A partition without a drive letter

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Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

There is a partition in my harddisk that was checked to be working normal.
It can be recognized as NTFS by diskmgmt.msc and diskpart. But I couldn't
assign any drive letter to it. The story is like this, yesterday i was
euthastically installed system command 8. For some reasons, I have to resize
certain partitions. Then whoops, the machine hanged, and I was forced to
turn off the power. Then back try again, this time the windows logo came up,
but there was an error
autochk.exe was not found....etc
then the system reboot itself. look here and there to find solutions. and
lastly I could pinpoint the error was because of the drive letter...
I tried diskpart
list volume
Windows XP 1 C NTFS Good condition
Windows XP 2 NTFS Good condition
No drive letter
I tried
select volume 2
assign letter=D
but an error occurred
Could anyone please help me get the drive letter back
There is a lot of information in this drive. I want to keep them. Yes, I
should have backup the system
Thanks
Jack

 

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Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

What happens if you use Disk Manager? Right-click My Computer | Manage

--
George Hester
_______________________________
"Jacky Luk" <jl@knight.com> wrote in message
news:OtASsIgcFHA.2736@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> There is a partition in my harddisk that was checked to be working normal.
> It can be recognized as NTFS by diskmgmt.msc and diskpart. But I couldn't
> assign any drive letter to it. The story is like this, yesterday i was
> euthastically installed system command 8. For some reasons, I have to
resize
> certain partitions. Then whoops, the machine hanged, and I was forced to
> turn off the power. Then back try again, this time the windows logo came
up,
> but there was an error
> autochk.exe was not found....etc
> then the system reboot itself. look here and there to find solutions. and
> lastly I could pinpoint the error was because of the drive letter...
> I tried diskpart
> list volume
> Windows XP 1 C NTFS Good condition
> Windows XP 2 NTFS Good condition
> No drive letter
> I tried
> select volume 2
> assign letter=D
> but an error occurred
> Could anyone please help me get the drive letter back
> There is a lot of information in this drive. I want to keep them. Yes, I
> should have backup the system
> Thanks
> Jack
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

"Jacky Luk" <jl@knight.com> wrote in message
news:OtASsIgcFHA.2736@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> There is a partition in my harddisk that was checked to be working normal.
> It can be recognized as NTFS by diskmgmt.msc and diskpart. But I couldn't
> assign any drive letter to it. The story is like this, yesterday i was
> euthastically installed system command 8. For some reasons, I have to
> resize
> certain partitions. Then whoops, the machine hanged, and I was forced to
> turn off the power. Then back try again, this time the windows logo came
> up,
> but there was an error
> autochk.exe was not found....etc
> then the system reboot itself. look here and there to find solutions. and
> lastly I could pinpoint the error was because of the drive letter...
> I tried diskpart
> list volume
> Windows XP 1 C NTFS Good condition
> Windows XP 2 NTFS Good condition
> No drive letter
> I tried
> select volume 2
> assign letter=D
> but an error occurred
> Could anyone please help me get the drive letter back
> There is a lot of information in this drive. I want to keep them. Yes, I
> should have backup the system
> Thanks
> Jack
>
>

How big is the unused part? There's an issue at times where the drive isn't
fully assigned (on purpose) as address errors can occur- things like Norton
comes up with errors as the end part of the drive isn't properly found. I
seem to recall Partition Magic doing it too at times. If it's just a small
amount of your drive just leave it, it's probably for a good reason.
On older computers it can happen because of BIOS drive size limitations.

 

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Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

"Jacky Luk" <jl@knight.com> wrote in message
news:OtASsIgcFHA.2736@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> There is a partition in my harddisk that was checked to be working normal.
> It can be recognized as NTFS by diskmgmt.msc and diskpart. But I couldn't
> assign any drive letter to it. The story is like this, yesterday i was
> euthastically installed system command 8. For some reasons, I have to
> resize
> certain partitions. Then whoops, the machine hanged, and I was forced to
> turn off the power. Then back try again, this time the windows logo came
> up,
> but there was an error
> autochk.exe was not found....etc
> then the system reboot itself. look here and there to find solutions. and
> lastly I could pinpoint the error was because of the drive letter...
> I tried diskpart
> list volume
> Windows XP 1 C NTFS Good condition
> Windows XP 2 NTFS Good condition
> No drive letter
> I tried
> select volume 2
> assign letter=D
> but an error occurred
> Could anyone please help me get the drive letter back
> There is a lot of information in this drive. I want to keep them. Yes, I
> should have backup the system
> Thanks
> Jack
>

What type of computer is it? Some OEM's on some systems, HP/Compaq for
example, have a hidden "rescue" partition on them consisting of your
operating system files and some other OEM JUNK; this is to cut their costs,
instead of sending you an operating system cd or "system restoration" cd's.
HP sometimes uses a utility (though I forget the file name) that starts up
with windows to hide that partition.... I believe it is a service, actually,
but whatever the startup app (or service) is named, putting msconfig in
diagnostic mode or booting to safe mode would render it null. Under normal
operation when the app or service that hides the partition is running, as I
recall, disk manager will still see the partition, but you won't be able to
assign it a drive letter while that HP utility is running in the background
.... Similar things possibly exist for other major OEM computers so if you
don't have an HP don't rule it out.

*If* you fall into this category, *and* your system was shipped with a CDRW
or DVDRW drive, you *might* have a utility located in START > PROGRAMS > HP
TOOLS called Backup CD Creator or something to that effect (for example,
though the path and shortcut name are called different things on different
systems so refer to your system documentation if available in print or
online.) That utility can create a cd from the restore files on the hidden
partition. If all goes well, test it, then you can safely delete that
partition. If no such utility exists, then you are SOL if the CD's didn't
ship with the system, and would have to purchase them (rather, pay around
$30 for shipping on the free cd's) from the OEM to obtain backups. So don't
mess with that partition if that's the case. This is of course *assuming*
you fall into that category.

Otherwise, I'd see if you could "log on" to that other partition using the
recovery console of a Windows XP cd, if you have one. Boot to the CD, where
the first screen gives you the option to Repair with Recovery Console, if it
sees the 2nd partition as a system partition, you'll have the option to log
on to it. Might be named something like MiniNT; but again this is usually
the case with major OEM's and their wacky waste of your misleadingly
advertised hard drive space to save on cd distribution costs.

Just my thoughts.... regardless, good luck!

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

|but there was an error
It said?


When u kill app doing resize, u lose what's in buffers.
At least the length of part in headers & its actual
lenth r not equal.

Try PM>Operations> About Check for Errors which:
Use Check for Errors to inspect the integrity of a
partition. If a check operation fails, "Check Failed"
appears in the Used and Free columns in the partition
list. You should fix any errors encountered within PM

HTH-Larry


Copyright © 1994-2001 PowerQuest Corporation. All
rights reserved.

On Thu, 16 Jun 2005 07:30:08 +0800, "Jacky Luk"
<jl@knight.com> wrote:

|There is a partition in my harddisk that was checked to be working normal.
|It can be recognized as NTFS by diskmgmt.msc and diskpart. But I couldn't
|assign any drive letter to it. The story is like this, yesterday i was
|euthastically installed system command 8. For some reasons, I have to resize
|certain partitions. Then whoops, the machine hanged, and I was forced to
|turn off the power. Then back try again, this time the windows logo came up,
|but there was an error
|autochk.exe was not found....etc
|then the system reboot itself. look here and there to find solutions. and
|lastly I could pinpoint the error was because of the drive letter...
|I tried diskpart
|list volume
|Windows XP 1 C NTFS Good condition
|Windows XP 2 NTFS Good condition
| No drive letter
|I tried
|select volume 2
|assign letter=D
|but an error occurred
|Could anyone please help me get the drive letter back
|There is a lot of information in this drive. I want to keep them. Yes, I
|should have backup the system
|Thanks
|Jack
|

Any advise is my attempt to contribute more than I have received but I can only assure you that it works on my PC. GOOD LUCK.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

On Dell's hitting F11 during boot accesses the hidden operating system

--
Peter

Please Reply to Newsgroup for the benefit of others
Requests for assistance by email can not and will not be acknowledged.

"John Shaw" <anon> wrote in message news:uC3CqEicFHA.3204@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
>
> "Jacky Luk" <jl@knight.com> wrote in message
> news:OtASsIgcFHA.2736@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
>> There is a partition in my harddisk that was checked to be working normal.
>> It can be recognized as NTFS by diskmgmt.msc and diskpart. But I couldn't
>> assign any drive letter to it. The story is like this, yesterday i was
>> euthastically installed system command 8. For some reasons, I have to
>> resize
>> certain partitions. Then whoops, the machine hanged, and I was forced to
>> turn off the power. Then back try again, this time the windows logo came
>> up,
>> but there was an error
>> autochk.exe was not found....etc
>> then the system reboot itself. look here and there to find solutions. and
>> lastly I could pinpoint the error was because of the drive letter...
>> I tried diskpart
>> list volume
>> Windows XP 1 C NTFS Good condition
>> Windows XP 2 NTFS Good condition
>> No drive letter
>> I tried
>> select volume 2
>> assign letter=D
>> but an error occurred
>> Could anyone please help me get the drive letter back
>> There is a lot of information in this drive. I want to keep them. Yes, I
>> should have backup the system
>> Thanks
>> Jack
>>
>
> What type of computer is it? Some OEM's on some systems, HP/Compaq for
> example, have a hidden "rescue" partition on them consisting of your
> operating system files and some other OEM JUNK; this is to cut their costs,
> instead of sending you an operating system cd or "system restoration" cd's.
> HP sometimes uses a utility (though I forget the file name) that starts up
> with windows to hide that partition.... I believe it is a service, actually,
> but whatever the startup app (or service) is named, putting msconfig in
> diagnostic mode or booting to safe mode would render it null. Under normal
> operation when the app or service that hides the partition is running, as I
> recall, disk manager will still see the partition, but you won't be able to
> assign it a drive letter while that HP utility is running in the background
> ... Similar things possibly exist for other major OEM computers so if you
> don't have an HP don't rule it out.
>
> *If* you fall into this category, *and* your system was shipped with a CDRW
> or DVDRW drive, you *might* have a utility located in START > PROGRAMS > HP
> TOOLS called Backup CD Creator or something to that effect (for example,
> though the path and shortcut name are called different things on different
> systems so refer to your system documentation if available in print or
> online.) That utility can create a cd from the restore files on the hidden
> partition. If all goes well, test it, then you can safely delete that
> partition. If no such utility exists, then you are SOL if the CD's didn't
> ship with the system, and would have to purchase them (rather, pay around
> $30 for shipping on the free cd's) from the OEM to obtain backups. So don't
> mess with that partition if that's the case. This is of course *assuming*
> you fall into that category.
>
> Otherwise, I'd see if you could "log on" to that other partition using the
> recovery console of a Windows XP cd, if you have one. Boot to the CD, where
> the first screen gives you the option to Repair with Recovery Console, if it
> sees the 2nd partition as a system partition, you'll have the option to log
> on to it. Might be named something like MiniNT; but again this is usually
> the case with major OEM's and their wacky waste of your misleadingly
> advertised hard drive space to save on cd distribution costs.
>
> Just my thoughts.... regardless, good luck!
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

No, it came out the same. I tried the repair CD-ROM.
The repair procedure recognized the drive as O:\windows
and that's valid everywhere inside that session. but still end up with
diskpart and it was of no use.
Thanks
Jack

"George Hester" <hesterloli@hotmail.com>
???????:#7OtaVgcFHA.456@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> What happens if you use Disk Manager? Right-click My Computer | Manage
>
> --
> George Hester
> _______________________________
> "Jacky Luk" <jl@knight.com> wrote in message
> news:OtASsIgcFHA.2736@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> > There is a partition in my harddisk that was checked to be working
normal.
> > It can be recognized as NTFS by diskmgmt.msc and diskpart. But I
couldn't
> > assign any drive letter to it. The story is like this, yesterday i was
> > euthastically installed system command 8. For some reasons, I have to
> resize
> > certain partitions. Then whoops, the machine hanged, and I was forced to
> > turn off the power. Then back try again, this time the windows logo came
> up,
> > but there was an error
> > autochk.exe was not found....etc
> > then the system reboot itself. look here and there to find solutions.
and
> > lastly I could pinpoint the error was because of the drive letter...
> > I tried diskpart
> > list volume
> > Windows XP 1 C NTFS Good condition
> > Windows XP 2 NTFS Good condition
> > No drive letter
> > I tried
> > select volume 2
> > assign letter=D
> > but an error occurred
> > Could anyone please help me get the drive letter back
> > There is a lot of information in this drive. I want to keep them. Yes, I
> > should have backup the system
> > Thanks
> > Jack
> >
> >
>