Unalloacated space after using Fdisk in 2k w/FAT32

[videobruce]

I had another thread that was tied into this question, but at the time I thought it was another issue. The drive was NTFS and I changed it back to FAT32. Now I'm running into the same problem, but the drive was Fat32 already.

I have always used Fdisk to partition my hard drives. I deleted the partition, create a primary and a extended and format them within Windows setup. The drives were/are 20GB. I'm confortable with it and at this basic level it seems to work fine. I only create 2 partitions, nothing fancy. After doing so, I use a bootable CD with 2k and sp3 slipstreamed to install the O/S. I don't know if this is the reason or something else, but the last two times I did this, when I enter the Windows setup there is some unallocated space on the primary partition that Fdisk didn't show. This shows up in Partition Magic also along with the Windows setup. The first time it was 7.8 MB, not a big deal. The 2nd time it is 180 MB, a BIG deal!

Others mentioned that Windows needs space for the setup files (that get deleted after setup), but isn't that within the partition wher the O/S gets loaded? This unallocated space isn't formatted so it can't be used, right?

I don't know what I'm doing wrong unless it is some quirk with this bootable CD. BTW, I'm using FAT32

 

[thorin]

The first time it was 7.8 MB, not a big deal. The 2nd time it is 180 MB, a BIG deal!

7.8MB is normal from what I've seen, if you don't partition/format ahead of time and just go straight from the install CD 2K/XP always show a little chunk (8MB in my experience) that can't be used. IIRC this is set aside to allow for mapping out bad blacks that 'may' occur in the future. If you're seeing 180 unused then; 1) You didn't use the max partition size, 2) You have some back blocks already. 180 isn't even 0.9% of your 20GB partition (and is like 0.45% of your 40GB drive) so I wouldn't be overly concerned yet. Try running the manufacturer's Diagnostics on it.

Thorin

 

[Lord Evermore]

Posting duplicates of things in different forums isn't kosher.

 

[videobruce]

Originally posted by: Lord Evermore
Posting duplicates of things in different forums isn't kosher.

If it falls under more than one subject which it does, everyone doesn't look through ALL forums ALL the time, so there is more of a chance it will be seen by the right party AND if someone else has the same problem searching under that forum will give then twice the chance to find the answer!

It's a Fujisu drive and it failed the Diagnostic test with a possibel SMART failure according to Fujitsu. I'm running their erasure tool now.

 

[thorin]

RMA or replace.

Thorin

 

[thorin]

Originally posted by: Lord Evermore
Posting duplicates of things in different forums isn't kosher.

Agreed cross posting is a no no. Try one forum and if in a few days you don't get a useful answer then try another and appologize for making the cross post at that point.

Thorin

 

[videobruce]

Out of warrenty.