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simon_boddy

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Win98 misreporting hard disk size

Windows reckons my second hard disk is 100 times as big as it really is ( 1000 GB ). It seems to read and write fine to the disk, but I need to sort this out. I have tried reformatting. Any clues?
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expert_comp

simon_boddy,

First how big is your hard disk actually??

Second goto a MS-Dos prompt, and type "fdisk /status" and report here what it says.  Also try booting to command prompt only (when it says starting windows 98 hit F8 and the go down and select Command prompt only.) and type dir and see what it says for free space.  Also type chkdsk and report what it says.
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baldrick
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Baldrick, as a relatively new user to this area I would like to bring to your attention the fact that the techs here adhere to a protocol of not posting suggestions or maybe answers as proposed answers, thereby blocking questions from the view of others who may actually be able to provide a definite solution. Your cooperation would be appreciated. TIA!
Dennis
Simon_Boddy, just some questions.

Have you recently upgraded your hard drive?

Is it larger than 8 gigabytes?

Have you upgraded the software bios for the motherboard recently?
Dennis
Simon_Boddy

First check virus.
Then check your CMOS .

If the CMOS is right,you can use some disk utility (for example:diskedit,fdisk) to see MBR of your hard drive and correct it.

Ok.
If not solved yet:

Restart the computer and hit F8 continually until you see the Windows start up menu.  Choose command prompt only.

At the command prompt, type:  fdisk /mbr    and hit enter
repeat this step a few times.

Next, still at the command prompt, type scandisk and hit enter.  Run a thorough scan disk of the drive.

If any errors are reported, post them here.  If not, restart the system and check.

If still persists, go into CMOS and autodetect hard disks assuming that maybe they were set manually.    
dew_associates:

I appreciate what you're saying; I've noticed your comments to this effect in previous posts.

I have indeed noticed the protocol of commenting vs. answering and did actually deliberate for a while as to whether I should post as a comment or an answer.

Many of the problems we see do not have a guaranteed single fix; rather there tends to be a logical checklist of things to try, in order of likelihood of solving the problem.

Ultimately I wouldn't post as an answer unless I was 99% certain that it would solve the problem. In this particular situation I think there are relatively few possible variant outcomes and I therefore doubt there's much scope for a long generalised on-topic discussion.

I really don't want a flame war breaking out here; I've seen your past posts and sincerely respect your knowledge and experience. However, if someone had a "99%" answer to a problem I had, I personally would rather they post an answer so I could accept or decline it accordingly. If nobody posted answers we'd simply end up with the current questions list growing to an endless list!

In summary, point taken, but I honestly don't think I've been *too* hasty here.

Cheers
Not a problem! Let's see how it plays out!
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ASKER

Sorry to be slow responding to your suggestions. It's my home machine and I don't get to it often. CMOS is correctly detecting hard disk size of 8.5GB. So far so good, but when I try to cd to this volume in DOS (the problem drive is labeled E), I just get C:\> No "No such file or directory" warning, no error message. I will try the Fdisk utility this weekend. Will it reformat my C drive by mistake? That would be fun.
Sorry to be slow responding to your suggestions. It's my home machine and I don't get to it often. CMOS is correctly detecting hard disk size of 8.5GB. So far so good, but when I try to cd to this volume in DOS (the problem drive is labeled E), I just get
C:\>

No "No such file or directory" warning, no error message. I will try the Fdisk utility this weekend. Will it reformat my C drive by mistake? That would be fun.
Simon, Fdisk won't format anything, but if you remove the partition on the wrong drive you will have a problem. When you start fdisk, just make sure you change to the second drive.