[2steps]

I have an 80gb external harddrive. I used fdisk to format it but there didn't seem to be an option to not partition the drive so I did and now the drive says it is only 1.99gb in size. I'm guessing the rest is the other side of teh partition?? but I don't know how to get to that. Can I just reformat the drive? do I have to make a partition? and if so can I make it as large as I like? that way I can have as much of the drive as possible in one section, if that makes sense

Thanks

 

[gotrootdude]

What file system do you wish to format it to? If your useing a old version of fdisk then it may have formatted the drive fat16. Either that or you chose to format it FAT instead of FAT32. I'd find the newest version of fdisk and partition the drive as fat32, or use a win2000 or xp disk and partition/format the drive as NTFS.

 

[griffinspc]

I used fdisk to format

This just may be a typo but FDISK is where you would have set the "Active" partition. It would have asked if you wanted Large Disk Support and allowed you to set it as one single partition. As dude said, FAT32.

Here is a complete explanation: http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...port/kb/articles/Q255/8/67.ASP&NoWebContent=1

Once you use FDISK then you can "format" the drive.

 

[2steps]

I want to use the drive on two seperate pcs one running windows me and the other xp
I'll go read that link and come back if I need too
Thanks

 

[Wet Chicken]

You might need something like System Commander for that...

 

[LONGHAIR]

If you are going to use this drive to store data that may be shared between the two systems, you must have a partiton that is formatted as FAT32. The WinME OS cannot read NTFS.

 

[2steps]

now I have that all sorted but windows keeps saying the drive needs formatting and then won't do it. yesterday I tried to copy some files to it anyway and they were transfered but when I then tried to open them I get the same message that the drive needs formatting but the formatter won't run.

 

[kath100]

Connect the drive to the XP computer,
Right click on my computer and select "manage"
On the left hand side click "disk management"
On the right hand side all the discs on the computer will be displayed as bars.
Right click on the drive in question and you will see the options available,
Partitioning, formating and others.

 

[crjdriver]

Kath100 is correct; use xp to partition and format the drive. Since this is a data drive, I would create an extended partition not a primary partition. You can create three logical drives within the extended partition. The reason for this is that xp will not give the option to format with fat32 unless the drive is <32 gig in size. Above 32 gig the only option that xp will give is ntfs.

The reason for the extended partition is that your drive letters in win9x will not change with an extended partition. An example is your primary hd is partitioned into two logical drives C and D. If you create a primary partition on the new drive, it will now be D; what was D will now be E. F and G will be the last two logical drives on the new disk.