Can you post a picture of disk management here? Seems the D drive is recovery partition.
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D: drive can not be formatted - help!
Hi there
I've got an EEEpc loaded with Windows XP SP3.
I noticed that on the D: drive the space wasn't being released when the disk was cleared down, so I decided to format the drive. It seemed to work ok, but then I realised that although it had emptied everything, it had not actually formatted the partition.
Now I can not access the D: drive at all
-------------------------
Here's what I get when I try and do stuff from the command line:
C:\Documents and Settings\Dan>chkdsk d:
Cannot open volume for direct access.
C:\Documents and Settings\Dan>format d:
Cannot open volume for direct access.
------------------
When I click on the D: drive in My Computer i get asked the following:
The disk in drive d is not formatted
Do you want to format it now?
YES
The disk in drive D cannot be formatted
-------------------
Other notes:
The Disk Management screen of Computer Management is blank. Not even the C: drive is shown there
My Computer -> right click D: -> Properties: Says type = local disk and File system = RAW. Used and free space = 0 bytes
I am away from home at the moment and neither have the software or an external cd rom drive to do a rebuild.
If anyone has any ideas on how to fix this i'd be most grateful!
Cheers
Dan
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Answers
I agree with PUNKY.
Did you install the system yourself?
(or) did it come pre-installed?
If it is a pre-installed system, then you will not be able to format the D:\ Drive.
As it is a Recovery Drive.
Best bet, if you want to gain access to the space that is available on the drive.
(IF this is a Pre-Installed System ONLY) Is to do a re-Install on the system
And delete both C & D Drive(s) during Install, and recreate them from Install of XP)
If this is a system that you have installed on your own, then there is another issue.
You may want to do the following:
- download UnetbootIn: http://unetbootin.sourcefo
- insert an empty USB pendrive (128 mb will be fine)
- run Unetbootin and have it install "Parted Magic" on the pendrive
- boot the EeePC off that pendrive
- inside Parted Magic, click the 'partition manager' link on the desktop
- check whether GParted (the partition manager) is able to access/format that drive
(it should be called either "sdb" or "sda2" in Linux speak)
- if in doubt, make a screen shot of the partitioner window (you'll find a screenshot utility in the start menu), and post iot here as an attachment.
ps:
If you have a CD/DVD drive to go with that PC, you might also download and burn the UltimateBootCD 5 beta (http://www.layer31.com/ub
Hi everyone - thanks for all your replies. It is much appreciated.
If i was back home i'd wipe the system and reinstall, but i'm currently travelling in Mexico for the next few months and don't have software or external cd/dvd drive. So sadly that's not an option.
The eeepc version is 901, Win XP, 16GB SSD HD
Yes, it is a pre-installed system. That must mean it is the recovery drive.
Is there any way I can do a factory restore?
Does the fact that it's the recovery drive mean that without a restore/reinstall the space is lost?
torimar: I do have a usb key. Will that utility 'recreate' the D: partition? Or is it just a diagnostic? What I don't want is for anything to wipe the C: partition as well, because then I really will be screwed.
Once again, thanks a lot. Any further comments/answers greatly appreciated
Dan
Dan,
you need to make a decision here: do you want to keep the D drive as a recovery option, or do you want to format it and use the regained space for something else?
Personally, I don't see any use in a recovery drive at all, let alone on a system with less than 16 GB of space used. You may easily image all of the contents of your drive to a USB key or USB drive every now and then (check out these free imaging tools: http://www.makeuseof.com/t
In case you want to wipe the D drive after all, the utility I recommended is a regular partitioner: it will format/partition whatever you tell it to, and nothing else. Even if on Linux, it will be very very easy to tell what is your D drive: it will be either the last partition shown, or the second drive. In any case, your C drive will be the largest partition.
In case of doubt, as I said, just make a screen shot or describe what you see; we'll be able to tell you what exactly to delete and what not to.
If D is a recovery partition, it shouldn't be accessible by windows anyway, and you shouldn't get the messages you got, except if you saw the drive in disk-management and tried to access it by assigning it a drive letter.
I tried to find some details on this netbook, and it looks like it has 2 SSD drives, and one of those seems to be D. It also looks like one of the SSD drives is replaceable, but I don't know which. I also don't know how it was installed, so I don't know what the D drive is used for, but it could be that part of the OS is assigned to it. If that were the case you wouldn't be able to format it anyway and it would be unwise to do anything there.
Can you open a cmd prompt and attach the output you get when you enter set?
I've now checked on the manual of the eeepc 901, and there is no recovery partition, the recovery is done via recovery DVD. And there are two separate SSD drives, D being much slower than C, so the OS is on C. There is an additional manual that shows how to move installed software to D so space on C gets freed up, so if nothing is done manually by the user, D is probably not used much when it gets delivered.
I suspect the chips on that drive are bad, but without testing software which is usually started via CD there is no way to tell. I'd not try to use D while you are travelling, then when you get back home make sure you backup your data (you can also do that while traveling by backing up to a USB stick or SD memory).
The recovery process from the DVD will clean both drives, and if after that you have access to D then everything is fine, if not, get the PC repaired or replaced through warranty.
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by: mrmad1966Posted on 2009-06-20 at 11:44:37ID: 24674730
Dan first step is:-
If I were you I would find out which manufacturer made the drive, visit there website and download the latest version of there diagnostic software to test the drive's fitness. If it fails the extended test most drives have a 3 year warranty, go to the manufacturess website and do a warranty check !
Good Luck