Hidden Partition

[thingy]

I have an OEM machine with 60Gb single drive.
I want to find out if I have a hidden partition.

My Computer\C drive shows 57.2Gb capacity - I know it always shows slightly less.

C Drive properties page says capacity:

61,477,126,144 bytes - 57.2Gb

MSDOS prompt page - Fdisk/status shows:

Fixed Disk Drive Status
Disk Drv Mbytes Free Usage
1 58644 1 100%
C: 58643

Am I correct in thinking that all this indicates no hidden partition?


Thanks

 

[anlore2001]

Hello, From what you show from fdisk there is only 1 partition (sorry, nothing hidden). You may want to run a scandisk on your HDD to see if you may have some sectors bad that could cause a smaller drive space, Its just a thought. Someone else around here may have some other suggestions for you. Good Luck

 

[richardp]

Sizes are very stupid in computer sometimes. for instance 1mb is infact 1024kb. 128mb is 130000kb. Sometimes it goes up or down to what it should be, don't worry about it.

 

[deuce]

Actually... HD manufactures always stretch the truth. A 60 GB drive is not exactly 60 GB, they just generously round up to 60 GB, because techinically they aren't lying, they are just rounding, and 57.2 does round to 60. On my 100.0 GB WD drive, there is actually only 93.1 GB. (A lot I know... but I paid--when they came out-- for 100, not 93.1! ) On mine you'd think they wouldn't be able to round to 100, but who knows. The 57.2 GB that your partition shows is all the space that is on your drive.

As for the difference between the 61,477,126,144 bytes and the 57.2 GB... as Richard said, 1 mb is 1024 kb.... as is 1 GB the same as 1024 mb (as is 1 kb 1024 bytes) so the difference between GB and Bytes will be huge, let alone when you are talking 61 million bytes.

 

[thingy]

Thanks for your replies.

I'm not really concerned about the actual size of the Drive, I just wanted to know if there is a hidden partition because I'm going to do a clean install of XP soon and don't want anything else on the computer.

From what you say, I shall assume there's not.

If I use FDisk to partition, would that tell me if there was a hidden partition and If so would it be deletable?

 

[Dark Star]

thingy,

With respect to the ability of Microsoft Windows to see the partition and therefore assign a "drive letter" to it...........

Fdisk programs can always see "hidden" partitions.

Here is a link that will better explain partitions and Fdisk.

http://www.mobiledyne.com/pub/pcfdisk.html

DS

 

[thingy]

Dark Star


Thanks for your reply and the link. I think I'm clear about it now.

 

[Dark Star]

You're welcome...........

 

[deuce]

From what you say, I shall assume there's not.

Well, as long as you reformat first before you install Xp there is no way a hidden partition can still be on the drive...because the format will wipe everything out. As for fdisk... I have seen times where it won't "see" hidden partitions but I think generally it will "see" them.

 

[RonK]

Hey Thingy,
Boot from the XP cd and it will format . You can also have the XP installation partition the drive if you want more than 1 partition.

 

[thingy]

Thanks for replies.

RorK - As I have only the single Drive I thought that XP installation won't let me partition because it puts it's temporary installation files onto the drive - maybe I've got it wrong?

I just want to partition into three drives, format each and install XP on the C Drive. Sounds simple but I keep reading conflicting things about what's possible during installation and what's not.

I don't care how long it takes, I just want to be absolutely clear in my mind before I do anything as I have ME at present and it's working well.

 

[RonK]

Are you planning on having a dual boot setup - ME and XP ?

 

[thingy]

RonK

No.

I know it makes sense to Dual Boot but I'm prepared to gamble on XP (Full Retail), that's why I'm reading up on it all and mentally 'rehearsing' it!

It could be months before I install it.

C Drive 30Gb with XP
D and E Drives each 15Gb (or thereabouts) with nothing on them to start with. All nice and clean - that's what I'm aiming at.

I already have latest Modem, Sound and Video Drivers on Zip Disk

(I shall even put the Modem drivers onto a Floppy in case the Zip doesn't work!)