Recovering lost space on HDD

Stinky Weaselteats wrote:
 > I hope someone can help me with this problem. I was given a pc with
 > McAfee Safe & Sound on the HDD and I tried to format it but even after
 > fdisk and format several times the drive which was 3GB now shows up as
 > being only 75MB. Is there a software tool I can download to let me
 > recover the missing space?
 > Thanks in advance.


Provided the hard drive contains no data you want to keep, overwrite the MBR
using a Windows 98 boot disk.

<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.bootdisk.com" target="_blank">www.bootdisk.com</a>

Instructions:
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=http://support.microsoft.com:80/support/kb/articles/Q69/0/13.ASP&NoWebContent=1" target="_blank">http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=http://support.microsof...om:80/s</a>

After doing this, you should have no partitions defined. All available disk
space should be available.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Recovering lost space on HDD 

S.Heenan <sheenan.TakeThisOut@wahs.ac> wrote in <GSK9c.38412$QO2.1851@pd7tw1no>:

 >Stinky Weaselteats wrote:
  >> I hope someone can help me with this problem. I was given a pc with
  >> McAfee Safe & Sound on the HDD and I tried to format it but even after
  >> fdisk and format several times the drive which was 3GB now shows up as
  >> being only 75MB. Is there a software tool I can download to let me
  >> recover the missing space?
  >> Thanks in advance.
 >
 >
 >Provided the hard drive contains no data you want to keep, overwrite the
MBR
 >using a Windows 98 boot disk.
 >
 >www.bootdisk.com
 >
 >Instructions:
 >http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=http://support.microsoft.
com:80/support/kb/articles/Q69/0/13.ASP&NoWebContent=1
 >
 >After doing this, you should have no partitions defined. All available
disk
 >space should be available.
 >
I did that at first. then I tried the asfdisk tool the other guy
reccomended. that showed this:
Primary Partition
# ID Size Boot
1 06 BIGDOS 73MB **
2 00 Empty 0MB
3 00 Empty 0MB
4 00 Empty 0MB

even using different switches like /dump and /delall didnt unhide or
restore the partition McAffes program made.
My next step I think would be a Low Level format.

Any ideas?<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Recovering lost space on HDD 

On Mon, 29 Mar 2004 21:18:02 GMT, Stinky Weaselteats
<stinky RemoveThis @pinheadsRus.com> wrote:

 >I did that at first. then I tried the asfdisk tool the other guy
 >reccomended. that showed this:
 >Primary Partition
 ># ID Size Boot
 >1 06 BIGDOS 73MB **
 >2 00 Empty 0MB
 >3 00 Empty 0MB
 >4 00 Empty 0MB
 >
 >even using different switches like /dump and /delall didnt unhide or
 >restore the partition McAffes program made.
 >My next step I think would be a Low Level format.
 >
 >Any ideas?

Well, if it's a IDE drive all you can do is wipe or zero it since LLF
functions won't work on it. I'd just set the PC to use auto hdd detection
in the BIOS setup, then get wipe or zap from Hitachi/IBM to zero the
drive, then reboot the computer and see what size is reported.
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://service.boulder.ibm.com/storage/hddtech/zap.exe" target="_blank">http://service.boulder.ibm.com/storage/hddtech/zap.exe</a>

--
Michael Cecil
macecil RemoveThis @comcast.net
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://home.comcast.net/~macecil/howto/" target="_blank">http://home.comcast.net/~macecil/howto/</a>
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://home.comcast.net/~antiviruscd/" target="_blank">http://home.comcast.net/~antiviruscd/</a><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Recovering lost space on HDD 

Stinky Weaselteats wrote:
 > even using different switches like /dump and /delall didnt unhide or
 > restore the partition McAffes program made.
 > My next step I think would be a Low Level format.

Download the diagnostic utility from the hard drive maker's site. Most of
these tools allow you zero the drive out. Wipe and Zap, as mentioned by
M.Cecil are good as well.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Recovering lost space on HDD 

S.Heenan <sheenan RemoveThis @wahs.ac> wrote in <4Mdac.47800$QO2.17917@pd7tw1no>:

 >Stinky Weaselteats wrote:
  >> even using different switches like /dump and /delall didnt unhide or
  >> restore the partition McAffes program made.
  >> My next step I think would be a Low Level format.
 >
 >Download the diagnostic utility from the hard drive maker's site. Most of
 >these tools allow you zero the drive out. Wipe and Zap, as mentioned by
 >M.Cecil are good as well.
 >
Thanks. I'll try Wipe and Zap also as the DiskWizard and Seatools from the
Seagate site wouldnt work with my video card.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Recovering lost space on HDD