hard drive capacity free space problem after format

[BRO DUDE]

i formatted and done a fresh install of windows xp and changed the hard drives around to have my 200gig as master and 60 gig as slave
and after sorting everything out and installing xp my 200 gig is showing a capacity of 186 (same as it was b4 the format) but its showing its using 60gig but the total of the files on that drive dont go over 1gig so its saying im using 60gig when im not any help....????

[acal3000]

I think should be good you re format again put when you make the partitions use something like Partition Magic or similar because some times xp install normal setup is not very good reziizing differennt partitions other then making full format on the same partition an full capacity

[Random]

i formatted and done a fresh install of windows xp and changed the hard drives around to have my 200gig as master and 60 gig as slave
and after sorting everything out and installing xp my 200 gig is showing a capacity of 186 (same as it was b4 the format) but its showing its using 60gig but the total of the files on that drive dont go over 1gig so its saying im using 60gig when im not any help....????

Do you have any hidden partitions on the HD?

[Labyrnth]

If that hard drive came with a floppy disc you need to install the driver from it.

I had to do this on a 120 gig hard drive because it did the very same thing.

[Random]

If you use Partition Magic, that will tell you if you have a hidden partition.

[CanadianWizar]

Use the disc you recieved with the hard drive if you do not have the disk then go onto the website who made the hard drive and get the software from there...

A nice program for partitioning and for formating is called Boot-It. Nice small program put it on a disk or on a floppy and it automaticly boots into the program similar to your win 98 start up disk... but no dos :blah2:

[BRO DUDE]

i reinstalled windows XP again b4 i read these and it ended up putting the main drive as f:\ for some weird reason so i rereformeted and done it again now its only showing it has 127gig capacity with bout a gig or 2 used space and 125 free space (around about) what happened there i totally lost the 60 gig now

[mammu]

You can't loose space. I think so it might be having hidden partitions.
Have you tried partition magic software. This software will end all your difficulties. Give it a try.

[BRO DUDE]

i got a program and it found it and now i have 2 partitions but i want it as 1 how do i merge them 2gether (its the c:\ with windows on it)

[acal3000]

i got a program and it found it and now i have 2 partitions but i want it as 1 how do i merge them 2gether (its the c:\ with windows on it)

If you mention what program you used is maybe someone can give a better explanation how to do it

[BRO DUDE]

i used Data Lifeguard Tools and i want to merge partitions or add the free space back to the main partition

[STi FlyBy]

i want to merge partitions or add the free space back to the main partition

You should be able to do it with fdisk ...

[mammu]

we can't merge partitions with fdisk.
Download partition magic trial pack. Do google search.
With this software you can merge 2 partitions and also can find if there is any hidden partition or drive.

[BRO DUDE]

done and done got a copy of partition magic and got it all back into 1 partition

[BRO DUDE]

yeah i installed with xp and only was sp1 and knew that problem but when i upgraded to sp2 it still couldnt find it using the windows tools so had to use the others

[mammu]

yeah i installed with xp and only was sp1 and knew that problem but when i upgraded to sp2 it still couldnt find it using the windows tools so had to use the others
This is your answer
Partition magic would only be able to merge them if you had installed sp2.
Otherwize Windows would have hidden the extra GB's
Windows could not find it bcoz it might be hidden.
You need software like partition magic(v8 onwards) to detect those hidden gbs.
You can google search his software and download it.
As said before it will end all you problems.:beer: