formatting ntfs hard drive

[Max Cruz]

Hello!

Let me get straight to the point. I bought a new computer and about 5
months later I had to format it because of software problems. When I
formated and reinstalled Windows XP, I noticed that my 40 GB hard
drive was now a 37GB hard drive. I think that the old NTFS Partition
might not have formated. If anyoned knows a way for me to restore my
40 GB hard drive or how to restore that partition so it could be
formatted, I will b very thankfull.

Thank You.

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

The Windows XP CD is bootable and contains all the tools necessary
to partition and format your drive. Follow this procedure and allow
Windows XP to partition and format your drive:

1. It would be best to physically disconnect all your peripheral hardware
devices, except for you mouse and keyboard, before installing XP.

2. Open your BIOS and set your CD Drive as the first bootable device.

===> Accessing Motherboard BIOS
===> http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm

3. Insert your Windows XP CD in the CD Drive and reboot your computer.
4. You'll see a message to boot to the CD....follow the instructions.
5. The setup menu will appear and you should elect to delete the existing
Windows partitions, then create a new partition, then format the primary
partition (preferably NTFS) and proceed to install Windows XP.

6. Clean Install Windows XP
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

[Courtesy of Michael Stevens, MS-MVP]

7. After Windows XP is installed, visit the Windows Update website
and download the available "Critical Updates".

8. After installing the critical updates, be sure and visit the support website
of the manufacturer of the computer to download and install any
available Windows XP compatible drivers, such as video adapter
and audio drivers.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


| Hello!
|
| Let me get straight to the point. I bought a new computer and about 5
| months later I had to format it because of software problems. When I
| formated and reinstalled Windows XP, I noticed that my 40 GB hard
| drive was now a 37GB hard drive. I think that the old NTFS Partition
| might not have formated. If anyoned knows a way for me to restore my
| 40 GB hard drive or how to restore that partition so it could be
| formatted, I will b very thankfull.
|
| Thank You.

 

[Bastet]

Hello!

Let me get straight to the point. I bought a new computer and about 5
months later I had to format it because of software problems. When I
formated and reinstalled Windows XP, I noticed that my 40 GB hard
drive was now a 37GB hard drive. I think that the old NTFS Partition
might not have formated. If anyoned knows a way for me to restore my
40 GB hard drive or how to restore that partition so it could be
formatted, I will b very thankfull.

Thank You.

I don't see the problem - your hard drive has *NEVER* been 40GB - *EVER* -
what makes you think it has? 37 is perfectly correct because of the
definition of a GB - decimal versus binary - the former is a billion bytes,
the latter, 1,073,741,824 - take the former from the latter and you're left
with 73,741,824, or about 73MB. This means that for every decimal gigabyte,
73MB are lost in the conversion. Multiply that by 40 and you get 2.92GB,
which is as near as damnit to 3. You cannot recover space that doesn't
exist.

 

[Tomas Brelling]

[..........]
7. After Windows XP is installed, visit the Windows Update website
and download the available "Critical Updates".

Maybe he should install an anti-virus and firewall (not just the
built-into-XP firewall) before going on the Web?


Tomas B.

 

[Bastet]

The Windows XP CD is bootable and contains all the tools necessary
to partition and format your drive. Follow this procedure and allow
Windows XP to partition and format your drive:

1. It would be best to physically disconnect all your peripheral
hardware devices, except for you mouse and keyboard, before
installing XP.

2. Open your BIOS and set your CD Drive as the first bootable
device.

===> Accessing Motherboard BIOS
===> http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm

3. Insert your Windows XP CD in the CD Drive and reboot your
computer.
4. You'll see a message to boot to the CD....follow the
instructions.
5. The setup menu will appear and you should elect to delete the
existing Windows partitions, then create a new partition, then
format the primary partition (preferably NTFS) and proceed to
install Windows XP.

6. Clean Install Windows XP
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

[Courtesy of Michael Stevens, MS-MVP]

7. After Windows XP is installed, visit the Windows Update website
and download the available "Critical Updates".

8. After installing the critical updates, be sure and visit the
support website of the manufacturer of the computer to
download and install any available Windows XP compatible
drivers, such as video adapter and audio drivers.

Carey,

Not to be rude, but I really think you need to take a little more time in
reading the question before trotting out one of your canned responses. He
states that Windows only 'recognises' 37GB of his 40GB drive - therefore,
although well meaning, your response is next to useless. You know the
difference between decimal and binary, surely?!

 

[George Ellis]

And to add insult to injury, HD vendors "fudge" their size numbers.
Regardless of decimel or hex conversions, the drive still is not 40GB. The
vendors round-up to the next best marketable number. There is now a law
suite somewhere in the EU that was started in the last few weeks.

 

[Alex Nichol]

Let me get straight to the point. I bought a new computer and about 5
months later I had to format it because of software problems. When I
formated and reinstalled Windows XP, I noticed that my 40 GB hard
drive was now a 37GB hard drive. I think that the old NTFS Partition
might not have formated.

There are two different units of measurement here - the nominal size of
a drive is in Decimal billion; size of partitions is measured in a
binary near equivalent, for convenience, where
1K = 1024
1M = 1024K = 1048576
1G = 1024 M = about 1.074 billion
So your 40 GB nominal, 40 billion, drive holds a 37.5 GB (binary)
partition

 

[Alex Nichol]

And to add insult to injury, HD vendors "fudge" their size numbers.
Regardless of decimel or hex conversions, the drive still is not 40GB. The
vendors round-up to the next best marketable number.

Not always. I have 2 Maxtor drives here - in decimal the 40 GB is just
*over* 40 billion; the 80 GB is nearly 82