have question about partitions

[GroundZero3]

i want to partition my hard drive but don't want to have format my hard drive. is there an easy to make it since i have win95 already running?? I heard of partition magic is that good? do you have to buy it? are there any free programs out there that just work as good??

another thing i went back to win95 and tried to create a partition and when it was reading it stopped at 58% i think i have some bad sectors but the drive is only about 8 months old and its a matrux (sp?) everytime norton scan disk thru DOS it says that some dos program error shows the wrong amount of size and may casue slowness or errors. and it ask to repair it and i do. but that warning comes up all the time i scan disk. is there any programs to fix my problem?? please say yes!!


JaYsin

[This message has been edited by GroundZero3 (edited 09-05-2000).]

[Deke]

Sounds like your gonna have to do the nasty!

NASTY= Term used to say your going to re-partition, format and install your os onto your computer.


Deke

[chuckiechan]

Since you need to do the Nasty anyway, why do you want to partition?

Is it really big, or are you doing it for the heck of it. Now is a great time to ask questions... http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[GroundZero3]

well i thought maybe partition magic or something could recover the lost areas or something. the last thing i want to do is reformat. god i hate doing that.


JaYsin

[Mntsnow]

Partition Magic is a great tool for those of us that work with several OS's at a time or are constantly changing our system configurations. PM can test and in many cases reclaim sectors that were marked bad by scandisk and other utilities. PM is definitely worth the 50 bucks! IMHO

[GroundZero3]

**** 50 bucks im kinda of short on cash is there any program that does that for free??

JaYsin

[Mntsnow]

Found one that looks like it might do the job for you http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif
http://www.users.intercom.com/~ranish/part/

or you can look thru these at download.com
http://download.cnet.com/downloads/1,10150,0-10001-103-0-1-7,00.html?tag=st%2Ecn%2E10096%2Dron%2Esbsr&qt=partition&cn=Utilities&ca=10001

[GroundZero3]

whats the difference between a low level format and a full?? i saw this program on download.com http://download.cnet.com/downloads/0-10106-100-868553.html?tag=st.dl.10001_103_1.lst.td

could be it useful??

JaYsin

[Mntsnow]

A low level format is the most complete type of format avaliable. it totally kills everything by writting zeros's to everything.(the way a drive comes from the factory) Be warned though. Only do a low level format as a last resort as quite often you can kill the drive. Also take note that Maxtor even says Maxtor recommends removing any other hard drives from the system before running this utility.

[GroundZero3]

Kill the hard drive? how so??? i only have ony hard drive in so i don't have to worry about it.

[spark25]

Why would you mess with it at all? If the drive is only 8 Mo. old,contact the manuf. and send it back for a new one. Bad sectors in an 8mo. old drive are unacceptable.The drive is faulty,send it back.

[Deke]

I doubt you have bad sectors on an 8 mo. old hard drive. I haven't even seen hard drives in the last few years that even had bad sectors. Just what exactly are you trying do partitioning a drive while within win95? you say you went back to win95? was your os something different before? As I stated before the order is partition, format, and OS install. It's good practice to repartition anyway, you may have a messed up boot fat table.

Deke

[GroundZero3]

okay i decided to reformat it and i went to do the fdisk first but a warning came up about writing error on the fixed disks. Im ready to thru the piece of ***** out the window and take a baseball bat to it. then bury the sucker.

JaYsin

[Richard_Cranium72]

The least warranty I've seen on New HD's is a year.

This is usually for OEM HD's like come in a HP or some other mfg'd pewter.

Here's a utility that's free and will overwrite the HD.
If you have a HD virus this should erase it.
The rating on Eraser is 5 stars, BC Wipe is 3 stars. I liked BC Wipe just fine, Eraser is a little prettier though. ->>

" Eraser is a free file wipe utility that securely removes sensitive data from your hard drive."
http://hotfiles.zdnet.com/cgi-bin/texis/swlib/hotfiles/info.html?fcode=000RIF&b=go

[Stembolt]

Before you format, use the Maxtor(I'm guessing) install floppy and check to see if EZ-Drive is installed on the drive. EZ-Drive can cause problems, especially in conjunction with partitioning and diagnostic programs.

You will probably need to upgrade your system bios before removing EZ-Drive. You may need to flash your bios anyway. It may not recognize your drive properly. Good luck.

[bhess]

I've been having problems with my Maxtor. It tool awhile to determine that it was the HD and it was the maxtor. Anyway, I called maxtor and they said to run "maxdiag" that comes on the disk. They then said to d/l the latest ver 9.2 from the website and run it too. It failed and they are replacing it. cool. They also sent a new one (with a CC number for a deposit) and said to send mine back within a month.
so try the maxdiag. You have to boot with the disk, then exit everything back to the dos prompt. Then type "maxdiag".
Good luck
Brian

[GroundZero3]

im have no clue what is with it now but its working fine. it sayz that is .42 mb of bad sectors Oh well its works fine now. Thanxs alot awhole lot for all your help.

JaYsin

[GroundZero3]

im have no clue what is with it now but its working fine. it sayz that is .42 mb of bad sectors Oh well its works fine now. Thanxs alot awhole lot for all your help.

JaYsin

[bhess]

Don't trust it. Mine worked fine for a while too. Then it got worse and worse. Then it wasn't worth useing.
If it is a Maxtor try the maxdiag before it gets to bad. Takes 15 min.

[GroundZero3]

i bought my harddrive online and it didn't come with a disk. can i d/l maxdiag anywhere?


JaYsin

[howste]

You can download Maxtor's MaxDiag here: http://www.maxtor.com/downloads/softwareDownload.html

Or if your drive is Western Digital, get dlgdiag.zip (diagnostics) here: http://www.westerndigital.com/service/ftp/drives.html

Seagate Seatools here: http://www.seagate.com/support/npf/seatools/seatool-entry.html

I'm sure there are others. Just make sure you get the one supplied by your hard drive manufacturer.

Steve