+ Hard Drive Problems

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Kazer0
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+ Hard Drive Problems

Post by Kazer0 »

1- Its a 11 gb HD

2- In windows, it only says 9.52 gb

3- No installed do, so no partition

so my problem is:

I can no longer use more than 4 gb of space! It says im outta space, but my computer says i have 5 gb left!
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Post by Unknown_K »

Umm what exatly are you using for a computer, as in specific motherboard, OS version etc?

The original Win95 (version 950) couldnt use more then 4gb of space I think. It could also be a bios problem. In a dos prompt type fdisk and then option 4 to see the current hd. Does it show less then 100% usage on that drive? If so then the bios of the machine isnt a problem.

Windows 95 OSR2 or later windows can use the whole hd. You need to be able to use fat32 when you fdisk the HD to be able to use the whole drive.
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Kazer0
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Post by Kazer0 »

Ah! i was hoping to hear from you....

Specs:

I dont knoe the motherboard, it came with the case.
11 GB HD
266 mhz
192 mb RAM
Windows ME (it worked fine when it was in Windows 98se, I dont knoe why it doesnt now!)
it says FILE SYSTEM: FAT32

I have no Idea what the problem ios, it worked in windows 98se!

FDISK says there is 9.7 gb avalible. Right on the Hard Drive it says 10.6 (i rounded to 11) gb!
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Post by Unknown_K »

well hd makers call a gb 1,000,000,000 bytes while its really 1,024,000,000 in software.

So 10.6gb devided by 1.024 = about 9.8GB.

As far as being out of space with 5 GB left. You do know that the max filesize of 1 file in windows 9x is 2 or 4 gb (cant remember which) so if your archiving alot of files into 1 zip or rar that could be the problem. Also check the trashcan to see if you have 5gb of deleted files in it (empty it out). And last check the HD for a virus because they have been known to screw up available free disk space.
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Kazer0
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Post by Kazer0 »

i already deleted the trash.

I tried defrag and it said to run scandisk. so i run scandisk, and it keeps starting over. It says "scandisk has restarted 10 times. A program is writing to your hard drive. please exit programs and restart scandisk"

nothing else was running! i hit ctrl + alt + del and the onlky things open are the usual systray and explorer (plus scandisk!)

I deleted the zip files a while ago. There is no way I had 5gb of those n e wayz.
Unknown_K
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Post by Unknown_K »

Probably windows ME has made hidden files of all the stuff you have been downloading.

http://www.fuckmicrosoft.com/content/ms ... iles.shtml

go there and follow the directions
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Kazer0
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Post by Kazer0 »

Once again, K0 has done it. He fixed the problem without knowing how! It now says im using 7.4gb out of 9.8!

But i have another problem, when i run scandisk, it either starts over or freezes my pc at 80%.

could u help me?
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Post by 486 player »

i GB´s 1073741824 bytes.
NO Windows, NO DOSBox, DOS!
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johpower
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Maybe a BIOS update....maybe fdisk.....

Post by johpower »

kazer0 wrote:Ah! i was hoping to hear from you....

Specs:

I dont knoe the motherboard, it came with the case.
11 GB HD
266 mhz
192 mb RAM
Windows ME (it worked fine when it was in Windows 98se, I dont knoe why it doesnt now!)
it says FILE SYSTEM: FAT32

I have no Idea what the problem ios, it worked in windows 98se!

FDISK says there is 9.7 gb avalible. Right on the Hard Drive it says 10.6 (i rounded to 11) gb!
You may not be seeing all that drive for another reason. The 266mhz CPU is a tip that the Mboard is in need of a BIOS update. You need the manufacturer name and MB ID (usually printed on the board or a sticker on the side of the last ISA slot). Use Google to search. It's good enough that I don't need the maker half the time to find the update file.

Other possibility: if you decide to reformat to recover all your space, run "fdisk /mbr" before you fdisk the drive for real. This resets the Master Boot Record. It is also necessary should there be a drive converter program that allowed your drive to work with this motherboard due to the BIOS being out of date and not allowing full use of the drive. This program will steal a bit of the drive to do it's magic.

After running /mbr, run "fdisk" (no switch) and make sure the thing is fully cleared out of all strange partitions. Hopefully all the space will now be usable. And yes, that 10.6 can come down a full gig when formatted. Used to be a big problem in the old days. In 1995 my 10.8 Seagate (very abusive of their size specs) only gave 8.4 gigs formated. That pissed me off good!
Sig: "The Universe is change... but it is not exact change." -Fusco Bros.
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