I had another thread that was tied into this question, but at the time I thought it was another issue. The drive was NTFS and I changed it back to FAT32. Now I'm running into the same problem, but the drive was Fat32 already.

I have always used Fdisk to partition my hard drives. I deleted the partition, create a primary and a extended and format them within Windows setup. The drives were/are 20GB. I'm confortable with it and at this basic level it seems to work fine. I only create 2 partitions, nothing fancy. After doing so, I use a bootable CD with 2k and sp3 slipstreamed to install the O/S. I don't know if this is the reason or something else, but the last two times I did this, when I enter the Windows setup there is some unallocated space on the primary partition that Fdisk didn't show. This shows up in Partition Magic also along with the Windows setup. The first time it was 7.8 MB, not a big deal. The 2nd time it is 180 MB, a BIG deal!

Others mentioned that Windows needs space for the setup files (that get deleted after setup), but isn't that within the partition wher the O/S gets loaded? This unallocated space isn't formatted so it can't be used, right?

I don't know what I'm doing wrong unless it is some quirk with this bootable CD. BTW, I'm using FAT32

videobruce,

I am surprised you would double post the same question in 2 different forums, you have been around here enough to know that this is not considered good forum behavior and not necessary. The other thread with the same question is here:

link no longer valid after the merge

I’ve seen this also in a drive used for Multi boot system

I can’t say exactly what it is or why.
But after running fdisk I found a small segment of the drive unused ( like your 7.8)
After running the install for linux that segment was enlarged and windows insisted on attempting to format it ( or asking each time I ran a disk utility )

This is only a guess but what I found or think is the cause
When you run linux install it will use direct disk access to create a small install partition
This segment can be removed BUT requires you to boot from the linux boot floppy
Then run the disk partitioning program included with your distro

Dos/win98 will not be able to change this partition
It will keep reporting a logical drive and Not allow removal of the extended partition

BTW..
I still have an 8.0 segment on my first drive ( Channel 1 drive 1 master) on my Multiboot test bed system
Todate windows still wants to format it.
I just ignore it

Not everyone reads ALL forums,
The topic falls under more than one subject,
If someone else has the same problem, they have more of a chance of running across the answer.

That's why.

It is getting merged anyway....if there hadn't of been answers in the other one, locked or eliminated as a double post.

Now, on to the problem....

I too have seen it, running from just a few kB to nearly a couple of hundred MB. It seems to me to be more of the way I partition the drives than anything else. If I use percentage numbers to make the partitions there is little or no unallocated space, but if I use absolute numbers there can be a significant amount. For example, I take a 10GB hard drive and tell fdisk to make the first partition 50% and the second partition is the reamining space there will practicaly now space left, but if I tel it to make the first partition 5GB and the second 5 GB the amount of space left will be significantly higher (like what ever that particular drive has above the 10 GB). This is especially true if I figure a GB as 1,000,000,000 bytes and not 2^30 bytes.

Interesting........
There is a problem with the drive. I used the erase utility to wipe the drive which gave me another error in the last 10% of the drive. It was fine up to that point, no bad sectors.

This time I used the Windows setup to partition AND format the drive and that 8MB space did show. I tried to partition that, but Windows barked at me stating it was needed for setup or something like that.

I guess because the drive has a problem was where that 180MB chunk came from. I just don't know why I didn't see this before.

Windows I don't think allowed a % amount, just a MB size in setup for partition, but I'm not sure if there is a choice or not.

Yep, fdisk does allow partitioning by percentage....

I know Fdisk allows a choice, but does the Windows setup??

I beleive so, because it uses fdisk (at least 98se and ME do...haven't checked it with 2k or XP).

If there is a physical problem with the drive and the zero fill didn't complete then how about running a diagnostics on it from the manufacturer.

Just in case, because you mentioned creating one primary and one extended partition, presumably you also created a logical partition within the extended partition.

Short of running the diagnostics you could delete all partitions with fdisk and also run fdisk /mbr from the command prompt - but create no partitions. Run the 2K install (from the CD or from the four setup floppies) and just install it onto a C: partition taking up, say half, of the HDD. Once installed then try creating the logical drive in the remaining unallocated space using PM.

The slipstream CD can be configured to allow you to choose the partitioning/formatting options - otherwise, by default, it will install onto the C: partition.

PS - It may be impractical, but it would be interesting to see how DriveImage or Ghost would reinstate an image of a "good" drive!

I ran both of Fujitsu's utilities on the drive including the erase utility and just after 90% completed (I walked out of the room and didn't see exactly where it stopped) I received some kind of fatal error (I think that was what it called it).

Again the drive works ok, no noise, no other errors that I know yet. I know it has to be replaced, but that isn't a option at this point. I just want to work with (around) it for now.

I will try Drive Image later.