this step.
Click to expand...

No empty partitions.
3) Primary C partition is the only one virtually existing
on the PM screen and you choose to resize it larger. PM
does things sequentially so if you still wanted the other
partition, the NEXT step in the sequence you choose is to
create the extended partition in the remaining space
(presuming you wanted it to fill entire remaining space),
and then IF you want any logical parititons in it, create
those.... I see no real reason NOT to create the logical
partitions, even if you have no immediate need they might as
well be accessible space already available for a future use.
Click to expand...

That is exactly what I had done when I originally got the HDD. I created
logical drives with one as a reserve for the eventual use with c: drive, one
for data, one for music downloads and one for kid's games.
4) You click apply and PM makes the remaining changes. If
it can't do ALL of them at that time, you may need reboot
to PM, and complete the remaining steps.
Click to expand...

In looking back, for some reason when I set PM to resize C: drive and to
take it from I: drive. the "boxes" showing the changes did not look right.
After a few attempts it would still not proprly show the changes to the I:
drive. I executed anyway and ended up with the unallocated space. When I
subsequently redestributed free space to C: and left all other drives
unchecked as the source of the additional capacity, it took the unallocated
space by default. It worked great except for the ancillary software damage
in its wake.
 
Everything worked prior to the PM6 problem. I just ran Memtest86- no errors.

I have PM8, too, in readiness for a new xp Pro computer soon. I have not
installed that PM8 as I figured that PM6 might be better for W98SE and that
I had used it many times before without issue.
Click to expand...

Naw, just make a PM8 boot floppy or a bootable thumbdrive
(if systems support and WORK booting from thumbdrive) and
copy the PM8 DOS files to it. You don't really need the
whole PM8 suite installed, just booting the floppy is enough
and does equally well for Win9x... it supports FAT32 fine
and cares not what OS is on the partition or filesystem.


That is exactly what I had done when I originally got the HDD. I created
logical drives with one as a reserve for the eventual use with c: drive, one
for data, one for music downloads and one for kid's games.


In looking back, for some reason when I set PM to resize C: drive and to
take it from I: drive. the "boxes" showing the changes did not look right.
After a few attempts it would still not proprly show the changes to the I:
drive.
Click to expand...

Given many partitions, that's a lot of steps it's taking to
move more than one partition after another, eventually
moving the start of the extended partition. If you need
use PM6 you might just try it a step at a time, first
reducing the I partition and going back and going each step
or a couple at a time. I don't recall what, if any, bugs
are in PM6 though, if you isolated that aspect it would be
useful. I don't recall any related problems with PM8
though.
I executed anyway and ended up with the unallocated space. When I
subsequently redestributed free space to C: and left all other drives
unchecked as the source of the additional capacity, it took the unallocated
space by default. It worked great except for the ancillary software damage
in its wake.
Click to expand...

That is odd, it still suggests memory errors to me, or other
system instability doing basic copy operations.
 
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