Newbie, can you help me uninstall?

When you run chkdsk with either /f or /r on the Windows partition, Windows has to reboot to do the check.

To do this, click the Start button, click on My Computer, right-click on the Windows drive, select Properties, click the Tools tab, click the Check Now button. Then, just check Fix errors, click the Start button, click okay to the check on next boot and then reboot.


Then, when you're back in Windows, open the Command Prompt and re-run a regular chkdsk and post those results. If it shows the errors have not been fixed, then chkdsk is unable to fix them.

 

As for buying DD10, It's your money and your decision but I would rather you wait until no other solutions are offered. Spending money on a one time usage should be the last choice. Perhaps there are still some other alternate solutions such as other free programs which might restore your drive's capacity. Would the Hitachi Feature Tool help us here? It would allow us to change drive capacity or LBA settings.

I would rather you spend your money on an external drive. Then perform a full disk backup which includes all partitions (as per my guides)and store the backup on the new external drive. Then you could use your Dell recovery CD and restore your system so it is the same as when purchased. Then, use the current TrueImage backup and restore only the C partition with your current data. Several of the others have suggested variations of this but it this solution hinges on having someplace to store your backup images. I personally have no faith in your backup set because it contains too many discs. If you were to get an external drive, I would create a new folder on the external and copy all the *.tib files from the backup CD's into the folder and then validate the entire folder. This would give you a second copy of your backup files in case something else went wrong.

Rescue CD: It sounds like you have a retail version which includes a bootable CD. If yes, this version is not the most current version; but yes, this will do for now. Later, you can update your installed program and then create a new current version. Downloading the newest update is another large download. Find an easier way to download large files. Be sure you test the install CD so see all your old and new drives-- should there be any.

Thanks for the info about your system. I am still using the slow 56K dialup for my internet connection. When I need to download a large file, I go the local public library and use their internet connection and download to a 2G Flashdrive--which cost me $12. Or, I can drive 25 miles to our kids house and use their cable connection. If I must download a large file from my computer, I will start the download about bedtime and let it run as long as needed.

Your attachments have been very good. You have followed instructions well. I'm trying to help from a selfish standpoint. When people include large and multiple file sizes in their attachment, it takes forever for them to download onto my computer for me to see what is being asked. Smaller files means faster loading.

Your attachment life would be a lot easier if you were to have a dedicated capture program. If you're using MS Paint for editing, there are better and easier free programs. Check my attachment link below for suggestions.

Congratulations on your willingness to help find a solution to your problem.

 

As GroverH sort of says, the cost of DD10 is almost the same as buying a hard drive.

At this stage, I would be tempted to - uninstall the goback utility.

I've looked at post #50 and see that it is formatted in FAT32 but has no drive letter assigned. I think until you are able to get your self another drive to back up to - begged,borrowed or paid for, we (as in the non royal we) should settle for just assigning a drive letter to the mystery partition. From there you can check to see if any data is lurking (as Windows Explorer will now show and list the partition) - if not then we can merrily make it into a NTFS partition, which is the better file system to use with XP, Vista etc.


Assigning a drive letter

Right click on My Computer on the desktop and choose Manage.

The computer management console will pop up.

Either click on the empty partition space in the top pane or from the bottom pane where it says disk 0 right click as per attached jpg and choose the change drive letter and paths option. In your case it will automatically show you the next available drive letter.

Select this and lo and behold a drive letter will appear and Explorer will be able to 'see it'.

Note form the attached jpg, I highlighted a partiton in the top pane and then right clicked on Disk Management. So if you right click on either of the two panels the pop up looks slightly different, but change drive option will be available.

Once you get a spare drive, then you can image the whole lot over (just don't put any data on the extra partition unless you decide to keep this set up).

Colin

 

andrea, Best Buy has a Seagate external 320Gb hard drive for $70 plus tax, no rebates. Get one quickly before the other readers and lurkers here grab them all. LOL.

 

Andrea,
1. Do you have True Image 11 currently installed?
2. What were the result of the chkdsk that MudCrab suggested in post #76?
3. Were you able to run an extended test with the WD diagnostic?
4. If you have not done so, you should use the Window copy feature and copy all your personal files, email, address book, mp3's etc to a cd's. This is a good safety precaution.
5. If your hard drive gets messed up with all the trials, etc. do have other means of responding to the forum?

The Seagate mentioned above is a good deal. if out of stock, ask for a raincheck--if you have an interest.

 

Yes, TI 11 is installed. I just uninstalled goback and have posted a new screen print for that (sorry for all these screen prints, trying to hurry) I gained ALOT of space but still shows the drive as 25 instead of 69. I have also included the new chkdsk. Looks like it didn't fix the error.
I tried to assign a drive letter to Disk 0 and when I right click on it, it does not have the option to change drive letter, if I right click on c or the other two it does. Perplexing. So, I didn't do anything there until further helped.
I have a free download manager and am currently slowly downloading the HUGHE TI update...whenever I have a chance I do a 1/2 hour or so. I'm going to buy a flash drive because they are so cheap (actually can get one for free thru a survey website I do) and in the future do large downloads at my mom's...I live in the boonies, NO fast speed around here. I do have a retail version.
I ran an extended test with WD and all it said was "passed". I can respond to the forum thru work if worse comes to worse. But, if I lose everything Im gonna just reformat. I have my pic backed up, never have figured out how to do email but may use acronis to just do the essentials like that so I have them.
I seriously just cannot afford the seagate right now, I'm gonna for now get the Fantom I saw on buy.cm, it's 120gb, I know not the best but at this point, it's a FAR cry better than what I have. I know they ship fast too. Gonna check amazon one last time as well. Either way, ordering something today.
You're all right, why buy the DD if I can just get the hard drive for the same price, it's a matter of patience and I'm impatient but learning. I'm beginning to think that Acronis and Goback got in a big fight behind the scenes and both hid free space...goback has lost so far because he's kaput! Trying to maintain some humor at this point.
Grover will check your links for a better capture program..once this is all done, I don't want to keep adding programs until all is well.
So, let me know where we're at now. Anything else I can do or should I wait for the hard drive to arrive? Now that I have free space, should I try to do a secure zone again or wait?
Is there something on acronis that works like goback and system restore? I feel lost without goback, it has saved me many times. System restore has never worked for me, goes thru all it's moves then says can't restore, nothing to restore to, etc. I've tried it even without goback on here now and it still doesn't work. BUT, don't worry at this point, we have more important things to get fixed!!!!
Again, I can't say enough on how much I appreciate your patience and help. You are LIFESAVERS and I won't forget it. I'll be on for a little longer then have to go to one of two Tgiving dinners (already), ugh.

 

Just for "grins & giggles", boot that system with a boot disk, type fdisk at the A prompt, hit Enter, and choose item 4 (Display Partition Information - or words to that effect). See if the the partitions come anywhere near the 69Gb.

 

I have to apologize, but HUH? Do you mean boot with my acronis cd? There will be an a prompt when I do? And how do I get back to "here"?

 

No, not that ... you have to create a Dos boot disk. This is going back to basics. Does your system have a floppy drive? If it does, insert a disc in the floppy drive, open My Computer, r-click on the A drive, choose Format and put a check mark in the Make Bootable ....

If you do that I will have to attach the fdisk file here for you, which you will have to add to the floppy after it is made into a bootable disk. It is a 66k file so even with dial-up you shouldn't have a problem getting it.

 

Hi Andrea,

I am glad you got rid of Go Back. As you have found it has released a fair bit of space to give your computer a bit more head room to work in while the rest of yout HD problems are sorted.
You are almost certainly correct that the problems started with a clash between GoBack and the TI secure zone as I speculated in my post No.49.

As System restore does not work for you at present the way to fix it is to disable it on all drives and then re-enable it. This is done via the settings selection on the System restore screen. This has the effect of deleting all previous restore points which hopefully will release a lot more free space. Could be in the region of another 8 GB!

Now something which is worth trying. Open the Manage secure zone wizard and start the process of making a new Secure zone. It just may now find the lost space as unallocated space. The wizard is quite a clever tool and may be able to see the space where Windows could not.

If the unallocated space is found I would create a secure zone with all of it and then open the Wizard again to either remove the zone completely or reduce it to your desired size and allocate the newly found free space to your C drive

Xpilot

 

andreah1,

It's up to you if you want to wait until after you have the hard drive and can do a backup to it before proceeding. If you have your important files saved to CD, then you may not really care.

I'm curious if you started TI and tried to create a Secure Zone (selecting to take space from the C: partition), does TI show the partition size correctly? Does it let you go through the Wizard all the way to the final Proceed?

I suspect that both fdisk and Diskpart will show the partition size correctly since Disk Management does for the drive. In any case, it doesn't matter because there is no way to fix it with either program. And chkdsk also seems to be unable to fix it.

I think there are three things to try that may fix this:

1) Use DD to resize the partition and resize it back

2) Use TI to create a new SZ and then remove it assigning the space to C:

3) Using TI to create a backup image of the C: partition and then restoring it back to the same partition (resizing if necessary) -- This is much easier to do with an external USB hard drive (I wouldn't try it with CDs).

 

maybe download seatools, and do a quick check on the drive, and see what it reports for the LBA. Seatools is about 4mb.
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/SeaToolsForWindowsSetup.exe

You really should save all you documents, music, pics, videos, emails, bookmarks to a cdr, so if worse comes to worse, the only thing you would have to do is restore the factory cd that came with your pc, and then install all the windows updates, and any programs you have on cds, and any software you have downloaded since you bought it.
If you dont have any programs installed that you cant live without and you dont have on cd's or the setup files for, then it really isnt worth so much trouble, if you got ALL you personal data backed up as mentioned above, a format or restore to factory is probably best.

 

You guys, LOOK!!!! OH MY GOSH! I went in and created a secure zone (small because I was chicken), it rebooted went thru it's operations like a breeze, then it asked to be rebooted again, did a chkdsk and voila, my space is back! Now my question is, how big should I make the secure zone for good? And, I am STILL ordering a ext. hard drive today so I can do everything correctly. Once I do, I will be back for your expertise and patient instructions on how to do this the right way if you don't mind. I am SO thrilled and thankful!!!!! Only thing still off is when doing a chkdsk it still says there are problems to be fixed and to run a chkdsk c: /f but doesn't seem to want to fix them. I'm still happy though!!!!

 

That's more like it! Congratulations ... I would wait for the external though. Don't mess with the SZ anymore except to delete it altogether.

 

Point taken, will wait...BUT, I will be back for more help, obviously when I try to do this stuff on my own I tend to overdo!

 

DwnNdrty
Don't be so mean about the secure zone. Once you understand it's limitations and treat it with respect it is a great way to keep backups on a simple FIFO basis.
If one needs another copy of a backup, which one really does, just make one a fresh to an external drive. Then you have it both ways. There are even some extremists like myself who actually restore to a spare or swappable hard drive on a routine basis before the inevitable disaster strikes.

Xpilot.

Andrea,
Congratulations, It is great that what was lost is now found. Although I have followed this thread as an observer more than a contributor I feel I can claim the first free beer as I was a full three minutes in advance of MudCrab and that is not an easy thing to do

 

LOL, I wasn't going to drink at our gathering today but you can BET I will be now!! I feel so relieved. Everyone has been absolutely unbelieveable with the help.
I wouldn't mind at least being able to back up pics and emails on the secure zone, what is a good "regular" size for a zone on my sized hard drive?
By the way I found another fantom on buy.com that after rebate ends up a little cheaper than the first one I found and it's a 200 gig. 49.95 after google check out and rebate! Yeah, it's reconditioned but for what I do on here I really don't think I need much more than this. Actually a bit of overkill but bigger is better in this lifetime!

 

I must have been distracted while typing the post...

 

Andrea,
Now while still flushed with success it would be a good idea to sort out your CHKDSK once and for all.

First you should delete the secure zone using its Wizard. You can create it again later. The reason for removing it is so that chkdsk can run on the whole hard drive as it cannot see inside a secure zone.
From the command prompt run CHKDSK C: /R and reboot. If you don't have time to capture the result you can view it at your leisure by opening Windows event viewer and under the Applications heading open the LOGON entry which you will find there.

I would suggest a reasonable size for a secure zone would be three times the size of your actual used space in C drive. Using normal compression you should be able to fit four or five full images in the zone. FIFO would kick in and when you like you could start a schedule to run your backups to the zone.

When your external drive arrives it almost certainly will be formatted FAT 32. Because of its several advantages I would suggest you format it to NTFS and then bring it into use.

Xpilot

 

Geez, and I thought I was done! Ok, will remove the secure zone and done what you've said. Will post results either later or tomorrow (running out of time today) and when my hard drive comes, how do I format it? Or is that something they tell me how to do?
I'll put the SZ back after and make it 3 times the size of used space and hopefully then I'll be ok til the hard drive comes. THANKS!

 

hopefully your pc has usb2, otherwise an external HDD is going to be very slow.

 

AS far as issuing the spare space with a drive letter, you were almost there.

Click on the actual box that shows the unknown partition of 4.64GB. It should become highlighted, much like the SZ is highlighted in your screenshot.

Then right click and you'll then get the option of assigning a drive letter. XP will offer you the first available letter (though as you'll see from the drop down box, you can choose anything up to the letter 'Z' if you so wish). Once Disk Management has assigned a drive letter to it, you'll then be able to see if it contains anything. If it doesn't, then you can start using it if you wish, or when uninstalling the SZ, re-allocate the SZ space to your new partition.

Colin

 

Congratulatiions to you guys for hanging in there. Plus, congratulations to Andrea for her willingness to perform the suggestions.

Andrea,

Don't let your elation cause you to bypass copying your personal pics and data onto CD. You need backups of your personal stuff which is not tied to True Image.

If you have any trouble running the chkdsk command, try booting into Safe Mode Command prompt and run it from Safe Mode.

 

Thanks bodgy, I'll do that this evening, I knew I was close but gave up.
Oh no, how do I know if my pc has usb 2 or not? Was there another choice I should have made? At this point, even if it's slow, I don't care, anything is better than nothing. And, found another 10 dollar rebate so the 200 gb will end up being 40 bucks. That I can handle, slow or not!
Grover, I have already copied my pics to cd, I also order prints of each one so I have them as well. I am going to copy my documents and emails to cd as well this week then I know I'm completely covered.
You guys have been awesome, I wish there was something I could do for you.
I'll post later on my hopeful success of assigning a new drive letter to that mystery partition. I'll also be posting later this week or next to ask your expertise on getting my stuff saved on the ext. drive...unless I actually figure it out myself.
Thanks again.

 

Right click My Computer and find your way to Device manager. Once there expand the USB entry/s and you should see the word Enhanced or USB 2 in the list of of the USB odds and ends, if there is no sign of either of these be prepared for USB1 speeds

As to what you could do for your helpers the answer is nothing at all. Just continue to be yourself and enjoy the computing experience. You have dragged out a lot of usefull advice which I am sure will have helped many others with problems.

Xpilot