Partitioned Hard Drive in XP

[JS]

Use "Disk Management" and see if you can create a new partition.
Once in Disk Management, right click on the unallocated space.
Select 'New Partition', create a 'Extended' partition, create a 'Logical'
drive and then format it.

JS
http://www.pagestart.com

 

[Jerry]

Good Day:

I bought my computer last week from a computer store and the owner
paritionrd XP into C:\ and D:\ drives.

He told me that the HD had 160GB but when I went into C:\ properties, it
shows 69.3GB and D:\ properties shows 58.5GB, totalling only 127.80GB,
leaving a difference of 32.8GB.

Which is the correct amount of hard disk space-160GB or 127.80GB?

Why not just take it back to the computer store you bought it from and ask
them. They either didn't partition the disk correctly or created a hidden
restore partition and didn't tell you about it.

 

[Summer1]

Sorry everyone for making this so confusing.

These are the 'actual' numbers:

Disk O Basic 149.05 GB

C drive=69.40GB; D drive=58.59GB; Unallocated=21.06GB

C: is the primary partition; D is the logical drive; Unallocated is the
extended partition.

149.05GB is the 'actual' amount of GB-Since the 21.06GB is 'unallocated,'
does that mean that I only have access to 127.99GB?

Do I want the 21.06GB partitioned back into either the C or D drive so I
have access to the 'full' 149.05?

 

[philo]

Update:

Under Drive Management, it says:

Disk O Basic 149.05 GB

C drive=69.40GB D drive=58.59GB Unallocated=21.06GB

C: is the primary partition; D is the logical drive; Unallocated is the
extended partition.

If it is true that 160GB is the decimal size which equals 148.56GB, this
would make sense since C drive (69.40GB) plus D drive (58.58GB) plus
Unallocated (21.06GB) equals 148.50GB.

What 'still' does not make sense is what 'unallocated' means-Is it
'available' to me as part of the 158.50GB or do I only have access to
137.44GB?

The guy who setup your machine evidently did not know what he was doing

you can add one more partition by using disk management to create one
partition

with the free space you have


OR:



If there is *nothing* on the D: drive you can delete it

then create a new partition from the free space which should at least give
you a larger D: drive

 

[JS]

The "Unallocated" drive space could be the 'Hidden' partition I mentioned or
it could be simply unused space.
I would check with the store or person you bought the PC from and get them
to tell you why it's unallocated.

Again: Did your PC come with a Windows XP CD and Key Code sticker. If you
have no CD
then there is a good chance this unallocated space is actually your
Restore/Recovery partition and as such should not be touched/changed.

JS
http://www.pagestart.com

 

[peter]

We understood all that about 8 posts back..
Here are the questions we need answers to..
1..do you have a CD copy of XP which you received with the Computer???
If no maybe that space is a "recovery" partition..which seems unlikely
as it is unallocated
2..Did you check with the persons who build your system to explain that
"unallocated space"????
This space can be formated as explained by others previously and will
then show up as another
Drive.
3..Can you go back to the persons who build the system and have them fix
it???
It seems they did not partition properly...they should add it to the D
drive.

When you run out of space on the C drive you will get a warning...you will
not be able to install programs.
You will need to manually pick the D drive for program installation..you can
do this even before the C drive is full.

peter

 

[Ray Parrish]

Well, several people have already told you that you can add the space
that is unallocated to one of the other partitions on your drive.

To do this you need to get a program which handles resizing partitions
and use it to re-size the D drive to include the unallocated space.

One program which you can use is GParted which has a GParted Live CD you
can boot from to do this task. It is available here -

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/

Later, Ray Parrish

 

[Anna]

Good Day:

I bought my computer last week from a computer store and the owner
paritionrd XP into C:\ and D:\ drives.

He told me that the HD had 160GB but when I went into C:\ properties, it
shows 69.3GB and D:\ properties shows 58.5GB, totalling only 127.80GB,
leaving a difference of 32.8GB.

Which is the correct amount of hard disk space-160GB or 127.80GB?

Summer1 later adds...
"Sorry everyone for making this so confusing.
These are the 'actual' numbers:
Disk O Basic 149.05 GB
C drive=69.40GB; D drive=58.59GB; Unallocated=21.06GB
C: is the primary partition; D is the logical drive; Unallocated is the
extended partition.
149.05GB is the 'actual' amount of GB-Since the 21.06GB is 'unallocated,'
does that mean that I only have access to 127.99GB?
Do I want the 21.06GB partitioned back into either the C or D drive so I
have access to the 'full' 149.05?"


Summer1:
1. Your 160 GB HDD is, in binary terms, about 149 GB as indicated by your
system.

2. It's probably safe to assume that when the XP OS was installed in your
machine it did not contain any of the Service Packs. Understand that the
original XP OS would detect only about 127 GB (binary) of disk capacity
regardless of the actual size of the drive.

3. So (for one reason or another) the installer divided the HDD into two
partitions - your current C: & D: partitions totaling the 127 GB.

4. At some later date one or more of the Service Packs was added to the OS.
As a consequence of this action the full capacity of the HDD was detected,
however the remaining disk space above the then-present 127 GB (approx) is
considered "unallocated" disk space.

5. As you've been informed you can use the Disk Management utility to create
a partition/format that unallocated disk space. This, of course, will mean
that your HDD will then contain three partitions totaling the 149 GB.

6. If you can live with that - fine. If not, you would need to use a
third-party program such as Partition Magic or some other disk partitioning
program that has been recommended to you to manipulate the sizes of the
individual partitions as you see fit.
Anna

 

[Summer1]

Which option should I choose? There is 'nothing' on the D drive. I would
prefer to delete the D drive and use the entire 'space' on the C: drive.

The guy who setup your machine evidently did not know what he was doing

You can add one more partition by using disk management to create one
partition with the free space you have
OR:
If there is *nothing* on the D: drive you can delete it
then create a new partition from the free space which should at least give
you a larger D: drive.

 

[Summer1]

No, my PC did not come with the Windows XP CD or key code sticker.

 

[Summer1]

1. No CD-It was already installed when purchased
2. I bought the computer last week and just noticed the 'unallocated' space
3. No, I have not been back to the store

 

[olfart]

1. No CD-It was already installed when purchased
2. I bought the computer last week and just noticed the 'unallocated'
space
3. No, I have not been back to the store

Good grief.....
If you bought a car and and then discovered that it didn't perform as
advertised, wouldn't you take it back to the dealer to find out why??
The computer should have been sold with a means of restoring the O/S either
by means of an installation disk or a restore partition unless you purchased
it on a street corner from a guy with a foreign accent wearing dark glasses.
Go back to the store and make sure you got what you paid for before doing
anything to the machine.

 

[Paul]

1. No CD-It was already installed when purchased
2. I bought the computer last week and just noticed the 'unallocated' space
3. No, I have not been back to the store

When you purchase a prebuilt computer, your task order is -

1) Read the manual. Sometimes, important steps are mentioned,
things you're supposed to do *immediately* .

2) The manual may mention preparing a "recovery CD". There may
be a hidden partition on the hard drive, with the same kind of
info present on a Windows installer CD. Burn a recovery CD
immediately, before doing anything else. The recovery CD
can return the computer to factory state, if you every
screw it up. Or, if the hard drive fails, you're really
going to need those CDs. If you wait until the hard drive
fails, it is too late to prepare your recovery media. The
manual may mention that you can only burn one copy, so make
a duplicate of the media, outside the provided tools. Alternately,
rip the CD, and store the CD as an ISO9660 file for future usage
(on a hard drive of another computer). CDs sometimes "rot" and
can become unreadable, which is why you need to take precautions.

3) Use Disk Management to view the partitions on the disk.
There, you may see C: (NTFS) intended for boot,
D: (NTFS) intended for user data, and a third section
with no file system indicated. The partition type of the
third partition is not a value Windows is familiar with.
That third partition, is where the recovery content is
stored. If you're not careful when deleting stuff, then
that partition can get zapped. That is why you're supposed
to burn recovery media, *before* you lose that stuff.

For companies that offer the opportunity to purchase the
recovery media, they may only choose to do so for the
length of the warranty period. If the warranty expires,
and you need a recovery CD, you're screwed.

If the product came with CDs, and the hard drive is
known to be "expendable", then erase whatever you want

HTH,
Paul

 

[Summer1]

Update:

I am not sure if this 'helps' anyone to 'help' me but here goes:

When I right-click the 'unallocated' box and select 'Properties, Volumes,'
it says that it is a Samsung SP1654N standard disj drive and the partition
style is 'Master Boot Record.' The capacity is 152626MB. the unallocated
space is 21564MB. and Reserved space is 0MB.

 

[Gerry]

Summer1

Did you buy the computer as a new or reconditioned computer?

Did you buy the computer from a bona fide supplier of computers?

An MBR partition is normally only something like 8 mb.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Twayne]

Which option should I choose? There is 'nothing' on the D drive. I

would prefer to delete the D drive and use the entire 'space' on the
C: drive.

The guy who setup your machine evidently did not know what he was
doing

You can add one more partition by using disk management to create one
partition with the free space you have
OR:
If there is *nothing* on the D: drive you can delete it
then create a new partition from the free space which should at least
give you a larger D: drive.

Actually, there is another view here: You purchased a machine with
installed software and OS, along with all the problems, malware,
trojans, worms and other vermin that may be on it. You're starting
right off the bat with someone elses headeaches and getting ready to add
your own to them.

A much better plan is to start over from scracth. Clean install the OS
to drive C, format both drives during that process, and rebuild
everything. Then you not only know exactly what you have, but you will
only have your own headaches and file corruption to worry about, not
someone else's on top of it.
If you did not get all the CDs you need at the purchase, then you did
not purchase the software on the machine and it's going to be considered
pirated by MS et al. If the paperwork shows that you did buy the
software licenses with it, then you must be given all the CDs to
maintain and reinstall all the licensed software on it, along with
instructions for all of them. That has to come from the seller. It's
actually law.

HTH

Twayne

 

[Twayne]

Update:

I am not sure if this 'helps' anyone to 'help' me but here goes:

When I right-click the 'unallocated' box and select 'Properties,
Volumes,' it says that it is a Samsung SP1654N standard disj drive
and the partition style is 'Master Boot Record.' The capacity is
152626MB. the unallocated space is 21564MB. and Reserved space is 0MB.

Based on what has been said so far, you either:

-- Did not purchase any licenses for the software you have, or
-- If you did, the purchaser is liable to provide you with the CDs,
licenses and key codes necessary to reinstall each and every one of
them.

If I were you I would take the computer back to where you purchased it,
get your money back, OR get the licences, CDs and restoration
instructions that are required to be provided with every PC sold.
If you paid for the software and the seller cannot provide you with
those things, then he owes you money for what he said he sold you but
failed to provide. This is not a decision a seller can make: they have
to provide such things, OR sell the computer without any software he
can't give you those items for.

I have a feeling you may have bought a machine full of pirated software.
Were you able to Activate and Update windows successfully? It's not
proof of piracy or not either way, but it could render your machine
useless the way it is when the next OS verification cycle comes around.
If you do not have the license for your OS, go out and purchase a copy
and start from scratch as I said earlier in these posts.
Did you notice the article in the media about MS removing operability
from every PC in China that went in for a windows update? I saw it
first on zdnet.com if you want to look for it. Of course, they then
turned around and sold them the real thing for $30US; I doubt they'll be
that kind to us here.

Twayne

 

[Twayne]

Update:

Based on what has been said so far, you either:

-- Did not purchase any licenses for the software you have, or
-- If you did, the purchaser is liable to provide you with the CDs,
licenses and key codes necessary to reinstall each and every one of
them.

If I were you I would take the computer back to where you purchased
it, get your money back, OR get the licences, CDs and restoration
instructions that are required to be provided with every PC sold.
If you paid for the software and the seller cannot provide you with
those things, then he owes you money for what he said he sold you but
failed to provide. This is not a decision a seller can make: they
have to provide such things, OR sell the computer without any
software he can't give you those items for.

I have a feeling you may have bought a machine full of pirated
software. Were you able to Activate and Update windows successfully?
It's not proof of piracy or not either way, but it could render your
machine useless the way it is when the next OS verification cycle
comes around. If you do not have the license for your OS, go out and
purchase a copy and start from scratch as I said earlier in these
posts. Did you notice the article in the media about MS removing
operability from every PC in China that went in for a windows update?
I saw it first on zdnet.com if you want to look for it. Of course,
they then turned around and sold them the real thing for $30US; I
doubt they'll be that kind to us here.

Twayne

BTW, it also sounds like LBA isn't turned on in your CMOS RAM settings.

 

[JS]

That's bad new, as without a CD or Key Code sticker if for some reason you
need to reinstall Windows XP you are out of luck unless that unused space on
your hard drive is the Restore Partition.

You need to find out exactly what you purchased from the place you bought it
from.
1) Does it contain a restore partition, if it does not then tell them you
want you money back!
2) Why don't I have a key code sticker (may not be a legitimate copy of
Windows).
3) Have you been able to "Activate" Windows and install any updates yet?

JS
http://www.pagestart.com

 

[db.·.. >]

i've read all the responses
and unfortunately they are
unhelpful to you.

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

the unallocated space you
discovered can be formatted
to make it useable for storing
files and other data.

i won't spend any time second
guessing why the store left un-
allocated space on your disk.

-----------------
in addition, you can add up all
the sizes to ascertain the overall
availability of useable disk
space.

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

in addition, the information
indicated you have disk 0.

disk0 is a master/primary
disk, while a disk1 would
be a slave/secondary disk,
that is if you had one.

-----------
what you can do is to format
the unallocated space by
going back to the computer
management console and
right clicking on it.

in doing so, you will be making
the unallocated space useable
and will produce an additional
drive letter as well.

then in the future, you can buy
a partitioning program if you
choose to reorganize the disk
space.

here are some links with additional
info:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309000/en-us

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

in addition you figure out how to
access your bios.

the how-to should be found
in your computer manual or
on the computers homesite.

the bios is not totally self
sufficient and you will likely
have a need to access it
sometime in the future so
that you can enable or
disable options or review
the stats of the hardware.

typically, holding down the
f2 key immediately after you
press the power on button
will interrupt the booting of
the o.s. and take you into
the bios.

here is some more info
on the above:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOS

--

db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
- Systems Analyst
- Database Developer
- Accountancy
- Veteran of the Armed Forces