Harddrive trouble

Stooge · Post by **Stooge** » Sat Dec 15, 2001 4:56 pm

Hi guys, on one of my CPU's i formatted yesterday, For some reason its only giving me 504 mb disk space. Its a 20 gig hardrive. I got this problem 1 time before but fluked it off by fixing it.

I tried deleting all partitions and reinstalling them. Didnt work still registers 504 mb. Anybody have an idea ?

Forgetful · Post by **Forgetful** » Sat Dec 15, 2001 5:01 pm

Old Bios? What size does the post say it is?

Stooge · Post by **Stooge** » Sat Dec 15, 2001 5:02 pm

no that wont be the problem. Because ive run this hardrive on this CPU for 4 years now.

it wont be the BIOS.

jake8131 · Post by **jake8131** » Sat Dec 15, 2001 5:05 pm

Use your boot disk and exit to dos. Enter FDISK and answer yes to the first two questions. After fdisk is done, reboot and reformat your hd.

Stooge · Post by **Stooge** » Sat Dec 15, 2001 5:07 pm

Ive done that about 1000 times lol.. Still doesnt work. ive even tried mbrwork. Still no go.

Forgetful · Post by **Forgetful** » Sat Dec 15, 2001 5:08 pm

Try what jake8131 suggested. If your cpu/motherboard combo is over 4 years old then it may be an old bios and you used a disk manufacters utility as a work around last time. What date is reported at the post for the bios?

Stooge · Post by **Stooge** » Sat Dec 15, 2001 5:10 pm

I did try what he suggested, too many times heh, Still doesnt work,,

I dont get how i have 20 gigs yesterday and now i got 504 mb. it wont be the BIOS or mobo thats for sure. Because i fixed this problem before. Not sure how though heh.

Forgetful · Post by **Forgetful** » Sat Dec 15, 2001 5:12 pm

Sorry for repeating but what date is on the bios and what size is the post reporting? Haveyou got the disk on autodetect?

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Sat Dec 15, 2001 5:13 pm

Originally posted by Stooge
I did try what he suggested, too many times heh, Still doesnt work,,

I dont get how i have 20 gigs yesterday and now i got 504 mb. it wont be the BIOS or mobo thats for sure. Because i fixed this problem before. Not sure how though heh.

well maybe its unfixed so go take a look.

Stooge · Post by **Stooge** » Sat Dec 15, 2001 5:14 pm

Not sure the date of the BIOS. what do you mean by post ?

when i format it just says formatting 504 mb. Doesnt give me my 20 gigs back.

Norm · Post by **Norm** » Sat Dec 15, 2001 5:17 pm

Use Fdisk, and remove the non Dos partition. then remove all the rest.

Stooge · Post by **Stooge** » Sat Dec 15, 2001 5:20 pm

Thanks norm. But I aready done all this. still cant get it going, When i try to restore the partitions using Mbrwork it gives me my 20 gigs in the extended partition. But i cant seem to get my 20 gigs in my primary. only gives me 504 for primary.

Stooge · Post by **Stooge** » Sat Dec 15, 2001 5:21 pm

btw how do you make a partition FAT32 ? i can ony get it to a FAT16.

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Sat Dec 15, 2001 5:23 pm

when u choose 1 to make the primary partition in fdisk after deleting the old one(s) discribe what u do, step by step pls.

Norm · Post by **Norm** » Sat Dec 15, 2001 5:25 pm

What has happened is you've removed the primary (at some point) before you removed the Extended partition. Now you need to erase the mbr and start fresh with Fdisk. I never heard of mbrworks, so can't help you there. Fdisk won't allow that type of mistake.

You need a machine code program to wipe the mbr now and start fresh. fdisk /mbr may work, if not I have a machine code proggie that will write 1's and zero's to the mbr so you can recreate partitions once again. Try Fdisk /mbr from Dos first, let me know.

Stooge · Post by **Stooge** » Sat Dec 15, 2001 5:26 pm

Ok. Lets say i got no partitions. I go to Fdisk. press 1 to create a primary partition. Then i reboot. then after rebooted i would format, But theres only 504 mb to format,

Norm · Post by **Norm** » Sat Dec 15, 2001 5:27 pm

Do you have a WIn98 startup disk? It will create Fat32 partitions.

Stooge · Post by **Stooge** » Sat Dec 15, 2001 5:30 pm

yep im using win98 startup disk. how do i use fdisk/mbr ?

that program i use called mbrwork is used to set all mbr to 0's.

after doing that i create the primary with fdisk. But still dont get all my space. Only 504

Stooge · Post by **Stooge** » Sat Dec 15, 2001 5:32 pm

When i install Linux it gives me all my 20 gigs. But now windows wont,

it did up untill yesterday.

Norm · Post by **Norm** » Sat Dec 15, 2001 5:34 pm

Boot using the Win98 boot floppy, the type:
fdisk /mbr

Forget the one you've been using and try this.

Norm · Post by **Norm** » Sat Dec 15, 2001 5:36 pm

Linux?
You need to use Fdisk to remove the non - Dos partition then.
You'll see the option in Fdisk (3) 'delete partitions' then the option will appear.

Stooge · Post by **Stooge** » Sat Dec 15, 2001 5:36 pm

When i try the fdisk /mbr i just hear the floppy disk loading and then it just goes back to the command screen. nothing opens or anything,

Norm · Post by **Norm** » Sat Dec 15, 2001 5:37 pm

That's normal

Stooge · Post by **Stooge** » Sat Dec 15, 2001 5:44 pm

Nope still not working hmmm. When i go to delete non dos partition it says " there is no Partition to Delete"

same goes with Logical and extended.

Norm · Post by **Norm** » Sat Dec 15, 2001 5:54 pm

I'll refer you to This Page in hopes it can help.
I had the same problem when I put linux on one of my drives long ago, and can't for the life of me remember what I did either. I went through pretty much what you're going through, then somehow I got it fixed.