Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics (
More info?)
What has happened is that Disk Management made D: the active partition.
"Zattack" <nospam@orionfirst.com> wrote in message
news:udYZ3mfvEHA.2192@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
>
> "R. C. White" <rc@corridor.net> wrote in message
> news:%23bbb2LfvEHA.3416@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
>> Hi, Zattack.
>>
>> Several things here "do not compute". :>(
>>
>> First, as gls858 said, you can't use Disk Management to merge partitions.
>> DM can delete a partition and create a new one, or multiple smaller ones,
> in
>> that space. But DM can't shrink a partition or enlarge one or merge two.
>> And it can't do much of anything with the System Partition (almost always
>> Drive C
or the Boot Volume (often also Drive C
.
>>
>> > Went into drive management and
>> > formatted d drive,
>>
>> OK. You would have been formatting D:, the logical drive within the
>> extended partition. An extended partition doesn't get a drive letter and
>> can't be formatted, but you can create one or more logical drives within
> the
>> extended partition, assign them letters and format them. So I assume
>> that
>> after this you had a primary partition (Drive C
and an extended
> partition
>> with one freshly-formatted logical drive (Drive D
. Drive C: was both
> the
>> System Partition and the Boot Volume.
>>
>> > Upon attmpt to make it merge back with c
>> > drive, formatted it to also be primary drive. Didn't touch c drive,
>>
>> WHOA! HOW did you attempt to merge Drive D: back with Drive C:?
>>
>> Did you use any third-party tools, such as Partition Magic? Or only
>> WinXP
>> and its built-in utilities, such as Disk Management? Or perhaps some
>> utility supplied by Sony? Disk Management won't touch Drive C:,
>> normally.
>>
>> > upon restart laptop only displays one message: operating system not
>> > found.
>>
>> That could be awful - or not. Maybe it can't find the operating system
>> because it's looking in the wrong place - on Drive A: (the floppy), for
>> example, or Drive D:, where the system hasn't been installed. If you
>> have
>> the retail WinXP CD-ROM, you might be able to boot it, then choose R to
>> enter the Recovery Console. From there, run FixBoot (and maybe FixMBR
>> and
>> BootCFG) to repair your boot sector and restore your ability to boot into
>> WinXP. I don't know if the Sony CD has the FixBoot utility.
>>
>> MAYBE all you need to do is point it back to Drive C:, but there's no way
> we
>> can tell that from here. The message could well mean that the operating
>> system has been erased from Drive C:. :>(
>>
>> > I have Sony recovery disks but they simply prompt me to totally
>> > reformat
>> > and
>> > start installation of system. Have I lost my data and is there any way
> to
>>
>> I've never had a Sony, but "recovery disks" often take the drastic step
>> of
>> returning your computer to the state it was in when it left the factory.
> In
>> other words, everything you've added will be gone and you will be
>> starting
>> over. If Drive C: has, in fact, been reformatted, this might be your
>> only
>> good option. I don't know whether you will have a chance to change the
> size
>> of Drive C:.
>>
>> For future reference (probably too late to do any good now), there is a
>> program on the full retail WinXP CD-ROM called DiskPart, a part of the
>> Recovery Console. (This is not the same as DiskPart.exe, which can be
>> run
>> from WinXP.) Whether this is on the Sony recovery disk, I don't know.
>> DiskPart has an /extend parameter that will "grow" a partition, if
>> several
>> requirements are met. Search the Help and Support file for details, but
> it
>> probably would not have helped you in this case, anyhow.
>>
>> It's not clear to me just how you reformatted D:, or whether C: is
>> untouched. If C: is intact, and if you can take out that HD and move it
>> into another computer, you should be able to recover all your data into
> the
>> other computer, then move it back into this one later.
>>
>> Only you know how much the "lost" data is worth to you. If it is
>> valuable
>> enough to you, and if Drive C: has not actually been reformatted, you
> might
>> buy a full retail copy of WinXP (either Home or Pro). Then boot from
>> that
>> retail WinXP CD-ROM and do an in-place upgrade, as described here:
>> How to perform an in-place upgrade (reinstallation) of Windows XP
>>
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q315341
>>
>> This will reinstall WinXP itself but, so long as your Registry is intact
> on
>> Drive C:, it will preserve your existing applications and data. It will
> not
>> give you an opportunity to increase the size of your existing partition,
>> though, so you will not be better off than you were "before the issues".
> To
>> make a larger Drive C:, you really have only two options:
>> backup/repartition/reformat/restore, or use a third-party solution.
>>
>> Many of us have had the problem of too-full Drive C:, so you will find
> many
>> threads here with tips on how to keep as much as possible in other
> volumes.
>> If you must repartition and reformat, try to make Drive C: at least 5 GB;
> 10
>> is better, and many people (including Microsoft) recommend having only a
>> single partition using all the space on the hard disk. (I like to
> separate
>> the few System Files into a minimal primary partition Drive C:, the
>> operating system itself into logical Drive D:, and applications and data
>> into one or more other logical drives, but that is a topic for another
>> thread.)
>>
>> RC
>> --
>> R. C. White, CPA
>> San Marcos, TX
>> rc@corridor.net
>> Microsoft Windows MVP
>>
>> "Zattack" <nospam@orionfirst.com> wrote in message
>> news:OHZ2UYevEHA.1292@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
>> >I may be too late but... Have sony vaio laptop with XP home. Had drive
>> > partitioned to a c primary and d extended. Ran into issues as the c
> drive
>> > was full and nothing was going to d. Went into drive management and
>> > formatted d drive, as only data stored there was copies of program
>> > files
>> > that also existed in c drive. Upon attmpt to make it merge back with c
>> > drive, formatted it to also be primary drive. Didn't touch c drive,
>> > but
>> > upon restart laptop only displays one message: operating system not
>> > found.
>> >
>> > I have Sony recovery disks but they simply prompt me to totally
>> > reformat
>> > and
>> > start installation of system. Have I lost my data and is there any way
> to
>> > get the laptop to boot correctly to for now at least get back to where
>> > I
>> > was
>> > before the issues?
>>
>
> Thanks to everyone so far who have posted. I probably have not explained
> the situation as well as could have. Basically the laptop was setup with
> a
> partitioned 14 gig drive. Just over 5 allocated as the primary drive c
> and
> less than 9 to an extended drive d. Problem is that everything, programs,
> files, windows updates, etc were all going to drive c and it was maxed out
> on space.
>
> In an attempt on my part to try and find a solution so that the drive D
> could be used more appropriately I ran across the disk management utility.
> My goal was to try and clear drive d and somehow merge it back with c,
> which
> I now know takes at least a separate piece of software such as Partition
> Magic. I didn't have anything like that so what I naively did was
> unallocate drive d. Then I reallocated it as a primary partition and
> formatted it while still in disk management. If you are familiar with the
> disk management utility it has a little window that displays the drives
> with
> color codes and allows you to click on the drive you want to work with and
> such. Once drive d had formatted it was the same color as drive c, listed
> itself as a primary drive but still showed it with 9 gig of space as a
> separate drive from that of drive c (also still listed as a primary drive.
>
> After exiting the utility I was able to work on a word doc and jump on the
> internet. I closed down and upon reboot recieved the error message. I am
> fairly confident that the c drive is still intact since just shutting it
> down should not have erased anything and since as Colin stated windows
> shouldn't allow you to delete its active drive while you are working in
> it... So my conclusion appears to be similar to yours, RC, that somehow
> the
> partition format process I did screwed up the pointer for when I boot the
> system. Without the ability to even reach a dos prompt or navigate
> outside
> windows I don't even know how to fix the pointer problem or begin to
> research it because Sony did not sell the Windows XP software, it built it
> into the recovery disk as far I understand it. The Sony recovery disk has
> only two options upon inserting it and rebooting: Format drive C and
> begin
> new install or format all drives and begin install...
>
> Does Fixboot provide a solution to this and if so is a new copy of WinXp
> the
> only option? I will most likely start a new thread if I ever get the
> system
> to boot correctly to fix the partitioned allocations but until then I want
> to at least try to recovery the system as it was...
>
>