Deleting a hidden partition

I have a hard drive I got from another computer that I put into my external usb ADS drive enclosure

It is a 60GB hard drive. But I only see 38.28 GB.
I tried reformatting etc in Windows disk management but no luck. I tried partitioning it but I can only get a ~38GB partition. In Disk management it only shows the drive as one 38.28GB drive.


What is the easiest way to unhide and delete this hidden partition?

thanks

What does the BIOS say the harddrive is?

xenotype said:

What does the BIOS say the harddrive is?

Click to expand...

It does not show up in bios. It is not hook up sata or ide, It is a USB device.

Sometimes these protected partitions are created in such a way that they're difficult to get rid of using the normal methods - however, you could use the DISKPART command-line tool, as follows:

Power up the USB drive (connected, obviously).

Open up a command prompt window, issue the command DISKPART

Enter the command LIST DISK, which will show all your active disks, something like this:

DISKPART> list disk

Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ---------- ------- ------- --- ---
Disk 0 Online 466 GB 1017 KB
Disk 1 Online 466 GB 1017 KB

Shift the DISKPART focus to the USB drive - if it's Disk 2 for instance, enter the command SELECT DISK 2

Then issue the command CLEAN - this operation is irreversible and will remove *all* information from the physical drive, so needless to say it's crucial to make sure you've selected the right drive.

Once that's done, you can issue the command EXIT to leave the DISKPART utility, then you can go into Windows disk management and partition/format the drive as normal (it will ask you to re-initialise the drive before you can proceed, but it's all self-explanatory).

use partition magic or acronis. you know someone that has them.

GParted