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Thread ID: 8266	2001-03-15 09:25:00	HDDMemory	Guest (0)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
10054	2001-03-15 09:25:00	I have a new Athlon 900 computer with a 20 GB HDD which the BIOS confirm. I first loaded DOS 6.22 but when I pressed DIR it only showed 2.146 GB. I subsequently loaded Windows ME which also showed only 2 GB. Is this a HDD problem or BIOS? Andrew Thompson	Guest (0)
10055	2001-03-15 13:40:00	I think you will find you do actually have 20Gbs of disk its either just you are only seeing the first disk partition, or the rest of the drive hasn't been partitioned and activated. If you are new to computers, you need to do some reading on disk partitioning and physical disk versus vitual disks. DOS is limited in the amount of hard disk capacity it can actually use and report - around 4Gb. Thus to enable you to use larger drives, physical disks are divided up into virtual drives. Thus your first 'active' partition (also normally the boot partition) is usually seen a the C drive or C:\ in DOS. Your C drive may only be 2Gb, but successive 'virtual' disk partitions will be seen as D:\. E:\, etc. At the DOS prompt (C:\) try typing D:\. If the prompt changes to D:\>, you have found your second partiton. If you don't get this response, but instead get a message 'Invalid Drive Specification' then you will only have one active partition; others may have been configured but not yet activated. To create and maintain disk partitions (if you are going to use DOS or Windows) you will need to familiarise yourself with a DOS utility called FDisk. Space here does not allow me to provide you with complete details. If you are connected to the net (silly me you must be if you are making a posting here) there are plenty of sites offering tutorials on disk partitioning and using tools like FDisk. FDisk comes with DOS, but is not the only tool available - you may hear (or have heard) mention of Partition Magic; it is just one of many. You will need one of these if you are wanting to install Linux or a mix of Microsoft and non-Microsoft Operating Systems. If you can't find anything on the net (I'd be very surprised if you can't), I'm sure you'll find some books in your local library. I think PC World have run some articles as well. I hope this is of some help in pointing you in the right direction. All the best.	Guest (0)
10056	2001-03-16 22:03:00	Rowan Thanks for your suggestions. Although I have used fdisk before I have never had a drive bigger than 1GB so had no problems. fdisk shows only a primary dos drive and there are no other drives such as d. I have tried deleting this partition and the message after deleting was 'Total disk space 8033MB'. I then created a new Primary DOS Partition using the maximum size for this type of partition but it still came up as 8033MB. What do I do to increase this to20GB? Regards Andrew	Guest (0)
10057	2001-03-18 16:24:00	two ways to fix this first is the new 20 gig drive from Fuji? If so - head to their site to get a patch, OR update your BIOS (best but risky solution - experts only !!) then fdisk at dos prompt create primary partition then use rest of drive as extention, then split into logical drives. then format each drive using -FORMAT /V/S	Guest (0)
10058	2001-03-19 07:27:00	Thanks Shane for your suggestions. I found out from Microsoft that the DOS I was using was FAT16 and I required FAT32.Using the DOS6.22 I had I created the 2GB DOS partition and then loaded ME to the point where I could create a Startup Disc which I used to create the large partition I required and install my CD driver. Andrew	Guest (0)
10059	2001-03-19 07:37:00	Rowan I finally sorted thanks to your help. I found out from Microsoft that the DOS I was using was FAT16 and I required FAT32.Using the DOS6.22 I had I created the 2GB DOS partition and then loaded ME to the point where I could create a Startup Disc which I used to create the large partition I required and install my CD driver. Andrew	Guest (0)
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