FAT/NTSF partition, tricky to solve but possible.

[alphavega7]

Thanks a lot to Damhna and MIshY for your great help.

Deleting the NTSF partition with FDISK as sugested, does not solve the problem but there is a way to solve it.

The NTSF partition is not a Non_DOS Partition, but is what is called a EXTENDED DOS. Therefore, deleting this partition by selcting "delete Non_DOS partition" with FDISK, results in an error message displaying "Partition selected is not a Non_DOS".

If this EXTENDED_DOS partitoin is deleted, it will sort of delete the partition from your view and usage, but will leave this 41GB or whichever amount, as unalocated Space, making this partition totoally unusalbe. It still won't solve the problem because the computer will still think it has 2 drives and will not merge the drives back together.

Fortunately there is a way, thanks to Mishy and Damhna, the "Ultimate Boot Disk Utilty" (which can be downloaded in the download section), can select this EXTENDED_DOS partitoin and convert it into FAT. Once it is in FAT, it is easy to remerge these two section into one FAT drive.

Microsot though, should have thought of something to solve this problem, because I'm probably surely not the only one to have come accross such an issue.

David Bryce,
alphavega7@yahoo.com

[lynnm]

Hello Dere

Please keep all of your posts on a particular topic in a single thread. It helps us help you.


Get out the Bennies - Theory Rant on the Horizon!!

I think you are somewhat confused,(and understandably so - this is highly technical and confusing subject), about the subject of partitioning and file systems.

The operating system,(subject to BIOS limitations),dictates the type of partitions that may exist on a hard disk.

In a DOS based world a hard disk may contain a maximum of four primary partitions. Thus one could conceivably have a Primary DOS partition, a Primary Linux partition , A Primary NTFS,(NT4.0/Windows 2k) partition and a Primary HPFS,( OS2)and extended or secondary partitions for all or some of those file systems - any or all of which might have logical drives within their extended partition(s).

If one has a hard disk of 6.0 GB capacity which is divided up into,for example, a 2.0 GB. primary DOS partition and a 4.0 GB. "extended partition" containing two 2.0 GB. logical drives one in reality has only 2 partitions,(a primary and an extended.

The hook here is that the extended partition has,much like a farm being broken down into "Country Estates," been sub-divided into two additional parts). Think of it this way: The original "unallocated space" has been divided into 2 pieces - The 2.0 GB. Primary partition and the 4.0 GB. Extended Partition.The extended partition has been further sub-divided so as to contain two logical drives.

As if the above were not confusing enough - consider that the same hard disk as noted above may contain more than one operating system and file system and it is little wonder that users get confused. _ Hell I'm half way able to describe this stuff and I have to keep going back and forth from paragraph to paragraph to keep from getting screwed up :)

This site is going to be publishing a tutorial on this and - many other subjects soon - Keep watching. In the meantime check out our resources page for other how to's and tutorials - We are going to become the best on the Web for this kind of material. That is not a promise - That is a Statement of Plain Fact!

[ 28 March 2001: Message edited by: lynnm ]

[alphavega7]

Hil Lynnm,

Thanks for the advice. If I were confused before, not I'm might be even more confused! lol

I sort of understand what you mean, I had to read your explanation couple of time to make sure I got it. It sure is a confusing topic.

I've already had a look at the tutorial section yesterday, and it really is great. You maybe don't need to worry about becomming the best site on these topics cause so far, this site already seems to be the best there is. There are lots of site like these, but this one is the best I've come accross so far. Great help, great explanation and very fast replies.

Keep it up!

David Bryce
alphavega7@yahoo.com
ALphavega7

[lynnm]

David

If you are still a little fuzzy on partitioning details - Welcome to the club!! It is one of those areas that is sometimes easier to understand than to explain. Feel free to ask questions for further information,(or misinformation :) )

Thank you for the vote of confidence Re: Cyber Tech Help - We,(and hopefully that includes all of our members do our best).