Missing Memory?

[Winston]

Is there any way to establish for sure how much memory capacity my computer has on its hard drive? I used to have about 10 GB on there and now, after using some disk imaging software thingy that the store gave me to restart my computer, it's down to 3 GB (according to Windows) :confused:

[deddard]

You're probably only seeing a logical drive.
The HDD comes as one item, but it is possible to effectively split it into several disks. This is done by partitioning. Each PARTition of the disk is considered to be a separate hard disk, and windows will show you the disk space of the particular disk you are interested in.
Assuming that everything is as normal, you are usually on the C disk. this can be a logical partition, and I presume that the software you received was something like partition magic, which resizes and reformats disk.
You don't say which OS version you are running, so it's not possible to tell you the easiest way to recover the missing space; but if you look in windows explorer (or My computer) you will see a list of drives.
The first one is A - your floppy, then it's usually on to C, which is the primary hard drive.
Have a look at what comes after this - D is often the CD/DVD drive, and it will tell you if this is the case, but check to see if any others are listed. If there are any other partitions, this is where your hard disk space is. It is also possible that the disk space just isn't being utilised (not partitioned/formatted) under whatever utility you bought.

Post back with some details of your system - OS version, and especially the utility the shop sold you to restart your machine.

[Winston]

There no drives listed other than the three you mentioned. The operating system is Windows 98 and the software I was given was Powerquest Drive Image Professional 2.0.

[deddard]

A quick glance at the online manual points in the direction of hidden partitions. This software allows you to copy from one disk or one partition to another, resize partition and HIDE THEM.
Hiding the original partitions is the default setting. you need to start up the disk image program, and
"At the Drive Image DOS main screen, Click TOOLS > Hide/Unhide Partitions."
This will bring you to the Hide partitions window.
"Click UNHIDE - The partition status changes.
Close Drive Image.
Reboot your Computer

This should allow you to see if the missing space is allocated to other partitions (which I think is likely)
If this is true, then you can resize the partition to include all the extra space, or keep them as logical drives, so that you can use them in the same way as normal, but they will also have the ability to store backups etc.
Let us know how you get on.

[Winston]

I can see the missing memory (it's somehow been partitioned into a part of the hard drive that is not being used) but I don't know how to resize the partition so that it includes all the memory I had before. If that makes sense...

There is a screen that allows me to resize partitions and delete partitions but I don't know how to combine the two partitions into one which would give me the 10 GB I had before. The partition that is being used is called 'FAT 32' or something like that.

I actually got the Drive Image Professional software on a CD which the store gave me when I first got the computer. It's included on a disk entitled 'Recovery Software' which I, supposedly, just have to run (while following a few simple instructions) and my computer should be restored to the condition it was in when I first got it. So, I don't think I actually have the full Drive Image software just a part of it that they have included on the recovery disk.

[Paul Komski]

DI wont merge or resize partitions; for that you would need Partition Magic.

I'm using DI2002 so there may be some small differences.

If you can open "Disk Operations" and then see and select(highlight) the relevant partition that is not showing up. Under Status it should show None or Active or Hidden. If it is hidden then RClick on it and Unhide it; you may be prompted to reboot, etc. You can also choose the same options from the menu bar items.

If the partition is seen by DI and is FAT32 and not hidden then it could be that the drive letter itself is hidden from appearing in windows. TweakUI can be used to hide/unhide drive letters in Windows.

May also be worth running scandisk as an additional measure.

[Winston]

The status is listed as 'none'. I was thinking of deleting the partition that contains the memory I am using now and seeing if DI will then allow me to resize the total available memory into one partition.

[Paul Komski]

Does DI show it as having a drive letter or a (*) and is it a primary or logical partition?

If TweakUI also shows it as having a letter but the drive is not showing up in windows explorer then the troubleshooting may be harder.

The more details you can give about all the partitions then the easier it becomes to get a good mental picture of your setup.

Where are you running DI from? From Windows or from Floppies. And where is the pqi file or files.


... and have you run scandisk??

[Winston]

Apologies in advance if some of this information is irrelevant but I'm a bit clueless when it comes to computers so rather than miss something important out I have included everything here:-

I have a floppy disk and a CD both entitled 'Recovery Software' which the company gave me in case my computer needs resetting. I was told to put the floppy in and restart the computer and then put the CD in. This I did and a program eventually started up (the disk imaging one). Three options were given: Create disk, resize disk and disk to disk. I click on resize disk and then select a file from the CD (qsys115.pqi). Then I am taken to a screen entitled 'Select Image File Partition'. There is only one to select which has a volume type of FAT32X and a size of 9,766.0 MB. This is Primary.

I click on 'Select All' and am then taken to a screen which asks me to 'Select a destination partition or free space for the image file partition(s)'. This time there are two listed (although I can only select the first one). The first one is labelled C and has a Volume Type FAT 32 and is active. It's size is 3,584.8 MB and it is Primary. The second one, which I cannot select, has no label and it's volume type is Free Space. It's size is 6,181.3 MB and it is also Primary.

I am then asked to click on resize or delete. I click on resize and am told that the destination size is 3584.8 MB (the C drive). The destination size minus the size of selected partition after resize equals the remaining space in destination which is -6181.2 MB. I can either resize, accept or cancel. There is no way that I can see (after trying both resize and accept) to combine the total space into one.

[Paul Komski]

The Free Space is pure unallocated space and not a partition as such. DI should be able to reallocate this to the C drive; if not then:-

Option one; just delete the C partition and don't create any partitions and then restore the pqi file to what should be all unallocated/free space.

Option two; create one large partition that takes up the whole drive and then restore the pqi file to it, allowing it to resize to occupy all of the partition.

Option three: use Partition Magic to simply resize your C drive if your version of of DI doesnt allow this. This would be the way to go if you have data on it that you dont want to lose.

You can use FDisk from a boot floppy to delete the current partition and to create a new one if you want but DI should have the ability to do this without the need for FDisk; DI 2002 certainly does.

Just check that there isn't an option on Drive Image to reallocate any unused space. This option is certainly there in DI 2002 and sounds like the only action you need to take if the option exists.

[Winston]

Originally posted by Paul Komski
Option one; just delete the C partition and don't create any partitions and then restore the pqi file to what should be all unallocated/free space.

I went for this one as I didn't have anything I really needed to keep (apart from a few bits which I saved onto a floppy disk).

There was no option to reallocate unused space but I don't think I have the full DI program, just a segment that the computer store used on its recovery software.

Thanks for the advice, I've got full memory again now :)