Reformat query re: partitions

aliasojo

Please someone put me out my misery and explain to me why Windows wont partition the amount of space it says it has available to partition?

I'm in the middle of reformatting son's computer today and there were 2 existing partitions - a boot something or other which I don't know anything about and so I've left well alone, and the Windows partition which for arguments sake (can't remember numbers offhand) said something like *****64. When I click on the option to delete the partition and then create another one, I can't create the same size partition, even although the same amount is showing up as free space.

When I let Windows allocate a partition size, it leaves a small amount of unpartitioned space (8 was the figure), leaving *****56 to partition. It did the same when I reformatted my pc too, but I don't know why.

So now I've ended up with in effect, 3 partitions, the boot thingy, the Windows one and this small amount of unpartitioned space.

I don't need the extra space as the hard drives are large on ech pc and we'll not come near to filling them up, it's just annoying that I don't know why it does this.


One other (unrelated) query I have is - when the pc is first switched on and it goes through the memory test, one of our pcs is very slow at this bit. Is there a way to speed it up? Our other one just flies through it.

As ever ,thanks for any help.

MoneyMonkey

Not too sure about the partitioning - I could never be bothered to do it myself!

However, you should be able to speed up the memory test when you turn your machine on. You will need to go into your BIOS (Sometimes refered to as Set Up). Usually this is done during the memory test you mentioned. On my computer, I have to press the DEL button, but each computer is different - your machine should tell you which button to press at the time.

Once in the BIOS, there are two things you should look at in order to speed up the start up process.
Firstly, you should look for an option that changes the memory test to 'Quick Test'. This means that the memory will only be checked once instead of three times.

You can also change the boot order on the machine. This means that you can have the machine boot up straight from the C drive, without checking for a floppy disk first. If you ever want to boot from a floppy disk in the future, you will need to make this boot from the floppy first again.

Once complete, you will need to save changes and exit.

NOTE: I wouldn't tinker in the BIOS too much if you don't know what you're doing. It is possible to cause damage to your machine in here. The changes mentioned above should not cause you any problems.

Chippy_Minton

If you have more than one partition, NTFS always allocates 8MB less than you asked for and uses the 8MB as unpartitioned space. It's required for NTFS to work on XP/NT and if you try deleting it it tells you. With your boot partition (which you should keep) and your C: partition you'll always have 2 partitions plus the tiny unpartitioned space.

DVB_3

Chippy_Minton wrote:

If you have more than one partition, NTFS always allocates 8MB less than you asked for and uses the 8MB as unpartitioned space. It's required for NTFS to work on XP/NT and if you try deleting it it tells you. With your boot partition (which you should keep) and your C: partition you'll always have 2 partitions plus the tiny unpartitioned space.

It does not happen always. I can't remember where I read about it, but there was something about those 8mb. In any case, I've got one Dell laptop, which has two partitions and no leftovers.

NellyLock

did you buy this pc from a shop pre-built, i have a laptop that can re-install everything from scratch from a hidden partition ie if i go to the boot settings i can effectively wipe everything and reinstall windows without requiring any cd;s or anything...perhaps this is wat you have

aliasojo

Yip, Mesh computer. I was supplied with a recovery disk which has a full copy of Windows on it so i can reformat completely and not just restore.

Chippy_Minton

DVB wrote:

It does not happen always. I can't remember where I read about it, but there was something about those 8mb. In any case, I've got one Dell laptop, which has two partitions and no leftovers.

Yes, there is a way of avoiding the 8MB leftover. Starting with an unpartitioned hard drive, create an NTFS primary partition big enough to be your C: drive and install Windows on it. Then in XP use Disk Management and create one or more partitions in the unpartitioned space.