Secure Zone deleted 200GB disk is now 128GB

Running Win2K pro SP4 w/ all latest Microsoft patches and fixes.

I placed the SZ on my 200GB G: drive (the total size of G: and SZ now seemed to be 128GB) and after deleting it with the wizard the drive now reports a size of 128GB.

How do I recover the lost disk space?

 

If you have a disk partitioning program, you can expand the existing partition to the full size of the drive without repartitioning it.

If you don't have such software, you could simply delete the existing partition (and lose the contents) and repartition the drive into one partition. After repartitioning, reformat the drive.

You could also simply create a new partition in the unused space on the drive, but that has the disadvantage of adding another drive letter unless you want to have the drive divided.

You could recreate the SZ in the unallocated space on the drive. Then remove the SZ, but this time pay attention to the screens which allow you to add the space back to the existing partition.

 

I also should have added I have TI 9.0 B2567 and my disks are formatted NTFS. After seeing the problem I had and backing up G:, I tried formatting from My Computer and MY Computer > Disk Management, both said the disk was in use and could not be formatted. I am not sure why it is in use, as no programs are open on it and other than two programs it only contains data.

As to adding the space back to the existing partition with the wizard. That's what I did.

Since SZ uses FAT32, I believe it created itself on the end of G: at the limit of 128G for FAT32 and somehow sized the disk to 128G. Note that I originally stated the the combined size of G: and SZ after it was created was 128G. At that time I didn't check with PM to see if there was unallocated space after SZ on the drive. I was playing with and trying out TI.

Partion Magic now reports the disk as being 131,...M (128G) with no unused space. It didn't used to be 128G!

Since the system is reporting the drive is "in use", I'm hesitant to force a format and was hoping there was a simple common solution to this as it seems anyone who places the SZ on a disk bigger than 128G would have the same problem, I didn't see any admonision in the User Guide to avoid larger that 128G drives which are reasonably common these days.

Where have I gone wrong and ... Help!!

 

If this hard drive only has data on it, it certainly shouldn't be "in use" unless you have some software (Norton System Works, a resident disk defragger...) that is monitoring the drive. This is the first issue to resolve.

Does your motherboard recognize drives larger than 128GB? Check in the CMOS setup to see if the drive is recognized as 200GB (186GB actual). If not, you will have to use overlay software that normally is supplied with the drive to make the full size available - or settle for having ~58GB unusable. Since Partition Magic can only see 128GB, that's all that the system appears capable of recognizing.

When you repartitioned the drive to create the SecureZone, any previously installed overlay software may have gotten uninstalled or corrupted.

This is trivial, but you might want to double check that the drive really is a 200GB drive if the Setup doesn't see the full size.

If the CMOS Setup recognizes drives larger than 128GB without overlay software, there is no problem putting the SecureZone on such a drive.

 

jmk94903,

CMOS reports 200.1 G, when I installed this disk I noted 200,047,168,192, I made a note that this was 186+G and PM reported 190,779M, close enough for governmrnt work. Windows Explorer reported something of the same order, I didn't make any notes on that one.

Now CMOS reports 200.1G, PM says 131,069.3 and My Computer, select G:, File > Format reports 127G, rt-clk My Computer > select Manage > select Disk Management shows 128.00G for G: and Windows Explorer reports 127G, all close enough, no?

As to what's causing the "in use" msg when I try to format the pig, I'm still working on that.

Don

 

Since the CMOS sees the full 200GB, something odd indeed is going on when Partition Magic sees only 128MB. It beats me.

I think I'd wipe the drive completely with a utility like Darik's Boot & Nuke:
http://dban.sourceforge.net/

Then, after rebooting, I'd use the Windows Disk Management to partition the drive, confirming that the whole 200GB is seen, and format it NTFS.

 

John,

After I resolve the "in use" msg, I assume that if I format in W2K (or PM) I'm going to get a 128G drive when done. Would I get the same results formatting in a DOS window or couldn't I boot to DOS (perhaps with a bootable CD or floppy or without) and format and fdisk there and recover my 200G?

Then restart W2K and restore Drive G: from my backup.

Don

 

A quick test would be to use a bootable Partition Magic floppy or CD and check. That's a DOS environment. My guess is that it will still show only 128GB, but it's worth a try.

Darik's program should clear any settings on the drive and allow you a fresh start. Since the CMOS sees 200GB, you should be back to that size.

 

John,

I believe the full story is: don't bother with SZ and if you must, and you put it on a disk larger that 128G be prepared for that disk to then be 128G to the system.

The summary of my trials and tribulations:

1. Because I put SZ on a 200G disk, Acronis/Windows decided that since a FAT32 can only address a max of 128G the disk size was stubbed to 128G and the balance was "unallocated" AND invisible to the system.

2. The "in use" msg I was receiving was because I had put rhe pagefile.sys on drive G, a long story. It is now back on C.

3. Using Partion Magic Diskettes I was able to allocate the unallocated partition. When I restarted all kinds of message scrolled past me in DOS, the gist seemed to have to do with MFT (Master File Table?). They were gone before I could do anything or figure out what was happening.

4. In windows I deleted the new allocated partition and told PM to allocate it to drive G. The deletion took place and then while resizing G PM errored off, perhaps because I had left the pagefile.sys on G. I don't know.

5. I restarted and Windows offered to create a new pagefile.sys for me, I accepted and tried PM again to expand G, all went OK.

6. I then did a load of Acronis and told it to do a recovery of G: from my long-time previous backup. It complained about about bad sectors/clusters on G, so I did a quick format of G and tried again, Acronis complained again so I did a full format of G (do you know how long it takes to format a 200G disk?) and when that was finally done I told Acronis to restore G and it complained again, I told it to ignore the errors and recover the bloody thing, it did.

7. I have now recovered G and it seems to be good. I have cleared up my pagefile.sys troubles, defragged C-G and done an image backup of C-F (1st disk).

8. All seems to be right with the world again

I did d'l "Darik's Boot & Nuke", but I have yet to use it. Thanks for the info.

I hope Acronis is tracking this thread and can either correct me or warn users about the 128G limit of FAT32.

Don

 

Hi Don,

This is interesting and very odd. It's not a Windows problem because you can format disks larger than 128GB as FAT32. You have to do the format with a Win98 system or boot disk that has been created on a Windows 98 system which has had the Microsoft Win 98 patch for greater than 64MB formatting applied.

I just set up a 300GB FAT32 hard drive. Although I would have preferred NTFS for such a large drive, a Windows 98 system had to be able to access it.

I haven't tried a SZ larger than 128GB, so I don't know about that, so it's a concern. As you concluded, I never use the SZ and consider it useful only if the system has only one hard drive with only one partition and no partitioning software is available to repartition the drive...

And that's very good news.