Ok well a month or so back all was going fine with my PC, I kept my Virus Definitions up to date kept spyware off my PC whenever possible and for a year all was fine, till I installed Music Match Jukebox. Everything appeared to install fine, I inserted a disc into my CD-RW drive to make MP3's of, and it acted as if the disc was not in the drive. Now it is a demo from a band, and to cut costs it was released on CD-R so I figured the disc crapped out on me, I go in to My Computer, all my Drives are gone (Daemon Virtual Drive, DVD-RW, and CD-RW) I figured I need a reboot. I then was unable to even enter Safe Mode, or DOS so after an hour of chain-smoking, and swearing a blue streak I reinstalled..everything seems ok now...but this leads me to a question. If I had no Virii on my PC, or Trojans of any kind, what could cause this? At the time of the crash I had 25 of 40 GB free, so I doubt its HDD related.
This re-installation leads me to my next question...When I was re-installing XP, I chose where to put this new partition, over the original one as it was dead and I was having no luck booting, but I noticed something a bit odd. I had a FAT32 partition on my Hard Drive, about 40MB on it. I've never heard of a PC having both an NTFS and FAT32 partition, is there any reason why Dell would have this invisible/unusable partition on a PC? Its a Dimension 4400. Sorry if this is a stupid n00b question, but Im just really starting to learn hardware and configuration info as I go along, and I was just curious about this. Thanks.
Rick
Try StreamFab Downloader and download from Netflix, Amazon, Youtube! Or Try DVDFab and copy Blu-rays! or rip iTunes movies!
+ Reply to Thread
Results 1 to 6 of 6
Thread
-
-
Just a guess, but I would say your HD got seriously messed up. I would reformat the entire drive (delete all partitions) and start over.
-
A few manufactures (from what i have experienced) nowdays put an "invisible" partition on the harddrive.
I believe it (can) serves two purposes
1. Assist in older machines reading large harddrives
2. Assist in the (manufacturer) restoration of windows.
[ ] Agree [ ] Disagree
][ -
Originally Posted by thayne
-
Hewlett Packard is one of those manufacturers that put that hidden partion on their HDD. I have an HP, modified to my liking now :P but my main partition is NTFS and then the 5GB partition where the image of my HDD is is FAT32.
So yes, both can be on a PC if it was not a custom built PC but one from a major manufacturer. -
Yes, both can exist, and if you dual boot 98 with 2k or XP, the FAT32 has to be, but you can convert your 2k-XP to NTFS during install.
BTW, if you also had Linux, you'd now have 3 file systems.
Similar Threads
-
Looking for free software to partition and backup netbook partition
By jimdagys in forum ComputerReplies: 4Last Post: 30th Nov 2011, 21:20 -
Question about scanning OS partition using antivirus/antimalware software
By PartingShot in forum ComputerReplies: 8Last Post: 31st May 2011, 16:07 -
Question about Disaster after using Partition Magic
By jimdagys in forum ComputerReplies: 9Last Post: 20th Nov 2009, 11:22 -
CRC for metadata package failure question
By fedesagol in forum ProgrammingReplies: 0Last Post: 2nd Jul 2008, 13:51 -
question about repeated DVD burn failure at about 90%
By jimdagys in forum Newbie / General discussionsReplies: 18Last Post: 18th Mar 2008, 21:34