Hard drive capacity now 2gb instead of 10gb

[Lynny-Oz]

Hello I have reformatted my hard drive and reinstalled windows ME and now my hard drive capacity is showing as 2gb instead of 10gb. A previous Belarc printout shows Local Drive Volumes c: (FAT32 on drive 0), it now shows c: (FAT on drive 0). Can anyone tell me how to fix this please. Thanks.

Operating System
Windows Millenium Edition (build 4.90.3000)

Processor
1.20 gigahertz AMD Athlon
128 kilobyte primary memory cache
256 kilobyte secondary memory cache

Drives
2.15 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
1.03 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space


Main Circuit Board b
Board: K7VM4 1.00
Bus Clock 133 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. P1.70 08/09/2003

Memory Modules c,d
192 Megabytes Installed Memory
Slot '0' has 256 MB
Slot '1' is Empty

Local Drive Volumes
c: (FAT on drive 0) 2.15 GB 1.03 GB free

[street1]

Welcome to Windrivers Lynny-OZ.

You need to use fdisk and remove all partitions then fdisk with and enable large
disk support to create the partition.
http://www.computerhope.com/sfdisk1.htm

Do you have a Win me boot disk?

http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

[Lynny-Oz]

Hello street1

Thanks for your reply. I'm afraid i'm having trouble understanding what i have to do. On the first screen after selecting delete partions i get this:

Delete DOS Partition or Logical DOS Drive

Current fixed disk drive: 1

Choose one of the following:

1. Delete Primary DOS partition

2. Delete Extended DOS Partition

3. Delete Logical DOS Drive(s) in the Extended DOS Partition

4. Delete Non-DOS Partition

Enter Choice: [ ]

Do i enter (1) as my first choice, and then go from there? Please excuse my ignorance, but i'm worried i'm going to do something i shouldn't! Thanks.

[street1]

Yes, then go from there.

[street1]

I am off to work if Lynny-Oz needs more help someone please fill in for me so she is not left waiting..


Thanks!

[Lynny-Oz]

Thanks street 1, but i just can't get my head around it. I deleted the Primary Dos Partition, but got stuck after that. I'll keep reading up on it, and see how i go. Thank you for your help.

[Platypus]

Hello Lynny-Oz, now that the incorrect FAT (FAT16 which can only be maximum 2GB) partition has been deleted, you need to create a new Active Primary Partition.

You must be using an FDISK that asks the question shown in Street's link about the large drive (over 512M). If this doesn't happen, your boot disk is from too old a version of DOS (version 6 or older). You need a boot disk from Windows 98 or ME (at a pinch, 95 OSR2).

You have to answer "Yes" to the large drive support question, then choose Option 1 again to "Create a DOS Partition or Logical Drive", then "Create Primary DOS Partition". Choose to "use all the available space and make the partition active".

Exit FDISK and reboot the system. You should be able to start installing again from the Windows ME disk, allow it to format the new partition and all should be well.

[street1]

Thank you,Platypus.I was in the middle of going to work and helping the post.

Glad it was you there to cover for me.I got caught.

[Lynny-Oz]

Thank you street1 and platypus. I'm sorry to seem stupid, but do i have to delete all 4 choices? Also, i can't use a floppy because mine doesn't work. I think though, that when i have followed your instructions, i have to then format c drive again and reinstall windows me? Thank you so much for your patience.

[Platypus]

Yes, it will be necessary to re-format the new partition and install Windows again. A bit tedious but that's computers for you...

When you say delete all four choices, I guess you mean do you have to go through deleting Extended DOS partition, Logical drives etc. You only need to do any of these if Extended or Non-DOS partitions exist.

From your original Belarc report I think there should be none of these. But you can check by choosing the option to show partition information from the FDISK home screen. If it lists any non-DOS or Extended partitions, use the corresponding delete to remove them too. If there are any logical drives in an Extended partition, you need to work backwards, deleting the logical drive(s) first, then the partition.

It all sounds complicated, but once you figure out what you have to do, it's fairly straightforward. When you have the whole drive partitioned as a single Active Primary partition, install Windows ME again. The setup will format the drive at the beginning.

If you strike any problems, don't feel silly about asking.

[Lynny-Oz]

Hello street1 and platypus Thank you very much for your replies. I'm afraid i'm having another problem now - after following all of your instructions, i have tried to format c drive and keep getting a bad command error message. As i need the pc to do some work from home today, i'm going to have to leave it for now - i can't risk stuffing up the pc more than i already have! I appreciate very much the time you have taken to help me, and will visit here again later on today for more advice. Thanks platypus for your comment about asking for help even when i feel silly - that's precisely how i feel at the moment!

[street1]

Lynny-OZ-Try the below 2 format commands at prompt.


Format c: /u /s

Format c: /s

[Platypus]

Once the drive is set up with one partition, if you boot the computer up from the Windows ME Installation CD, the Windows setup should format the drive for you before continuing with the installation.

[Lynny-Oz]

Hello Sorry for the delay in responding...i'm moving house and things have been a bit hectic. I was still having problems formatting the hard drive, so i ended up purchasing a windows me boot/diagnostics cd which made partitioning the drive and formatting it, easy. It was very convenient, as i can't get the floppy to work. I then reinstalled windows and everything is fine now. Thank you very much for all of your help

[Platypus]

Glad you got it sorted out. Thanks for coming back to let us know the result.