[kharley]

I have a 80 HD but it's only showing 40 of it how do I format my HD with my XP disk to get the whole HD, do I delete both partitions and will that give me just one drive, Thank you.

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Hi kharley! I'm glad you're asking lots of questions lately, it keeps us busy! Just how I like it

I recommend using GParted for resizing partitions. You can download it from here. You will need to download the file that says "gparted-livecd-0.3.4-8.iso". Once you have saved it to your hard drive, you will then need to burn it to a blank CD as an image. This is different from burning a data disc.

If you have Nero (it's pretty common), the option is under the Copy and Backup section of StartSmart - it's called "Burn Image to Disc". If you don't have Nero, your current burning program might be able to do it for you, or there are free utilities that can do it for you. Here's a page full of examples, the one it takes you to is pretty good (It's called BurnCDCC).

Once you've finished burning it as an image, it should be a bootable CD for you. This means that when you restart your computer, it will boot to the disc in the drive. You may need to enter the BIOS first and change the Boot Order Priority so the CD drive is before the Hard Drive.

Once you're in, it should detect your hard drive and the current partitions you have. You should be able to use the box as a slider and adjust your hard drive partition size to the full amount. For better instructions, click here.

Cheers

Edited by FPVDriF6, 30 September 2007 - 08:56 PM.

[Troy]

Hi kharley! I'm glad you're asking lots of questions lately, it keeps us busy! Just how I like it

I recommend using GParted for resizing partitions. You can download it from here. You will need to download the file that says "gparted-livecd-0.3.4-8.iso". Once you have saved it to your hard drive, you will then need to burn it to a blank CD as an image. This is different from burning a data disc.

If you have Nero (it's pretty common), the option is under the Copy and Backup section of StartSmart - it's called "Burn Image to Disc". If you don't have Nero, your current burning program might be able to do it for you, or there are free utilities that can do it for you. Here's a page full of examples, the one it takes you to is pretty good (It's called BurnCDCC).

Once you've finished burning it as an image, it should be a bootable CD for you. This means that when you restart your computer, it will boot to the disc in the drive. You may need to enter the BIOS first and change the Boot Order Priority so the CD drive is before the Hard Drive.

Once you're in, it should detect your hard drive and the current partitions you have. You should be able to use the box as a slider and adjust your hard drive partition size to the full amount. For better instructions, click here.

Cheers

Edited by FPVDriF6, 30 September 2007 - 08:56 PM.

[kharley]

Yeah I have been asking a lot of questions lately but I have never had this much trouble with this old thing, but anyways what I want to do is use my xp cd to totally format my hard drive clean everything off and start from scratch and I dont know how to. I know when I bought this thing it only had one drive and a small part of that was for my windows, I dont know if when I format am I supposed to delete all partitions even the one with my windows to totally start over, and if so does the xp cd automatically set the partition for my windows or do I have to crearte one and if so how do I do that. I know I am being a pain but I really want to learn to do this on my own. I am having a lot of this trouble because I messed up and let somebody else work on it, Thank you.

[Troy]

You are not being a pain! We love helping

If it's the case that you want to completely format the drive and start again, then that's an easy one to do. Make sure you understand that this will delete everything on your hard drive, so if you have some data you want to keep (like pictures, home movies, office files), make copies of it first.

You need to make sure you have your drivers all ready to go to be installed after the XP install is finished - this is just in case Windows doesn't pick up on something properly.

Next, you can follow all the instructions found here up until this point: instead of pressing R to repair the selected installation, press ESC. You will then need to follow the next few screens very carefully. It will ask you where you want to install XP, and it should give you some options to select a partition, delete a partition etc... Just keep deleting the partitions until you have one option that says xxMB Unpartitioned Space. You should be able to select this option and create a partition. It will bring up a little box asking for the size you want the partition to be, just select all of it as the one partition and it should be good. Use the NTFS format (Don't use the quick option).

It should then format your hard drive and install Windows XP on it. This will take some time, and it may restart the computer once or twice - this is normal, don't touch anything and let it do its thing. You will most probably need to setup a few options, such as putting in your COA key (product key), and you can also select language options and networking options - usually the defaults are just fine.

Once it has finished, it will log you in for the first time. Make sure to have an anti-virus and firewall program installed before connecting your computer to the internet. I always recommend leaving the tower physically disconnected until you have done this. Some free, good programs are included in my signature - avast! Anti-virus and the Sunbelt Personal Firewall. You could burn these to a disc or copy to a thumb drive before formatting, and then install them. Then when you connect to the internet, run Windows Update to get all the latest Service Packs and other updates.

Hope this helps

[kharley]

I will be able to get my whole hd back then instead of just 40 I have an 80 but right now it's only giving me 40 so I delete all the partitions then, Thank you I will let you know if I screw up everything , Thanks again.

[Troy]

You're welcome

[kharley]

One more stupid question are you sure it will give me the option of all or am I going to have to put in numbers if it's numbers I have NO idea what to put, Thank you.

[Troy]

If you have to put in numbers, it should automatically put the full amount in for you - and it will tell you how many MB there is free anyway, so if it doesn't put the full amount in for you, just type in the number that you see.

It should tell you "Unpartitioned Space xxMB", however many MB it is, just select to create a partition using that space.

I'm sure that you will get it right!

[kharley]

OK I formatted this thing but no matter what I do I cant get my full HD I am still showing only a 40 where mine is an 80. I deleted the partitions and only left the one that say's 7mb when I hit creat partition it tells me to enter the numbers but I dont know what the numbers are for an 80 HD, I am not sure it would give it to me anyway sense it thinks I only have a 40. There is not a chance all this could be because of my power supply is there that would be so much easier to replace, Thank you Again.

[Troy]

I really don't think the power supply would be causing the hard drive to mis-report the size information. Given that you seem to know for sure that your hard drive is 80GB, I'm going to ask - How do you know this? Is it possible that it really is a 40GB hard drive?

[kharley]

I have a maxtor 6Y080P0 it had an 80 in it when I bought it and I posted this earlier to see if maybe my HD had been switched because I let somebody else work on it. I was told it is an 80 HD but I still didn't get any help as to how to get the full HD, The SN# is Y2V0WVVE the REV# is YAR41BWO, Thank you.

[kharley]

I asked that question about the power supply not so much for the HD but the other problems. I figured out when I reboot and it tells me no operating system found I can unplug the power cord for a few minutes and it will boot to windows. I was asking to see if that could be the trouble with the errors with the floppy, the mouse, and sometimes the cd rom. I can replace the hard drive thats not a problem but the other stuff is aggrivating, Thank you.

[wannabe1]

Hi kharley...

You have quite a few problems going here, some of which may be related. As you have an older machine, the first thing I find suspect is the CMOS motherboard) battery. When this battery gets weak or dies, the BIOS won't properly hold it's settings and can lead to some of the problems you describe.

The battery is located on the motherboard and is usually in the lower left quarter...it looks much like a watch battery or a coin. As a first step, I would suggest replacing that with a new one and see if any of your problems resolve.

This battery being weak or dead can cause the "no operating system" errors and the misreporting of the HDD capacity...among other things.

Let us know if this helps.

wannabe1

[kharley]

I replaced the floppy and the ribbon when I was told that was the problem but it wasn't, I also replaced the battery about a week ago, I dont know what else to try. I have been getting advice like the power supply, or corrupt HD I just dont want it to be my motherboard, Thank you.

[wannabe1]

Have you run diagnostics on the HDD? You can download the Diagnostic Tool from the Seagate/Maxtor website to either run in DOS or in Windows. If the machine is running, try the version that runs under Windows first.