windows formatting problem

StrangleHold · 12-31-2007, 03:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Queeg

However it is only alowing me to format the previously non used portion of my disk. So somehow everything I had on there before is staying on there and I am not able to format over it.

Are you saying the drive had a partition and some unused space or 2 partitions. If so you need to delete the one partition and create a new one using the whole drives space, if it has 2 partitions you need to delete both and create 1 with the whole drive space. If you just use the partition thats on it and its not the whole drive space thats where windows will install on it.

PC eye · 12-31-2007, 04:11 AM

The drive has a previously used primary on it needing that removed in order to see a totally fresh single primary then created for a clean install of Windows. This is why the references for partitioning and formatting it were posted earlier.

SirKenin · 12-31-2007, 04:24 AM

When you get into the XP setup, delete the partitions on the drive. Then, create a new one and format it.

To do this, highlight the partition (C drive presumably) that you want to delete, press D, then Enter, then L.

You will be returned to the main screen. Tell Windows to install in the unpartitioned space and it will partition it, format and install.

PC eye · 12-31-2007, 04:34 AM

One bug besides being the easy way to see that done with the XP installer is the lack of hardware/drive space detection where the installer tends to leave a small amount of drive space unallocated. People wondered why the Disk Management tool was seeing some 1-8mb of unallocated space following and even proceeding the single primary at times.

The live for cd version of GParted can easily see that corrected since the MS drive tool is intended more for ease rather then accuracy. At Vista saw some improvement in that direction while GParted is preferred here. Vista also sees the separate option to format a partition separately without going through the entire installation as one extra option.

While many that have used Linux over the years consider it outdated the drive tools seem to still be ahead of MS there while still based on the old UNIX type platform.

Queeg · 12-31-2007, 05:47 AM

I never partitioned the drive. It consists of a single partition the entire size of the drive. If it helps, I installed this drive into a currently running windows machine. All I did was basically plug and play and take the necessary steps that windows instructs you to do to get the drive running properly.

I did try to delete the partition through the windows installer, but it only displays one partition, the amount of disk space that is not currently used on the disk. It does not display the rest of the drive. Therefore, somehow only a part of the drive is being formatted.

PC eye · 12-31-2007, 06:26 AM

That is due to trying to install onto the existing primary. Was the drive originally run in a prebuilt system like an HP, CompaQ, Dell, Gateway, or another brand? Or was this first used new in a custom build case?

Drives removed from preassembled machines will have a hidden recovery partition stored for system restoration if the version of Windows or other OS doesn't do so well and needs to be reinstalled. Some security measures put inplace by some companies will hamper attempts at making changes to existing partitions where the drive has to be wiped clean of anything first to later be made usable in a custom machine.

One other thing to remember is that Windows itself along with any preinstalled softwares will take up drive space. Another concern is the rounded off figures on drive sizes when first going to create a new primary on a brand new drive. A 500gb sata here will see 465gb as the total while a boot floppy to a dos type prompt and change to the drive wth only a few basic dos files will show some 500,002,102,784 "bytes" not giga bytes.

Queeg · 12-31-2007, 06:39 AM

I custom built my computer and added this drive as a secondary drive for file storage. my primary pretty much crapped out, I used bartPe, got everything off of both drives that I needed, then proceeded to use my good drive( the one I've been talking about) for my main windows drive.

It is a 250gig maxtor. Windows is only alloting me about 131 gigs for formatting, which is the size of the unused portion of the disk.

I'm thinking I might just go buy a 40 gig drive, put windows on that, and then format my 250gig through disk management in windows.

PC eye · 12-31-2007, 07:11 AM

What you seem to need there is a tool that will remove the existing primary since you may have inadvertently created too small of a partition rather then the full drive space available. A good tool in fact excellent tool for seeing that cleared up and see the full use of the entire amount of drive space available is GParted live for cd or otherwise known as the Gnome Partition Editor.

Once you have used that tool a few times to see how things work you will find it even easier then thought to create, delete resize, and even move partitions around. Another tool for wiping a drive totally while not free is called Active Killdisk that will repeatedly write binary zeros to the drive totally wiping it clean. That would still seem to be overkill to some extent there however.

With something previenting the Windows installer from deleting the current primary you have two options 1) being resize meaning expand then reformat the current one 2) get it off of the drive entirely for a totally fresh start which would be recommended. I also suggest downloading the Maxtor drive diagnostics tool to see if there are any defects with the drive you are now using like bad sectors preventing normal use of the drive.

Since Seagate now owns Maxtor you will have to go through their support site for the free drive testing tools they provide for Maxtor models. http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.js...00dd04090aRCRD

StrangleHold · 12-31-2007, 03:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PC eye

One bug besides being the easy way to see that done with the XP installer is the lack of hardware/drive space detection where the installer tends to leave a small amount of drive space unallocated. People wondered why the Disk Management tool was seeing some 1-8mb of unallocated space following and even proceeding the single primary at times.

I,ve told you before the 8mbs it not a bug/flaw/mistake what ever you want to call it. It there by design, its for converting drives to a dynamic volume.

SirKenin · 12-31-2007, 03:59 PM

Do you have XP SP2? SP1 would only allow about 140GB, SP2 fixed that problem.

And StrangleHold is right, the 8MB is there by design.

12-31-2007, 04:11 AM	#12 (permalink)
PC eye Diamond Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Inside a pc Posts: 19,279	The drive has a previously used primary on it needing that removed in order to see a totally fresh single primary then created for a clean install of Windows. This is why the references for partitioning and formatting it were posted earlier. __________________ Turning the Tongue into a Device Controller http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Sma...ory?id=5647175 Is EBay going out of the Auction Business? http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=5626840&page=1

12-31-2007, 04:34 AM	#14 (permalink)
PC eye Diamond Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Inside a pc Posts: 19,279	One bug besides being the easy way to see that done with the XP installer is the lack of hardware/drive space detection where the installer tends to leave a small amount of drive space unallocated. People wondered why the Disk Management tool was seeing some 1-8mb of unallocated space following and even proceeding the single primary at times. The live for cd version of GParted can easily see that corrected since the MS drive tool is intended more for ease rather then accuracy. At Vista saw some improvement in that direction while GParted is preferred here. Vista also sees the separate option to format a partition separately without going through the entire installation as one extra option. While many that have used Linux over the years consider it outdated the drive tools seem to still be ahead of MS there while still based on the old UNIX type platform. __________________ Turning the Tongue into a Device Controller http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Sma...ory?id=5647175 Is EBay going out of the Auction Business? http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=5626840&page=1

12-31-2007, 06:26 AM	#16 (permalink)
PC eye Diamond Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Inside a pc Posts: 19,279	That is due to trying to install onto the existing primary. Was the drive originally run in a prebuilt system like an HP, CompaQ, Dell, Gateway, or another brand? Or was this first used new in a custom build case? Drives removed from preassembled machines will have a hidden recovery partition stored for system restoration if the version of Windows or other OS doesn't do so well and needs to be reinstalled. Some security measures put inplace by some companies will hamper attempts at making changes to existing partitions where the drive has to be wiped clean of anything first to later be made usable in a custom machine. One other thing to remember is that Windows itself along with any preinstalled softwares will take up drive space. Another concern is the rounded off figures on drive sizes when first going to create a new primary on a brand new drive. A 500gb sata here will see 465gb as the total while a boot floppy to a dos type prompt and change to the drive wth only a few basic dos files will show some 500,002,102,784 "bytes" not giga bytes. __________________ Turning the Tongue into a Device Controller http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Sma...ory?id=5647175 Is EBay going out of the Auction Business? http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=5626840&page=1

12-31-2007, 07:11 AM	#18 (permalink)
PC eye Diamond Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Inside a pc Posts: 19,279	What you seem to need there is a tool that will remove the existing primary since you may have inadvertently created too small of a partition rather then the full drive space available. A good tool in fact excellent tool for seeing that cleared up and see the full use of the entire amount of drive space available is GParted live for cd or otherwise known as the Gnome Partition Editor. Once you have used that tool a few times to see how things work you will find it even easier then thought to create, delete resize, and even move partitions around. Another tool for wiping a drive totally while not free is called Active Killdisk that will repeatedly write binary zeros to the drive totally wiping it clean. That would still seem to be overkill to some extent there however. With something previenting the Windows installer from deleting the current primary you have two options 1) being resize meaning expand then reformat the current one 2) get it off of the drive entirely for a totally fresh start which would be recommended. I also suggest downloading the Maxtor drive diagnostics tool to see if there are any defects with the drive you are now using like bad sectors preventing normal use of the drive. Since Seagate now owns Maxtor you will have to go through their support site for the free drive testing tools they provide for Maxtor models. http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.js...00dd04090aRCRD __________________ Turning the Tongue into a Device Controller http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Sma...ory?id=5647175 Is EBay going out of the Auction Business? http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=5626840&page=1

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12-31-2007, 04:24 AM	#13 (permalink)
SirKenin banned Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 4,711	When you get into the XP setup, delete the partitions on the drive. Then, create a new one and format it. To do this, highlight the partition (C drive presumably) that you want to delete, press D, then Enter, then L. You will be returned to the main screen. Tell Windows to install in the unpartitioned space and it will partition it, format and install.

12-31-2007, 05:47 AM	#15 (permalink)
Queeg Bronze Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 37	I never partitioned the drive. It consists of a single partition the entire size of the drive. If it helps, I installed this drive into a currently running windows machine. All I did was basically plug and play and take the necessary steps that windows instructs you to do to get the drive running properly. I did try to delete the partition through the windows installer, but it only displays one partition, the amount of disk space that is not currently used on the disk. It does not display the rest of the drive. Therefore, somehow only a part of the drive is being formatted.

12-31-2007, 06:39 AM	#17 (permalink)
Queeg Bronze Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 37	I custom built my computer and added this drive as a secondary drive for file storage. my primary pretty much crapped out, I used bartPe, got everything off of both drives that I needed, then proceeded to use my good drive( the one I've been talking about) for my main windows drive. It is a 250gig maxtor. Windows is only alloting me about 131 gigs for formatting, which is the size of the unused portion of the disk. I'm thinking I might just go buy a 40 gig drive, put windows on that, and then format my 250gig through disk management in windows.

12-31-2007, 03:59 PM	#20 (permalink)
SirKenin banned Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 4,711	Do you have XP SP2? SP1 would only allow about 140GB, SP2 fixed that problem. And StrangleHold is right, the 8MB is there by design.

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