How is this even possible???

CF93

CF93

CF93

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Right I'm totally confused over this one.

Brand new 320Gb hard drive, partitioned into 50Gb system and the rest for storage, both FAT32, using some software I got in a pc mag recently.

Installed XP Pro, formatted the system partition to NTFS during the install. Installed some drivers to find they were corrupt and screwed the install, so thought I'd just start again.

Used FDISK to wipe the NTFS partition and create a new FAT32 one, and did a full unconditional format in DOS. Reinstalled XP and again reformated to NTFS during the install.

But to my horror, there were some files in the recycle bin...some files I deleted after the original install.

How on earth is that possible?? I mean, I'd done two formats, even on to a different file system! How could the damn thing retain files that I'd wiped over with a different file system, but then retain them when I reformatted back?? I mean, how? how??

Now I'm annoyed as who knows what else it's retained from the screwed install, I can't be confident in this install now.

So is there a way to secure-wipe or zero-fill just a single partition? The only software I've come across wants to zero fill the whole drive. I've got backups of everything, but just cba to recreate the storage partition from the backups.

TIA.
 
just use your xp disc to do the formatting

don't use fat32, its really crap in comparison to ntfs
 
You are totaly wasting your time even thinking about using fdisk, as already said the XP setup disc has all the tools you need for partitioning and formatting the drive.

The only time you want to be using FAT32 is if you are dual booting and need a legacy format for a Win98 boot partition or it's ilk.
 
Sorry, maybe not making it clear. I won't be using FAT32 for the actual system once it's up and running.

I used FAT32 so that when I copied over the stuff for my storage partition it removed the old permissions from my old NTFS based system (for some reason some files had no permissions at all, some were limited to just me when they should be all users etc...) Basically I couldn't access all my mp3s and photos etc

The intention is to convert that back to NTFS once everything's running.

As for the system partition, I created it as FAT32 just cause that's what the program offered (I don't intend to keep it like that) and got the XP installer to convert it to NTFS. But the install was screwed by corrupt drivers, and the software I had wouldn't let me wipe the system partition since it was installed and running from that drive. I don't have any DOS-style partitioning apps that could wipe the system partition to let me start again, so I had to use FDISK.

Since FDISK only lets you create FAT32, that's what I did, and formatted it too, but then let the XP installer reformat to NTFS again. But it didn't seem to clear the files. That's what I don't understand - why would the files still be there??
 
Are you reformatting both partitions or just the system partition? Try formatting both partitions. When installing, disconnect any/all other drives.
 
Ronaldo said:
stop using fat32 on large hdds.

use NTFS on both partitions and you wont get this problem.
Click to expand...


As already said, I had to use FAT32 as that's all FDISK allows. Remember I'm setting up the partition from DOS, after that it will be formatted to NTFS during the XP install.

ByteJuggler said:
Are you reformatting both partitions or just the system partition? Try formatting both partitions. When installing, disconnect any/all other drives.
Click to expand...

Just the system partition. There is only one drive in the pc, unless you include the DVDRW.


I just don't understand how it is possible to do two complete formats using two completely different file systems and the drive still to retain the files.

Think I'll just do a low level format using the manufacturers tools then start again.....
 
google "take ownership of a folder"

and use the microsoft link (sorts permissions)


unless you're installing windows 98, there's no way you ever need to use fdisk again
 
As already said, I had to use FAT32 as that's all FDISK allows. Remember I'm setting up the partition from DOS, after that it will be formatted to NTFS during the XP install.
Click to expand...

Don't use FDISK. It's a horrible outdated little program. You don't need it at all. The windows XP CD is more than capable of deleting and creating partitons. This way you can do it all in NTFS as well.
 
What has happened is that your original install of XP has put a System Volume Information folder on the second partition (non system) and it was this which contained the recycle bin information.

Your mistakes were as follows:

Partitioning the HDD using "some software I found in a PC mag". Come on! Your file system is the foundation on which your software has to stand, and you have used some no-name demonstration software to set it up.

Setting up the partitions as FAT32. WHY? As has been already said, FAT32 is an ancient protocol. Unless you are anticipating using some extremely esoteric legacy applications there is absolutely no reason at all not to use NTFS.

Having got your bad XP install (now there's a surprise) you compounded the error by using a 20 year old bit of software which was not designed to handle large drives to repeat your mistaken use of FAT32.

Having said all the above, if your new XP install is running without issues, all you need to do is to carry out a format of the second partition to be certain that there is nothing left of the failed one. You can do this via the XP Disk Management Console, and then all should be well. NTFS should be used unless you have a really good reason to use FAT32.

Alternatively, bite the bullet, reinstall XP and format the entire drive to NTFS during the install. If you want a second partition on the drive then create one using something like Partition Magic AFTER you have got a stable XP install. This is in fact the course of action I would suggest since as it stands you have backups of everything and you will have a system that you can trust.
 
just boot from xp cd then delete the 320gb partitions. then create 2 partitions e.g one 50GB = 51200MB and the other space for the other partition...

don't make it hard for yourself...
 
Ok, can we jsut get over the fact I used FAT32. As I already said, I used it to ensure the permissions on the files I had got wiped. It was never going to be a permanent solution. The idea was to put everything back to NTFS after. The permissions were screwed (or just completely missing) but the remaining permissions were not consistent across different files. As I had to move stuff to a new drive anyway it was a quick and easy way of sorting a couple of hundred Gb worth of files.

It was not just "some software" I used but something from Paragon (don't remember the name tho), not some no-name company. I put the fact I got it from a mag to highlight the fact I don't have expensive full version tools. We're not all individuals that have fresh systems/reinstalls every few months and need that kind of stuff a lot.

XP also installed fine - it was, as I said, corrupt drivers that caused the problem (and no, it wouldn't roll back either.)

I can't install XP and then drop in the second partition as I need to put the drives in my old system to get the "storage" partition data (they're sitting on a RAID array on a built in controller) and the old system won't boot with XP installed on both the RAID and the new drive (tried that in the part when building a system for mate to copy some stuff I had for him.) Hence setting up the drive before moving it to the new system to install XP.

Also the files that were still in the recylce bin - were never on the storage partition, only the system one. So my point was how could they still be there after the two reformats (regardless of file system!) since the reformat should have overwritten them? So what you're basically saying is anything in the recycle bin is duplicated into however many partitions are on the drive? Is that right?
 
CF93 said:
<Snip>
Also the files that were still in the recylce bin - were never on the storage partition, only the system one. So my point was how could they still be there after the two reformats (regardless of file system!) since the reformat should have overwritten them? So what you're basically saying is anything in the recycle bin is duplicated into however many partitions are on the drive? Is that right?
Click to expand...

Not exactly - the files themselves are not, the information about them is.
 
Nicos Rex said:
Not exactly - the files themselves are not, the information about them is.
Click to expand...

So had I tried to restore them (which I wouldn't as I didn't need them) I wouldn't have been able.

(also, XP was never installed on FAT32, as I got the installer to reformat to NTFS... :) )
 
as i said above, you don't need to convert to fat32 to reset file permissions, you can just take ownership of them
 
bledd. said:
as i said above, you don't need to convert to fat32 to reset file permissions, you can just take ownership of them
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Did that. Twice. Didn't work. Some files were left with no permissions at all, some were only accessible by the admin account, some were "normal."
 
CF93 said:
Did that. Twice. Didn't work. Some files were left with no permissions at all, some were only accessible by the admin account, some were "normal."
Click to expand...

Probably cause you need to take ownership first and make sure subfolders and subfiles is ticked, then you apply the perms you want. If you're talking about the profiles folder then there are some strange perms on some folders which will need to be sorted out individually.
 
IAmATeaf said:
Probably cause you need to take ownership first and make sure subfolders and subfiles is ticked, then you apply the perms you want. If you're talking about the profiles folder then there are some strange perms on some folders which will need to be sorted out individually.
Click to expand...


All of the files were created by the same account so that account would have been the owner. But something got screwed up so that even though I was the owner, the files had dodgy or missing permissions. Re-taking ownership didn't work, presumably because the account was already the owner, and nothing changed - still some permissions were messed up, some files had all permissions missing completely. Hence the need for something slightly different....

[edit] Was the "my docs" & subfolders, plus some others I'd created for shared storage, not profiles folders [/edit]
 
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