formating and cd drives

[Alex Marchevskiy]

i have two problems on my computer,
1) low disk space because i formatted to FAT instead of
FAT32 and now i have ran out of disk space and i am aware
of my mistake. of course as we all know, formatting will
erase all files and windows, so my question is this, do i
absolutely have to format it to the correct FAT and
reinstall windows, or is there another way?

2) this isn't a major problem, but it is #2 in my
priority list. i have two cd drives, a cd-rw and a dvd-
rom drive. whenever i already have windows loaded and i
stick in a new disk my computer wont recognize the disk
and just say there is nothing there, but when i restart
the computer with the disk in there already at startup,
then it recognizes the disk with no problems (only the
first one, if i change the disk then i have the same
problem). i think that something is telling the cd rom
not to read it in the drivers or other stuff windows uses
to control cd-rom's.

okay, these are my problems, hopefully somebody out there
knows what to do. your help is greatly appreciated. thank
you.

[R. C. White]

Hi, Alex.

I'll let someone else handle your CD/DVD drive problem.

As to your problem 1: Your problem is that Drive C: is too small, not that
it is formatted wrong. FAT(16) cannot handle a volume larger than 2 GB. It
just can't, because of the math involved. You COULD convert that first
volume to FAT32, or to NTFS, but it still could not be larger than 2 GB
unless you go through the fundamental exercise of re-partitioning your hard
drive.

You haven't said anything about the size of the whole physical drive, or
about any other volumes. A "volume" may be a primary partition, or it may
be a logical drive in an extended partition. We often say "drive" or
"partition" when speaking of a volume. It is actually a volume which gets a
"drive letter"; each volume is created at a specific size during
partitioning, and each is formatted independently from all other volumes.
WinXP's Disk Management can create and delete volumes (and format or
reformat them), but it cannot shrink or expand a volume.

To make your Drive C: larger, you have a couple of choices, assuming there
is enough space on your HD, all included in other volumes:

1. Invest your time: Backup; repartition; reformat; restore.

2. Invest your money: Buy a third-party program like Partition Magic
(about $70) and use it to shrink the other volumes, move them out of the
way, and expand C:. This probably can be done without any loss or damage to
your existing files, so long as there is enough space available on the HD.

Tell us more about your computer, especially your hard drives, and we may be
able to help you do what you want to do.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP

"Alex Marchevskiy" > wrote in message
...
> i have two problems on my computer,
> 1) low disk space because i formatted to FAT instead of
> FAT32 and now i have ran out of disk space and i am aware
> of my mistake. of course as we all know, formatting will
> erase all files and windows, so my question is this, do i
> absolutely have to format it to the correct FAT and
> reinstall windows, or is there another way?
>
> 2) this isn't a major problem, but it is #2 in my
> priority list. i have two cd drives, a cd-rw and a dvd-
> rom drive. whenever i already have windows loaded and i
> stick in a new disk my computer wont recognize the disk
> and just say there is nothing there, but when i restart
> the computer with the disk in there already at startup,
> then it recognizes the disk with no problems (only the
> first one, if i change the disk then i have the same
> problem). i think that something is telling the cd rom
> not to read it in the drivers or other stuff windows uses
> to control cd-rom's.
>
> okay, these are my problems, hopefully somebody out there
> knows what to do. your help is greatly appreciated. thank
> you.

[Alex Marchevskiy]

>-----Original Message-----
>Hi, Alex.
>
>I'll let someone else handle your CD/DVD drive problem.
>
>As to your problem 1: Your problem is that Drive C: is
too small, not that
>it is formatted wrong. FAT(16) cannot handle a volume
larger than 2 GB. It
>just can't, because of the math involved. You COULD
convert that first
>volume to FAT32, or to NTFS, but it still could not be
larger than 2 GB
>unless you go through the fundamental exercise of re-
partitioning your hard
>drive.
>
>You haven't said anything about the size of the whole
physical drive, or
>about any other volumes. A "volume" may be a primary
partition, or it may
>be a logical drive in an extended partition. We often
say "drive" or
>"partition" when speaking of a volume. It is actually a
volume which gets a
>"drive letter"; each volume is created at a specific
size during
>partitioning, and each is formatted independently from
all other volumes.
>WinXP's Disk Management can create and delete volumes
(and format or
>reformat them), but it cannot shrink or expand a volume.
>
>To make your Drive C: larger, you have a couple of
choices, assuming there
>is enough space on your HD, all included in other
volumes:
>
>1. Invest your time: Backup; repartition; reformat;
restore.
>
>2. Invest your money: Buy a third-party program like
Partition Magic
>(about $70) and use it to shrink the other volumes, move
them out of the
>way, and expand C:. This probably can be done without
any loss or damage to
>your existing files, so long as there is enough space
available on the HD.
>
>Tell us more about your computer, especially your hard
drives, and we may be
>able to help you do what you want to do.
>
>RC
>--
>R. C. White, CPA
>San Marcos, TX

>Microsoft Windows MVP
>
>"Alex Marchevskiy" > wrote in message
...
>> i have two problems on my computer,
>> 1) low disk space because i formatted to FAT instead of
>> FAT32 and now i have ran out of disk space and i am
aware
>> of my mistake. of course as we all know, formatting
will
>> erase all files and windows, so my question is this,
do i
>> absolutely have to format it to the correct FAT and
>> reinstall windows, or is there another way?
>>
>> 2) this isn't a major problem, but it is #2 in my
>> priority list. i have two cd drives, a cd-rw and a dvd-
>> rom drive. whenever i already have windows loaded and i
>> stick in a new disk my computer wont recognize the disk
>> and just say there is nothing there, but when i restart
>> the computer with the disk in there already at startup,
>> then it recognizes the disk with no problems (only the
>> first one, if i change the disk then i have the same
>> problem). i think that something is telling the cd rom
>> not to read it in the drivers or other stuff windows
uses
>> to control cd-rom's.
>>
>> okay, these are my problems, hopefully somebody out
there
>> knows what to do. your help is greatly appreciated.
thank
>> you.
>
>
>.
>

thanks for your replies. my drive('s){40gb} are just two
partitions, the first one was a stupid miscalculation
with a dos ghost program so my c drive became two gb's
and that left my other drive (d:) to be 38 gb. to follow
this up, when i was installing windows xp, i had alot of
problems so i had to boot from cd and finally in the
setup i chose to convert it to FAT figuring that it was
going to be FAT32 (it just FAT and the other option was
NTFS). well after i found out my mistake, i reinstalled
windows, because i didnt really have anything installed
any way so there was nothing to lose, and in setup i
converted it to NTFS since that is a compressed type and
it is new. but now my computer wont calculate the disk
space correctly. i recieve alot if low disk space
warnings, when i only used up 1.2 gb of space out of 2gb.
well, thats the story. all i want to know, is there a way
to change the way windows sees my drive and figures out
the correct disk space? or is there a way i could un-
partition my drive. money isn't much of a problem.

thanks alot for your help.
-Alex

P.S. what did u mean when u said "repartition"? (in #1 of
your suggestions)

[R. C. White]

Hi, Alex.

Let's start with your...

> P.S. what did u mean when u said "repartition"? (in #1 of
> your suggestions)

Your basic problem is that Drive C: is only 2 GB. The only way to make it
bigger is to repartition your 40 GB HD - from the present 2 + 38 to
something like 5 + 35. If you start over from scratch, that's easy; just
boot from the WinXP CD-ROM and let it handle the job. WinXP Setup will
first (if you choose) delete all existing partitions. Then, you can have it
create at least the System Partition (Drive C:) and format it. The default
is to use the whole physical drive for the one partition, but you can limit
it to the size you choose. As explained later, make this first partition at
least 3 GB and format it NTFS.

If you don't start over, then you must buy PM or some other product that
will first shrink the second partition (to 35 GB, for example); then "move
it to the right" by 3 GB, so that the now-unused 3 GB is contiguous to the
first 2 GB partition; and finally expand the first partition into that 3 GB.
PM can handle this job, and it may be your best solution. PM will also
offer to convert the partition to NTFS, calling WinXP's native convert.exe
to actually do the conversion.

WinXP takes a lot of space. And without vigorous maintenance, it grows over
time as we use it. My 2-year-old installation now has 17,000+ files taking
about 2.8 GB, even after some of the following techniques. I originally
installed it in a 2 GB volume that had originally been created (and
formatted FAT(16)) back in Win98 days, then upgraded to Win2K and finally to
WinXP.

Several techniques can be used to reduce the space required by WinXP in the
system partition and boot volume (both in Drive C:, in your case, which is
typical). First, you can specify that the swap file be on the other volume.
This file is typically 1.5 x your RAM; on my system with 512 MB, the swap
file is just over 800 MB. In your case, that's probably why you get a low
disk space warning - that big swap file is hidden, but it's there! Second,
you can empty the Recycle Bin, or skip the bin automatically when you delete
files. You can put your My Documents and similar folders onto the other
volume.

Unless you plan to install Win9x/ME on this computer, there is no reason to
continue to use FAT. NTFS has several advantages, including on-the-fly
compression, which you mentioned. It is far more secure than FAT, both in
the sense of security from prying eyes and in the sense of less chance of
accidental loss or corruption of your files.

I hope this helps, Alex. If you can locate a good reference book - like the
WinXP Pro Resource Kit ($60 list from Microsoft Press) - and invest a
half-day in reading the chapters on disk drives and file systems, it will
pay you big dividends in time saved for as long as you keep using Windows
and x86 computers. You can read the Resource Kit online for free at
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/reskit/prork_overview.asp?frame=true
but it will take a while; the book is about 1,700 pages. Or study the
excellent Help file in WinXP's Disk Management.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP

"Alex Marchevskiy" > wrote in message
...
>
> >-----Original Message-----
> >Hi, Alex.
> >
> >I'll let someone else handle your CD/DVD drive problem.
> >
> >As to your problem 1: Your problem is that Drive C: is
> too small, not that
> >it is formatted wrong. FAT(16) cannot handle a volume
> larger than 2 GB. It
> >just can't, because of the math involved. You COULD
> convert that first
> >volume to FAT32, or to NTFS, but it still could not be
> larger than 2 GB
> >unless you go through the fundamental exercise of re-
> partitioning your hard
> >drive.
> >
> >You haven't said anything about the size of the whole
> physical drive, or
> >about any other volumes. A "volume" may be a primary
> partition, or it may
> >be a logical drive in an extended partition. We often
> say "drive" or
> >"partition" when speaking of a volume. It is actually a
> volume which gets a
> >"drive letter"; each volume is created at a specific
> size during
> >partitioning, and each is formatted independently from
> all other volumes.
> >WinXP's Disk Management can create and delete volumes
> (and format or
> >reformat them), but it cannot shrink or expand a volume.
> >
> >To make your Drive C: larger, you have a couple of
> choices, assuming there
> >is enough space on your HD, all included in other
> volumes:
> >
> >1. Invest your time: Backup; repartition; reformat;
> restore.
> >
> >2. Invest your money: Buy a third-party program like
> Partition Magic
> >(about $70) and use it to shrink the other volumes, move
> them out of the
> >way, and expand C:. This probably can be done without
> any loss or damage to
> >your existing files, so long as there is enough space
> available on the HD.
> >
> >Tell us more about your computer, especially your hard
> drives, and we may be
> >able to help you do what you want to do.
> >
> >RC
> >
> >"Alex Marchevskiy" > wrote in message
> ...
> >> i have two problems on my computer,
> >> 1) low disk space because i formatted to FAT instead of
> >> FAT32 and now i have ran out of disk space and i am
> aware
> >> of my mistake. of course as we all know, formatting
> will
> >> erase all files and windows, so my question is this,
> do i
> >> absolutely have to format it to the correct FAT and
> >> reinstall windows, or is there another way?
> >>
> >> 2) this isn't a major problem, but it is #2 in my
> >> priority list. i have two cd drives, a cd-rw and a dvd-
> >> rom drive. whenever i already have windows loaded and i
> >> stick in a new disk my computer wont recognize the disk
> >> and just say there is nothing there, but when i restart
> >> the computer with the disk in there already at startup,
> >> then it recognizes the disk with no problems (only the
> >> first one, if i change the disk then i have the same
> >> problem). i think that something is telling the cd rom
> >> not to read it in the drivers or other stuff windows
> uses
> >> to control cd-rom's.
> >>
> >> okay, these are my problems, hopefully somebody out
> there
> >> knows what to do. your help is greatly appreciated.
> thank
> >> you.
> >
>
> thanks for your replies. my drive('s){40gb} are just two
> partitions, the first one was a stupid miscalculation
> with a dos ghost program so my c drive became two gb's
> and that left my other drive (d:) to be 38 gb. to follow
> this up, when i was installing windows xp, i had alot of
> problems so i had to boot from cd and finally in the
> setup i chose to convert it to FAT figuring that it was
> going to be FAT32 (it just FAT and the other option was
> NTFS). well after i found out my mistake, i reinstalled
> windows, because i didnt really have anything installed
> any way so there was nothing to lose, and in setup i
> converted it to NTFS since that is a compressed type and
> it is new. but now my computer wont calculate the disk
> space correctly. i recieve alot if low disk space
> warnings, when i only used up 1.2 gb of space out of 2gb.
> well, thats the story. all i want to know, is there a way
> to change the way windows sees my drive and figures out
> the correct disk space? or is there a way i could un-
> partition my drive. money isn't much of a problem.
>
> thanks alot for your help.
> -Alex
>
> P.S. what did u mean when u said "repartition"? (in #1 of
> your suggestions)

[Alex Marchevskiy]

>-----Original Message-----
>Hi, Alex.
>
>Let's start with your...
>
>> P.S. what did u mean when u said "repartition"? (in #1
of
>> your suggestions)
>
>Your basic problem is that Drive C: is only 2 GB. The
only way to make it
>bigger is to repartition your 40 GB HD - from the
present 2 + 38 to
>something like 5 + 35. If you start over from scratch,
that's easy; just
>boot from the WinXP CD-ROM and let it handle the job.
WinXP Setup will
>first (if you choose) delete all existing partitions.
Then, you can have it
>create at least the System Partition (Drive C:) and
format it. The default
>is to use the whole physical drive for the one
partition, but you can limit
>it to the size you choose. As explained later, make
this first partition at
>least 3 GB and format it NTFS.
>
>If you don't start over, then you must buy PM or some
other product that
>will first shrink the second partition (to 35 GB, for
example); then "move
>it to the right" by 3 GB, so that the now-unused 3 GB is
contiguous to the
>first 2 GB partition; and finally expand the first
partition into that 3 GB.
>PM can handle this job, and it may be your best
solution. PM will also
>offer to convert the partition to NTFS, calling WinXP's
native convert.exe
>to actually do the conversion.
>
>WinXP takes a lot of space. And without vigorous
maintenance, it grows over
>time as we use it. My 2-year-old installation now has
17,000+ files taking
>about 2.8 GB, even after some of the following
techniques. I originally
>installed it in a 2 GB volume that had originally been
created (and
>formatted FAT(16)) back in Win98 days, then upgraded to
Win2K and finally to
>WinXP.
>
>Several techniques can be used to reduce the space
required by WinXP in the
>system partition and boot volume (both in Drive C:, in
your case, which is
>typical). First, you can specify that the swap file be
on the other volume.
>This file is typically 1.5 x your RAM; on my system with
512 MB, the swap
>file is just over 800 MB. In your case, that's probably
why you get a low
>disk space warning - that big swap file is hidden, but
it's there! Second,
>you can empty the Recycle Bin, or skip the bin
automatically when you delete
>files. You can put your My Documents and similar
folders onto the other
>volume.
>
>Unless you plan to install Win9x/ME on this computer,
there is no reason to
>continue to use FAT. NTFS has several advantages,
including on-the-fly
>compression, which you mentioned. It is far more secure
than FAT, both in
>the sense of security from prying eyes and in the sense
of less chance of
>accidental loss or corruption of your files.
>
>I hope this helps, Alex. If you can locate a good
reference book - like the
>WinXP Pro Resource Kit ($60 list from Microsoft Press) -
and invest a
>half-day in reading the chapters on disk drives and file
systems, it will
>pay you big dividends in time saved for as long as you
keep using Windows
>and x86 computers. You can read the Resource Kit online
for free at
>http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?
url=/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/reskit/prork_overview.as
p?frame=true
>but it will take a while; the book is about 1,700
pages. Or study the
>excellent Help file in WinXP's Disk Management.
>
>RC
>--
>R. C. White, CPA
>San Marcos, TX

>Microsoft Windows MVP
>
>"Alex Marchevskiy" > wrote in message
...
>>
>> >-----Original Message-----
>> >Hi, Alex.
>> >
>> >I'll let someone else handle your CD/DVD drive
problem.
>> >
>> >As to your problem 1: Your problem is that Drive C:
is
>> too small, not that
>> >it is formatted wrong. FAT(16) cannot handle a volume
>> larger than 2 GB. It
>> >just can't, because of the math involved. You COULD
>> convert that first
>> >volume to FAT32, or to NTFS, but it still could not be
>> larger than 2 GB
>> >unless you go through the fundamental exercise of re-
>> partitioning your hard
>> >drive.
>> >
>> >You haven't said anything about the size of the whole
>> physical drive, or
>> >about any other volumes. A "volume" may be a primary
>> partition, or it may
>> >be a logical drive in an extended partition. We often
>> say "drive" or
>> >"partition" when speaking of a volume. It is
actually a
>> volume which gets a
>> >"drive letter"; each volume is created at a specific
>> size during
>> >partitioning, and each is formatted independently from
>> all other volumes.
>> >WinXP's Disk Management can create and delete volumes
>> (and format or
>> >reformat them), but it cannot shrink or expand a
volume.
>> >
>> >To make your Drive C: larger, you have a couple of
>> choices, assuming there
>> >is enough space on your HD, all included in other
>> volumes:
>> >
>> >1. Invest your time: Backup; repartition; reformat;
>> restore.
>> >
>> >2. Invest your money: Buy a third-party program like
>> Partition Magic
>> >(about $70) and use it to shrink the other volumes,
move
>> them out of the
>> >way, and expand C:. This probably can be done without
>> any loss or damage to
>> >your existing files, so long as there is enough space
>> available on the HD.
>> >
>> >Tell us more about your computer, especially your hard
>> drives, and we may be
>> >able to help you do what you want to do.
>> >
>> >RC
>> >
>> >"Alex Marchevskiy" > wrote in
message
>> ...
>> >> i have two problems on my computer,
>> >> 1) low disk space because i formatted to FAT
instead of
>> >> FAT32 and now i have ran out of disk space and i am
>> aware
>> >> of my mistake. of course as we all know, formatting
>> will
>> >> erase all files and windows, so my question is this,
>> do i
>> >> absolutely have to format it to the correct FAT and
>> >> reinstall windows, or is there another way?
>> >>
>> >> 2) this isn't a major problem, but it is #2 in my
>> >> priority list. i have two cd drives, a cd-rw and a
dvd-
>> >> rom drive. whenever i already have windows loaded
and i
>> >> stick in a new disk my computer wont recognize the
disk
>> >> and just say there is nothing there, but when i
restart
>> >> the computer with the disk in there already at
startup,
>> >> then it recognizes the disk with no problems (only
the
>> >> first one, if i change the disk then i have the same
>> >> problem). i think that something is telling the cd
rom
>> >> not to read it in the drivers or other stuff windows
>> uses
>> >> to control cd-rom's.
>> >>
>> >> okay, these are my problems, hopefully somebody out
>> there
>> >> knows what to do. your help is greatly appreciated.
>> thank
>> >> you.
>> >
>>
>> thanks for your replies. my drive('s){40gb} are just
two
>> partitions, the first one was a stupid miscalculation
>> with a dos ghost program so my c drive became two gb's
>> and that left my other drive (d:) to be 38 gb. to
follow
>> this up, when i was installing windows xp, i had alot
of
>> problems so i had to boot from cd and finally in the
>> setup i chose to convert it to FAT figuring that it was
>> going to be FAT32 (it just FAT and the other option was
>> NTFS). well after i found out my mistake, i reinstalled
>> windows, because i didnt really have anything installed
>> any way so there was nothing to lose, and in setup i
>> converted it to NTFS since that is a compressed type
and
>> it is new. but now my computer wont calculate the disk
>> space correctly. i recieve alot if low disk space
>> warnings, when i only used up 1.2 gb of space out of
2gb.
>> well, thats the story. all i want to know, is there a
way
>> to change the way windows sees my drive and figures out
>> the correct disk space? or is there a way i could un-
>> partition my drive. money isn't much of a problem.
>>
>> thanks alot for your help.
>> -Alex
>>
>> P.S. what did u mean when u said "repartition"? (in #1
of
>> your suggestions)
>
>
>.
>

wow. THANK YOU for all your help. i really didnt know any
of this and i will hope to use all of your help in a good
and progressive way. my friend loaned me partition magic
and i used to using your help and now i just have one 40
gb drive. i know i would be beter off with a partition,
but i think it would be better this way. well thank you
for all your help once again. this is like the best guide
i EVER read.
-Alex M.

[goodguy_98]

On Thu, 28 Aug 2003 14:08:02 -0700, "Alex Marchevskiy"
> wrote:
>
>wow. THANK YOU for all your help. i really didnt know any
>of this and i will hope to use all of your help in a good
>and progressive way. my friend loaned me partition magic
>and i used to using your help and now i just have one 40
>gb drive. i know i would be beter off with a partition,
>but i think it would be better this way. well thank you
>for all your help once again. this is like the best guide
>i EVER read.
>-Alex M.

You can also download a trial copy of BootIt Next Generation (BootIt
NG) from "http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/". It is a multi boot
manager but it also has the ability to do nondestructive partitioning.
I believe you don't need to install it to the hard drive to use the
partitioning features. Just click on the Maintenance button and it
should let you work on partitions. If you have any questions, their
tech support is excellent. The product is low priced for all it does
imho. It's shareware, so you can try before you buy.