Hard drive memory problem

I am having a problem with my hard disk space that I can't seem to find any answers to in order to fix it. For some reason, Windows98 is reading my hard drive as having 2.0G of space instead of 8.14G of space. I am not sure what happened to cause this, but I can't seem to find out how to restore it back the way it is supposed to be. There are no viruses detected. Scandisk revealed no problems. I'm out of solutions.

Please help if you can!!!!!

Thank you,
katmac@texas.net

 

It is possibly set and formated as 16bit and not 32bit.

2gig is the max for 16bit.

If you do not wish to do a complete overhaul you should be able to run Fdisk from the Start up disk and set the remaning space to 32bit ( large drive suport ) and an extended partiton. Then create a D: drive.

By doing so it will also move your CDROM up one letter.

For example if it is now d: it will be E:

BTW. I can not be 100% sure of the use of Fdisk in this case as I have not used it for YEARS. I have used only Partition Magic for the same amont of time.

BillyBob

 

Go into the bios & sit the primary ide to lba or auto. Is this a new formated win9x install or just happened "overnite "?

 

It Happened One Night!

This problem occurred all of a sudden for no apparent reason. This system has been running for about 2 years, therefore I can't say I set it up wrong. At least that's one point for me!?

 

OK.

For starters check that the settings for the HD in the BIOS have not been changed. I have had that happen. How or why I do not know.

And I am not saying you changed it either.

These things called Computers ( sometimes I have other names )when combined with Windows have a Nasty habit of diong strange things ALL BY THEMSELVES.

Also If you were to boot from the Startup Disk, does Fdisk see the full 8+gig ? If not I would think it to be A BIOS or even the HD istelf.

 

Gotcha man this is a bugabo. Are you on a ups? (battery back up)
Ya coulda had a power sag (brownout) while you had an activity working on the drive & the heads last track of their landing zone?? Ya need to really "Look" at the partition with a utility like PQMagic from PowerQuest. Go to http://www.powerquest.com/freestuff/ This will let you do all sorts of things to the partition .....Rancher

 

BillyBob , I have "raised" 7 of those little un-knowns. Until THEY got their own homes my comp had unexplained illness' quite often

 

One Question...

Okay, let me see if I can answer your questions. No, I'm not presently running from battery, although I do have one. Next, the BIOS is set at lba. Another quirk, when I went to bed last night, I had over 600M of free space. The disk defrag runs on its own during the night. I woke up this morning to 29M of free space. (A good example of computer taking a picnic break without permission.)

Now, my question is this, since I haven't EVER had to use the start-up disk, am I going to lose all of my files on my computer by utilizing this puppy?

Thank you guys very much!

katmac

 

HAHAHA-HEHEHE-HOHOHO

Rancher

Are you trying to say that you had several cases of;

Not me. Or, Nobody touched it. Or, I don't know ?

I also see a drastic reducton in PC problems when there are no little ones around.

How about 9 kids between 1 & 8 all here at once and me trying to keep an eye on 3 PCs ?

One of them wound up being a 2 day rebuilt job.

BTW. You may have something in the Power Dip idea. I have lost 2 HDs to that.

Power dip during Defrag is NOT a good thing to have.

I myself NEVER run defrag un-atended.

BillyBob

 

Your startup disc can lead to total lose of files if: 1. you choose to delete primary partition, 2. you choose to format active (c drive.
Leaving your comp on overnite without a battery backup leads to just this sorta problem, why you ask? Cuz several things happen while you sleep. The memory gets loaded for one. Ever notice how much faster you comp is the first hour or so when you first bootup, then slows gradually to a crawl (sometimes locksup) til you reboot. Plus who knows what little errors mite occur if your not there to read them & take action. What's on the same circut as your comp? Any new appliences for xmas this year? Ya gotta look for what's changed the variables here...did you look into pqmagic?

 

Let me rephrase...

Okay, when I leave the computer on overnight, it IS connected to a backup battery supply.

Have no new computer gizmos hooked up.

And I checked the link you sent. Need the bucks first though.

 

I'll email ya a special 1mb home made magic set if ya want?

 

It's getting more perplexing!

Thank you Rancher, that would be most helpful!!!!

This problem is getting more confusing as I go. New update....

Norton reports the correct information on my hard drive.

Drive Space does not.
Explorer does not.

But, occasionally, other windows diagnostics gets it right!

I'm going crazy! Now that all of my teenagers have moved on to their own lives, I'm trying to calm THIS child and it's more of a roller-coaster ride than the kids were!

katmac@texas.net

 

Norton reports the correct information on my hard drive.

Drive Space does not.
Explorer does not.

Are You using Norton SpeedDisk ?

If so I suggest you stop. SpeedDisk will fight ( to the corruption of your HD ) with ANYTHING that Windows may be loading. Also if you do not have the proper version of NU it can be unreliable.

I used to be a big fan of NU but no longer.

You also might try COLD Booting to the Startup disk and run Norton DiskDoctor for DOS from the NU CD.

NDD is in the NU folder on the CD.

 

Check your in box my friend, follow instructions, unzip the zipped folder & copy all files to a clean disket