WD HD partition messed up

[engineuity]

hi. ive been trying to do a clean install on my friends computer. there are two physical hard drives of 40 GB. the one is fine it registers as the 40 gig. the second i think is partitioned into a 2.7 gig and a 18.2 gig, making a d: and e: drive. how can i get rid of this partition and get the 40 gig worth of space. i HAD a WD datalife cd..but it is no longer where i had left it lol. any suggestions?
thanks

[MitaDC]

ok well it sounds like u have a 40gb hd anda 20gb and the one is partitioned and u want to unpartition it? Get partition magic or I believe u can right-click on my computer and go to manage-disk management- and then unpartion it somehow (I don't know if that works) if not just get partition magic and delete the partitions. Also if u want u could go into WinXP setup and format it throught there and u could also delete the partitions. GL

[engineuity]

i too was thinking it was a 40 and a 20 but he is insistent that they are both 40's. but to get rid of the partition is there any freeware or something that i could use

[engineuity]

i too was thinking it was a 40 and a 20 but he is insistent that they are both 40's. but to get rid of the partition is there any freeware or something that i could use besides partition magic

[rrcn]

Like MitaDC said, you can delete the partitions through the WinXP setup. Just follow the on screen instructions. Then format it and install windows to whichever hard drive you want to.

[LeftCoast]

Use Killdisk. free. www.killdisk.com

And also, I concur that the HDD is larger than 20 gigs. A 20 gig HDD has, I don't know, @18.5-19 useable gigs. You have over 20 gig accounted for. Check to make sure they are cabled/jumpered properly.

[elroy]

You can remove the 2 partitions with any Win 9x or ME boot floppy. Insert floppy and boot the pc, type fdisk at the a:\ You'll need to remove the logical partiton, the extended partiton and the primary partition, in that order. Then create one large primary partiton.
If you don't have a boot floppy go to www.bootdisk.com or make one in Win9x at control panel> add/remove programs> tab- startup disk

[LeftCoast]

Elroy is correct. Here's an earlier post of mine...

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I'd wipe the HDD with an application like Killdisk. Writes zeros to the drive, essentially making it "like new".

Killdisk is a nice free program that is not hard drive brand-specific; it'll work on all hard drives.


You can go to bootdisk.com to D/L a win98 boot disk and then copy the Killdisk program to it. Then boot up to dos, navigate to the floppy drive (probally will be "B:\" drive), type in "killdisk.exe" and follow the instructions. When in dos, navigate to the B drive and type in dir/w. If killdisk is listed there, you're in the right place to type the "killdisk.exe".

I apologize if I'm going into too much detail, but if you don't work much with dos it can be a little confusing.

Links:

http://bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm and click win98 OEM

http://killdisk.com/downloadfree.htm
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Also, I'd make sure your HDD is properly cabled, with the right jumper setting. After the HDD is wiped, doing a fresh install shoud be sucessful. Size and format only the "C" drive during the install (using the install CD), and the create the other drives using "Disk Management" after you are up-and-running. Good luck.