how to delete partition? (believe me, this question is difficult)

I am using Win98SE
my HDD is 5gb
i used partition magic
to make 2 partition which is
C:\ 2.5gb
D:\ 2.5gb
then i wanna remove everthing in
the HDD
i first use FDISK to delete the
2 partitions
but i didn't create a new partition
i reinstall the Win98SE
which will automatically format my HDD
when everything is settle, i realise from
window explorer that my HDD capacity is
only C:\ 2.5gb
but when i check by using the FDISK command
it shows that the primary partition is 5gb
which is in 100% usage.
My friends suggest me to delete the primary
partition and recreate a partition since i didn't
do it the first time.
But when i try to delete the primary partition, it
prompt :
"could not change partitions because the disk could not be locked"
yes that means i can't delete the partition
any suggestion on how to get back my 5gb capacity???

i may be wrong but in windows 98 i think with partition magic you can delete the second partition while in windows and expand the first to your full 5gb.

ok i see what you mean. in fdisk you only deleted the second partition right. yea i think your friend is right. i would get some more feedback first since i havent used a non nt system in a long time.

Boot your computer with your Partition Magic Rescue Disk in the floppy drive. This will put you in DOS mode & will start the DOS version of Partition Magic. You should then be able to delete any partitions you want.

Ebola said:

i may be wrong but in windows 98 i think with partition magic you can delete the second partition while in windows and expand the first to your full 5gb.

Click to expand...

by window explorer show's that i have only one partition. Not sure if partition magic might shows two

ok i see what you mean. in fdisk you only deleted the second partition right. yea i think your friend is right. i would get some more feedback first since i havent used a non nt system in a long time.

Click to expand...

well in fdisk i deleted BOTH partition. That's why when i install the window it will automatically format my HDD. My fren said maybe the window was confuse coz no partition since i didn't recreate a partition, so window just did one partition for me but which is a 2.5gb partition.

I used a different partitioning software for a while: they are useful but do some weird things.

The best thing is to use the same software you used to install the partitions to remove them, as stated above.

When I'm doing an install, I wipe out all my partitions and then the Master Boot Record (fdisk /mbr); it just helps make sure that everything is clean.

Did you restart after deleting your partitions ? You have to in order for Windows to actually delete them. If not, windows just sees is as if both partitions were still there.

In FDISK you need to, once you have removed both your partitions create a new primary partition which should be the entirety of your free disk space, when you do that you do need to restart with a boot disk from there you need to do an unconditional format and you should have all of your hard drive back under c:. If you do not redefine the drive it will attempt to read the old partition tables, removing them is only half of what you need to do to fix the drive. Run fdisk again, define the primary partition size, reboot and all should be well.

J - Hope that helps!

and acutally after you fdisk and set a partition active reboot while the bootdisk is still in there. At the A: type

A: format C or format \c

I know its one of the 2 this will automatically format the whole drive and then install windows