Hard Disk Size Error

Hi everyone,

I gave my older computer to my parents-in-law (Patriot Intel P3 400Mhz,
128MB Ram, 16MB 3D Blaster Banshee), and I decided to reformat the original
HDD (12.4GB), so that they would start with a "fresh" boot. I've done this
numerous times in the past to "spring clean" by system, and have never had
any major issues. After hours of reinstalling drivers, pulling out hairs, and
gaining pounds of bum fat, I finally had the system all set up, things
running primo, and I went back home.

Next day, they asked me to help them install software for their digital
camera so that they can drop pictures on the HDD. Well, as I started up, the
program informed me that their was insufficient HDD space...!

I took a quick boo, and Win98 told me that I only had a 1.5GB HDD!!! I
freaked! Did I reinstall the wrong HDD? Nope. Did I partition it wrong? Nope.
Did I wire it wrong? Nope. That left one explanation...Win98 was
confused...maybe?

After a bit of research, some people on the Win98 Discussion board mentioned
something about mistakenly partitioning as a FAT16. I thought that was a
possibility, but most of the people they were responding to had a
1.99GB/2.00GB error. Mine is 1.50GB.

I went and did what they recommended, and did an FDISK check. Here are the
results:

Current Fixed Disk Drive: 1
Partition C:1
Status A
Type PRI DOS
Volume Label HD2
Mbytes 12410
Sys FAT32
Usage 100%
Total disk space is 12410 Mbytes (1 Mbytes = 1048576 bytes)

Everything seems kosher here. Why is Win98 only reading 1.5GB? What do I do
to fix it? Please help me out!!!!

Thanks,
Animal56

Did you try running ScanDisk on the drive?

When you installed 98 cleanly, did you turn off any boot-
sector virus protection in the BIOS?

Leaving it on can ruin the setup in strange ways.

Eric,
http://www.pcbuyerbeware.co.uk/
http://www.sharedbirthday.co.uk/


-----Original Message-----
Hi everyone,

I gave my older computer to my parents-in-law (Patriot
Intel P3 400Mhz,
128MB Ram, 16MB 3D Blaster Banshee), and I decided to
reformat the original
HDD (12.4GB), so that they would start with a "fresh"
boot. I've done this
numerous times in the past to "spring clean" by system,
and have never had
any major issues. After hours of reinstalling drivers,
pulling out hairs, and
gaining pounds of bum fat, I finally had the system all
set up, things
running primo, and I went back home.

Next day, they asked me to help them install software for
their digital
camera so that they can drop pictures on the HDD. Well,
as I started up, the
program informed me that their was insufficient HDD
space...!

I took a quick boo, and Win98 told me that I only had a
1.5GB HDD!!! I
freaked! Did I reinstall the wrong HDD? Nope. Did I
partition it wrong? Nope.
Did I wire it wrong? Nope. That left one
explanation...Win98 was
confused...maybe?

After a bit of research, some people on the Win98
Discussion board mentioned
something about mistakenly partitioning as a FAT16. I
thought that was a
possibility, but most of the people they were responding
to had a
1.99GB/2.00GB error. Mine is 1.50GB.

I went and did what they recommended, and did an FDISK
check. Here are the
results:

Current Fixed Disk Drive: 1
Partition C:1
Status A
Type PRI DOS
Volume Label HD2
Mbytes 12410
Sys FAT32
Usage 100%
Total disk space is 12410 Mbytes (1 Mbytes = 1048576
bytes)

Everything seems kosher here. Why is Win98 only reading
1.5GB? What do I do
to fix it? Please help me out!!!!

Thanks,
Animal56

.

"Animal56" wrote in message ...

I gave my older computer to my parents-in-law (Patriot Intel P3 400Mhz,
128MB Ram, 16MB 3D Blaster Banshee), and I decided to reformat the original
HDD (12.4GB),

I took a quick boo, and Win98 told me that I only had a 1.5GB HDD!!!

Current Fixed Disk Drive: 1
Partition C:1
Status A
Type PRI DOS
Volume Label HD2
Mbytes 12410
Sys FAT32
Usage 100%
Total disk space is 12410 Mbytes (1 Mbytes = 1048576 bytes)

At a DOS prompt do a CHKDSK C:

Does it report 4096 bytes in each allocation unit, or 8192? If it reports
4k clusters (units), then the format probably went bad and you'll have
to reformat the drive.

"Bill Blanton" wrote in message ...
"Animal56" wrote in message ...

HDD (12.4GB),

I took a quick boo, and Win98 told me that I only had a 1.5GB HDD!!!

Current Fixed Disk Drive: 1
Partition C:1
Status A
Type PRI DOS
Volume Label HD2
Mbytes 12410
Sys FAT32
Usage 100%
Total disk space is 12410 Mbytes (1 Mbytes = 1048576 bytes)

At a DOS prompt do a CHKDSK C:

Does it report 4096 bytes in each allocation unit, or 8192? If it reports
4k clusters (units), then the format probably went bad and you'll have
to reformat the drive.

Just to clarify . These are the defaults that format uses

512 MB to 8,191 MB 4 KB
8,192 MB to 16,383 MB 8 KB
16,384 MB to 32,767 MB 16 KB
Larger than 32,768 MB 32 KB

If format saw the drive correctly as 12410 MB, then you should have
8k clusters.

There could be another reason for the discrepency, but this is easy to check.

I tried Scandisk 4-5 times, because I heard that may be tell tale, but it
didn't pick up anything. I'll try again.

There was no virus protection on the computer. Would there be any boot
sector left if I reformatted?

Thanks for your response. I'll keep you updated.

Cheers,
Animal

"Eric" wrote:

Did you try running ScanDisk on the drive?

When you installed 98 cleanly, did you turn off any boot-
sector virus protection in the BIOS?

Leaving it on can ruin the setup in strange ways.

Eric,
http://www.pcbuyerbeware.co.uk/
http://www.sharedbirthday.co.uk/


-----Original Message-----
Hi everyone,

I gave my older computer to my parents-in-law (Patriot
Intel P3 400Mhz,
128MB Ram, 16MB 3D Blaster Banshee), and I decided to
reformat the original
HDD (12.4GB), so that they would start with a "fresh"
boot. I've done this
numerous times in the past to "spring clean" by system,
and have never had
any major issues. After hours of reinstalling drivers,
pulling out hairs, and
gaining pounds of bum fat, I finally had the system all
set up, things
running primo, and I went back home.

Next day, they asked me to help them install software for
their digital
camera so that they can drop pictures on the HDD. Well,
as I started up, the
program informed me that their was insufficient HDD
space...!

I took a quick boo, and Win98 told me that I only had a
1.5GB HDD!!! I
freaked! Did I reinstall the wrong HDD? Nope. Did I
partition it wrong? Nope.
Did I wire it wrong? Nope. That left one
explanation...Win98 was
confused...maybe?

After a bit of research, some people on the Win98
Discussion board mentioned
something about mistakenly partitioning as a FAT16. I
thought that was a
possibility, but most of the people they were responding
to had a
1.99GB/2.00GB error. Mine is 1.50GB.

I went and did what they recommended, and did an FDISK
check. Here are the
results:

Current Fixed Disk Drive: 1
Partition C:1
Status A
Type PRI DOS
Volume Label HD2
Mbytes 12410
Sys FAT32
Usage 100%
Total disk space is 12410 Mbytes (1 Mbytes = 1048576
bytes)

Everything seems kosher here. Why is Win98 only reading
1.5GB? What do I do
to fix it? Please help me out!!!!

Thanks,
Animal56

.

"Bill Blanton" wrote:

"Animal56" wrote in message ...

I gave my older computer to my parents-in-law (Patriot Intel P3 400Mhz,
128MB Ram, 16MB 3D Blaster Banshee), and I decided to reformat the original
HDD (12.4GB),

I took a quick boo, and Win98 told me that I only had a 1.5GB HDD!!!

Current Fixed Disk Drive: 1
Partition C:1
Status A
Type PRI DOS
Volume Label HD2
Mbytes 12410
Sys FAT32
Usage 100%
Total disk space is 12410 Mbytes (1 Mbytes = 1048576 bytes)

At a DOS prompt do a CHKDSK C:

Does it report 4096 bytes in each allocation unit, or 8192? If it reports
4k clusters (units), then the format probably went bad and you'll have
to reformat the drive.




I'll check it out. Thanks for your reply. I'll keep you updated.

Cheers,
Animal

| I took a quick boo, and Win98 told me that I only had a 1.5GB HDD!!!

Where is it telling you this...?...

(1) "START, Run, MSInfo32". Use the mouse to highlight relevant info &
the Edit menu to Copy it...

Windows-managed swap file on drive C (6458MB free)
Available space on drive C: 6458MB of 7979MB (FAT32)
Available space on drive D: 6232MB of 7979MB (FAT32)
Available space on drive E: 773MB of 2792MB (FAT32)
Available space on drive F: 7979MB of 7979MB (FAT32)
Available space on drive G: 7786MB of 7979MB (FAT32)
Available space on drive H: 7620MB of 7979MB (FAT32)
Available space on drive I: 6174MB of 6174MB (FAT32)

(2)
(a) "START button, Programs, MS-DOS Prompt"
(b) FDISK /Status
(c) Use the "MARK", outline text with mouse, "COPY" button to post the
results.

C:\FDISK /Status
Disk Drv Mbytes Free Usage
1 19092 8298 57%
C: 7996
E: 2798
2 38169 100% Full drive
D: 7996 One partition
F: 7996
G: 7996
H: 7996
I: 6187


--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
should things get worse after this,
PCR

"Animal56" wrote in message
...
| Hi everyone,
|
| I gave my older computer to my parents-in-law (Patriot Intel P3
400Mhz,
| 128MB Ram, 16MB 3D Blaster Banshee), and I decided to reformat the
original
| HDD (12.4GB), so that they would start with a "fresh" boot. I've done
this
| numerous times in the past to "spring clean" by system, and have never
had
| any major issues. After hours of reinstalling drivers, pulling out
hairs, and
| gaining pounds of bum fat, I finally had the system all set up, things
| running primo, and I went back home.
|
| Next day, they asked me to help them install software for their
digital
| camera so that they can drop pictures on the HDD. Well, as I started
up, the
| program informed me that their was insufficient HDD space...!
|
| I took a quick boo, and Win98 told me that I only had a 1.5GB HDD!!! I
| freaked! Did I reinstall the wrong HDD? Nope. Did I partition it
wrong? Nope.
| Did I wire it wrong? Nope. That left one explanation...Win98 was
| confused...maybe?
|
| After a bit of research, some people on the Win98 Discussion board
mentioned
| something about mistakenly partitioning as a FAT16. I thought that was
a
| possibility, but most of the people they were responding to had a
| 1.99GB/2.00GB error. Mine is 1.50GB.
|
| I went and did what they recommended, and did an FDISK check. Here are
the
| results:
|
| Current Fixed Disk Drive: 1
| Partition C:1
| Status A
| Type PRI DOS
| Volume Label HD2
| Mbytes 12410
| Sys FAT32
| Usage 100%
| Total disk space is 12410 Mbytes (1 Mbytes = 1048576 bytes)
|
| Everything seems kosher here. Why is Win98 only reading 1.5GB? What do
I do
| to fix it? Please help me out!!!!
|
| Thanks,
| Animal56
|

All right...here's how it went...

1. I did Scandisk in Win98, Dos Prompt, and on reboot in Command Prompt.
Nothing was found.
2. I did Disk Defrag. Nothing was found.
3. I did CHKDSK and it told me 4096b. Which I'm told is bad reformat,
however, for the record, I reformatted the Drive after I discovered the
problem originally (which I may have neglected to mention), and it did it
twice.
4. I checked MSINFO32 and this is what I found:

Windows-managed swap file on drive C (320MB free)
Available space on drive C: 320MB of 1544MB (FAT32)

5. Then after checking FDISK /status, this is what I found:

Disk Drv Mbytes Free Usage
1 12410 100%
C: 12410

This tells me that somewhere, Win98, is confused during initial boot. Am I
correct? Is there another solution, or should I try another reformat? And if
I do, is there a program that can save all of my drivers, so I don't have to
go through all of the reinstalling driver garbage that makes this a day long
event instead of a few hours?

Thanks for all of your help! You guys are making me look like I know what
I'm doing!

Cheers,
Animal56


"PCR" wrote:

| I took a quick boo, and Win98 told me that I only had a 1.5GB HDD!!!

Where is it telling you this...?...

(1) "START, Run, MSInfo32". Use the mouse to highlight relevant info &
the Edit menu to Copy it...

Windows-managed swap file on drive C (6458MB free)
Available space on drive C: 6458MB of 7979MB (FAT32)
Available space on drive D: 6232MB of 7979MB (FAT32)
Available space on drive E: 773MB of 2792MB (FAT32)
Available space on drive F: 7979MB of 7979MB (FAT32)
Available space on drive G: 7786MB of 7979MB (FAT32)
Available space on drive H: 7620MB of 7979MB (FAT32)
Available space on drive I: 6174MB of 6174MB (FAT32)

(2)
(a) "START button, Programs, MS-DOS Prompt"
(b) FDISK /Status
(c) Use the "MARK", outline text with mouse, "COPY" button to post the
results.

C:\FDISK /Status
Disk Drv Mbytes Free Usage
1 19092 8298 57%
C: 7996
E: 2798
2 38169 100% Full drive
D: 7996 One partition
F: 7996
G: 7996
H: 7996
I: 6187


--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
should things get worse after this,
PCR

"Animal56" wrote in message
...
| Hi everyone,
|
| I gave my older computer to my parents-in-law (Patriot Intel P3
400Mhz,
| 128MB Ram, 16MB 3D Blaster Banshee), and I decided to reformat the
original
| HDD (12.4GB), so that they would start with a "fresh" boot. I've done
this
| numerous times in the past to "spring clean" by system, and have never
had
| any major issues. After hours of reinstalling drivers, pulling out
hairs, and
| gaining pounds of bum fat, I finally had the system all set up, things
| running primo, and I went back home.
|
| Next day, they asked me to help them install software for their
digital
| camera so that they can drop pictures on the HDD. Well, as I started
up, the
| program informed me that their was insufficient HDD space...!
|
| I took a quick boo, and Win98 told me that I only had a 1.5GB HDD!!! I
| freaked! Did I reinstall the wrong HDD? Nope. Did I partition it
wrong? Nope.
| Did I wire it wrong? Nope. That left one explanation...Win98 was
| confused...maybe?
|
| After a bit of research, some people on the Win98 Discussion board
mentioned
| something about mistakenly partitioning as a FAT16. I thought that was
a
| possibility, but most of the people they were responding to had a
| 1.99GB/2.00GB error. Mine is 1.50GB.
|
| I went and did what they recommended, and did an FDISK check. Here are
the
| results:
|
| Current Fixed Disk Drive: 1
| Partition C:1
| Status A
| Type PRI DOS
| Volume Label HD2
| Mbytes 12410
| Sys FAT32
| Usage 100%
| Total disk space is 12410 Mbytes (1 Mbytes = 1048576 bytes)
|
| Everything seems kosher here. Why is Win98 only reading 1.5GB? What do
I do
| to fix it? Please help me out!!!!
|
| Thanks,
| Animal56
|

"Animal56" wrote in message ...

3. I did CHKDSK and it told me 4096b. Which I'm told is bad reformat,
however, for the record, I reformatted the Drive after I discovered the
problem originally (which I may have neglected to mention), and it did it
twice.

What!.. withholding information!

Are you using an older startup disk when doing the format? Mabey more
likely, do you have a drive overlay installed, and are booting directly to the
floppy to do the format, instead of booting through the overlay?

4. I checked MSINFO32 and this is what I found:

Available space on drive C: 320MB of 1544MB (FAT32)

5. Then after checking FDISK /status, this is what I found:

Disk Drv Mbytes Free Usage
1 12410 100%
C: 12410

This tells me that somewhere, Win98, is confused during initial boot. Am I
correct?

Mabey not Windows, but the initial format. Fdisk writes to and looks at the
partition tables. Format writes to the boot sector, where it should have
put the same value of total sectors as fdisk. Windows also looks to
the boot sector to get a volume's info.

Is there another solution, or should I try another reformat?

It's possible to fix the value, and live with the smaller cluster size, but if
it was formatted incorrectly, one big problem is that the FAT size will have
been calculated way too small.

To double check, downloadunziprun partinfo.
ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/englis...s/partinfo.zip
ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/englis.../pq/utilities/

At the DOS prompt type-
partinfo
or to save the output to file
partinfo partinfo.txt

Check the "Big Total Sectors" value in the boot sector for drive C: Multiply
by 512 to get the volume's byte size. This should also match the "Total sectors"
value in the partition table information. (if you want, you can email it to me.
Just make sure you put a subject on the mail or it won't get through.)

And if
I do, is there a program that can save all of my drivers, so I don't have to
go through all of the reinstalling driver garbage that makes this a day long
event instead of a few hours?

You could use a "non-destructive" partitioning program to resize
the partition slightly smaller, and then resize it back. (This will take
some time as it will have to resize/move the data clusters).

BootitNG (google it) can do this. Make the boot disk. Reboot (through
the overlay if applicable). Cancle the Install, and go into "Partition work".


Thanks for all of your help! You guys are making me look like I know what
I'm doing!

You won't be saying that after we trash your disk!

"Animal56" wrote in message
...
| All right...here's how it went...
|
| 1. I did Scandisk in Win98, Dos Prompt, and on reboot in Command
Prompt.
| Nothing was found.
| 2. I did Disk Defrag. Nothing was found.
| 3. I did CHKDSK and it told me 4096b. Which I'm told is bad reformat,
| however, for the record, I reformatted the Drive after I discovered
the
| problem originally (which I may have neglected to mention), and it did
it
| twice.
| 4. I checked MSINFO32 and this is what I found:
|
| Windows-managed swap file on drive C (320MB free)
| Available space on drive C: 320MB of 1544MB (FAT32)
|
| 5. Then after checking FDISK /status, this is what I found:
|
| Disk Drv Mbytes Free Usage
| 1 12410 100%
| C: 12410

This looks screwy to me. Windows says you have about 1.5 GB on C:; yet,
/STATUS says it is 12.4 GB. I suppose it can be as I believe Blanton is
saying, that your cluster size is out of whack. That can be seen in
Explorer...

(a) R-Clk any small file, & select Properties.
(b) Look at the "Size" reported.

It may say something such as: "78 bytes (78 bytes). 4096 bytes used".
That will mean a cluster is 4096 bytes. Well, I guess that CHKDSK you
did was just as well.

YET... 4096 is proper for a 1.5 GB partition. So, better do Blanton's
Partinfo. I really don't know what is going on. It could be something in
the MBR, I guess. That means, better get something else to do your
partitioning with, & start again.

|
| This tells me that somewhere, Win98, is confused during initial boot.
Am I
| correct? Is there another solution, or should I try another reformat?
And if
| I do, is there a program that can save all of my drivers, so I don't
have to
| go through all of the reinstalling driver garbage that makes this a
day long
| event instead of a few hours?

Here...
http://www.pchelpandconsulting.com/links/windows.html WinDrvExpert
http://www.jermar.com/wdrvbck.htm WinDrvBckup free version

Those two supposedly back up all currently installed drivers, such
that they can be reinstalled. I never tried it but have seen a favorable
report.

|
| Thanks for all of your help! You guys are making me look like I know
what
| I'm doing!
|
| Cheers,
| Animal56

--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
should things get worse after this,
PCR


|
| "PCR" wrote:
|
| | I took a quick boo, and Win98 told me that I only had a 1.5GB
HDD!!!
|
| Where is it telling you this...?...
|
| (1) "START, Run, MSInfo32". Use the mouse to highlight relevant info
&
| the Edit menu to Copy it...
|
| Windows-managed swap file on drive C (6458MB free)
| Available space on drive C: 6458MB of 7979MB (FAT32)
| Available space on drive D: 6232MB of 7979MB (FAT32)
| Available space on drive E: 773MB of 2792MB (FAT32)
| Available space on drive F: 7979MB of 7979MB (FAT32)
| Available space on drive G: 7786MB of 7979MB (FAT32)
| Available space on drive H: 7620MB of 7979MB (FAT32)
| Available space on drive I: 6174MB of 6174MB (FAT32)
|
| (2)
| (a) "START button, Programs, MS-DOS Prompt"
| (b) FDISK /Status
| (c) Use the "MARK", outline text with mouse, "COPY" button to post
the
| results.
|
| C:\FDISK /Status
| Disk Drv Mbytes Free Usage
| 1 19092 8298 57%
| C: 7996
| E: 2798
| 2 38169 100% Full drive
| D: 7996 One partition
| F: 7996
| G: 7996
| H: 7996
| I: 6187
|
|
| --
| Thanks or Good Luck,
| There may be humor in this post, and,
| Naturally, you will not sue,
| should things get worse after this,
| PCR
|
| "Animal56" wrote in message
| ...
| | Hi everyone,
| |
| | I gave my older computer to my parents-in-law (Patriot Intel P3
| 400Mhz,
| | 128MB Ram, 16MB 3D Blaster Banshee), and I decided to reformat the
| original
| | HDD (12.4GB), so that they would start with a "fresh" boot. I've
done
| this
| | numerous times in the past to "spring clean" by system, and have
never
| had
| | any major issues. After hours of reinstalling drivers, pulling out
| hairs, and
| | gaining pounds of bum fat, I finally had the system all set up,
things
| | running primo, and I went back home.
| |
| | Next day, they asked me to help them install software for their
| digital
| | camera so that they can drop pictures on the HDD. Well, as I
started
| up, the
| | program informed me that their was insufficient HDD space...!
| |
| | I took a quick boo, and Win98 told me that I only had a 1.5GB
HDD!!! I
| | freaked! Did I reinstall the wrong HDD? Nope. Did I partition it
| wrong? Nope.
| | Did I wire it wrong? Nope. That left one explanation...Win98 was
| | confused...maybe?
| |
| | After a bit of research, some people on the Win98 Discussion board
| mentioned
| | something about mistakenly partitioning as a FAT16. I thought that
was
| a
| | possibility, but most of the people they were responding to had a
| | 1.99GB/2.00GB error. Mine is 1.50GB.
| |
| | I went and did what they recommended, and did an FDISK check. Here
are
| the
| | results:
| |
| | Current Fixed Disk Drive: 1
| | Partition C:1
| | Status A
| | Type PRI DOS
| | Volume Label HD2
| | Mbytes 12410
| | Sys FAT32
| | Usage 100%
| | Total disk space is 12410 Mbytes (1 Mbytes = 1048576 bytes)
| |
| | Everything seems kosher here. Why is Win98 only reading 1.5GB?
What do
| I do
| | to fix it? Please help me out!!!!
| |
| | Thanks,
| | Animal56

--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
should things get worse after this,
PCR