Hard Drive partition problem

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

On 20 Feb 2005 02:15:09 -0800, jboriii@hotmail.com (JimBob) wrote:

>bought a s/h 160GB HD. I took out my old drive and installed this one.
>When I was installing WinXP it said that there was 8mb unallocated
>and a 152gb partition and I was asked which partition I wanted to
>install XP on. So I selected the 152gb.
>
>When I did this I got the following message:
>
>To Install Windows XP on the Partition you selected, set up must write
>some startup files to the following disk:
>152??? MB Disk 0 at Id0 on Bus 0 on atapi (MBR).
>However, this disk does not contain a Windows XP – compatible
>partition.
>To continue installing Windows XP, return to the partition selection
>screen & Create a window XP – compatible partition on the disk above.
>If there is no free space on the disk, delete an existing partition
>and then create a new one.
>To return to the partition selection screen press Enter.
>
>
>So when I go back I select create new partition. It says the min and
>max size os 7mb so I create one that size.
>
>All is fine, I install XP no prob and all is working fine.
>
>However, I when I go to My Computer, I have 2 hard drive partitions,
>one is 149GB(C) and of course the 7.35mb(E) one.
>
>This has never happened to me before so wondering what to do.
>
>
>In partition Manager it says:
>DSK 0(Samgsung SP1604N)149GB
>C:Invalid
>
>vol type system size used volume labal active
>hidden
>E: primary ntfs 2.8mb 4.6mb yes no
>*: extended 149GB no no
>C: logical invalid 149GB 16.4GB no no
>
>the only options(for C and *)I have in Partition Magic(the rest are
>grayed out) is to delete the drive,change partition id,select
>properties,retest surface. I have all options for drive E.
>
>any ideas?

The reason you could not install on the 149GB partition is that in
order to boot from it, it must be a primary partition. When you went
back to the partition selection screen, you should have just deleted
the partition and then recreated it.

>
>thanks in advance
>JimBob

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

On Sun, 20 Feb 2005 20:37:58 GMT, Andy <1@2.3> wrote:

>>In partition Manager it says:
>>DSK 0(Samgsung SP1604N)149GB
>>C:Invalid
>>
>>vol type system size used volume labal active
>>hidden
>>E: primary ntfs 2.8mb 4.6mb yes no
>>*: extended 149GB no no
>>C: logical invalid 149GB 16.4GB no no
>>
>>the only options(for C and *)I have in Partition Magic(the rest are
>>grayed out) is to delete the drive,change partition id,select
>>properties,retest surface. I have all options for drive E.
>>
>>any ideas?
>
>The reason you could not install on the 149GB partition is that in
>order to boot from it, it must be a primary partition. When you went
>back to the partition selection screen, you should have just deleted
>the partition and then recreated it.

The problem is also that the original 149 GB partition was either
formatted with a file system that Windows can't access (e.g., a Unix
or Linux file system) or is corrupted. You can install Windows on a
logical partition as long as it can also access the primary partition
to install the boot loader.

The better installation would be to start from scratch and remove all
partitions and then have the Windows install program create a new
primary using all available space. Alternatively, if the OP wishes to
keep the existing installation, then he can use the Windows disk
manager to delete the existing C: partition and create a new primary
or logical partition and format it as NTFS.
- -
Gary L.
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