Stupid newbie question re partitioning hard drive

[dondi]

I have a 40GB HD I partitioned into 2 20GB drives (C: & D for dual booting. What I don't get is Windows is telling me I have 40GB of space on drive C: and 20GB on drive D: How can that be...it's only a 40GB HD?!?

 

[Motero]

They sent you the wrong size drive?

 

[dondi]

Wise guy...no, it's 40. When setting up in fdisk I selected 50% for Pri Dos & 50% for Ext Dos. The Ext Dos is then further defined as a logical drive D. When I list the partitions in fdisk I see
C: 1 Pri Dos 19634
2 Ext Dos 19626

It then states "Ext Dos has a logical drive, would you like to see it." I select yes and get
Logical Dos D: 19626

When one creates a Ext Dos partition it must be defined as a logical drive, yet fdisk and windows seem to be seeing the same 19626 as totally different drives (19626 as part of C: and same 19626 as part of D: ). I suspect all is well and perhaps it is just me that doesn't understand.

 

[Talon]

Your EXT partition and your logical (D) partition are one and the same. In your case, your hard drive is divided into a primary partition (C) and an EXT partition, each 20 gigs in size. Your EXT partition is then configured as a single logical partition (D) using the full 20 gigs of the EXT partition.

 

[dondi]

Talon, is it normal then for Windows to list it, in system properties, as Drive C: 40GB, Drive D: 20GB??? That doesn't seem right to me, it should be 20/20, no?

 

[Talon]

The fdisk report is correct and you're correct in that system properties should be reporting C as 20 GB. I did a search at MS but came up with nothing. Did you try re-installing Windows? I don't know what else to suggest at the moment other than it might be a corrupted install.

 

[dondi]

Talon, you may be right...but this has NEVER happened to me before. I redid the Fdisk config, reformatted, and reloaded Windows and everythin checks out w/ 20GB on C: and 20GB on D:. I wish I knew what the heck caused that...I must have messed something up. Thanks for your support and taking the time to look into it for me!!!