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Post by sm8000 on Jul 26, 2003 11:51:23 GMT -5
Both of my hard drives developed an 8MB partition. I don't know why they did, why they're there, or what they do. One of this is active! But it's not on the boot drive. I know how to get rid of them easily enough, but I'm wondering how they got there, why they're there and if they're important, etc. My drives are a 27GB Quantum Fireball Plus and a 40GB IBM DeskStar.
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Post by AMD on Jul 26, 2003 12:11:08 GMT -5
It could be the boot sector...(master boot record)
You aren't supposed to see them in windows. otherwise, check for virii or any new programs that mau have decitaed that partition of something. If you are going to remove it, use something that can allow you to keep your data still.
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Post by moflsh03 on Jul 26, 2003 18:44:07 GMT -5
Both of my hard drives developed an 8MB partition. I don't know why they did, why they're there, or what they do. One of this is active! But it's not on the boot drive. I know how to get rid of them easily enough, but I'm wondering how they got there, why they're there and if they're important, etc. My drives are a 27GB Quantum Fireball Plus and a 40GB IBM DeskStar. Do you have Partition Magic? If so look at your drives with that. I doubt that they are boot sectors...8mb is a bit large for that..is it not? Almost seems like something happened with a primary/logical drive conversion. If you make the first partition a logical drive, there will be around 8mb of space at the beginning of the drive. Not sure how you could have done such a thing though.  Playing around with a partition maneger like PM would be the only way I can think of. ?? Side note: The IBM Deskstar has a nickname.. "Deathstar" and for a good reason. I myself made the mistake of purchasing 2 of those (40 gig flavor) and have sent one back twice and the other has just died on me.  Heres some suggestions...take it or leave it... First dont rely on that drive for important info(this sounds craZy...yes...but just do a search for IBM deathstar and you may believe me then.) Second, look for any drive patch for shutdown that is available for your OS. Win98SE/ME has one called 273017usa8.exe. The problem here is that with newer, faster cpus the computer is shutting down before all info has been written to the drive. (this issue isnt the complete reason for the deathstars failure, but is speeds up the death 2 fold!!) Third, run IBMs disk utility often!! This will often catch a problem before it gets serious...sometimes. If your serious about your data, wipe the drive to 0s, and sell it on ebay to some other sucker and replace with a new drive. CrAZy you say? Yeah...one gets crazy after he looses data including entire project files that are due the next day and theres 8 hrs work difference between the now f#cked copy and the last backup!! Been there, done that!  Oh...and further proof of what Im saying. Who is now heading IBMs drive development? Hitachi. Why? because they lost big time with that very drive thats in your pooter. HTH! |
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Post by AMD on Jul 26, 2003 23:39:03 GMT -5
Ladies and gents, this man has hit the nail on the head repeatedly...Let's give him a round of applause.  |
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Post by moflsh03 on Jul 27, 2003 3:26:17 GMT -5
BLUSH
I'll be sure to make up for it by causing some trouble in the near future! ;D
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Post by moflsh03 on Jul 27, 2003 3:59:45 GMT -5
sm8000 did you set up your original partitions from the install CD of 2k or XP? Seems there is talk out there about people having this same problem. It looks like some are saying it is a reserved partition for 2k/XP install, but I bet the farm thats bullshat. What I think is if you partioned from an install CD, the installer didnt (or you missed it) make the partition a primary partition, thus like I said above..there will be an 8mb chunk of your drive or an actual 8mb partition made in front of the logical drive that the installer setup.
Make any sense?
Run FDISK and tell us what it says. I bet you that the active 8mb drive is at the beginning of the drive.
Fixing this has its risks. With partition magic you can convert a logical drive to a primary drive and then you will be able to merge the 8mb with the main partition. Like I say this can be risky. IMO, for the OS drive, just wipe out the partitions and reinstall the OS. If that is a problem then live with it. Just remember that if you have important data (dont forget to include important emails, favorates) it should be backed up even if you choose to use a non-destructive method such as PM!!
Side Note: This brings up another point...actually a feature of hrddrives with no primary drives. If you ever want to add a drive, but do not want the current drive letters to get changed, only setup a logical partition on the new drive. That logical drive will be assigned the next drive letter available. A Primary drives letters will always be listed in order first before all other logical drives.
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Post by AMD on Jul 27, 2003 12:02:21 GMT -5
Usually, the IWndows 2K or XP install does allocate 8MB to itself for some unknown reason but one should never see that. This has been the case everytime I have installed Windows 2000 or XP. It has to be the MBA. What files are on this partition?
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Post by moflsh03 on Jul 28, 2003 1:40:12 GMT -5
Glad I don't really own a farm!  lol Ok did two installs of 2k on this system: abit BH6 PII @300 196MB pc100 all-in-wonder128 32mb quantum Fireball 20gb ATA33 Lite-On40x12x48x First install I booted from CD and installed to a blank unformatted drive. I let the 2k setup make 1(entire drive) NTFS partition. When complete I booted into PMagic and sure enough, there was 2 primary partitions. One was 8MB. Tell you the truth...I dont think I have ever let 2k or XP setup disk build my partitions before. So I have never had this result. BTW, PM shows that there is 0 space used in the 8MB partition and it was considered unallocated disk space. FDISK does NOT show this, neither does windows. OK...wiped the NTFS with PM and this time I made 1(entire drive) NTFS partition with PM. Installed 2k from CD, and had it install (leaving the partition intact) to the NTFS partition made w/PM. This is how I usually install 2k or XP. Sure enough, PM shows only one primary partition. Just as it should be! I dont think 2k needs the 8MB partition to install, but it may need it to install to a blank drive. ?? sm8000, if your 8MB partitions are actually formatted and you didnt format them, then I have NO clue how they came to be. If the 8MB partition is a primary drive as is the main partition, then you should be able to merge them with PMagic. I kick myself for not trying that before I did my second install...would have been a quick n'painless test...sorry bout that On a data disk... NO PROBLEM(unless something really rare& bad happens)...but on a OS disk, there is a chance that it could screw things up and 2k will not boot. |
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Post by AMD on Jul 28, 2003 17:05:26 GMT -5
Is this computer OEM?
Did you build it yourself or buy?
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Post by moflsh03 on Jul 31, 2003 4:25:18 GMT -5
Is this computer OEM? Did you build it yourself or buy? Sorry, I have avoided the computer during the day for last last couple of days. Didnt see your question until now. I just threw it together. I use this board to test components and when its running I usually use it with the All in Blunder card to watch TV. Why? |
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Post by AMD on Jul 31, 2003 10:05:58 GMT -5
Well if it was an OEM such as Compaq, Sony, and the likes, then that 8MB partition might be where they store info so that only that computer could use the restore disks. For Dell, they embed this into their BIOS.
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Post by moflsh03 on Aug 1, 2003 19:18:58 GMT -5
I agree...I was thinking the same thing, but it would be great to actually find out what MS is doing here. So heres the deal... dont want to have a useless extra primary partition of 8mb wasted space?? Then fdisk (or other disk partitioning software) and create the partition(s) you require and do NOT let 2k/xp setup touch em' during install.  |
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Post by AMD on Aug 2, 2003 1:02:13 GMT -5
I've just reformatted one of my clients PCs and well, The install automatically had an 8MB partition. I deleted it before the format process though and it hasn't showed up.
By the way, where is sm8000....?
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Post by sm8000 on Aug 3, 2003 1:11:24 GMT -5
Sorry to be so late in responding! I'm back. I do have PM7 Pro. This is on Windows 2000, and there are no files on either partition aside from the RECYCLED dir. This is an old IBM Aptiva but definitely not the original hard drives. I know all about the Deathstars, but wasn't it the 45GB series with the problems? Especially the 60's and 75ers. Anyway I did format these things after finding them in PM7 Pro, just for giggles. I haven't had any virus-related problems or the like. But I will check fdisk in a day or two (really busy tomorrow!) and let you know what order they show up in. I created my partitions first in fdisk off a 98SE floppy before running the 2000 CD install (copied the CD to the hard drive and ran setup from there, much faster and more reliable than the CD ). So, I will let you know what I find prolly on Monday. Thanks again! Cheers, |
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Post by AMD on Aug 3, 2003 2:50:21 GMT -5
Forgot to ask:
Is this drive compressed?
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Post by sm8000 on Aug 3, 2003 9:56:30 GMT -5
Good question. None of my NTFS partitions are compressed or indexed. Yesterday I tried reverting my C: drive to FAT32 with PM& Pro so I could fdisk/format it in order to clean install Win2k from scratch, trying to enable UDMA. I got an error about sparse or compressed files and the conversion was blocked.
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Post by AMD on Aug 3, 2003 17:47:20 GMT -5
Always be careful when messing with fdsik, partitoning and disk reconfiguration software. There is just too much room for error.
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Post by moflsh03 on Aug 3, 2003 19:28:32 GMT -5
If your ready to wipe it out...then your ready. When you make the mistake of wiping it out because you THOUGHT you were ready...then your an idiot Trust me...been there, done that...and boy was I an idiot! ;D You should be able to wipe out non-dos/FAT partitions with FDISK. Make sure you FDISK /MBR also to wipe the boot record from win...also PM puts some junk up front there also (if I remember correctly) |
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Post by AMD on Aug 3, 2003 23:04:52 GMT -5
I just had some luck. I waited to solve my problems. I had an XP install on my main computer than went bad, (VIA drivers killed it) and I left it alone until i found my XP CD to do an in place restore and it works now
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Post by sm8000 on Aug 11, 2003 16:17:37 GMT -5
Well I backed up one drive, zapped it, and reinstalled clean. the 8MB partition didn't show up, so I'm guessing it is a by-product of PMPro since I didn't install it this time. The partition is still on the other drive. Both were at the front of the drives.
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Playing around with a partition maneger like PM would be the only way I can think of. ?? 
Heres some suggestions...take it or leave it... First dont rely on that drive for important info(this sounds craZy...yes...but just do a search for IBM deathstar and you may believe me then.) Second, look for any drive patch for shutdown that is available for your OS. Win98SE/ME has one called 273017usa8.exe. The problem here is that with newer, faster cpus the computer is shutting down before all info has been written to the drive. (this issue isnt the complete reason for the deathstars failure, but is speeds up the death 2 fold!!) Third, run IBMs disk utility often!! This will often catch a problem before it gets serious...sometimes. 
lol