[Bomber]

Hello all. Got a little problem here on my Dell Mini 10v running XP home.
Decided to reinstall XP using the Dell recovery disc ,all was going well till it asked me for the product code, put it in but it kept telling me it wasn't valid, I know it is because I bought the PC brand new and have reinstalled using it before, however luckily I had another copy of XP so used that code .All went well,and I didn't think any more about the windows product code hiccup until I finished the install and then I noticed that when I right click on my hard drive properties it was missing about 80gbs of space!
To cut along story short I think somehow i have managed to install the new copy alongside the old one on the same part ion! When i boot up though there is no option to choose which Installation of XP to use it and I cant access the 'hidden' 80gbs .Ive explored my drive , made sure Ive unchecked the 'show hidden folders' option and have used WinDirstat which confirms i have 80gb of 'unknown' space.Ive also used windows disc manager but it just shows the one main part ion (there is a tiny FAT portion but its only a few MB,s)But I just cant get to it or delete the old 'hidden' installation.
Ive tried everything to get to it and normally i would use the rescue disc to reformat the drive etc. but being a net-book it has no optical drive and I get embarrassed having to ask my neighbour to keep lending me his USB DVD drive again!
Do any of you smart people have any ideas how i can delete the old installation without resorting to the rescue disc or will i just have to stump up and buy a DVD drive so I can reinstall at my leisure?! Also what did I do wrong in the first place? I'm sure I click the 'format' drive option.
I also noticed that in my new installation of XP there were lots of old programs from the old version that i defiantly hadn't installed on the new one and although they weren't in use the folders were still there!
I just want to reclaim my missing 80gbs without another reinstall if poss! Many many thanks for any help you can offer. Cheers x

[rrfranczak3]

try using a program like Acronis Disk Director suite...it has more capability and options than the standard Windows Disk Manager...if if you are good, get in to DOS and Diskpart and see whether or not is shows both volumes, there maybe only one partition but multiple volumes.....but Acronis is probably your best bet..otherwise backup your live data and reformat and re-load windows...that will surely do it


PS. Welcome to the forum....

[Bomber]

Originally Posted by rrfranczak3

try using a program like Acronis Disk Director suite...it has more capability and options than the standard Windows Disk Manager...if if you are good, get in to DOS and Diskpart and see whether or not is shows both volumes, there maybe only one partition but multiple volumes.....but Acronis is probably your best bet..otherwise backup your live data and reformat and re-load windows...that will surely do it


PS. Welcome to the forum....

Thanks bud, will check it out and get back to you!

[Bomber]

Originally Posted by Bomber

Thanks bud, will check it out and get back to you!

Hi there, I have used EASEUS Partition Master 8.0.1 Home Edition and it shows up the hidden area but I cant find anyway to delete it.Any ideas lovely people?

[rrfranczak3]

I believe you must mark the partition as unhidden somehow for anything can be done

[Bomber]

Originally Posted by rrfranczak3

I believe you must mark the partition as unhidden somehow for anything can be done

Hmmm...yes, your right , wonder how I do that?

[Oscar]

Originally Posted by Bomber

Hi there, I have used EASEUS Partition Master 8.0.1 Home Edition and it shows up the hidden area but I cant find anyway to delete it.Any ideas lovely people?

does it show as an actual partition? or just raw, empty space?

have you tried expanding the win xp partition into the 'hidden area'?

when all else fails, try Parted Magic Linux live distro and use the partition editor from there.

i had this happen with a USB flash drive once... but don't entirely remember how i ended up recovering it. i believe eventually i had to reformat the whole thing though.

GL

[Bomber]

Originally Posted by Oscar

does it show as an actual partition? or just raw, empty space?

have you tried expanding the win xp partition into the 'hidden area'?

when all else fails, try Parted Magic Linux live distro and use the partition editor from there.

i had this happen with a USB flash drive once... but don't entirely remember how i ended up recovering it. i believe eventually i had to reformat the whole thing though.

GL

Hi there, thanks for taking the time to answer, The weird thing is it only shows one partition , and in that is the new installation and the old one but it you cant see the old one unless I use EASEUS and then it just says 80gigs 'unknown space' .I tried expanding into it but it wont let me, it is a odd problem and i think your right , I,ll have to end up reformatting it (again...!) Cheers for the advice.x