bartjach
asked on
fdisk/partitioning
I had a dual boot system with two partitions. Primary Dos Part. was 5Gb (Win98) and extended was 2Gb (Win 2000 beta). I wanted to format and only have one partition (7Gb) but I could not delete the extended Dos partition. When I tried it said "Cannot delete extended Dos partition while logical drives exist." When I tried to "Delete Logical Dos Drive(s) in the extended Dos Partition" I was told that "No Logical Drives Defined"
How can I bring my computer back to 1 partition(7Gb)?
How can I bring my computer back to 1 partition(7Gb)?
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compmania
You can also try using partition magic.
If he has it.. retail price last I looked was $130 CDN
but yeah that's a nice piece of software to have
but yeah that's a nice piece of software to have
: bartjach
there are some utitlities that will get rid of those partitions but it has some risks ;
low level format ,will do it ,and if your drive is ok it shouldn't hurt it but there is always a chance
there is a maxtor utilitly that will work on most drives and there are several more and they can be downloaded here.
http://www.ddidynex.com/download/hddutil.htm
I have used all these before and never hurt a good drive but I have tried to repair a few drives with bad sectors and they mostly bit the dust
but they will get rid of that partition .
afterward all you do is fdisk and create a primary partition and format
DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK James
there are some utitlities that will get rid of those partitions but it has some risks ;
low level format ,will do it ,and if your drive is ok it shouldn't hurt it but there is always a chance
there is a maxtor utilitly that will work on most drives and there are several more and they can be downloaded here.
http://www.ddidynex.com/download/hddutil.htm
I have used all these before and never hurt a good drive but I have tried to repair a few drives with bad sectors and they mostly bit the dust
but they will get rid of that partition .
afterward all you do is fdisk and create a primary partition and format
DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK James
I found a free one that "might" delete the partitions here:
www.linkmania.itgo.com/part.html
You want the partition one.
www.linkmania.itgo.com/part.html
You want the partition one.
Ok in regards to the format options mentioned above..
Factory format is a dangerous thing......
Interpretation of Factory format for those that
arent sure.. Low Level Format..
"ONLY use the Factory format from the Manufacturer"
E.G. EZ! Drive has separate versions for Fujitsu and Western Digital Drives
and is the factory format for those two.. I'm not sure which others they have
It Used to be that if you Low level formated an IDE drive It would
guaranteed be toast if it's over 1GB you should be fine with the
Latest formater from the manufacturer.
Note: This is further info to the answers from others above..
Note 2: The factory program's can be a tad difficult to locate but worth
the effort if you didnt get it with the drive.. dont let it take control of the
drive tho.. or all systems think its a compressed drive..
Factory format is a dangerous thing......
Interpretation of Factory format for those that
arent sure.. Low Level Format..
"ONLY use the Factory format from the Manufacturer"
E.G. EZ! Drive has separate versions for Fujitsu and Western Digital Drives
and is the factory format for those two.. I'm not sure which others they have
It Used to be that if you Low level formated an IDE drive It would
guaranteed be toast if it's over 1GB you should be fine with the
Latest formater from the manufacturer.
Note: This is further info to the answers from others above..
Note 2: The factory program's can be a tad difficult to locate but worth
the effort if you didnt get it with the drive.. dont let it take control of the
drive tho.. or all systems think its a compressed drive..
: Tascan
the low level format utitlity for western digital is named wdiag.exe ,the ez that you mentioned is not a low level utitlity and justabout all low level format utitlitys that are avalible ,wddiag.exe,maxtor,conner,
the low level format utitlity for western digital is named wdiag.exe ,the ez that you mentioned is not a low level utitlity and justabout all low level format utitlitys that are avalible ,wddiag.exe,maxtor,conner,
P.S even I dont recommend using a low level format utitlity , as I told : bartjach ,use at own risk ,but it will get rid of partitions and is normaly not harmful to a known good hd
:Trekie
Umm I actually didnt go look at the site.. just posted the warning..
hmm I have an EZ disk that has Western Digital Printed on it..
but your right wddiag.exe and the manufacturer's don't recommend
it because it can seriously mess up the drive even if it's their
program... some glitch with factory format that it cant be done
more than 2-3 times over total life of drive...
Personally I only do it if there is no other way to get the
**** thing going again... at which point it dun matter if
drive does die... as it already had basically..
I do a lot of this kind of stuff tho.. amazing how many people
get hit with CIH or other boot virus's and dont notice till the
real damage is done.. NT can be gotten rid of this way as well
I only had to do that once... (someone installed NT over 95 ick)
Umm I actually didnt go look at the site.. just posted the warning..
hmm I have an EZ disk that has Western Digital Printed on it..
but your right wddiag.exe and the manufacturer's don't recommend
it because it can seriously mess up the drive even if it's their
program... some glitch with factory format that it cant be done
more than 2-3 times over total life of drive...
Personally I only do it if there is no other way to get the
**** thing going again... at which point it dun matter if
drive does die... as it already had basically..
I do a lot of this kind of stuff tho.. amazing how many people
get hit with CIH or other boot virus's and dont notice till the
real damage is done.. NT can be gotten rid of this way as well
I only had to do that once... (someone installed NT over 95 ick)
bartjach
you probally have a non dos partition that u need to delete first ,see option #5 on fdisk( I think this option is shown when you have 2000 on with 98 )
you probally have a non dos partition that u need to delete first ,see option #5 on fdisk( I think this option is shown when you have 2000 on with 98 )
bartjach ; if you reject the proposed answer it will unlock this question and other experts will comment on this problem ( you can still accept the proposed answer as the answer later if it fixes the problem
Bartjach are you still on here?
Need to know.
Need to know.
You will have to remove the NTFS partition. (Something like what Trekie said about NON dos Partition) You probably where deleting the FAT partition only. First you will have to delete both partitions, then fdisk the HD again and reboot, then format it. Hopefully this way you get the whole 7 gigs)
(make sure you have a BOOT disk with fdisk and format on it. And you have to reboot before you format it the partition will not be changed to the new one)
(make sure you have a BOOT disk with fdisk and format on it. And you have to reboot before you format it the partition will not be changed to the new one)
Hmm all the way back to top for the answer ... ouch...
Ok guess I should quit adding to the spam and leave my first answers alone? (maybe not.. I'm always looking thru what else gets posted and coming up with more info.)
Nice to see we all seem to get along here and note each others info,
and respond to the additional info.
Ok guess I should quit adding to the spam and leave my first answers alone? (maybe not.. I'm always looking thru what else gets posted and coming up with more info.)
Nice to see we all seem to get along here and note each others info,
and respond to the additional info.
well seeing how he/she never responded back maybe the first one was just handy???but then again yours was the most lodigal fix.....good work Tascan..
From: trekie1
Date: Tuesday, February 22 2000 - 02:23PM PST
bartjach
you probally have a non dos partition that u need to delete first ,see option #5 on fdisk( I think this option is shown when you have 2000 on with 98 )
He was right. You don't need any third party program. Go to option 3 first and delete...
Date: Tuesday, February 22 2000 - 02:23PM PST
bartjach
you probally have a non dos partition that u need to delete first ,see option #5 on fdisk( I think this option is shown when you have 2000 on with 98 )
He was right. You don't need any third party program. Go to option 3 first and delete...