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Reformatted Hard Drive

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I reformatted my 20GB hard and now it only recognizes 2GB. After reformatting it ended being FAT 16 so I ran 98's conversion to FAT 32 and just regained about 100MB's. Any suggestions as how I can get the space back? Running Win98se.

Thanks in advance

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by thechas

You need to delete your partition(s) and start over again.

The FAT32 conversion tool only converts the existing partition to a FAT32 partition. It does not, and cannot change the partition structure.

Here is what you need to do:

If there are any files on the drive that you need, back them up!

Set the drive as the primary master (or single) drive on a PC.

Boot up with a W98 Startup Disk.

Enter BIOS settings, and verify that the drive is correctly detected.

After you get to the DOS prompt from the floppy boot. Run the command
fdisk /mbr

Next, run
fdisk
When requested, answer yes for large hard drive support.

Choose the option to delete partitions.
Delete the primary DOS partition.
If there is an extended DOS partition, delete any logical drives, and delete the extended partition.

Exit fdisk and reboot.

Run fdisk again.
This time, create a primary DOS partition of the desired size.

(For a variety of reasons, I would make the primary DOS partition either 8000 MB or 16000 MB in size.
Check out the article on partition strategy posted at www.aumha.org for more information.)

Make sure to set this partition as active.

If you have any space left over, allocate all of the space to an extended DOS partition, and create logical drives in that space.

Exit fdisk and reboot.

At the DOS prompt, run the format command
format c: /s

The "S" switch copies the system files from the floppy and makes the drive bootable.

That should do it.

Chas

by rohit kumar d

go to command prompt run fdisk r u able to se the full 20 gb if yes u can creat extended partition & then logical drive if not u need to delete the partition & recreate them again using fdisk or any other utility

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