Deleting Partition

**MoJoe** · January 27th, 2005, 12:43 PM

I have an old Hard Drive without much space left. Its a 4GB harddrive partitioned in half, the second half is for backup (its an HP), the first half has windows 98 installed. I want to use all 4 GB, can I delete the partition without reformatting the harddrive?

I don't want to reinstall windows.. well I wouldn't mind, but I dont have a windows 98 CD. Thanks for the help,
Joe

**Friedchicken100** · January 27th, 2005, 12:59 PM

Maybe with Partition Magic but you have to pay for it. Otherwise, no.

**MoJoe** · January 27th, 2005, 01:02 PM

Hmm ok, I'll get partition magic. I'm sure there is a free trial somewhere...

**Friedchicken100** · January 27th, 2005, 01:08 PM

yeah but the free trial lets you do didly squat. Just tells you everything you already know about hard drive.

**Bill in SD, CA** · January 27th, 2005, 01:09 PM

For what you will pay for PM a new drive wouldn't be much more.

Bill

**Friedchicken100** · January 27th, 2005, 01:15 PM

yeah maybe like $40 with rebate. I wouldn't really bother with PM if you won't use it heavily.

**msterzer** · January 27th, 2005, 01:20 PM

It could be that your system is old enough it has to have the small partitions. Seems like a max of 2.5GB? If so you are kinda screwed. Otherwise I agree with getting a bigger drive. More cost effective.

**MoJoe** · January 27th, 2005, 10:38 PM

Well It's not my haddrive, i'm supposed to be fixing it for a friend. She wondered why she couldn't install anything... lol its because you have only 100MB of free space!

Well I got partition magic 8, but I put the old harddrive in my external enclosure, and it displays as BAD. I can't even see the partition.

Oh well, I'm just going to format it, if i can figure out how to delete this partition. What were you saying mstezer? 2.5GB max? I didn't know that was ever an issue. This computer is a P2 266 with 64KB of ram. lol. I think my friend found it in king tuts tomb.

**msterzer** · January 27th, 2005, 11:04 PM

FAT 16 was limited to 2.0GB partition sizes. Drives bigger than that used EZ drive partitions to use drives bigger than 2.0GB. I think you need to upgrade/replace that moldy oldy. I'm sure someone much more knowlegeable than me will fill you in. This is something I'm trying to scrape from the deep recesses of my burned out noggin. Sorry I can't be more exact with the info. Alzheimers seems to be creeping in. Old fart signing off.

**JPMiller** · January 28th, 2005, 12:55 AM

Well another problem may be that this partition is needed by the motherboard to boot... it holds part of or all of the bios.
This is the way some Compaqs are, they have a small partition, in a fat 32 format, wich is read at boot... without it you are SOL

**MoJoe** · January 30th, 2005, 11:23 PM

Originally Posted by JPMiller

Well another problem may be that this partition is needed by the motherboard to boot... it holds part of or all of the bios.
This is the way some Compaqs are, they have a small parttition done in a fat 32 and a small section looked for at boot... without it you are SOL

...Fudge.

Ok. I seriously wish I had read your post before... I formatted both partitions... the 1.5GB and the 2.5GB one... I figured they could just use that space to install stuff, who cares if its partitioned. Sholy Hit.

So now I can't boot, and I feel like the biggest retard on earth. I put the Windows XP cd in and turned it on and I got nothing, so I'm assuming you are right, and I am screwed. This is bad. This isn't my computer, I'm just 'fixing' it for my friends. They arn't going to spend any money. I have to get this working. Do you think HP will be able to help me? I'm not even sure what I need exactly...

Any advice? from anyone? please help me, I am mentally retarted!!

**JPMiller** · January 31st, 2005, 12:53 AM

First we will need to know the exact make and model...
do you know anyone with the same computer?
http://h20180.www2.hp.com/apps/Nav?h...&lang=en&cc=us
you can start here and select what you have to narrow down what they offer...
you will need to partition the drive and copy over the "backup" bios files to that partition with another computer... I.E. set it as a slave and configure the drive using another computer...
It is possible, but admittedly frustrating to do.... It took me weeks to figure out how to fix an old Compaq this way...
The only other option is to replace the board with a non proprietary replacement... ALOT of HP/Compaq models will not let you do this...
-------------------
What are the specs... what processor is in it?

**MoJoe** · January 31st, 2005, 01:07 AM

OK, well I narrowed it down to HP Vectra VL, but that's all it says on the case. HP's site has a bunch of vectra VLs to chose from. It's a Pentium 2 (not sure of the speed) and it has 64KB of PC-100 RAM if that helps at all. It really is a piece.

I'm kicking myself. I told them I could fix this. I hate old computers. Do I know anyone with the same computer, hmm. Well maybe a long time ago but not now. : /

Thanks for your help so far JP

**kenboyles72** · January 31st, 2005, 01:20 AM

when you boot up, is there any kind of info displayed? such as bio version or what-not.

**MoJoe** · January 31st, 2005, 10:00 AM

OK, Good news. I turned the PC on again to see exactly what it said. At the bottom of the screen I saw that it said "press F2 to enter setup" I had been pressing the delete key before. I guess they used to use F2 way back when. So anywho, I was able to get into the bios and boot from the CD. I installed windows XP last night, it took forever, but it's installed now. I'm really happy now. I thought I was screwed for sure.

Thanks for the help everyone, I love comming here when I have a PC related problem.
Joe

**JPMiller** · January 31st, 2005, 12:23 PM

Just so you know... XP will run like molasses on that old of a machine...
However there are many tweaks and system resources you can free to help it run a LITTLE more smoothly...
Spybot for spyware removal and some blocking...
Adaware for whats left of the spyware when Spybots done...
XP-Smoker... for tweaking windows and getting rid of alot of the MS garbage that hogs resources.
TuneXP... which does alot of the things XPSmoker doesnt... under the "Help" tab at the top is a "Documentation" option that will help you choose what tweaks to use
RegscrubXP... one of the best registry cleaners...
Diskeeper 8 ... ... soooooooo much better than windows neutered, stripped down, defragmenter...
EverestHome...... in my opinion the best diagnostic tool for windows Ive used... I'm STILL finding things out using this proggy... its much more in depth than anyone gives it credit for...
And I would also go to PC Pitstop and run the free diagnostics they offer...
Click on the first yellow key... then click the middle yellow key for "New Members" ... click yes on the "Security Warning" window that pops up... then click the "test anonymously" button..... click the "lets go" button and finally the "OK" button... do not touch anything while it is scanning... when its done, fill in the info and check "no thanks" for the free PCAnywhere trial and click next...
This will give you info and tips on what should and can be done... run it once for reference before doing any work, and then once after wards to see the results of what you've done...