need to help to format disk...

i have a 40gb HD and try to format it before a clean xp isntall. however,
there's only one 38gb partition when i run fdisk, and where is the rest of
about 2 gb space. i assume it's the EISA partition from Novell set up by
previous user ( i saw the wording Novell.....when system startup) or
whatever kind of system partition...

how can I reclaim those spaces?

Thanks

CC

I suggest you run Fdisk from a diskette.

"Calvin C." wrote in message
...
i have a 40gb HD and try to format it before a clean xp isntall. however,
there's only one 38gb partition when i run fdisk, and where is the rest of
about 2 gb space. i assume it's the EISA partition from Novell set up by
previous user ( i saw the wording Novell.....when system startup) or
whatever kind of system partition...

how can I reclaim those spaces?

Thanks

CC

See link:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=313348

Andre
"Calvin C." wrote in message
...
i have a 40gb HD and try to format it before a clean xp isntall. however,
there's only one 38gb partition when i run fdisk, and where is the rest of
about 2 gb space. i assume it's the EISA partition from Novell set up by
previous user ( i saw the wording Novell.....when system startup) or
whatever kind of system partition...

how can I reclaim those spaces?

Thanks

CC

40gb is the size of the drive in unformatted form.. formatting uses up some
of the space..


"Calvin C." wrote in message
...
i have a 40gb HD and try to format it before a clean xp isntall. however,
there's only one 38gb partition when i run fdisk, and where is the rest of
about 2 gb space. i assume it's the EISA partition from Novell set up by
previous user ( i saw the wording Novell.....when system startup) or
whatever kind of system partition...

how can I reclaim those spaces?

Thanks

CC

Thanks for all your suggestions. I will try again and reply to group. CC

"Mike Hall" wrote in message
...
40gb is the size of the drive in unformatted form.. formatting uses up
some of the space..


"Calvin C." wrote in message
...
i have a 40gb HD and try to format it before a clean xp isntall. however,
there's only one 38gb partition when i run fdisk, and where is the rest of
about 2 gb space. i assume it's the EISA partition from Novell set up by
previous user ( i saw the wording Novell.....when system startup) or
whatever kind of system partition...

how can I reclaim those spaces?

Thanks

CC

In ,
Mike Hall typed:

40gb is the size of the drive in unformatted form.. formatting
uses
up some of the space..


No, this isn't correct. He has a 38GB drive, not a 40GB one.


All hard drive manufacturers define 1GB as 1,000,000,000 bytes,
while the rest of the computer world, including Windows, defines
it as 2 to the 30th power (1,073,741,824) bytes. So a 40 billion
byte drive is actually around 38GB.



Some people point out that the official international standard
defines the "G" of GB as one billion, not 1,073,741,824. Correct
though they are, using the binary value of GB is so well
established in the computer world that I consider using the
decimal value of a billion to be deceptive marketing.


--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup





"Calvin C." wrote in message
...
i have a 40gb HD and try to format it before a clean xp
isntall.
however, there's only one 38gb partition when i run fdisk, and
where
is the rest of about 2 gb space. i assume it's the EISA
partition
from Novell set up by previous user ( i saw the wording
Novell.....when system startup) or whatever kind of system
partition...
how can I reclaim those spaces?

Thanks

CC

You are right, of course.. it is indeed deceptive marketing.. I will reword
my replies in future, although I was always led to believe that it is the
formatting of the drive, or should I say, the way that Windows formats, that
leads to the anomaly between what a person is told they have and the usable
space after formatting.. I have also believed that the format information
does indeed use up some space..


"Ken Blake" wrote in message
...
In ,
Mike Hall typed:

40gb is the size of the drive in unformatted form.. formatting uses
up some of the space..


No, this isn't correct. He has a 38GB drive, not a 40GB one.


All hard drive manufacturers define 1GB as 1,000,000,000 bytes, while the
rest of the computer world, including Windows, defines it as 2 to the 30th
power (1,073,741,824) bytes. So a 40 billion byte drive is actually around
38GB.



Some people point out that the official international standard defines the
"G" of GB as one billion, not 1,073,741,824. Correct though they are,
using the binary value of GB is so well established in the computer world
that I consider using the decimal value of a billion to be deceptive
marketing.


--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup





"Calvin C." wrote in message
...
i have a 40gb HD and try to format it before a clean xp isntall.
however, there's only one 38gb partition when i run fdisk, and where
is the rest of about 2 gb space. i assume it's the EISA partition
from Novell set up by previous user ( i saw the wording
Novell.....when system startup) or whatever kind of system
partition...
how can I reclaim those spaces?

Thanks

CC

In news:,
Ken Blake typed:

In ,
Mike Hall typed:

40gb is the size of the drive in unformatted form.. formatting
uses
up some of the space..


No, this isn't correct. He has a 38GB drive, not a 40GB one.


All hard drive manufacturers define 1GB as 1,000,000,000 bytes,
while the rest of the computer world, including Windows,
defines
it as 2 to the 30th power (1,073,741,824) bytes. So a 40
billion
byte drive is actually around 38GB.


My apologies. I answered too quickly without noticing the comment
about "partition from Novell set up by previous user." I may well
be wrong about what the problem is.

Calvin C. might want to check again with FDISK and see if there's
a non-DOS partition that he can delete before creating a
partition.

--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup


"Calvin C." wrote in message
...
i have a 40gb HD and try to format it before a clean xp
isntall.
however, there's only one 38gb partition when i run fdisk, and
where
is the rest of about 2 gb space. i assume it's the EISA
partition
from Novell set up by previous user ( i saw the wording
Novell.....when system startup) or whatever kind of system
partition...
how can I reclaim those spaces?

Thanks

CC

I too have a problem with Trying to fdisk and format a new HD with xp pro.
How do I do this when it will not boot up with the cd rom? I can use a win98
boot disk and get the cd to recognize then put in the win xp pro cd and
select setup, but it says this program cannot be ran in the dos mode. Only in
windows but I don't have windows on the new HD. Hopefully someone can help me
with this.
Thanks

"Calvin C." wrote:

i have a 40gb HD and try to format it before a clean xp isntall. however,
there's only one 38gb partition when i run fdisk, and where is the rest of
about 2 gb space. i assume it's the EISA partition from Novell set up by
previous user ( i saw the wording Novell.....when system startup) or
whatever kind of system partition...

how can I reclaim those spaces?

Thanks

CC

The XP CD does not include FDISK, you could only run that from a 9x boot
floppy that contains the utility.

That said, if you are simply trying to install XP clean, first, are you sure
the system won't boot from the CD. When you boot, with the CD-ROM first in
line in the BIOS boot sequence, during the boot, when the CD is detected,
you should see a message to press any key if you wish to boot from the CD,
you need to watch for it. In that case, all deleting, creating and
formatting of partitions can be done from XP setup.

If your system cannot boot from the CD-ROM drive, there are sets of boot
floppies for XP Home and Pro to facilitate this type of setup when the
system doesn't support booting from the CD-ROM:
XP Home Edition:
http://tinyurl.com/3azo

XP Pro:
http://tinyurl.com/4d3p

Follow the instructions at the websites for use and installation.


--
Michael Solomon MS-MVP
Windows Shell/User
Backup is a PC User's Best Friend
DTS-L.Org: http://www.dts-l.org/

"James O." James wrote in message
...
I too have a problem with Trying to fdisk and format a new HD with xp pro.
How do I do this when it will not boot up with the cd rom? I can use a
win98
boot disk and get the cd to recognize then put in the win xp pro cd and
select setup, but it says this program cannot be ran in the dos mode. Only
in
windows but I don't have windows on the new HD. Hopefully someone can help
me
with this.
Thanks

"Calvin C." wrote:

i have a 40gb HD and try to format it before a clean xp isntall. however,
there's only one 38gb partition when i run fdisk, and where is the rest
of
about 2 gb space. i assume it's the EISA partition from Novell set up by
previous user ( i saw the wording Novell.....when system startup) or
whatever kind of system partition...

how can I reclaim those spaces?

Thanks

CC