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missing 7.8mb partition, windows sucks

PostPosted: Sun Dec 01, 2002 4:40 pm
by voltron
i somehow removed the 7.8mb partition at the end of the hard disk with partition magic. now i can not format and install windows xp again. does anyone have any ideas or clue as to what to do? i've tried formatting, using fdisk, and even using the seagate disc tools that came with it.

any help is appreciated. basically i have a dead 80gb drive as of now =(

voltron

PostPosted: Sun Dec 01, 2002 5:45 pm
by Action Jackson
I "accidentally" deleted a non-root partition.

My Norton SystemWorks 2000 detected this upon bootup and "repaired" everything. I am using Win98SE.

PostPosted: Sun Dec 01, 2002 7:19 pm
by Zen Master 27
What happens when you try to install XP? If anything, when you get to the part where it asks you what partition you want to install XP onto you should have the ability to delete any partition, even if XP can't recognize the file system of the partition you're trying to blow away.

Failing that, you could also make yourself some bootable Partition Magic diskettes and delete all the partitions that way.

There's no reason why you can't reuse that disk, unless of course the disk has failed altogether. I trust that you can hear it spin up and the BIOS recognizes it?

Regards,
Steve

Re: missing 7.8mb partition, windows sucks

PostPosted: Mon Dec 02, 2002 6:02 pm
by Colonel Panic
voltron wrote:i somehow removed the 7.8mb partition at the end of the hard disk with partition magic. now i can not format and install windows xp again. does anyone have any ideas or clue as to what to do? i've tried formatting, using fdisk, and even using the seagate disc tools that came with it.

any help is appreciated. basically i have a dead 80gb drive as of now =(

voltron


"Re: missing 7.8mb partition, windows sucks"....and that's one of the reasons I switched to a mac. Windows pissed me off, too much, too often. :lol:

You could always try using the bios to format...but that's not highly recommended. I assume you'll have to do a low-level format, and somehow jerry-rig the system to install. Try putting Win98 or something onto it, then upgrade to XP.

PostPosted: Mon Dec 02, 2002 6:29 pm
by glock20rocks
Do you get an error from XP's installer saying it can't find a place for the swap file (or something like it)?

If so, the boot partition is formated to NTFS. XP/NT can only install if there's a FAT32 partition on the drive. Try creating a new partition under 32GB and formating with the normal DOS/Win9x format utility. You'll have to convert the partition to NTFS after you're done installing.

If you need a boot disk with FDISK/Format go here:

http://www.drd.dyndns.org/index2.html

Hope that helps...

PostPosted: Mon Dec 02, 2002 6:44 pm
by voltron
any os i try to install doesn't even find the damn hard drives. poo

PostPosted: Mon Dec 02, 2002 7:55 pm
by KuoH
So does the drive even show up during the BIOS check? If so, try downloading the OEM drive tools. There's usually a tool that will "ZERO" out or recertify the drive by erasing everything. As long as there isn't any physical problems with the drive, you should be able to repartition and format the drive.

KuoH

PostPosted: Tue Dec 03, 2002 9:41 pm
by Zen Master 27
Sorry, glock20rocks, but you are mistaken when you say "XP/NT can only install if there's a FAT32 partition on the drive."

Windows 2000 and XP absolutely CAN be installed on a drive formatted with NTFS -- that's why they give you the choice during initial setup. And as far as Windows NT goes, it cannot even SEE FAT32 partitions, let alone be installed on one. (You were on the right track though, since Windows NT needs to be installed on a FAT (4GB max) partition and converted to NTFS after install.)

Voltron, again assuming that the drive is not dead, if you're still having trouble accessing/deleting any of the partitions you might want to consider booting off of a Windows 98 SE startup disk and running:

fdisk /mbr

at the DOS prompt. That should blow away and rebuild the master boot record for you, and hopefully allow you to manage the disk however you need.

Regards,
Steve

PostPosted: Tue Dec 03, 2002 11:12 pm
by voltron
alas, even fdisk /mbr did nothing =(

i ran seagate disc utilities and it told me the disc had physical defects so I RMA'd the suckers. thanks for all the replies, appreciate the help.

voltron