deleting a partition in network server?

[jlnewbie]

Our windows NT-4 network server has four 9.1 gig hard drives, total 36.4 gigs. These drives are partitioned in the following manner

EISA Utilities: - 36 mb
C Drive: - 4044mb
F: - 602mb
G: Shared - 3443mb
G: Shared - 4614mb
H: Users - 4614mb
G: Shared - 442mb
Free Space - 8236mb
totaling about 26 gigs,

My problem is twofold, I can't delete that partition, I get the following error, "the drive cannot be locked for exclusive use. And finally where is is the the additional 10 gigs. I'm somewhat of a novice with this so please be gentle

JLopez
Lopez31@ATC-Enviro.com
Environmental Services @ Your Service

 

[Jpoandl]

JLo,

Um...your a bit vague here..

"My problem is twofold, I can't delete that partition"... You say THAT partition. Unfortunately, the word THAT does not describe any partition. What partition are you even talking about??????? I think if you were a bet more clear, someone would have responded to your question already. Next time, be more specific.

Also, guess what? This is a Windows 2000 forum. Next time POST this in the Windows NT 4.0 forum.

My predictions:

Where is my extra 10GB's of space. I guessing that this 36GB's of space belongs to a RAID 5 set. There are many RAID levels. RAID is a method used to either protect data better or speed access to data. Anyway, I bet you have either a HARDWARE or SOFTWARE RAID 5 set. If it is a software RAID 5, you will be able to see this configuration in Disk Administrator (type WINDISK in START-> RUN). If this is HARDWARE RAID5, you will have to load a 3rd party utility to see the configuration (For example, Compaq SMART START) In RAID 5 configurations, you will LOSE the space on one physical drive. Therefore, if you have 4 physical drives, you will only be able to use the total space of 3. The left over space is used for PARITY. This parity is used to recover the volume if one of the drives physically fails. In this way, you have a fault tolerant drive.

The issue of not being able to format the drive comes from the fact that the drive is IN USE. Meaning that the OS is using the drive for one reason or another. To format this drive, go into WINDISK (Disk Administrator), highlight the drive you want to format. Right Click and choose ASSIGN DRIVE LETTER. Pick NONE. The system will tell you that the disk is in use and that is will not be able to unassign the drive letter until a reboot occurs. CHOOSE YES. After the reboot, you will be able to format the drive.

I hope this helps.... Joseph L. Poandl
MCSE 2000

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[jlnewbie]

Thank You, Joseph
I apologize for being so vague and for posting on the wrong forum. I later found out that you do have a windows nt forum and i also later found out that i do have a raid5 system.
In my vagueness i didn't state that I was trying to delete the f-partition and the other forum guys were extremely helpful.
Thank You


JLopez
Lopez31@ATC-Enviro.com
Environmental Services @ Your Service