Someone suggested opening your My Computer icon on the desktop and Right
clicking the C: drive icon to confirm the exact FAT (file allocation table)
in use.  My guess is that it will say FAT32, since the drive shows 3.x GB.
Go check this out.

The other suggestion about dealing with non-dos partitions that won't delete
in DOS Fdisk is decent one.  If the former owner had a dual boot
configuration on the hard drive, he or she would have installed the non-DOS
operating system (Linux or BSD or ??? operating systems) on the remaining
free disk space.  Linux, for example, has its own fdisk utility and formats
its partition(s) using Native Linux and Swap partition designations.  To
reclaim the disk space used by Linux, I have booted Linux from a Linux boot
disk (or a Linux installation CD) and used the Linux fdisk ( or alternately
Disk Druid, a graphical partition utility on most Linux distributions) to
set the non-dos partition to a DOS (of the Windows) type partition.  I would
strongly suggest that you back up the C: drive in case something goes wrong
(I am speaking from experience).  You can use a Linux (Mandrake 6.0  or Red
Hat 6 or 7.2, etc.) installation disk to actually carry out the partitioning
changes on the non-dos partition.  Once you write the changes to disk,
cancel the installation by removing the Linux installation disk and
rebooting the system into Windows safemode.

Linux Disk Druid is the easiest to use, but it can be a little confusing.
The Tab key moves you from one button item to another.  Most importantly,
once you've tabbed onto the partitions, use the down arrow key to move off
the first partition (hda1  Windows DOS partition ) and select the second
partition listed.  Next, tab down to EDIT and hit enter to edit the second
partition.  In the EDIT window, select the TYPE area and select the DOS 16
bit >= 32 as your new file type. Hit enter and tab down to the OK button.
Double check that you are NOT DOING all this on the existing hda1 Windows
partition, and hit enter to save your partition changes to disk.  (Linux for
Dummies, 2nd addition give a decent description of how to use both Disk
Druid and Linux fdisk work)

After the reboot, DOS FDISK should now show your existing C: primary (and
active) partition and a second dos partition for the rest of the disk.
Delete this second partition and create a new one.  When you are done
partitioning, go back to the command line and format the new partition.
Chances are your new disk area will be labeled as  D: and your CD-rom drive
will become E: .  Typing D: at the command line and hitting enter should
give you D: drive with some kind of message regarding the need to format the
drive (I don't remember exactly how the system responds).  From the command
line type  FORMAT D:  and hit enter.  This should kick off the formatting
process.  When format is done, reboot the system into Windows 98 and check
to see if D: drive is available for use.

Good luck,

Jerry Nickerson


----- Original Message -----
From: "Michele Sayer" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, February 22, 2003 7:49 PM
Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] 10g recognised as 2g in windows

        The NOSPIN Group provides a monthly newsletter with great
       tips, information and ideas: NOSPIN-L, The NOSPIN Magazine
           Visit our web site to signup: http://freepctech.com