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Unallocated partition added to existing one?

Discussion in 'Legacy Windows' started by Hammer, 2005/04/10.

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  1. 2005/04/10
    Hammer

    Hammer Inactive Thread Starter

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    Hello,
    I did a search for this information and couldn't find anything to help.
    I have a 40GB external HD (with only 500MB freespace) which I use exclusively to store my Mp3s. I have recently upgraded my motherboard to accept a faster CPU and larger capacity drives. The old board was only able to detect 37gigs. Since I've upgraded I'd like to recover that lost space.
    W2k disk mgmt shows the drive as being 37.27GB FAT32 (I dont know why I formatted it FAT32 instead of NTFS....???) with 1.01GB unallocated.
    Is it possible to add the unallocated space to the already formatted partition without losing any data? And, how can I find the other 2GB that's missing?
    I read in one post that FAT32 will only show 32GB, but if thats true why am I seeing 37? Can it be reformatted to NTFS without losing anything?
    I realize 3GB isnt a whole lot of space, but if it's there I'd like to utilize it without having the inconvenience of a seperate partition.
    Any help would be appreciated.
    Thanks,
    Hammer
    PS I only have 26GB collectively between 2 internal drives which eliminates the possibility of a copy and reformat...
     
    Last edited: 2005/04/10
    Hammer,
    #1
  2. 2005/04/11
    Steve R Jones

    Steve R Jones SuperGeek Staff

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    TO join the 1gig of unallocated space would require a program like partition magic. Would be easiest if you just made another partition.

    The other "missing" space isn't missing:

    Decimal vs. Binary:
    For simplicity and consistency, hard drive manufacturers define a megabyte as 1,000,000 bytes and a gigabyte as 1,000,000,000 bytes. This is a decimal (base 10) measurement and is the industry standard. However, certain system BIOSs, FDISK and Windows define a megabyte as 1,048,576 bytes and a gigabyte as 1,073,741,824 bytes. Mac systems also use these values. These are binary (base 2) measurements.

    To Determine Decimal Capacity:
    A decimal capacity is determined by dividing the total number of bytes, by the number of bytes per gigabyte (1,000,000,000 using base 10).

    To Determine Binary Capacity:
    A binary capacity is determined by dividing the total number of bytes, by the number of bytes per gigabyte (1,073,741,824 using base 2).
     
    Steve R Jones,
    #2


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