PartitionMagic 8.0 problem

I think you got some problems with your hard drive. You could try to do check disk first then do the new partition creation again.

give more details on what you have and what you want to have, the simplest solutions could be always found in symplest problem descriptions.

..this is very useful and helpful place for information...

If you have some anti-virus software installed that can also protect the master boot record on the hard drive then it is preventing Partition Magic from making any changes to the drive at the partition level.

Most retail computers will have this protection. All you can do is wipe the drive and install your OS clean without the retail boot configuration CD's.

You will need to go into the registry and pull your serial numbers out but it is not garanteed that they will work on a retail or OEM copy of Win98 or XP if you do not have the original Keys.

Barton 3200+ 400MHz
A7N8X Deluxe
Air Cooled 45C
2x512 Corsair DDR 400 PC3200
GeForce FX5900
Two Maxtor 40Gig 8MB cach 7200rpm
SONY RW 52x/24x/52x
SONY DVD 16x/40x

Thanks everyone for the quick replies. Here is my problem in more detail:

Before I ran PartitionMagic 8.0 to create a new
partition I ran a disk check under PM's Partition-
Windows CheckDisk, cleaned my drive with WinCleaner
2002 and Registry First-Aid, scanned and removed
spyware with Spybot 1.3 and Adaware 6.0, and
defragged my drive with PerfectDisk 6.0.

I then opened up PM 8.0 with all other programs closed,
Norton Anti-Virus 2003 Auto-protect disabled, and after
creating the new partition I restarted.

When my laptop starts up it goes through the usual
Winblows boot screen and after that process I get a
blue screen with this message:
"xmnt2002 program not found skipping AUTOCHECK," for a
few seconds and then loads to my desktop with no new
partition anywhere to be found.

After that, once again I ran a disk check under PM's
Partition-Windows CheckDisk which displayed:

Windows found errors on the disk, but will not fix
them because disk checking was run without the /F (fix)
parameter.
\WINDOWS\Prefetch\PMAGIC.EXE-1E1E65B9.pf first
allocation unit is not valid. The entry will be
truncated.
\WINDOWS\Prefetch\PMAGICNT.EXE-3A3F50C0.pf first
allocation unit is not valid. The entry will be
truncated.
\WINDOWS\Prefetch\CHKDSK.EXE-2CC4C59D.pf first
allocation unit is not valid. The entry will be
truncated.
\WINDOWS|Prefetch\NTOSBOOT-B00DFAAD.pf first
allocation unit is not valid. The entry will be
truncated.
File and folder verification is complete.
Convert lost chains to files (Y/N)?

So, to me it looks like I have several problems. Is this one of my problems, Disk checking was run without the /F (fix)parameter? If so, how do I run disk checking with the
/F (fix) parameter?

As far as my Norton Anti-Virus 2003 software protecting the master boot record is concerned, Is clean installing XP the only way to disable NAV 2003 from protecting the master boot record?

Can't I just configure NAV 2003 to not start auto-protecting when Winblows starts?

Yes most laptops have a protected hard disk you might not be able to run Parition Magic unless you wipe the manufacturers master boot partiiton and the primary partition if you use FDISK you can veiw the partition table to see if there is more then 1 partion already there.

Simply wiping the primary C; drive does not remove the factory partition.

Barton 3200+ 400MHz
A7N8X Deluxe
Air Cooled 45C
2x512 Corsair DDR 400 PC3200
GeForce FX5900
Two Maxtor 40Gig 8MB cach 7200rpm
SONY RW 52x/24x/52x
SONY DVD 16x/40x

I'm not familiar with FDISK, but it's run in the DOS command prompt, correct? How do I run FDISK? I googled it with no luck. If simply wiping the primary C doesn't remove the factory partition, what does?

Once you are in DOS using a Win98 Boot Floppy disc YES even for Windows XP you can FDISK. Once in FDISK you can view all the portions on a Hard Drive and remove and replace them with new ones.

Go to <A HREF="http://www.bootdisk.com/" target="_new">http://www.bootdisk.com/&lt;/A> they can provide you with boot disc downloads you save to a floppy.

After you boot to the black DOS screen off the floppy drive in A: drive simply type FDISK at the A:\ command prompt and you are in.

After you remove the old DOS partitions and replace them with 1 New Primary C:\ Partition table you can then again format a new DOS partitions for Win98 or simply reboot off the CD with XP on it and it will allow you to format in NTFS.

Barton 3200+ 400MHz
A7N8X Deluxe
Air Cooled 45C
2x512 Corsair DDR 400 PC3200
GeForce FX5900
Two Maxtor 40Gig 8MB cach 7200rpm
SONY RW 52x/24x/52x
SONY DVD 16x/40x

I'm afraid my laptop is too newschool to have a floppy drive, I just have a combo CDRW/DVD drive, so I can't create a boot floppy disk. Is their another way? I would want to use Winblows XP, but my laptop was pre-installed with XP, so I don't have an XP CD to create a new Primary C:\ Partition table with XP. Is their another way to do this as well? I appreciate all your help so far.

Well, you can go to http://www.startdisk.com/Web1/ubd/ubd.htm and get a downloadable boot CD...

When I've create the boot CD and create a new primary C partition, this erases everything, including the OS correct? Since I don't have a Winblows installation CD, how would I install XP? It doesn't seem possible or is it?

what do you mean by "not having the installation CD"? yo did not get it with yo laptop? yo, are you ok? how will you fix the system if it crashez for good? do yo at least have some kind of "restore" partition on the drive or something like that?

..this is very useful and helpful place for information...

Let's see, you hand some people $x00 or $x000 bucks and you don't get an OS CD? Or was it some guys in an alley at midnight? If it's the former, I would head right back there and scream until they give you a legal Win XP CD. Then you can do all your repartition and reformat work right from the CD. As blah says, either they gave you a recovery partition or a Windows CD. If not, then you don't HAVE a legal copy of Windows and you better get them to give you one or be out the cost of a legal copy.

I don't have a Winblows XP CD, just a system restore CD, which just restores the factory protected partitioning, which is bullsh*t because I can't repartition without the Winblows XP CD.

Ok, what you can do is get an external drive (borrow?), "restore" XP onto the whole drive, make a Ghost image of that drive by copying it onto the external (must be FAT32) drive, boot with 98orME CD, repartition to anything you like, then put Ghost image onto C drive. It is a little more complicated than I said, but you have the idea, caz nothing else will be availabel without "normal" way of doing it (which is (since you have legit copy of "restore CD") to "get" a CD from the net and install it the way you like it)

..this is very useful and helpful place for information...

I'm in luck because I recently got a 120GB Maxtor One Touch external drive, but of course it's formatted with NTFS. I do have a Micron 1Ghz desktop that came with ME, but bought a XP Home CD for it awhile back. Could I use this CD for my laptop? Also, I have Norton Ghost 2003 and I have tried making an image of my laptops drive and saving it my Maxtor drive, but of course Ghost failed.

You can make a small (up to 7.8 Gs to keep 4k claster) FAT32 partition on that "One Touch" just for Ghosting purposes and keep the rest as NTFS. As far as using XP Home it is up to you, I am not in position to advice "illegal" activities   But I guess you can use it afterwards to make partitions on your laptop when you'll be ready to put image on its C drive (make sure to run defragment before Ghosting)

..this is very useful and helpful place for information...