A Small Formatting Issue-Getting Drive D To Work Properly

[JimmyLoveNYC]

Hello To All! :wave:

I'm trying to fix a pretty old laptop with Win98 OS. The small issue which I'm confronted with is the following:

Both HD Partitioned FAT?:erm:
3 1/2 Floppy=A HardDisk=C 2gigs HardDisk=D 2gigs Audio CD=E

When I double-click on Drive D it starts off loading a program called "Microsoft Automap Street Plus" but the program doesn't fully load (I believe it's trying to setup) giving me a "Failled to Initialize-terminating" error. I don't care for the program and would like it off the system. But if I delete it and all relating files, then that drive seems inoperable.

I'm trying to get drive D to work properly (whatever that means) even if it means formatting the drive but I do not have the 98 OS CD, however, It (OS) gives me the option to "format" when I right-click on the drive.

Again, all I want is for this drive to work properly but I'm confronted with that error message.

Important: Drive D Contents: When I open Drive D (via right click/Open) there are a few folders (mostly junk). But there is also a "My Documents" folder and "Program Files" folder as is in main drive C.

What could I do to get Drive D back in proper working condition?

Thanks Guys/Gals for your time and sharing knowledge!

[GaSTAnk]

Firstly I would presume that each "drive" is just a partition, since laptop's usually don't have multiple hdds, so I would suggest using a program such as BootIT NG's HDD partitioning software to delete the offending second partition, of course you can use the iamge function to back it up to dvd first... then you could recreate it.......

What it sounds like is that there are 2 windows installs on the hdd, strange that it would autorun something though, cannot explain that.....

Partition magic or anything similar might help, but boot it NG is free (as long as laptop has CD-ROM drive.. it will work) googling for bootit ng will find it.... it's from terrabyte unlimited, and is a great little partition management thing which is shareware.

[JimmyLoveNYC]

First allow me to thank you for your response, GaSTAnk! :thumbsup:

Firstly I would presume that each "drive" is just a partition, since laptop's usually don't have multiple hdds, so I would suggest using a program such as BootIT NG's HDD partitioning software to delete the offending second partition, of course you can use the iamge function to back it up to dvd first... then you could recreate it....... Yes, you're right, it's one drive partitioned into C & D. I mistakenly wrote: Both HD Partitioned FAT?:erm:
3 1/2 Floppy=A HardDisk=C 2gigs HardDisk=D 2gigs Audio CD=E When I meant to write HD is partitioned into C & D both FAT. What it sounds like is that there are 2 windows installs on the hddNo. There is only one Windows (98) installed [QUOTE]strange that it would autorun something thoughThe program doesn't autorun unless I double click the D drive, although that is what's Erking' me!

Allow me to ask 3 Questions Before I Begin:
1) Is it possble to get rid of "Harddisk D" using that nifty program?

2) If so, will it then allocate the 2 gigs from that partition (D) to the "C" Drive?

3) And most importantly, Is Windows going to work correctly once the "My Documents" folder and "Program Files" folder are gone together with Partitioned Drive D?

[GaSTAnk]

Firstly since D: is simply a partition which windows mistakingly calls a "drive" or rather confusingly..., well since it's a partition it can be deleted with the partition manager in BootIt NG.

Secondly you would need to resize drive C: using BootIT NG's resize option to increase the partition's size to fill the new free space, this is very easily done by clicking resize on C: and entering the maximum size that it shows for the new size.

Thirdly if those folders are on drive D: only and not on drive C:\ then I would suggest backing them up first, or copying them from D: to C:, perhaps you can burn them to CD or someting?

If there was no way to backup the files then at least BootIT NG can "Image" a partition, that is compress it and copy it to a different drive, e.g. a CD drive since it can burn a partition image to a CD then restore it later.


So firstly I would suggest trying to back up the stuff on drive D: then deleting it with something like BootIT NG and resizing the C: partition to fill the disk.
Perhaps the easiest backup method would be onto a network if possible...

You can get info on BootIT NG here:
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.html

Download link:
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/downloads/bootitng.zip

On downloading you have to run the program after extracting the zip file to create an ISO that can be burnt to CD, since BootIT NG runs from CD........... I have a copy of the iso file somewhere already created which you then burn to cd using nero or something and boot the cd and then cancel it's setup thing then go on partitioning..

[JimmyLoveNYC]

Thanks once again for your response and assistance, much appreciated!

I'm going to be using Symantecs Partition Magic 8.0 to perform this task. I'm sure I will be able to delete the D partition and add the space to C using this software, right?

I also copied the two folders in question from C to D, so that's taken care of.

Is there anything else I should know before going ahead?

If not, then....:thumbsup:

Take Care Buddy!

[JimmyLoveNYC]

This is great!........

I'm being sarcasitc! :curse:

After downloading PowerQuest (Symantec) Partition Magic 8.0, I'm at a complete loss (first time user and ever attempting such a thing).

I'm able to delete the partition (Drive/Partition D), but once its deleted and try to add the free space to drive C I must first resize it, right? If that's right, well, when I go to resize it (Drive/Partition C), the maximum size given is less then its original size which doesn't make sense.

I'm sorry if I sound confusing or confused but I am and if anybody has ever used this software and is pretty good at using it and knows my predicament, please give me a quick step-by-step relating to this software, if you can.

I will greatly appreciate it and if no one can help me, well...
I'll just leave it alone!

Thank You.

[GaSTAnk]

That sounds v weird... well I've never used partition magic but I thought it was similar... will google and see if I can find anything that can help...... other than that can you create a new partition with PM in the free space? Well I'd only do that if it has some kind of merge feature, but it should resize fine....

Do you know what file system is on the C: partition? Well if it's Win98 I presume it's FAT16 or FAT32, however perhaps if it's FAT16 it might not be resizeable?
I will try to find out why it's not working but other than that you might have to just create a new partition if you wish to use the free space.. v strange!

UPDATE:

this might help:

http://www.ranish.com/part/