ShriramS
asked on
17.2Gb Hard disk
Alright - here's the problem. I had a 4.2Gb hard disk with Win 95 with all the patches and power tools and IE5. I recently got a new 17.2Gb harddrive and everything works fine except, I can't use 8Gb of the 17.2.
The hard disk has around 2100 cylinders in LBA mode and over 4000 in LARGE mode. I am being told that FAT32 can only go upto the 1024th cylinder. Is there any way that I can get WIN95 to recognise NTFS or HPFS or alternatively, is there any way I can get FAT32 to work beyond the 1024th cylinder.
My other problem is that partitions can't be more that around 2Gb. As I mentioned before, the primary hard disk (FAT32) is 4.2Gb (I can also have partitions of over 2Gb) so why can't I have partitions of over 2Gb on this new hard disk.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Shri
The hard disk has around 2100 cylinders in LBA mode and over 4000 in LARGE mode. I am being told that FAT32 can only go upto the 1024th cylinder. Is there any way that I can get WIN95 to recognise NTFS or HPFS or alternatively, is there any way I can get FAT32 to work beyond the 1024th cylinder.
My other problem is that partitions can't be more that around 2Gb. As I mentioned before, the primary hard disk (FAT32) is 4.2Gb (I can also have partitions of over 2Gb) so why can't I have partitions of over 2Gb on this new hard disk.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Shri
you'll need to fdisk the new drive and make sure to enable large disk support
1) restart to DOS
2) type FDISK and hit enter
3) you'll get a message that says you have a disk larger than 512MB, hit Y and enter
4) at the main menu, hit 3 and enter
5) at the next menu, hit 1 and enter to delete the primary DOS partition.
6) follow the onscreen prompts to finish deleting
7) now, back at the main menu, hit 1 and enter
8) hit 1 and enter again to create a primary DOS partition
9) follow the prompts to finish
10)exit fdisk and restart to DOS again
11) type format D: ( where D is the drive letter of the new drive )
12) after format, restart again
how now?
1) restart to DOS
2) type FDISK and hit enter
3) you'll get a message that says you have a disk larger than 512MB, hit Y and enter
4) at the main menu, hit 3 and enter
5) at the next menu, hit 1 and enter to delete the primary DOS partition.
6) follow the onscreen prompts to finish deleting
7) now, back at the main menu, hit 1 and enter
8) hit 1 and enter again to create a primary DOS partition
9) follow the prompts to finish
10)exit fdisk and restart to DOS again
11) type format D: ( where D is the drive letter of the new drive )
12) after format, restart again
how now?
FAT32 has no problem with more than 1024 cylinders. As a matter of fact, FAT doesn't either. The 1024 cylinder limitation is in the BIOS but doesn't affect things once the system is booted into Windows as the
If I understand this cyrptic comment:
"I am being told that FAT32 can only go upto the 1024th cylinder. Is there any way that I can get WIN95 to recognise NTFS or HPFS or alternatively, is there any way I can get FAT32 to work beyond the 1024th cylinder."
I will read between the lines and assume that you have some other partition (NTFS perhaps) as the first partition on the drive. This has pushed the next free block of space past the 1024 cylinder limit. The problem is NOT with FAT or FAT32 but your system will not be able to BOOT such a partition due to the 1024 cylinder limitation.
You don't have to have the FAT32 partition fit entirely within the 1024 cylinder limit but you must have enough of it there that Windows can install it's boot files where they can be reached via the BIOS at boot time.
If I understand this cyrptic comment:
"I am being told that FAT32 can only go upto the 1024th cylinder. Is there any way that I can get WIN95 to recognise NTFS or HPFS or alternatively, is there any way I can get FAT32 to work beyond the 1024th cylinder."
I will read between the lines and assume that you have some other partition (NTFS perhaps) as the first partition on the drive. This has pushed the next free block of space past the 1024 cylinder limit. The problem is NOT with FAT or FAT32 but your system will not be able to BOOT such a partition due to the 1024 cylinder limitation.
You don't have to have the FAT32 partition fit entirely within the 1024 cylinder limit but you must have enough of it there that Windows can install it's boot files where they can be reached via the BIOS at boot time.
I agree with all of what you said jhance. however, wouldn't you agree that if it's only showing 2GB, this is a problem with the partition format? of course, if there were other partitions on the drive, my instructions would need to be altered to compensate for the addtional, non-fat partitions.
ASKER
I have tried using FDISK and that did not work. I have an extended partition of 14Gb and I have 3 logical partitions in there of 2Gb each after which FDISK tells me that there is no more space in the extended partition.
I tried using Partition Magic From powerquest and I discovered that I can have further partitions but only in NTFS or HPFS.
All my drives are in FAT32 format because I use Win95 (with all the service packs & IE5) - so jhance, my primary disk is also FAT32 not NTFS.
Thanks
I tried using Partition Magic From powerquest and I discovered that I can have further partitions but only in NTFS or HPFS.
All my drives are in FAT32 format because I use Win95 (with all the service packs & IE5) - so jhance, my primary disk is also FAT32 not NTFS.
Thanks
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