Can't format third partition

[bill1971]

Partitioned a 40GB Maxtor into one primary
active, and two extended logical partitions' usinf FDISK.EXE.
Everything looks fine,there.Formatted the C:
drive and D http://www.sysopt.com/forum/biggrin.gifrive, but got a "Can't format E:
Drive" error message.
Is it because my 98 boot disk inflates all
the files to "E:"?Seems I ran into this same
prob formatting my 60GB IBM HDD - somehow, (don't know what I did),it took on the third
try.I noticed that sometimes these files
will arbitrarily inflate to "Z:" Drive ;
maybe that's when I was able to format the
"E:"
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

[NDC]

Have you tried deleting the last partition that cannot be formatted and recreating it?

[bill1971]

NDC:
Thanks for your response.Yes, I tried to delete the last logical
drive that wouldn't "take" - did this several times.Everything
looked OK,but when you restart the machine, that last "E" drive
wouldn't show up,and the system files would inflate to "E:"
FYI,the first logical drive is 10GB,and I was trying to divide the
extended DOS partition into D: (10GB) and E: (20GB).
With that in mind, I decided delete the extended partitions, and
Re-create the ext'd dos part'tn and try to divide it into D: (10GB,
E: (10GB), and F: (10GB). It always seems to format that last
drive too quickly,so I was not very hopeful when I re-booted.
But this time, the system files inflated to G: as expected.
Do you have any idea what happened here. The original 20GB
E: that I wanted - the size shouldn't have had anything to do
with it(?)
Thanks for your input

[elroy]

What does "inflated system files" mean?????
I've done what you are doing many times but have never run across this terminology.

[golfcart]

You are refering to what is called "ramdrive" just skip the drive letter it is using and format the next available....when you reboot, ramdrive should be gone and all your partitions in order.

[bill1971]

Elroy:
When you insert the windows Start-up Disk, and you choose the
"Format and install WindowsXX," you can watch as the disk
copies files to the RAMDrive,( CD-ROM driver,etc.).If you watch
the screen,you will see files,e.g., "Inflating to E: FDISK.EXE",
"Inflating to E: FORMAT.COM," among several others.My assumption here,(and I've gotten in trouble for assuming
before), is that these files are originally compressed on the
floppy(?). That's what I meant by "inflated system files."

Golfcart:
I may, inadvertently, done what you suggest, when I was finally able to format that last partition on that 60GB IBM. You try so
many things, it's hard to tell what works.

Thanks for your input.

[shahani]

OK, Bill1971, I have read all the posts as well as your initial statement of the problem. There is nothing really wrong. Here's what you do: boot from a dos floppy and type fdisk /mbr. Next format /s . I'd choose only one large partition at first. If you see the entire 40GB, fdisk again and divide into the 3 partitions you want. Alternatively, keep one 40GB partition , load your OS and use Partition Magic to partition. If you don't have PM, let me know and I will email you a free partitioning utility. But try the fdisk /mbr first. This will rewrite the Master Boot Record with a fresh copy in case yours is corrupted. My email id is shahani@hotmail.com