went to sell my 500gb found out its 1tb... wtf?

[blackjackel]

ummm.... yeah.... found out there was one 500gb "active" partition, and a bunch of other partitions: 243.05GB, 249.37GB, 5.80GB, 5.80GB

My original "500gb" partition was 427.48gb

My question is.... Is there any way to look at the data (if any) on the other partitions? I'm wondering where these partitions came from (I've abandoned my desktop for a while so I don't remember too many things about it)

[thideras]

Did you run that drive in a RAID?

Either way, fire up DBAN and nuke the disc. Then check.

[blackjackel]

Did you run that drive in a RAID?

Either way, fire up DBAN and nuke the disc. Then check.

Don't know what DBAN is or nuking either...

I don't believe i've ever had it in raid... I'm not sure, but there is data in the ~500gb partition that I don't want to lose.

[nd4spdbh2]

back up 500gb worth of data to another drive and delete all partitions then format.

[thideras]

back up 500gb worth of data to another drive and delete all partitions then format.This ^

DBAN is Darin's Boot and Nuke, it is a bootable operating system that is purely made for wiping disks.

[blackjackel]

back up 500gb worth of data to another drive and delete all partitions then format.

So you are saying that its not possible to see if there is anything on the other partitions? (remember, Im not sure how they came to be so there may or may not be something on them)

[mercalf]

Should be able to just connect the drive to another system and view the other partitions no harder then looking at file folders. You can create new partitions on the same drive quite easy, and it's actually recommended.

Use one of those IDE/SATA/Serial - TO - USB cables and have at it.

[blackjackel]

Should be able to just connect the drive to another system and view the other partitions no harder then looking at file folders. You can create new partitions on the same drive quite easy, and it's actually recommended.

Use one of those IDE/SATA/Serial - TO - USB cables and have at it.

well if my computer can't see the other partitions on the drive, what gives other computers the possibility to be able to see those other partitions?

[mercalf]

If it was already mounted on that computer, you might have issues. Any other computer will pick it up (via that cable) - as your standard external hard drive that hasn't been mounted yet (such as a pen drive).

[nd4spdbh2]

So you are saying that its not possible to see if there is anything on the other partitions? (remember, Im not sure how they came to be so there may or may not be something on them)

you could... r you in windows with the drive hooked to the machine... if so go to the control pannel > administrative tools > computer management > disk management

once there you should see all the parations on the disk. if they arnt unallocated partitons and just dont have a letter asigned to them you can right click on the partition and assign a letter.... but if they are unallocated your not gonna be able to get anything off of them as far as i know.

post up a print screen of the disk management section.... this screen is from my dell mini.

[blackjackel]

YEah, drive management is how i found out, I was going to sell it as a 500gb drive but then when I looked up the model number online it said it was a 1tb drive, so I looked in drive management and it was a 1tb drive with a bunch of other partitions!

I am unable to assign drive letters to the other partitions

I suppose I could format those other partitions into one large partition and install the new windows 7 beta on it :P (If I indeed can't get anything off of the other partitions)


Heres the screenshot:

[thideras]

You could try to give them a drive letter, but I can promise you won't be able to read them.

[nd4spdbh2]

ya right click the partitions that dont have a drive letter and click assign a drive letter... then see if theres anything on it...

then back up your data (looks to be about 390GB) and then delete all the partitions and make one big one.

[jstutman]

What does the label say?

[blackjackel]

What does the label say?
Unable to read label without taking it out of the stack of HD's its sandwiched in between :/ But rest assured, its a 1tb


I am unable to assign drive letters to the other partitions

Yeah, windows won't let me give them letters

Whats the concencus? delete it and make one large partition and try out windows 7 beta? :D

[thideras]

If it isn't letting you assign letters, something is messed up. Pull all the data off it and nuke everything on the drive. Get DBAN, boot to it (make sure that drive is the only one in) and nuke the drive.

[blackjackel]

YEah, drive management is how i found out, I was going to sell it as a 500gb drive but then when I looked up the model number online it said it was a 1tb drive, so I looked in drive management and it was a 1tb drive with a bunch of other partitions!

I am unable to assign drive letters to the other partitions

I suppose I could format those other partitions into one large partition and install the new windows 7 beta on it :P (If I indeed can't get anything off of the other partitions)


Heres the screenshot:

If it isn't letting you assign letters, something is messed up. Pull all the data off it and nuke everything on the drive. Get DBAN, boot to it (make sure that drive is the only one in) and nuke the drive.

well crap :/

But why nuke the drive? Why not just use partition magic to delete all the other partitions and create another partition with the remaining free space and use that?

[thideras]

But why nuke the drive? Why not just use partition magic to delete all the other partitions and create another partition with the remaining free space and use that?Why? The MBR is messed up and thinks it has an extra 500gb to work with. Just doing a "normal format" isn't going to fix it, you need to nuke every piece of data on the drive.

I predicted this with my first post since I've run into this exact issue myself.

[wingman99]

Doesn't partition magic change the MBR.

[thideras]

Doesn't partition magic change the MBR.Haven't used it in a long time, couldn't tell you.

[nd4spdbh2]

btw windows 7 beta is nothing to get excited over... i had problems up the yinyang with it.

i suggest you do what thideras says.... DBAN... seems like ur drive is messed up... what is the model number on it? (go into the device manager)

[Neuromancer]

Do not worry about seeing any data on the other partitions. There is nothing on the

Disk anageent show Size and free space the exact same size :)

[blackjackel]

Ok, there has been a GRAVE (am I using the word right? spelling?) misunderstanding, and I should have caught it earlier (my fault), WD10EACS-00ZJB0

The drive model number is a WD10EACS-00ZJB0

THIS IS A 1GIG DRIVE AFTER ALL. The mbr is not screwed up... I just thought it was 500gb and turned out to be 1tb, wondering where the other parts of the drive went and whats on the other partitions, thats all.

So, in light of this information, what do I do?

Do I nuke it or do I have the option to repartition without the nuking?

[thideras]

So, in light of this information, what do I do?

Do I nuke it or do I have the option to repartition without the nuking?If it is actually a 1TB drive, then just remove all the partitions (remove data first) and create one big one.

If that doesn't fix it, just nuke the damn thing. No reason dragging this out...I'm not trying to be rude nor offensive, but you created this thread almost 8 hours ago and could have had it running 7 hours ago.

[Mr.Guvernment]

Should be able to just connect the drive to another system and view the other partitions no harder then looking at file folders. You can create new partitions on the same drive quite easy, and it's actually recommended.

Use one of those IDE/SATA/Serial - TO - USB cables and have at it.

why would they need to connect it to another system if it is already installed in on? (i assume)

do the other paritions not have drive letters

go into control panel / administrative tools / computer management, if they show as raw or unformated then nothing on them, if they dont have drive letter rihgt click on each partition and choose to assign a drive letter, then it will show up in my computer.

[tuskenraider]

You could also just delete all the other "partitions" and create a new single one of about 500GB as well without affecting your current one. Personally, I'd DBAN it and start fresh.

[bryan_d]

If you want to look into the partitions, why not try a live-CD of some linux distro? I just popped in an old Vixta .95 Live-CD to recover some stuff in a XP build today. :)

[Neuromancer]

If you are running Vista doesnt it have the ability to resize partitions?

You can kill the other (3 or 4? ) partitions since they have no data on them. You can do this in disk management simply by right click and delte them

Then resize the 500 out to 1TB...

I would probably just backup the data on the 500GB partition and do a whole disk wipe and reformat myself. But if you do not have the space to backup your data elsewhere than this is your only choice.

No need for DBAN, unless you cant delete the partitions in windows.

[mercalf]

I think he said he was trying to ACCESS the information on the other partitions. And the way to do that easily - is to use the cable I mentioned and browse the hard drive on a computer it hasn't been mounted to yet.

[Zerix01]

Did you add this drive or was the system prebuilt with this drive in it?

I have seen most modern systems from various companies will have a recovery partition to replace the recovery disks. And such as on my g/f's laptop they split a 250GB drive up into a 100GB for OS and programs, then left another 100GB's free for other junk and 50GB's for recovery. I don't see why so much space does not have a filesystem on it though if this is the case.

I say just delete the unknown partitions and add another 500ish GB partition to use. It sounds like you do not have any issues with installing Windows on your own and system drivers can be found online, so a recovery partition is useless for you.

If this is not the case and you added this drive to that system, then what program did you use to partition it? Maybe when it asked you about what size partition you wanted you put in 500GB's thinking that is what the drive was. In that case there should be nothing of value on the extra partitions, just delete them and get back your ~500GB's.

[capridrifter]

You said that your trying to sell it? My hard drive just dead and I have been trying to buy a 1tb......Hint Hint...Hint...


Just curious....


Sorry for butting in on your thread just to ask a dumb question.....But I couldn't help it..lol

[Nebulous]

You said that your trying to sell it? My hard drive just dead and I have been trying to buy a 1tb......Hint Hint...Hint...


Just curious....


Sorry for butting in on your thread just to ask a dumb question.....But I couldn't help it..lol

No conducting of business outside the classifieds!

[Neuromancer]

I think he said he was trying to ACCESS the information on the other partitions. And the way to do that easily - is to use the cable I mentioned and browse the hard drive on a computer it hasn't been mounted to yet.

As I pointed out earlier there is should be no data on the partitions. The size of the disk matches the aount of free space exactly...

[Kayden]

One thing that immediately catches my eye is that there are 5 primary partitions... Growing up in DOS, I was learn'd that you can only have 4 primary partitions. Is that something that's long since passed? I've never needed more than 2-3 partitions myself.

However, like Neuro is saying, it doesn't seem like there is any data in those partitions. Yet, I've been told my disks were unformatted by one PC and perfectly readable by another. I'm not saying it's wrong, but it isn't 100% right either.

Seeing how the first partition is fine, I'd just delete the others and expand the primary.


...How do you not know you have a 1TB drive and make 4 empty, unusable partitions?

[Mr.Guvernment]

prob made the 500G partition when they bought it and then forgot about the other partitions that were made, or they bought the drive used.

[blackjackel]

Just tried DBAN, this thing is literally going to take several days to format y drive... it starts at 0.001% and it stays that way for at least 5 minutes.... the transfer rate keeps going down infinitely.. I think dban is broken or something.

Why is there a need for DBAN anyways, why can't i just use windows to format the drive?

[scoobydoo]

the screenshot you provided adds up to over 1.2tb, but you say it is a 1tb drive

if it will let you delete partitions, delete them all and then make a new one and format

[Bigdogbmx]

If you're not too bothered about destroying any data on the drive you dont need to run DBAN the whole way through. From what I gather you just want to make the drive ready to be partitioned again, and if thats the case all you need to do is boot from something other than the drive itself (Ultimate Boot CD is a good one) and reset the partition table one way or another. If you use the disk i mentioned, you can run Active Kill disk from it and just let it run the first few percent. That will wipe the partition info so the disk is one big raw partition and you can do what you want with it.