1. plumbbuddy

    plumbbuddy MDL Novice

    Nov 3, 2008
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    #1 plumbbuddy, Nov 3, 2008
    Last edited: Nov 3, 2008
    So I have a Dell Inspiron 1000 laptop that a friend asked me to fix for them. It's only a year or two old. They said it had a virus, i dont really know, i just decided to wipe it and start with a clean version of XP with Service pack two slipstreamed onti it. I've used this cd for numerous computers before, so i know that the CD is not the issue. I installed Windows XP Pro, and when everything was all said and done, after i booted into windows, the computer said it only has a 2 GB hard drive. The Computer came with a 40 GB hard drive I went back into the windows xp installation to check if i accidentally made a separate partition, and there wasn't any other partition available. The setup said that i only had a 2 GB hard drive. So i checked in the BIOS to see if maybe windows was just being stupid, and the BIOS says that i only have a 2GB hard drive. Can anyone help me with this problem?
     
  2. urie

    urie Moderator
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    May 21, 2007
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    are you really sure it's not a partition you are looking at dell machines come with recovery partitons and a hidden diagnostic partition and some times another for media direct you should never have scrubbed the drive you should have tried dell factory restore i don't think you will be able to do that now i maybey wrong but i think you have installed xp onto the recovery partition. after that you next problem is drivers i would find out if they have dell recovery cd and drivers disk in case recovery partition has been scrubbed. You could allways try running dell diagnostics if it is still there.
     
  3. datcat

    datcat MDL Member

    Sep 10, 2008
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    #3 datcat, Nov 4, 2008
    Last edited: Nov 4, 2008
    U may want to try to insert an "Acronis Recovery CD" in ur CDD, boot from it and try to recover...
    sorry to say, but I think urie is right...

    In a user-forum, ask some "DELL Inspiron 1000" user for mercy who will send u a copy of the orig install disks...

    If you could boot it with, for say, "Acronis Disc Doctor" boot CD, how does your partitions look from there??
     
  4. plumbbuddy

    plumbbuddy MDL Novice

    Nov 3, 2008
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    i know that there are no other partitions visible. i've gone in through the windows xp installation process to make sure if there are any other partitions, and the only one visible is the 2 GB partition. i've used partition find and mount, with the same results. it seems like the partition is just lost, wherever it is. My Friends have most of their driver CD's but they have lost their OS restore CD. I also tried to do system recovery, but there was no fallback date. Whatever virus they had acquired, it had blocked that as an option. The virus had prevented me from cleaning the system and i had never heard of this issue before, so i didn't think that there would be any problem with scrubbing the drive and starting from scratch.
     
  5. 911medic

    911medic MDL Guru

    Aug 13, 2008
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    #5 911medic, Nov 4, 2008
    Last edited: Nov 4, 2008
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  6. plumbbuddy

    plumbbuddy MDL Novice

    Nov 3, 2008
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    #6 plumbbuddy, Nov 4, 2008
    Last edited: Nov 4, 2008
    (OP)
    I've already tried both Killdisc and dban, and i just tried gparted....and none of them show anything other than my 2.01 gb partition and my 3.94 mb of unallocated space.

    I had tried kill disc and dban to no avail, and then i updated the bios. The bios said the same thing before and after i flashed it. 2.01 GB. i'm not positive what you mean by
     
  7. 911medic

    911medic MDL Guru

    Aug 13, 2008
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    #7 911medic, Nov 4, 2008
    Last edited: Nov 4, 2008
    In the bios where it shows the harddrives, click on the harddrive and it will give you settings. there should be an option to 'auto-detect' or some verbiage. Click that and see if this changes anything.

    If killdisk does not recognize the additional space, then I would start thinking that the 'virus' your friend had was, in fact, his harddrive failing. Just my opinion.

    Does chkdisk show anything??

    edit: is this an ide or sata drive. The drive should be able to be removed and hooked to another machine..even a desktop. See if another machine recognizes it..I have done this before.
     
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  8. 911medic

    911medic MDL Guru

    Aug 13, 2008
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  9. Lord Kalvan

    Lord Kalvan MDL Novice

    Oct 31, 2008
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    Having run into this problem a time or two before let me suggest another possible solution. Get a win 98 boot disk. insert it in the floppy drive, when comes to the A: prompt, type FDISK MBR. That will clear out the master boot record. See if that makes a difference for you.
     
  10. HMonk

    HMonk MDL Addicted

    Nov 3, 2008
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