More FDISK Problems.

[Traveller]

Hi All.

I was trying to format a brand new 250 Gb hard disk on my W98SE pc. I remembered reading somewhere that large hard disks do not work with older operating systems, so I had my reservations to start with. During FDISK, it stated that the size of the disk was 65533 Mb, however, after formatting it (just one large disk), it appeared as 137 GB in Windows. Why is it saying different amounts in FDISK and Windows?

Anyhow, I did some research and have tried to enable LBA in BIOS, but it's not there. I have also tried creating two partitions in FDISK, but this only made three disks appear in Windows (D - 63.9 Gb, E - 31.9 Gb and F - No info for F, just an icon for an F drive!). I followed Scuzzy's tutorial and chose 50% for both partitions/drives, so why did the above occur? Also, in FDISK, it certainly didn't state 63.9 Gb; it stated 3 Mb (yes MEGA bytes) for D.

I have also come across info whilst researching that a third party program could be used to create more partitions that are less than 137 Gb, so two partitions of 125 Gb would be fine, however, I think I'll wait for some advice here before attempting that as I'm not sure if W98SE is capable on anything at the moment.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[Buffalo2102]

The version of FDISK packaged with Windows 98/SE is flawed - it will incorrectly report disk sizes above 64GB.  There is a corrected version available from MS here - http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=263044.

Download that and give it another go.  Let us know how you get on.

Buff.

[Traveller]

Hi JA.

I want to use Linux so it might not make sense in me purchasing an upgrade now. The problem is that I need a whole new pc if I am to use the latest Linux's, which is not cheap! So, for the longest time, I have been stuck with Windows 98 and that is why all my poasts are still concerning Windows 98. Trust me, it's no picnic! Haha.

Thanks Buff. I will give that a try but I don't think it will do the trick. It may show the 137Gb in FDISK, but I don't think it will give me the whole 250Gb. I have done some more research and I think what may work is purchasing a third party hard dirve controller card which supports 48bit LBA.

As mentioned, I will however give it a try because even if it doesn't work, at least my FDISK will show a more accurate capacity, so thanks.