Made a mess of partitioning

[sjt269]

Um...


Got a new HDD last week (see my other thread for details on that fiasco) and partitioned it up to what I wanted. My problem is, I messed up the size for one partition (it asked for them in Mb, I was thinking in Gb), and when I clicked 'delete partition', all it did was erase the name of the partition, it was still there as a seperate block of 'unused space' that I couldn't seem to add to any other partitions. Then, to make matters worse, I went and installed Windows on the tiny partition. I haven't installed anything really important (deliberately so) over the last week so that I can have another go at the weekend, and I want to do it properly this time.


So...how can I squish everything all back into one partition again, or at least get rid of this extra mini-partition that Windows is installed on atm? Data loss doesn't worry me, as I said, there's nothing important on it. I just want to fix this mess I made.



Thanks
tTz



PS: The 160Gb drive is showing up at 127Gb, even with SP2. I'm unsure if I can extend this small partition to include the extra 30Gb, as I tried what was in the sticky, and kept getting errors that the command wasn't recognised. I thought it might have been the mobo was too old, but I can't find any info it at all to check this. It's an Asus P4S533, a good few years old. Strange that I can't find the info on it, it definitely used to be on the Asus site. Any help appreciated.

 

[ben_j_davis]

You always lose some space when formatting the drive, you might be able to get some of this space back. Dont suppose you've tried Partition magic?

If it were me i would start from scratch,

Reboot using the Win XP CD (making sure the CD-ROM is the first bootable device) You should be able to delete the partition from there. If that doesnt work you could try Fdisk? Can't promise you this will work but you should be able to get rid of the small partition using that program.

 

[Rambaud]

If you want to preserve your data while re-partioning, you need a program like Partition Magic.

I have used PM for many years - but it's not 100% infallible.

I have recently bought Disk Director Suite 10 by Acronis - although I have not yet used it for partioning.

 

[sjt269]

If you want to preserve your data while re-partioning, you need a program like Partition Magic.

I haven't installed anything really important (deliberately so) over the last week ...Data loss doesn't worry me, as I said, there's nothing important on it.

That's not what I'm after, I'm looking to un-partition the drive again. Sorry if I didn't make myself clear. I don't care about deleting everything, as I say, there's nothing important there (this time). When I was originally doing it, and I deleted the partition I had accidentally made, it remained onscreen as a lump of 'Unused Space', but I couldn't combine this space with any other partitions, it was entirely seperate from them on the screen.

You always lose some space when formatting the drive, you might be able to get some of this space back. Dont suppose you've tried Partition magic?

I know that, but 30Gb is a little extreme. I think it's more down to the pre-SP1 issue about Windows not recognising drives over 127Gb. I've had a go at what it said in the sticky, but no luck. Perhaps I was doing it wrong. I was hoping that I could extend the smaller partition to include the 30Gb extra, and solve my problem that way.


Thanks for the FDisk tip, I'll look it up.

 

[HangTime]

Probably worth updating your BIOS as that board is around 4 years old now I'd guess. Could fix the 127gig issue.

 

[V F]

Thanks for the FDisk tip, I'll look it up.

I can't remember if FDISK removes NTFS partitions, but doing it through the XP bootup disc procedure will remove any partitons and leave you with RAW till you make the new one.

It's been a while since I've been in there but I'd remember it all if I seen it again. Just a matter of reading carefully.

 

[mj3zero]

It sounds like a non 48bit LBA bios - as you shouldn't lose that much space on formatting. Only an updated Bios is going to fix that (or an IDE Pci card that supports drives over 137gb).

As for erasing the partitions, you should be able to do it with the XP CD but if you can't, try to get a Win98 boot floppy (www.bootdisk.com should help) and use Fdisk - you want to delete the "Non-Dos" partition. That is what an NTFS formatted partition is described as by the Fdisk tool.

Good luck
mj

 

[mj3zero]

Um...


Got a new HDD last week (see my other thread for details on that fiasco) and partitioned it up to what I wanted. My problem is, I messed up the size for one partition (it asked for them in Mb, I was thinking in Gb), and when I clicked 'delete partition', all it did was erase the name of the partition, it was still there as a seperate block of 'unused space' that I couldn't seem to add to any other partitions. Then, to make matters worse, I went and installed Windows on the tiny partition. I haven't installed anything really important (deliberately so) over the last week so that I can have another go at the weekend, and I want to do it properly this time.


So...how can I squish everything all back into one partition again, or at least get rid of this extra mini-partition that Windows is installed on atm? Data loss doesn't worry me, as I said, there's nothing important on it. I just want to fix this mess I made.



Thanks
tTz



PS: The 160Gb drive is showing up at 127Gb, even with SP2. I'm unsure if I can extend this small partition to include the extra 30Gb, as I tried what was in the sticky, and kept getting errors that the command wasn't recognised. I thought it might have been the mobo was too old, but I can't find any info it at all to check this. It's an Asus P4S533, a good few years old. Strange that I can't find the info on it, it definitely used to be on the Asus site. Any help appreciated.

P4s533 Asus link

That's the page with the Bios updates, but none state anything about being 48bit LBA fix's , so I'd guess the board might be ok. Did you change any jumpers on the HD ? The best setting is "Cable Select" - as some others can limit the space presented to the Bios - I have a Samsung that has some strange options in this regard and the only way to see the full 160 is CS - set as Master it is limited.

hth

mj

 

[sjt269]

P4s533 Asus link

That's the page with the Bios updates, but none state anything about being 48bit LBA fix's , so I'd guess the board might be ok. Did you change any jumpers on the HD ? The best setting is "Cable Select" - as some others can limit the space presented to the Bios - I have a Samsung that has some strange options in this regard and the only way to see the full 160 is CS - set as Master it is limited.

hth

mj

Thanks for the link, wierd that I didn't find it myself.

I didn't change any jumpers on the HDD, I'll have a look in the manual at some point and check. If that doesn't work, I might try a BIOS flash (never done that before, little bit intimidated ).

 

[sjt269]

I didn't change any jumpers on the HDD, I'll have a look in the manual at some point and check. If that doesn't work, I might try a BIOS flash (never done that before, little bit intimidated ).

Must have midunderstood something when I typed that post, I don't have a manual for the HDD.

What I meant was that I was going to look in the mobo manual, but I don't know what I'm looking for. I'm going to wipe the PC and start from scratch (again) now...anyone got any tips, or a step-by-step guide to this?


:edit:

If I try to format, it's asking me for a 'volume label'...what exactly is that?
Tried typing in the volume of the partition in bytes, megabytes, and gigabytes and it doesn't like any of them.


:edit2:

All fixed now, got it shortly after the last post, but I couldn't post to say that, since the HDD was formatting itself.