Partitioning a Hard Drive

I have an HP and I get newsletters from them. In the newsletter I got for August it had an article about how to partition your hard drive without going out to buy an expensive program. So I figured I try it. It says that you need to go to the control panel to create a boot disk in the Add/Remove Programs thing. It says find the start disk tab to create a boot disk. I go to that and I do not find it. So I figured what the heck I can make a DOS bootdisk by right-clicking on A:/ , clicking format on that menu, and telling it to create a DOS boot disk. I do that and restart it and it brings up DOS. It says to type in fdisk. I type in fdisk and it says that it is not found. Does anybody know how to do this or what my problem is. If so please respond. I appreciate all of your help. Also, the website is http://www.homeandoffice.hp.com/hho/us/eng/partitioning_harddrive.html

This is on a system that is running XP Home. :x

Uggh - I think that is for Windows 9X - ie: FAT32 is it not?

Depends on the filesystem WinXP is using. I recall Home using FAT32 by default, but I could be wrong here (yeah, that happens). If it's NTFS, that's your problem.

Yea - but you cannot create startup disc in the Add/Remove programs section with Windows XP - thats what I was getting at.

DOS can only read FAT bast systems, it cannot read NTFS.
8)
That is why the drive cannot be found.

Guys, you are making this harder than it really is. It's not that fdisk can't find the drive, fdisk cannot be found. Creating a boot disk in WinXP does not copy any command line utilities to the disk like fdisk, format, edit, etc. It only copies the necessary components to provide you with a command prompt. It is no different than typing "format a: /s" at a command prompt (though I don't believe you can do that anymore in XP). The boot disk option in Add/Remove Programs (under Win9x) creates a special boot disk that includes the basic utilities you would need to recover your system.

Anyway, embj, if you want to play around with formatting, you should explore the options in the disk management tool, like Alec said. (right-click My Computer, and go to manage. Look in the Storage -> Disk Management area.) And in case you're worried, the system will prevent you from formatting/repartitioning a critical drive (ie the system drive).

If you were hoping that fdisk would be a built-in alternative to programs like Partition Magic, then you will be disappointed. All fdisk can do is create and delete partitions. It cannot resize partitions, change file system types, or anything else very fancy...

HAHAHHAHAHA - indeed!

sorry to say that what hp is telling you in the article is totally false.... they can never get their point across. what they are trying to say is that you need to crate a boot disk..... a Windows boot disk where you have to restart your computer and have the disk inserted in the floppy to start up from and then once it picksup the disk you computer would start up in dos mode with three options........ 1. start computer with cd rom support. 2. start computer with out cd rom support. and 3. help. of course you would go with option 2 cause you do not need to use the cd rom. then you will see a bunch of stuff scrolling up and the computer in the end will bring you to an A prompt. in there you type FDISK command and that will let you partition your hard drive.......

if you want to avoid all these stepps simply purchas a copy of partition magic and use that in windows itself and all you have to do after you set partition in that program is that you have to restart your computer and you are all done........ and here a little bit of advise

NEVER LISTEN TO HP OR COMPAQ.....i have wasted alot of time with their Techs on the phone and they seriously don't know what they are talking about.......

I am beginning to believe that HP does not know what they are talking about either because they say that the only OS that will run on my XE-748 is ME. I doubt that. I am going to try it anyways. They also say that the 700mhz CPU cannot be upgraded any more than 700mhz. I think that it is total bull! Also, XP does have Disk Management because that is how I installed my second HD. If you want to see what I am talking about click on the following link: http://www.hp.com/cposupport/personal_computing/support_doc/bph05970.html

I just hate HP because of their designs inside the PC. Shouldn't have to tear apart the system just to get to 1 freakin' stick of RAM---something that shouldn't even take 5 minutes shouldn't be a 3hr job ;(

It may be "designed for Windows ME", but the tech has their head elsewhere if they say it cannot use any other OS. HP obviously goes with the lowest bidder in tech support. ;(

I have tried to create a partition in Computer Management. I could not figure out how to do it. I even got directions from the help and support center program on my comp. I thought that the easiest way to do it was throught command prompt. I tried to do it through it and it would not let me create it. I did exactly what it told me to do. Can anybody give me directions? I would appreciate it.

Is it on the system drive? ie: The drive that Windows XP is installed on? If so you wont be able to partition it using this method and you will have to go with a 3rd party application.

As far as resizing goes, you are also stuck with having to go down the 3rd party road. The only way to change an existing ntfs partition using disk management is to delete it first, then create seperate ones from scratch and format each new partition you make.

When you create the partitions, make sure that you change the amount of data, and make sure to disable or uncheck anything that is along the line as "use free space."

Sorry I cant be more specific, but from about 15 minutes of searching I have come up empty handed with resizing partitions using this software.



here is a couple links I found in my travels:
http://www.swynk.com/friends/zandri/70-270-9-1.asp
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;q309000&

Thats MicroATX for you...

I was planning on putting the partition on drive E which is my secondary HD. I also have gotten pretty good about taking the HP apart. To put in memory now it only takes about 10 min. but, it should only take me at the most five. I still hate the way that they are designed. ;( Also, I went to the websites that you said crazy. Thanks for the help but that did not work either. The link from M$ is what is on the Help and Support Center. I am going to try to use fdisk on the other comp. with ME.

PS---I HATE Win. ME!!!

lol

k
solution..lol well would be for me


get XP

format from scratch

IN Xp's set up, it will let u set your partitions - that is why i loved 2k / XP

no more of the FDISK crap!!!!

<---- has 4 partitions on an 80g drive, took literally 20 seconds to set them up.

as said above.

u can not make partitions if you only have 1 drive, and the O/S is installed in it with windows manager.

u would need partition magic or something to make a new partition from the free space. (in both my cases that i tried this, partition magic frooze and i lost over 30g of stuff!!!!!!)


and also as said above HP is dumber then a door nob!!!!!


as for the thing not taking more then a 700mhz, this is VERY possible, as mother boards do have limits of what they can handle like any other hardware.

My old ASUS - P4B4x (i think) would only take a 800 max or 900, one or the other.


anyways!

Oh

HP likley makes it a pain to update anything, cause most people who buy a pre made PC are not to bright (or computer smart) - most of the time - so they don't want u messing around in there and mess things up. - so they make it as hard as possible. - plus the fast they cram everything in tight to save money i guess.


<---- will NEVER buy an HP / Comcrap.!!

Would like to make my own PC. I know how to, but I saw that this comp. with the 17" monitor was only $400 USD I just couldn't pass it up. Plus I do not have the time to make my own PC.

Also, I forgot to mention this. Seeing it is an HP it comes with XP Home on a hidden partition of the drive! ;( I just hate HP! I am going to get a case and a new motherboard and make my system sometime. Hopefully.