Author Topic: missing 4 gig (Read 9237 times)

DavidA · « **on:** December 27, 2012, 02:01:02 PM »

Here's one for the hardware buffs.

I recently had a major crash on my main computer. Lost all the aplications, operating system etc. Just by luck I had copied all my pictures and files data to flash drives just before it happened. Main loss is all the bookmarks and my address book.

Hey ho.

So I put in a spare six Gig hard drive and fired it up.

It tried to load mandrake Linux; and didn't quite manage it.

'So', says I, 'strong medicine needed here'.

I put a DOS startup disk in the floppy. typed in Format C:, and let it do it's thing.

Having DOS on the hard drive is always nice. So I then installed DOS 6.2 ,

So far so good.

Pulled out the last of the floppis and re-booted.

The first page of the Mandrake appeared !

WHAT ! So, switch off (pulled the mains plug. It's the only way on that machine; no on/off switch.

Put the DOS start up disc in, re-booted and entered DIR C:

Just the command .com etc that you normally get, and , of course, a DOS folder.

Next, type in scandisk. run it.

It showed a TWO Gig drive.

Things are getting stranger by the minute.

Tried MSD. it showed two drives. A and C. But C only has two gig.

What has happened to the other four ? Below is the exact wording from MicroSoft Diagnostics..

A: Floppy Drive, 3.5" 1.44M
80 Cylinders, 2 heads
512 Bytes/Sector , 18 Sectors/Track

C: Fixed Disk. CMOS Type 47
261 Cylinders, 255 Heads
512 Bytes/Sector, 63 Sectors/Track

CMOS Fixed Disk Parameters
784 Cylinders, 255 Heads
63 Sectors/Track

LASTDRIVE=E

The FAT is FAT16, which I believe is good up to 8 Gig.

I suspect that sometime in the past I have divided this drive into two or more partitions. And that the Mandrake is lurking on one of these partitions. Abd when I Formatted it (they) weren't included in the operation. When I boot up it goes to this partition.

But why doesn't it show up ?

Now is the worst time in the world to have misplaced my Partition Magic.

HELP.

Dave

Swarfing · « **Reply #1 on:** December 27, 2012, 02:15:35 PM »

Dave

DOS can not see the native drive space from linux. If you have a fully loaded dos boot disk? start again.

Boot off the floppy and at the command prompt run ' FDISK /MBR', this will replace the the master boot record so that dos can now see all drive. Reboot again then reformat and try your linux install again

I have to say though 6GB is not a lot of space for your install?

Hope this helps

Paul

DavidA · « **Reply #2 on:** December 27, 2012, 02:20:48 PM »

Paul,

Thanks, I'll try it now.

Dave

DavidA · « **Reply #3 on:** December 27, 2012, 02:38:34 PM »

Didn't work.

I still get the following.

Display Partition Information.

Current Fixed Drives: 1

Partition status Type Volume Label Mbytes System usage

C:1 A PRI DOS MS-DOS_6 2047 FAT16 33%

Total disk spacw is 6142 Mbytes (1 Mbyte = 1048576 bytes)

I know it's only a small drive, but I only want to run DOS on it. Maybe also IBM OS/2; just to go retro.

It would the nice to have the full size available though. I'll get a bigger one later.

Dave

Brass_Machine · « **Reply #4 on:** December 27, 2012, 02:50:18 PM »

Just skimming the post... Maximum disk size with fat16 is 2GB

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc940351.aspx

Eric

Brass_Machine · « **Reply #5 on:** December 27, 2012, 02:55:46 PM »

If you want to get the full 6GB in one partition, you need to format with FAT32. With that, you would need DOS that works on FAT32. See this LINK

Otherwise, you are stuck with 2GB for your primary partition. I think you can partition out the remaining as logical drives.

DavidA · « **Reply #6 on:** December 27, 2012, 03:01:33 PM »

Eric,

Thanks for that..It looks like I will have to convert to FAT32.

I would normally do this from my Partition Magic. Which is probably swapping tall stories over a drink with my missing Vernier.

Anyone know another way of doing the conversion ?

Stop Press!!

Just read your latest.
I think DOS 6.2 is good for FAT32. I have done it in the past, but, as I mentioned, from Partition Magic.

Meanwhile I'll see is I can partition the drive into three.

Must find that disc.

Dave

Brass_Machine · « **Reply #7 on:** December 27, 2012, 03:02:38 PM »

This machine have a CD rom?

Brass_Machine · « **Reply #8 on:** December 27, 2012, 03:04:49 PM »

You may be able to just download what you need. There are plenty of free utilities out there.

Bot Disk might have what you need.

Eric

DavidA · « **Reply #9 on:** December 27, 2012, 03:35:43 PM »

Well, partial success,

I now have a primary partition with DOS, A secondary partition with two logical drives on it.
But I can't access the secondary drives. They are both the same size as the primary, so ,essentially I have three 2 Gig drives (C,D,E).
It looks as if the FAT 16 problem is stopping me from going any further.

I'll find the lost disk. Hope the CD drice works. MSD doesn't mention it.Better try it. Probably have to run MSCDEX.

Dave

Swarfing · « **Reply #10 on:** December 27, 2012, 06:56:15 PM »

Sorry David just read your first post, assumed by DOS startup disk that you meant 'boot' disk. As others have said you will only see that small amount of disk. You could et over some of this by installing 'FreeDos'? You get carry on with what you want to do with the added feature of access to more memory/ disk etc.

Swarfing · « **Reply #11 on:** December 27, 2012, 06:59:24 PM »

Here is the link

http://www.freedos.org/

clivel · « **Reply #12 on:** December 28, 2012, 12:38:58 AM »

Quote from: DavidA on December 27, 2012, 03:01:33 PM

I would normally do this from my Partition Magic. Which is probably swapping tall stories over a drink with my missing Vernier.

Parted Magic is a good free substitute for Partition Magic. http://partedmagic.com/doku.php, however once you have used it to format your drive Fat32, I doubt that DOS 6.2 will be able to access it, you will still have to switch to FreeDOS as recommended by Swarfing.

If your preference is to install Linux, then Mandrake Linux is quite dated, which could be why you were having trouble getting it going as it wouldn't offer support for newer hardware. Your best bet would be to rather install a more modern Linux instead.

David Jupp · « **Reply #13 on:** December 28, 2012, 04:27:10 AM »

I tend to use gParted for resizing partitions etc. It is pretty easy to use even for those with minimal Linux knowledge.

I downloaded one of the Runtime CD Linux distros that includes such utilities - really handy, it's called 'system rescue CD'.

DavidA · « **Reply #14 on:** December 28, 2012, 11:55:36 AM »

Thanks for the suggestions and links.

I really need to find this partition magic. Where ever it is, it's handbook is with it. In fact, it has to be in the room that I am sitting in.

I once considered installing Linux. But then realised that to maintain it, indeed even to install it, you need a deeper understanding of computers than I have. Also it seems pointless learning a whole new operating environment at my age (68).

I'm putting this problem away for the time being and getting on with some of my machining tasks. Seems a more productive use of my time.
I'll let you know what happens later.

Again, thanks for the help.

Dave

David Jupp · « **Reply #15 on:** December 28, 2012, 12:03:21 PM »

But you don't actually have to install Linux - download an image for runtime CD, burn it, insert in computer to be worked on - PC boots from CD and runs a Linux that isn't so very far away from Windows style interface - once open gParted is similar to partition magic in how it is used, and is pretty simple...

Do what operations are needed on the hard drive, then turn off.

Also - check the web site of whoever built the Hard Disk - many manufacturers offer free utilities that include things like 'fast format' - typically DOS based.

DavidA · « **Reply #16 on:** January 09, 2013, 01:13:42 PM »

Found it !

All my Partition Magic stuff.

I also found out that I couldn't boot from the dos-6 partition with FAT32. So I now have one primary drive and two logical drives of 2Gigs each, and a little logical drive that uses up the difference, each with FAT.

Happy days.

Dave

Still no Vernier though.

DavidA · « **Reply #17 on:** January 17, 2013, 12:04:37 PM »

Something a bit different.

I have today managed to recover my eighty gig hard drive that our local computer repair shop said was dead. So it is now formated and has my XP installed.

But there is one problem.

When I try to enter an email address I get a double quote (") instead of the (@) sign. I've had this before, but can't remember how to fix it. Any ideas ?

Dave.

Chuck in E. TN · « **Reply #18 on:** January 17, 2013, 12:16:58 PM »

What are you using for e-mail?
Chuck

DavidA · « **Reply #19 on:** January 17, 2013, 12:23:56 PM »

Chuck,

Nothing at the moment. But I usually use Thunderbird. My keyboard somehow seems to be the problem. Though it is set for English (US) at the moment.

Dave.

andyf · « **Reply #20 on:** January 17, 2013, 12:34:21 PM »

A US keyboard has the " and the @ transposed when compared to a UK one, so the @ is on the '2' key. If you use shift and the 2 key, you should get "@".

If using Windows, you should be able to reallocate the keys so they work as labelled. This may help http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows-vista/Change-your-keyboard-layout

Andy

DavidA · « **Reply #21 on:** January 17, 2013, 01:09:36 PM »

Andy,

Thanks, I'll change the keyboard to UK and let you know what happens.

Dave.

DavidA · « **Reply #22 on:** January 17, 2013, 01:22:42 PM »

changed everything to English (UK). It's fine now.

I didn't notice that it defaulted to English (US) on installation.

Thanks.

Dave.

andyf · « **Reply #23 on:** January 17, 2013, 03:23:24 PM »

David, you'll have fixed a few other differences at the same time. See second paragraph here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_and_American_keyboards

I've learned something from that article; it led me to discover the delights of the Alt Gr key for €, é and things like that. Its a shame that, in UK English at least, it doesn't seem to do a degree symbol °. I'll have to carry on using Alt and 0176 on the RH numeric keypad to get that.

Andy

DavidA · « **Reply #24 on:** January 17, 2013, 06:52:28 PM »

Andy,

I need to study that link.

Thanks.

Dave.

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Author Topic: missing 4 gig (Read 9237 times)