Partition Woes!

[H2oDunc]

Greetings all. I recently bought a 320Gb USB HDD. I wanted a 60GB drive to clone my C drive as back up and the rest for movies and my pictures etc. I used paragon partition manager and thought I had created a 60Gb drive. Evidenty not I now have just the 1 G drive with 119Gb of space I have tried formatting it to try to recover the missing space but it still shows the 119Gb. Any ideas as to how to recover the missing space ? Cheers in advance guys Dunc

[BudM]

Greetings all. I recently bought a 320Gb USB HDD. I wanted a 60GB drive to clone my C drive as back up and the rest for movies and my pictures etc. I used paragon partition manager and thought I had created a 60Gb drive. Evidenty not I now have just the 1 G drive with 119Gb of space I have tried formatting it to try to recover the missing space but it still shows the 119Gb. Any ideas as to how to recover the missing space ? Cheers in advance guys Dunc

1) Your partitioning software should be able to let you delete all the partitions and start it all over again (you taliking about partitioning the new 320Gb drive, right?)

2) After creating the partitions, how do you format them? FAT32, or NTFS format?

3) I myself use Partition Magic.

[thaimite]

You should be able to add an extended partition in available disk space then format it with your software.

I too use Partition Magic or Acronis Disk Director so cannot give more specific info

[Beggar]

Greetings all. I recently bought a 320Gb USB HDD. I wanted a 60GB drive to clone my C drive as back up and the rest for movies and my pictures etc. I used paragon partition manager and thought I had created a 60Gb drive. Evidenty not I now have just the 1 G drive with 119Gb of space I have tried formatting it to try to recover the missing space but it still shows the 119Gb. Any ideas as to how to recover the missing space ? Cheers in advance guys Dunc

If you did everything correct and it just shows 119 Gb then bring it back to the dealer! I asume you know how to use a partition manager. So return it.

[H2oDunc]

Greetings all. I recently bought a 320Gb USB HDD. I wanted a 60GB drive to clone my C drive as back up and the rest for movies and my pictures etc. I used paragon partition manager and thought I had created a 60Gb drive. Evidenty not I now have just the 1 G drive with 119Gb of space I have tried formatting it to try to recover the missing space but it still shows the 119Gb. Any ideas as to how to recover the missing space ? Cheers in advance guys Dunc

If you did everything correct and it just shows 119 Gb then bring it back to the dealer! I asume you know how to use a partition manager. So return it.

I did the same as I did before and it worked then. As for taking it back, it came from BKK and it is a long way to go from Samui!

I just wondered if there as away of getting Vista to show any hidden partitions or to format the drive from a command prompt. ?

[Beacher]

I don't know what OS you're using, but you might want to go into:

Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Disk Management (for Windows XP - or the equivalent for your OS)

There you should be able to see a graphic representation of the device that will show the true physical storage capacity. From the sound of what you're saying, you should see 2 partitions - one at 119 (or probably 120) and another at ~200 GB. If you see both of them, the 2nd (200GB) seems not to be formatted. Try formatting in Disk Management (right mouse button for this option). However, If when in Disk Management you only see one 120 GB partition, it sounds like you were sold a 120 GB drive as a 320 GB drive.

[astral]

Paragon should show you the whole capacity, and how it is divided.

If is shows less than the original 320Gb then take the disk back to the shop under guarantee.

If you want an Image of your C drive then use Acronis True Image.

No need to make a partition, it creates an image file.

[stumonster]

I don't know what OS you're using, but you might want to go into:

Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Disk Management (for Windows XP - or the equivalent for your OS)

also start , run - diskmgmt.msc

[H2oDunc]

Beacher Cheers. I went into disk management and all I had to do was assign a new letter for the missing space. I now have my 320Gb back. Cheers again Dunc

[Beacher]

Beacher Cheers. I went into disk management and all I had to do was assign a new letter for the missing space. I now have my 320Gb back. Cheers again Dunc

Glad to hear that helped, Dunc.

I've had a situation where it didn't remember the new drive letter after a USB storage device was removed and re-attached. If that happens just repeat the process and try a different letter. It may have more success remembering the different one.

[geoffphuket]

Beacher Cheers. I went into disk management and all I had to do was assign a new letter for the missing space. I now have my 320Gb back. Cheers again Dunc

Glad to hear that helped, Dunc.

I've had a situation where it didn't remember the new drive letter after a USB storage device was removed and re-attached. If that happens just repeat the process and try a different letter. It may have more success remembering the different one.

A reoccurring fault that Microsoft have never resolved - it still exists with Windows 7

[Gary A]

Are there really any advantages to having different partitions on a hard drive? If the hard drive dies, all are lost anyways. I once bought a used computer from a friend of mine. It had many partitions and it was a mess. I eventually formatted the drive and started over.

[ianwuk]

You forgot to click the 'Assign a driver letter' drop-down arrow during the Paragon partition creation wizard by the sounds of it

I use Paragon all the time, the only decent partition program to run on Vista and 7 (sadly Partition Magic does not).

Ian

[Beacher]

Are there really any advantages to having different partitions on a hard drive? If the hard drive dies, all are lost anyways. I once bought a used computer from a friend of mine. It had many partitions and it was a mess. I eventually formatted the drive and started over.

Typically, I think 2 partitions is a good idea - a fairly small one for the OS and applications, as well as a large one for user data like movies, music, love letters...etc.

That should make it easier to create a disk image (Acronis / Norton Ghost, etc.) if you ever have to restore your system.

[astral]

I have three.

1. OS

2. Programmes

3. Data

An Acronis image for the C drive then a straight backup/file sync for the other two.

Keeping the Programmes separate means that if I have to rebuild I have not lost all the little

setting values associated with each programme.

[monty]

Are there really any advantages to having different partitions on a hard drive? If the hard drive dies, all are lost anyways. I once bought a used computer from a friend of mine. It had many partitions and it was a mess. I eventually formatted the drive and started over.

Biggest advantage of having 2 partitions (keeping data separate from OS/programs), is that Windows goes bonkers, you can easily do a format and re-install without losing your data.

When having everything on 1 partition a format is not a good idea unless you have a current back up of your data