re-partition harddisk

[John Smith]

How do I re-partition harddisks?

I did a google search on this topic and the answers say that I
need XP setup disk. My computer did not come with a setup disk. It
came with the OS pre-installed. Do I have to use a third party
software to partition the harddisks?

 

[BR549]

How do I re-partition harddisks?

I did a google search on this topic and the answers say that I
need XP setup disk. My computer did not come with a setup disk. It
came with the OS pre-installed. Do I have to use a third party
software to partition the harddisks?

If you went so far as to do a google search why did you not search this
newsgroup?

 

[Kerry Brown]

Yes you will need a 3rd party program if you don't have a Windows CD. What
are you trying to do? Knowing this would in making a recommendation as to
what program might work best.

 

[John Smith]

Yes you will need a 3rd party program if you don't have a Windows CD. What
are you trying to do? Knowing this would in making a recommendation as to
what program might work best.

When I turned on my computer, XP went into a detection mode,
checked my harddisk, and reported having fixed some bad file
links. It put some 600 Mb data in a found.000(?) folder. It did
the same thing just two days ago and reported some 2 Mb bad files.
The drive is six year old. It may be on its way to hell. But
before I give it up, I would like to see if reformatting would
cure the problem.

That drive was partitioned into three logic drives, one being only
5 Gb. If I reformat the drive, I may as well re-partition it into
two drives before doing a low level format.

 

[Ben]

Ya a 6 yr old drive is a pretty long lived one!
OK if you dont have a CD then i dont really know what to do...
Tiger Direct or something like that sells new hard drives for a grear
bargain
www.tigerdirect.ca
www.tigerdirect.com
You can probably buy windows XP or something like that for really
cheap. Or you can go to another computer and download an image of XP or
something like that to a CD but Microsoft needs Beta Testers for
Windows Vista so maybe u can get that!
If you do get or have a CD then:
you can either press F11 or F12 at startup or if that doesnt work get a
Windows 98 Floppy bootup disk (I have a copy so i can email it to you
if you like and you can put it on a floppy disk). Make sure that you CD
and floppy drive are INSIDE the CD drive and floppy disk drive (usually
A when you start the computer
Next step:
It will say "Booting Windows 98, please wait." this DOESN'T INSTALL
windows 98!!!!
Then the screen will go black and give you 3 options select "Boot from
CD"
Then the screen will go black and the command prompt will come it. Type
in:
Format c:\
are you sure you want to format C Drive? All data will be lost
(Dont for get to make a backup copy of all your files b4!!!)
Choose Yes if you want to format
then leave it and it will format
name the drive whatever you like (It'll probably ask you to)
then go to D:\ or whatever the CD drive is
type in Setup.exe
and install Windows!!!!!
if you want a copy of the boot disk email me at (e-mail address removed)
and i'll reply to your email and attatch the file k?
Dont worry, no viruses. you can scan it too if yo like for viruses or
ad aware...im not the kind of person who likes harming computers
or if you dont feel safe with that you can always download it off the
internet somewhere....just google it...
Ask me if you need any help!
Benjamin

 

[Ben]

Ya a 6 yr old drive is a pretty long lived one!
OK if you dont have a CD then i dont really know what to do...
Tiger Direct or something like that sells new hard drives for a grear
bargain
www.tigerdirect.ca
www.tigerdirect.com
You can probably buy windows XP or something like that for really
cheap. Or you can go to another computer and download an image of XP or
something like that to a CD but Microsoft needs Beta Testers for
Windows Vista so maybe u can get that!
If you do get or have a CD then:
you can either press F11 or F12 at startup or if that doesnt work get a
Windows 98 Floppy bootup disk (I have a copy so i can email it to you
if you like and you can put it on a floppy disk). Make sure that you CD
and floppy drive are INSIDE the CD drive and floppy disk drive (usually
A when you start the computer
Next step:
It will say "Booting Windows 98, please wait." this DOESN'T INSTALL
windows 98!!!!
Then the screen will go black and give you 3 options select "Boot from
CD"
Then the screen will go black and the command prompt will come it. Type
in:
Format c:\
are you sure you want to format C Drive? All data will be lost
(Dont for get to make a backup copy of all your files b4!!!)
Choose Yes if you want to format
then leave it and it will format
name the drive whatever you like (It'll probably ask you to)
then go to D:\ or whatever the CD drive is
type in Setup.exe
and install Windows!!!!!
if you want a copy of the boot disk email me at (e-mail address removed)
and i'll reply to your email and attatch the file k?
Dont worry, no viruses. you can scan it too if yo like for viruses or
ad aware...im not the kind of person who likes harming computers
or if you dont feel safe with that you can always download it off the
internet somewhere....just google it...
Ask me if you need any help!
Benjamin

 

[Bob Willard]

When I turned on my computer, XP went into a detection mode,
checked my harddisk, and reported having fixed some bad file
links. It put some 600 Mb data in a found.000(?) folder. It did
the same thing just two days ago and reported some 2 Mb bad files.
The drive is six year old. It may be on its way to hell. But
before I give it up, I would like to see if reformatting would
cure the problem.

That drive was partitioned into three logic drives, one being only
5 Gb. If I reformat the drive, I may as well re-partition it into
two drives before doing a low level format.

Sounds like your HD is dying. First, get and use a backup app, to prevent
further loss of files; you are unlikely to be so lucky as to have 600MB
of bad sectors without some of them being used sectors with unrecoverable
data.

 

[Kerry Brown]

That hard drive is bad. It cannot be fixed from the sounds of it. Get what
data you can off of it and get a new drive. The new drive will come with
partitioning software or it will be available from the manufacturer's web
site. If you don't have a Windows CD then you must have a set of recovery
media from from the computer manufacturer. Quite often this media will not
work if you partition the drive before using it. Your best bet would be to
purchase a new drive, install it and run the recovery media to restore
Windows. Once Windows is restored then you can use a 3rd party application
to adjust the partitions as you want.

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/ free

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/diskdirector/ not free

If you use a program to try to repair the current drive it is very likely
you will lose more data. Get what you can off of it and get a new drive.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

When I turned on my computer, XP went into a detection mode,
checked my harddisk, and reported having fixed some bad file
links. It put some 600 Mb data in a found.000(?) folder. It did
the same thing just two days ago and reported some 2 Mb bad files.
The drive is six year old. It may be on its way to hell. But
before I give it up, I would like to see if reformatting would
cure the problem.

That drive was partitioned into three logic drives, one being only
5 Gb. If I reformat the drive, I may as well re-partition it into
two drives before doing a low level format.

Without the disks you won't be able to reformat anyway.