my fdisk problem

durbantus

Junior Member
Nov 26, 2001
5
0
0
this is latest news on my fdisk problem

summary of events

I put togeather a new computer
I ran fdisk from a win 98 boot disk
I created the following partitions
c: [I formatted this]
d: [I did not format this]
and "another one"[I did not format this] [I call it "another one" for the reasons set out below]

I then installed win me
[only c: showed up as formatted /d: was unformatted/there was no sign of "another one"]
[at this stage I formatted d:through win me]

I loaded the drivers for my hardware etc

There was a problem just after this stage
I kept getting low memory warning

I decided to format C:
And reinstall win me

Before reinstalling win me
I ran fdisk again to check status of my partitions

after asking if I wanted largedisk support
I was unable to proceed further

under fdisk options I have

Fdisk options
current fixed disk drive : 1
choose ine of the following
1 blah bla etc
2 ditto
3 ditto
4 ditto

Enter choices

Unable to access Drive 1. [ <<<Flashing ]

If i try and use any options
I get this:

current fixed drive 1

unable to access Drive 1 [<<<Flashing

I then checked forums

Someone said try running
A:\Fdisk /mbr

I did this

But it didnt help

I then reinstalled win me
I havent installed any drivers
both c: and d: show up ok

during install I was asked if I wanted to proceed with "mbr [as noted also when running A:\Fdisk /mbr ]



So at this stage I still cannot run fdisk
I have c: with 25.5 gigs
I have d: with 17.5 gigs
Ive lost "another one with 17.5 gigs

Ive tried to run
partition magic 7

but I get a read error

Ice tried to run Ibm Drive finess test utility [http://www.storage.ibm.com/hdd/support/download.htm]
cant get it to load

someone suggested using wipeout[http://home.socal.rr.com/chansen/prog/wipeout.zip ]
I havent tried this

Some Notes

Is it possible I have too much memory for win me [750 megs]
I was aiming to use win xp eventually

quote:
Q: Too much memory in Windows 95/98/98SE/ME!


A: If your computer is running Windows 95/98/98SE or ME and it contains more than 512 megabytes of RAM, you may experience one or more of the following symptoms:
You may be unable to open an MS-DOS session (or command prompt) while Windows is running. Attempts to do so may generate the following error message:
There is not enough memory available to run this program.
Quit one or more programs, and then try again.

The computer may stop responding (hang) while Windows is starting, or halt and display the following error message:
Insufficient memory to initialize windows. Quit one or more memory-resident programs or remove unnecessary utilities from your Config.sys and Autoexec.bat files, and restart your computer.

The cause of the problem has to do with the Windows 32-bit protected-mode cache driver (Vcache). Vcache determines the maximum cache size based on the amount of RAM that is present when Windows starts. Vcache then reserves enough memory addresses to permit it to access a cache of the maximum size so that it can increase the cache to that size if needed. These addresses are allocated in a range of virtual addresses from 0xC0000000 through 0xFFFFFFFF (3 to 4 gigabytes) known as the system arena.

On computers with large amounts of RAM, the maximum cache size can be large enough that Vcache consumes all of the addresses in the system arena, leaving no virtual memory addresses available for other functions such as opening an MS-DOS prompt (which is supposed to create a new virtual machine).

End of quote

According to partition magic7 readme there is a known problem with win me and pm7 and fdisk

quote:

If you use PartitionMagic (or FDISK or any other partitioning
software), you should be aware of the following Microsoft warning.

IMPORTANT: You should not attempt to uninstall Windows Me if the
partition information for your hard disk or disks has changed since
you last installed Windows Me successfully. Windows Me creates a
backup copy of your partition information in the Suhdlog.dat file
at the end of a successful installation, and Uninstal.exe restores
the partition information listed in the Suhdlog.dat file to your
hard disk during the uninstall. If the partition information on
your hard disk or disks has changed since you last installed
successfully (specifically, since the Suhdlog.dat file was created),
then you might experience partial or complete data loss as a result
of attempting to uninstall Windows Me.



So there it is

sorry for such a long post

Any ideas

Thx

Urb

All I want to do is get my hard drive set up correctly

my sys

epox ep 8kha+ mobo
athlon xp 1900 cpu
ibm 60gxp 60 gb udma 100 hd [JUST ONE]
plex plexwriter 24/10/40a
asus v8200 ti500 vid card
sb platinum sound card
768mb crucial pc2100 ddr

 

Sp3nce

Member
Nov 28, 2001
78
0
0
Problems

1. FDISK? That is so windows 95
2. Windows ME? Worst OS Ever
3. Get a bootable XP cd, format the HD as ONE partition.
 

DN

Senior member
Nov 19, 2001
552
0
0
I'm going to have to agree with Sp3nce here.. I don't know what you are attempting to accomplish, but WinME is just a big mistake..
 

SUOrangeman

Diamond Member
Oct 12, 1999
8,361
0
0
Please stop bashing WInME. If it works for whomever or if it is the only thing you've got, you'll be just fine.

More than anything, I believe there is a hardware problem somewhere. Try putting the drive in another system and partitioning it there.

-SUO
 

Sp3nce

Member
Nov 28, 2001
78
0
0
The only problem is that Fdisk sux huge donkey balls. Get rid of it, and install XP, it will format everything for you.