Hardrive 2GB out of 5,1 GB HELP QUICK !!!!!!! PLEASE :(

[Krueger81]

Hello,
I recently bought a quantum 5,1 GB and formatted it in dos. Used fdisk and it can only make a 2 GB partition. I know I could do more then that but IU want one which is 5,1 GB big. How can I do that?

It will only recognize 2,1 GB in win95 either if I run partition magic I can't resize the drive to 5,1 GB I can only make it smaller...

What do I do?

Please help me Quick it is driving me crazy.

[Butch]

What type of computer are you putting it in to? Have you tried using the software that came with the hard drive? Are you running win31, win95 or win98? I need more info if so I can try to help you.

[jokostel]

FAT16 ONLY ALLOWS2gb partitions...FAT32 allows up to like 4tb i think....anyways....
the problem is that 2gb is the max that dos can use....
so the 5,1gb drive needs to be broken up in 2gb clusters or else whatever you want....
but it cannot be more than 2gb...
with fdisk it will let you set up a primary HD (physical) and as many secondary HD's (logical) to fill up the space that isn't taken...
keep in mind when you partition drives that you have to format EACH drive!!
hope this helps
jokostel@usa.net

[CMonster]

jokostel is right about the 2GB limit on DOS; But if you are running Windows 95b or higher then you can convert the drive to FAT32 using partition magic (note: FAT32 is not supported by Win95a), and then you can make it all one 5.1GB drive or what ever partition size you want. FAT32 is supposed to be able to handle drives up to 2terabytes.

You are better off to start all over again, boot with a Win95b (or higher) startup disk, and then fdisk, choose "enable large drive support" when prompted, delete the existing partitions, and repartition it as one large drive. Reboot, format, and be on your way.

Is there any reason you are installing DOS first? Is it to load the CDROM drivers so you can load Windows from a CD? You know you can boot from a startup disk that has CDROM drivers and install Windows without ever installing DOS.

[800XL]

FAT16 vs FAT32: To get a drive size over 2GB you need to use either Win98's fdisk or Win95 OSR2. You can tell it right off because it will ask you if you want to enable large disk support. Answer yes to that question. There may be some other partition utils that will let you create a FAT 32 partition, but you will still need either 98 or 95 OSR2 to be able to read from a that FAT32 partition. If you are using the original retail version of Win95, then you will not be able to create or view a FAT32 partition. It will show up as a non-DOS partition. The other way to get more of your drive usuable under FAT16 is to create an extended partition, then create logical drives in that partition. You are still limited to 2GB a piece, but then you have a D: and E: drive that will allow you to use up that space.

[Krueger81]

Bought Win 98 today http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif 95.58$ http://www.sysopt.com/forum/frown.gif( But I think it is worth it I will tell you what happened after I installed it.

Thanks for your replies. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[Krueger81]

It worked C: is now 5 GB big. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[DUSTYRUN]

updating your bios will work with windows verson 1 also.i had win #1 and ran a 6.4 gig.
it worked after updating the bios