western digital WD800 fdsk question

Not familiar with that specific drive, but I have had good luck with Western Digital drives.

FDISK is the DOS/Windows utility used for drive partitioning.  Different operating systems carry their own partitioning limitations.  Windows Me uses FAT 32 partitions that can support up to 2TB partitions.  Your BIOS is also another factor to consider as far a drive size support - so you will also want to check on this...

I would suggest you test your "Startup Disk".  The "Startup Disk" lets you boot to DOS. I creates a 2MB RAM disk, which it uses to copy a set of system utilities needed to help get your system up and running.  The diskette also lets lets you access your CD drive. The best way to guarantee that your "Startup Disk" works and that it will let you access your CD drive is to try it out. 

Follow the step-by-step instructions below to test your "Startup Disk":

1.  Put the diskette in your floppy drive and restart your computer.

2.  When the computer boots, a list of startup options will appear.  For Windows Me systems, Select option 2 to "Start up with CD-ROM support".

3.  When the boot process finishes, you'll see a command line prompt,  A:\>

4.  Insert a CD (any CD will do), then type DIR and press [Enter]    The DIR is a DOS command for displaying a directory listing of the files on the CD.

Note:  Your CD drive may have been reassigned a new drive letter that's one letter higher than its original value. This happens because the RAM disk is assigned a drive letter (the CD drive letter will return to it original drive letter when you restart you Windows after completing this "Startup Disk" test) first,  and then the CD drive letter is assigned.  If your CD drive was (E:), it will now be (F:), when you use the startup disk.

In this case type DIR F: and press [Enter]   If you see a listing of the CD, all is well. 

If not, you may need to add the driver for your specific CD drive to the "Startup Disk".

5.  Remove the floppy "Startup Disk" from your computer and type Ctrl+Alt+Delete (press all three keys down at the same time).   This will reboot your computer and start up your Windows operating system.

I've used 2WD 80G HDDs for the last 3 yrs. without any problems. The ME bootdisk should recognize the full capacity of the drive. If you have any problems, you can get a bootdisk or the newer fdisk here:

http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

hey thanks for all the help. Maybe i'll stick with western digital drives for now on.