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HELP!! my power went out in the middle of a format :( |
lowrida5656
Joined: Aug 17, 2003
Posts: 291
From: Melbourne, Australia
PM |
my power weny out wen i was formatting my pc (didnt get over 10%) and now my hard drive is 2gig (it was 40gig) what can i do? |
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masseur
Joined: Jan 03, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Sydney, London
PM |
well... as I recall 2gb is the max partition size for a FAT16 drive (and it will have 32kb clusters) so my guess is that you were formatting as FAT16 rather than FAT32 (or NTFS etc)
probably easiest to start the format again and choose FAT32 or you could try to create a second partition and format that with FAT32 etc etc
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lowrida5656
Joined: Aug 17, 2003
Posts: 291
From: Melbourne, Australia
PM |
soz i odnt understand.. im not very computer literate.. lol
jus reformat are u sayin?
[ This Message was edited by: lowrida5656 on 2004-02-06 03:29 ] |
masseur
Joined: Jan 03, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Sydney, London
PM |
lets start with what operating system are you using?
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lowrida5656
Joined: Aug 17, 2003
Posts: 291
From: Melbourne, Australia
PM |
win xp pro |
masseur
Joined: Jan 03, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Sydney, London
PM |
ok well then you should be formatting it with the NTFS file system
Here is the microsoft page describing the format command so you should be at least doing the format with
format c: /fs:NTFS
and that should sort you out. cluster size will be set by default based on your drive size if you don't specify it
you will be asked what you want to name the drive when the formatting is finished
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lowrida5656
Joined: Aug 17, 2003
Posts: 291
From: Melbourne, Australia
PM |
ok thx ill try it now
edit: ok im getting a msg saying:
bad command or file name
even if i just type format c: (Which is wat i normally type..)
ive jus booted it from the with the win98 cd (becuz winxp 1 wont let u boot into dos) and selected to start computer with cd rom support.. is that right?
[ This Message was edited by: lowrida5656 on 2004-02-05 08:20 ] |
masseur
Joined: Jan 03, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Sydney, London
PM |
ok, the best I can do for now is point you to this and this for more info rather than me trying to re-invent the wheel.
Those sites give great info on this topic
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lowrida5656
Joined: Aug 17, 2003
Posts: 291
From: Melbourne, Australia
PM |
ok now i got the format c: command to work (by making a winME boot disk) but if i type format c: /fs:ntfs
i get a error saying
invalid switch - \fs:ntfs
oh well ill look at them sites |
masseur
Joined: Jan 03, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Sydney, London
PM |
yeah, its because you are using the windows 98 format command and it won't know about NTFS
the second site give you a microsoft place to download the windows XP setup disks which get you started (as I understand it as I have never done it myself)
good luck!
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lowrida5656
Joined: Aug 17, 2003
Posts: 291
From: Melbourne, Australia
PM |
wait dus that mean that all the files that didnt get formatted are on there i just cant ssee thme? i guess they must be cuz it didnt finish.. can i get them off cuz the AA install was on there and its like 500mb lol |
masseur
Joined: Jan 03, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Sydney, London
PM |
some files are likely to be there but the problem is that since you have no file allocation table (FAT) any more there is no way to know where they are on the disk, and worse, many files will be fragmented which means they are broken into pieces across the disk. The FAT keeps all the details of this.
If you really want text files back the best you can do is to get a tool that scans the disk search for long pieces of ascii that may make up those files. This is one of the security problems on windows in that it only marks files as deleted in the FAT but does not physically overwrite the space they used. again there are tools for that. Always something to think about when you sell a pc or a hard drive you have used 
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lowrida5656
Joined: Aug 17, 2003
Posts: 291
From: Melbourne, Australia
PM |
k wat do i do with theae disks? i cant boot tem?? |
lowrida5656
Joined: Aug 17, 2003
Posts: 291
From: Melbourne, Australia
PM |
ok this is f*cked.. i formatted that uther drive (just with the format c: command) and now i cant install windows 98 on it because its a ntfs drive but i cant in stall xp because u cant install it from dos or sum bulls*t... my 60gig hard drive WHICH HAD ALL MY STUFF ON IT has just stoped working.. the bios on my computer detects it wen u do a auto hard drive search but on my uther computer it doesnt.. and in dos 9when u boot with the boot disk) u cant find the 60gig harddrive.. wtf has happend? |
masseur
Joined: Jan 03, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Sydney, London
PM |
oh dear. I wish I still lived in Chelsea Heights (near Frankfston) 'coz I'd be right round to help sort it out!
I'd suggest giving it a rest for tonight since its getting late and start fresh tomorrow.
maybe by then I or someone else can give some hint for the next step
my best guess right now would be to reformat that disk that has NTFS back to FAT and install your windows 98 and then start again from there but I will take a look at those sites I gave because I'm sure they have the answer
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Posted: 2004-02-05 08:02
