XP no longer recognises partion but Windows 7 does

itsonlydanny

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Aug 4, 2008
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Hi,

I've got a dual-boot set up, with Windows XP 32-bit and Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit. I have a 2TB Samsung hard drive which is split up into three partitions - drives 'C' (XP 64.56gb), 'D' (7 Ultimate 65.3gb) and 'E' (data, music, games, etc 1.69TB), and I also have four other small hard drives: F, G, H, J, K (one of which, obviously, has been partitioned into two (ie, G and H).

A few days ago I resized my 'E' partition using Acronis Disk Director Suite under Windows XP (my main O/S), making it 30gb larger by taking the space from 'D' drive (ie, reducing it from 95.3gb to 65.3gb). After re-booting though, to my shock and horror :D , XP promptly told me that my precious 'E' drive was "corrupted and unreadable"! However, when I went over to & Ultimate it recognised the drive as normal (NTFS, etc) and everything works fine; all the data, etc is there and totally functional.

XP tells me that 'E' drive/partition is RAW - which obviously is untrue. When I ran good old Partition Table Doctor it said: "If PTD cannot find the correct partition for you, you may may try to access CMOS setup programme and change the LBA Mode setting". So as advised I went into the BIOS and changed the setting - from Auto to LBA, but it made no difference.

So I'm a bit stuck now. Acronis Disk Director, for example, thinks the 'E' partition is fine - though I do note that the partition no longer has a drive letter ("none") and I am unable to change it back to 'E' as the drive letters on option only begin from L onwards.

Any ideas as to how I get XP to recognise my 'E' partition again?

Thanks,
DANNY
 
ONE suggest for future to keep in the back of your mind.
For a daul boot system, do NOT put both operating systems on the same HDD, do NOT use a software boot manager, Instead:
.. Disconnect ALL HDDs except the one you want to install an operating system to.
.. Install that aperating system.
.. Disconnect that HDD and connect 2nd HDD
.. Install the 2nd operating system (repeat for 3rd ie I had Triple boot, XP, Vista, and Win 7 Beta)

.. Set bios boot priority to the HDD with the operating system most often used.
.. To change to 2nd operating system; durning the post, Hit the function key that brings up the bootable drive list and select the HDD with the operating system you want to use.

This eiliminates the problem of a software boot manager from screwing up both operating system partitions and possibly corrupting both.

NOTE which ever Operating system you select will become the "C" drive. Also You can still read/write to the disk that has the alternate operating system on it as it will become drive "Whatever", D, may even be e or F)