Amazed....

[phaelinx]

Im amazed at all the people that cant configure a hd past 137 gigs. When you get a boxed hard drive, it comes with a floppy disk/cdrom for a reason. Not just to take up space on your desk.

These people are generally the ones that,

1. forget to install chipset drivers and wonder why their 6800u scores like shit.
2. have multiple partitions on 1 hd....a whole other topic..
3. think they can jump into building a pc and have never done so. I am not a automotive mechanic, so I dont attempt to repair or build cars, so you shouldnt attempt to build a pc.
4. rest their motherboard/video cards, hds on the carpet where static electricity owns them.

I have installed 250+ gig hds in windows 2000, and windows xp without any service packs and I see the full hard drive. Its not rocket science.

If your hd didnt come with a floppy or cdrom, thats why microsoft put in Fdisk.

Its just amazing to see multiple posts of people asking why they cant see their large hd partitioned over 137 gigs..CAUSE YOU DIDNT HAVE THE DYNAMIC DRIVE OVERLAY INSTALLED.

almost every hard drive manufacturer has some sort of DDO software that needs to be installed during a hd setup. Maxtor has Maxblast 3, other companys have their own..

[djnes]

Its just amazing to see multiple posts of people asking why they cant see their large hd partitioned over 137 gigs..CAUSE YOU DIDNT HAVE THE DYNAMIC DRIVE OVERLAY INSTALLED.

Actually, anyone with half an ounce worth of computer knowledge would know not to load that crap because it messes with the MBR of the drives. If you update your OS, and learn how to install an OS, you can use bigger drives. Those overlays are only for ancient PCs that can't handle larger drives, even with OS updates.

Second, the reason for so many threads all over the forums can be summed in two points:

1) Many people are too lazy to research their own solution...always easy to ask others to do so.
2) Most people refuse to use the search function to read the billion other threads asking the same questions.

If you want proof...drop by the OS forum and create a thread asking if SP2 is ok to install.

[phaelinx]

Actually, anyone with half an ounce worth of computer knowledge would know not to load that crap because it messes with the MBR of the drives. If you update your OS, and learn how to install an OS, you can use bigger drives. Those overlays are only for ancient PCs that can't handle larger drives, even with OS updates.

Second, the reason for so many threads all over the forums can be summed in two points:

1) Many people are too lazy to research their own solution...always easy to ask others to do so.
2) Most people refuse to use the search function to read the billion other threads asking the same questions.

If you want proof...drop by the OS forum and create a thread asking if SP2 is ok to install.


Yeah..I was only referring to the DDO, because if people are having trouble with a simple task as making the drive read past 137 gig..they might as well install it. heh

And yes..It's quite annoying to come into a thread and read "Sp2 ok to install?", "Should I install SP2??" "SP2 BORKED MY MACHINE!!! GIVE ME A REFUND MS!"

[dano]

2. have multiple partitions on 1 hd....a whole other topic..

Ok, go with it, what the hell is wrong with that? Other than it being totally useless against hardware failure I can think of a few reasons why you might want to.

Dano.

[Quagmire02]

I have a question:

I installed a 250 GB HDD last night, but I formatted it with my Windows CD and installed windows. I did not use Maxblast to format it.

I read that the drive will be read at full capacity after downloading the windows service packs...is this true?

I also heard that you need Partition Magic to expand the partition to the full 250 GB capacity...is that true as well?

I have only just installed windows so far...nothing else.

[compslckr]

2. have multiple partitions on 1 hd....a whole other topic..
i have 2 partitions on one of my 200gb drives. i have 60gb for windows and program files then the rest is for documents, music etc. that way when i need to install windows again, or try out something (xp-64 bit etc.) i dont have to worry about moving my 130gb worth of stuff to an external 200gb, or to the other 200gb that is in my system.

also, what about ghost partitions? there are plenty of reasons to have several partitions on one drive, and it is in no way a bad thing

[MeanieMan]

Ok, go with it, what the hell is wrong with that? Other than it being totally useless against hardware failure I can think of a few reasons why you might want to.

Dano.

QFT, there are several reasons to divide a 400GB into 20 or 40gb chunks.
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=741512


Sounds to me like the OP is complaining about people not reading the stickies, when he is guilty of the same :rolleyes:

[Carnival Forces]

i have multiple partitions to separate storage / games. it makes perfect sense. if you defrag your HDD regularly and have one partition devoted to games, it will load faster.

and it helps me organizationally.

http://www.hardfolding.com/ftag1.php/mem/145.png (http://www.hardfolding.com?go=38&id=145)

[Quagmire02]

OK, Ok, so it does in fact make sense to partition a drive.

Now, is anyone willing to answer my question above???

(I don't want to have to fomat that drive AGAIN because I messed up teh procedure).

[Herulach]

OK, Ok, so it does in fact make sense to partition a drive.

Now, is anyone willing to answer my question above???

(I don't want to have to fomat that drive AGAIN because I messed up teh procedure).
Dude, that was all addressed at the OP, but yeah, you will be able to see the full drive after installing service packs, my preffered way would be to slipstream sp2 onto an install disc and the you have the full capacity from the word go, using something like nlite, google it. But if that sounds too difficult you can always go with 2 partitions, or yes you can use partition magic to expand the one.

[compslckr]

just install sp2 then go into disk managment and format the unfomatted chunk, if you want the whole drive to be one partition you will need partition magic, but if you dont mind having a 137gb and a 113gb you will be all set with the disk managment tools that come with win XP

[Quagmire02]

Thanks, guys. I will most likely want it all as one huge partition. Do I need to format the other section before expanding it with partition magic?

[compslckr]

yeah, start up partition magic, then right click the un-formatted piece and hit format, choose ntfs, then click ok, then right click it again and hit merge and choose the settings you want (usually one of the following, c becomes folder of d, or d becomes folder of c)

then hit apply at the bottom left and restart your computer, then sit back and relax for about 45 minutes depending on how much data you have on your drive

[Quagmire02]

When you say "becomes folder of" does that essentially mean it stops being a partition and is instead merged with C:?

[DougLite]

Partition magic actually goes through and manually merges the partitions into one file system - you won't get the old one back. Anything that messes with partition layout is a risky business, hence PM's nickname of "Partition Tragic" There are plenty of horror stories out there where PM has scrambled the whole partition and made the data on the drive unreadable - always backup data you can't replace before proceeding with any operation that modifies partition tables, especially when you use third party tools.

[Quagmire02]

Partition magic actually goes through and manually merges the partitions into one file system - you won't get the old one back. Anything that messes with partition layout is a risky business, hence PM's nickname of "Partition Tragic" There are plenty of horror stories out there where PM has scrambled the whole partition and made the data on the drive unreadable - always backup data you can't replace before proceeding with any operation that modifies partition tables, especially when you use third party tools.

I dont have a single item installed on there other than Windows XP. Need I worry?

[DougLite]

I have never heard of PM damaging a drive, so as long as you have your XP install CD and don't mind the possibility of watching the install again, go for it.

[Quagmire02]

Ok, so apparently I cant resize my partition without paying 70 dollars for the program. Any hints as to how to get around paying 70 dollars for this?

[compslckr]

that is correct, you must buy partition magic to actually use it for anything useful, there are always the illegal alternatives, but i am not going to touch that subject since these forums a pretty strict about it and for good reason.

[Quagmire02]

Thanks ;)

[AuroraProject]

3. think they can jump into building a pc and have never done so. I am not a automotive mechanic, so I dont attempt to repair or build cars, so you shouldnt attempt to build a pc.



Uhh, no. I built my first rig about a month ago, it was easy. I finished my second last night. Building a pc isnt all that difficult. You really should try repairing your car yourself, it can save you quite a bit of money.

This is going to be the end of off-topic discussion in this thread. - DL

[Quagmire02]

that is correct, you must buy partition magic to actually use it for anything useful, there are always the illegal alternatives, but i am not going to touch that subject since these forums a pretty strict about it and for good reason.

I can see why they are strict. Torrented myself a copy of PM and as soon as I opened the exe I was infested with spyware. Fixing that tonight. I havent downloaded all my spyware protection just yet, only Ad-Aware. It founf ~560 spware files
:eek: