Partitions and Formatting

[escapee]

Hi,

I had a lighting strike over my phone line that destroyed my hard drive and modem. Those have been replaced and I have installed XP Pro. I partitioned the hard drive into 2 partitions and when I went to Disk Management to Format the smaller partition I did something wrong because I now have 3 partitions. I did Format most of the Smaller HD but now have an additional partition with only 533MB. I would like to get rid of this unused partition without losing the space. Is that possible and how? I followed the recommended windows procedure but it would no delete the 533MB HD. I have not formatted the small hard drive so it doesn't have a letter designator.

Hank

[Web Gecko]

Howdy escapee

Not that familiar with the Disk Manager but are you sure
that 3rd partition ain't a CDROM showing up in your optical drive ? I just took a look at my setup ( XP Pro ) and disk manager shows my D: drive 400 or so MB as a partition or sumthin ??? BUT that's my CDRW\DVD combo drive with a CD in there ( probably not that simple) ???

Usually a drive letter IS assigned even if a partition isn't formatted. You could use something like Power Quest partition magic 7.0 or so ( carefully ) if you can get that or know how to use it.

I mostly use good old stock standard FDISK and use a MSDOS boot disk or CD with CDROM support. If the partition you don't want is the last and it is an extended partition logical drive then FDISK would let you delete it ( usually ).

After I boot into MSDOS from floppy or CD ( you may need to change your boot setup in setup\BIOS ) I use
fdisk /status to check my basic fixed disk details
( device number and size ). Then run just fdisk enter
and create just a primary partition the whole drive size
( made active for boot as well ) and large drive support
so when I format later in DOS I format FAT32.

After partition changes you have to reboot back to MSDOS
so the changes are made permanent. Then you DOs format your partition(s) and start loading XP or whatever.
Apparently you can have up to 4 primary partitions or drives in your primary area , BUT only one primary partition drive is used mostly. Then you can create an extended partition for the balance of what's left on the drive and then you split that remaining space between a number of logical drives in that extended partition.

If you decide to use fdisk take it slow and carefull. If you have any important data on your drive you don't want to lose it. Back up first if you can't afford to lose certain files.

If you are lucky and the drive you want deleted is in the extended partition, maybe the last logical drive then you can use fdisk via the delete partitions, delete logical drives options
to kill the logical drive you don't need in the extended partition
( make sure the size looks right and you are not confusing it with something else before the delete ).

Try fdisk if you feel confident. If not ask more questions and someone will be able to help.

Take it carefull. If you aren't sure or have problems check back and I'll see if I can help further.

When I think about it there must be a simpler way in XP Pro than using fdisk BUT I know fdisk well and I'm hazy with this disk manager in XP. Anyone else got any ideas ???

good luck

cheers

Web Gecko

?8O)}

[escapee]

Hi Web Gecko,

The last time I installed XP I partitioned the disk the same way, used disk manger and everything was fine. Until you format the disk it doesn't have a letter designator. I thought I was formatting the entire small disk this time just like I did before but something happened. I really don't know anything about FDISK so am going to stay away from that.

In my search I found that someone else here had exactly the same problem and ended up using Partition Magic. I don't have that software and think you have to buy it. Since I'm only losing 533 MB's it's not worth it to me. Not yet anyway, but it is really beginning to bug me. I might just reinstall XP and all the software I have. Much work, not to mention the time.

Thanks anyway for your effort.

Hank

[DragonNOA1]

I haven't read what gecko said but if you have a 3rd partition in disk management than right click on it to delete the logical drive. While you are at it just delete the second one too and reformat them both as one drive. Hopefully there isn't too much info on that second drive b/c it sounds like you just reformatted anyways.

I haven't used Disk Management in so long b/c Partition Magic is such a wonderful program. If you ever think about getting it, don't hesitate.

[Web Gecko]

Hey to escapee and DragonNOA1

I hope dragons' solution works BUT something just occurred to me.

Are you sure that when you created the second partition that you didn't actually leave some empty space behind on your drive at the end ? Why ? Because that could be the 500 or so MB you are talking about !

If you didn't let the manager use up all remaining space last time or you specified the wrong size ( too small ) then you may have actually left the balance behind as a 500 plus MB
of unallocated space which of course is not a partition and can't be formatted or assigned a drive letter.

If this is what happened then of course you can't delete it, it ain't a partition just the space left behind unused after your 2nd partition create in the manager. And it won't go away until you allocate it to a partition ! It will always be there if you don't allocate it.

I may be wrong on this BUT if that is just empty space you will either have to fill it by allocating or creating another partition with that space and formatting it OR along dragons' lines you could get rid of the 2nd partition ( if that is just a data drive then backup any files you need first ) THEN create your 2nd partition again BUT this time make sure you use an EXTRA 500 or whatever it is MB of space !

This could allocate the remaining unused space to a new 2nd partition and fill your drive properly ( no more bitsy left overs hopefully ).

This idea occurred to me last night after I responded the first time. Could be wrong but I have a gut feeling you should have a look at it.

Here's hoping anyway.

When you get it fixed would be interested to know what
the solution was anyway.

cheers

Web Gecko

?8O)}

[escapee]

Gee, I hardly know where to begin here. I did delete the partition and reformatted. I think everything is cool there. BUT I failed to mention that my computer has 2 internal hard drives and the 533 MB partition is part of the second internal hard drive. I didn't realize that until after my previous posts. I have now reformatted the second HD hoping to get rid of the 533 MB partition but no luck. In the disk manager, this partition is labeled "EISA (Configuration)" and cannot be deleted by either of the 2 methods recommended in Windows. The reason according to the pop up window is because Windows might be using the space.

I don't believe that partition was there until I replaced the other HD. It might have been but I feel like I would have noticed it if it were. I'd sure like to know what a partition labelled "EISA (Configuration)" means or is.

I believe all the space on my new HD is used. That's the one that I recently installed XP on and partitioned. Both of those partitions are ok.

I guess I'm stuck for the moment. I'm going to run a search on the label mentioned above next...

Web Gecko, you guys sure do have short nights down under. I haven't moved out of this chair since before your first post.

Thanks guys for the help.

Hank

[escapee]

EISA=Extended Industry Standard Architecture

I still don't know why the partition is labeled that.

[idiot_y]

I'm not real knowledgable when it comes to partitions....but can't you just boot up the xp cd, and go through like your going to install it, and delete/and or reconfigure the partitions?
you'd have to switch bios settings and jumpers.....but wouldn't that work?

[escapee]

Idiot_Y,

That's something for me to think about. I will try that tomorrow and see what happens.

Hank

[Web Gecko]

Hey Hank

Sorry about the bad joke but it would be great to be an escapee from computer technology for at least a day or so
( dream on ??? ). It's not working for me either and I have been working my butt off to get a new system setup\sorted out and delivered ( done now ). Finally finished it today and delivered it. My nights have been short ( no shuteye mostly workin ) and after a while you get so overtired you don't even notice you haven't slept for a day or so ( totally worn out).

That system is sure throwing you a bucket of curve balls.
So you have a new large ( how big\what kind ?) HDD possibly fixed disk 0 or 1 and a smaller older drive ( possibly fixed disk
1 or 2 ) with the 533 partition you don't want ???
Your 1st HDD is partitioned into your XP Pro primary partition
and a 2nd partition used as a data drive\partition ( extended partition and logical drive D probably, XP on C ???).

So that 533 partition is possibly on drive E or F. Do you know how big it is ( fdisk would let you know the full size of the physical disk ( 2nd HDD )) not just the size of that partition.
EISA ( Configuration ) is JUST an arbitrary label used to name
that 2nd drive 533 partition i.e. an arbitrary volume name used
by someone in the past. They could have used any label.
Not sure but I think the volume label is created at the end of the MSDOS format routine.

EISA was an old expansion bus standard for PCs
i.e. Extended Industry Standard Architecture, an improvement
over the 16 bit AT ISA bus ( the PC AT came along in the early 80s after the single and dual floppy 8\16 bit IBM PC and then the IBM PC XT which was the first IBM PC with a hard drive ( very large drives with very low capacities of probably no more than around 20MB initially, yes I said 20Meg bytes which
would hold very few of todays files ).

First IBM PCs used Intel 8088 ( 8 bits external and 16 bits internal ) CPUs and I think the 8086 was also used then and for the IBM PC XT hence the beginning of the 8086 Intel
x86 architecture ( the P4 CPU even though very much more advanced now (32 bits internal and 64 bits external ) is still based on the old 8088\8086 x86 architecture ) then came
16 bit 80186, 80286 ( the IBM PC AT ), 80386, 80486
, and then the Pentium line of CPUs we are familiar with today
all related\linked via a common x86 beginning.

My point is that EISA came into being in the 80286 era
( PC AT ) and was still around when the Intel 80486 CPU came on the scene in 1989. Your old 2nd hard drive probably dates from late 80s to early 90s being still under 1GB possibly
( maybe 1st used with Windows 3.1 or even Windows 95 ).
My guess is that someone used the volume label back when that drive was a part of an older system which used the old EISA bus ( possibly an old 80486 system ) and your hard drive controller was a ISA or EISA controller card in that bus which typically only supported one IDE channel or max of 2 devices
usually a primary master hard drive and a slave CDROM on the same channel.

EISA started to disappear as the newer PCI bus took over.
I have seen old 486 systems with PCI and EISA bus slots hence maybe they were trying to categorise their EISA HDDs
( just guessing ). Anyway the label is an arbitrary thing mostly used to keep track of a system where you have a lot of partitions etc.. So it don't matter that much.

Back then a 533MB drive was designated normal
( CHS, cylinders, heads, sectors\track mode used for low level format etc ) and large modes SO would quite likely have been formatted FAT16 AND I don't think XP Pro recognises
FAT16 partitions anymore ( now legacy and XP is termed native). Someone in the past left that old drive there to be used as a data drive with an older legacy version of Windows.

You didn't even know it was there and the lightning has brought it into your life and field of view ( THUNDERSTRUCK !!!
from one of our BEST rock outfits in the 70s ACDC check out our new band JET from Melbourne THEY ROCK !!!! ).

There you have it ! You dug up a HDD relic from the past
and it was buried in your systems' backyard
( someone call Scotland Yard !).

XP Pro CAN'T SEE FAT16 partitions ( I am guessing and hoping ) therefore it won't assign a drive letter, you can't format the drive without the system recognising it.
The lightning could even have damaged it and who knows what condition it is in !!!!

If it is still working and you still want to use it FDISK is your
stone age key to unlock your relic !!! Someone you know must have an old Win 95, 98 or even Millennium start diskette
or floppy or maybe a bootable start CD for same.
Boot your start floppy ( start your engines ) . You don't need
CDROM support if you just want it for a data drive.

When you get into MSDOS you are in A: drive. You may need a Win 98 start disk to see any FAT32 partitions you are using on your large 1st drive.

type fdisk /status enter

Check the size of your 2nd fixed disk drive
( drive 0 or 1 ?). If it's 533 that's your target drive.
type fdisk enter
you can enter option 4 to see partition info but you may get
no info as you are pointing at the 1st fixed drive.
So use the change fixed disk by entering the appropriate option. Once you see the fixed disk drive number of the drive you know is 2nd old drive then use option 4 to check partition info. This may confirm my suspicion the drive is an old FAT16 formatted drive which XP Pro can't see so Disk Manager
can do NOTHING with that old partition\drive.

The 2nd drive may even NOT be partitioned or formatted at all. It could be lightning TOAST and nothing will work.

In fact you might be better off taking it out and either dicing it
and gaining some peace of mind or using it as a paper weight.
It might be totally useless by now ( lightning bait ).

In fact if you can't enable large drive support for that old drive
then you can't format it FAT32 and XP Pro will NEVER be able to see it or work with it !

You definitely have a mummified relic from the ancient EISA
PC past. You may only be able to format that old drive FAT16 in which case it's no longer of any use to you.
I could be wrong. If fdisk lets you enable large drive support then just create a primary partition the full size of the drive
. Then you have to exit fdisk and boot once more to set the partition changes in.

Then you try to format driveletter: enter which may format that drive FAT32 . Make sure you have the right fixed disk in fdisk by using /status first and the option 4 to display partition info. So just make sure you aren't working wuth your new drive.

I guess it's kind of like dredgeing up the Titanic which has been down there a while like Ballard and his team did !!! ;O)

To be honest I think you have a relic worthy of the dumpster.
Take it out and go with your new drive. That old drive could cause you more pain if you leave it in ( recommend you
amputate !).

Sorry about my rambleing. I am so tired my brain has gone to another place and I am losing clarity I think. Need a break.

Yeah, now I think about it, get that old time bomb out of your good machine before it goes off !!!
Just do it carefully. You don't need an old drive like that and I don't think you can use it anymore.

Let me know how you got on.

cheers

Web Gecko

?8O)}

[Web Gecko]

Was just checking my mail etc.. and had a few extra incidental thoughts ( maybe I should stop that, thought I mean can be dangerous ).

It is actually worth knowing how to use the fdisk partitioning tool and compared to some disk managers ( especially some of those crazy Linux tools) it is very easy to use once you basically understand how partitioning works. I can show you how to use fdisk so you get the job done and don't endanger your hard drive data ( basically be carefull and go one step at a time, easy does it ).

Many people go for Powerquest Partition Magic because it's such a flexible and smooth application. Fdisk is a text menu display DOS based partition tool BUT it has been used on IBM style and compatible PCs since there were hard drives for IBM PCs ( PC XT ) i.e. the industry stock standard tool for setting up a hard drive. Just out of interest the 32 bit CPU era came in with the Intel 80386 CPU around 86 I think ( when we hit around 16MHZ CPU speed and they started to add onboard cache because the CPU was too fast for the system memory and wasted too many NOOP cycles waiting for the memory to cough the requested data ).

I still maintain an interest in all the old CPUs right back to the
inception of the microprocessor ( 4 bit Intel 4004, 4040
8 bit 8008, 8080, 8085, 8086\88 etc etc ). I started my training back in 1980 on the Intel 8080 and 8085 micros
and still find them fascinating. I have a friend that likes to call everything before the P3, TECHASH ( becomes obsolete even before it is ASH !!! ).

Rockwell and others ( Texas Instruments i.e. TMS CPUs )
also made 4 bit CPUs and on up through 8 bits, 16 bits etc etc.
The other major players were AMD who licensed a lot of Intels early CPU designs and is now a major competitor with it's own very competitive CPU products. Motorola also figured with it's
8 bit 6800 and 16 bit 68000 CPU in the Apple Lisa, Mac and then the power PC CPUs. Apples use of the 6502 made it famous and started it's run in 8 bit computing ( MOSTEK 6502 I think ) and onwards.

Then there was and still is ZILOGs 8 bit Z80 ( successor to Intels 8 bit 8085 )16 bit Z8000 etc. Now ZILOG produce more specialised embedded processors for various data comms and other apps.

The old Z80 and Z8000 CPU architectures still survive in various forms and more modern CPU products ( tech absorption ).
Microprocessors have always fascinated me ( but yes there is more to life ). BUT some of the old 4, 8, 16 and 32 bit CPU tech is still used in microchip controllers today ( The Intel 8085 CPU is still being made under licence by an asian group I think )
in domestic, industrial and other apps.

Anyway, I am familiar with the old ISA and EISA expansion busses and the old controller cards used for various functions
( have many old ISA\EISA mobos here and enough controllers and HDDs to build up old "TECHASH" systems as my friend in MA terms them. If your 2nd HDD is not larger than 533MB then it's likely it comes from around the end of the EISA era.
Early ATX mobos have one or more EISA slots but mostly PCI which has taken over from EISA.

EISA did survive into the 90s on some 486 systems and possibly some pentium 1 systems. Considering the pentium 1 1st came out in 93 my guess is your old drive dates to before 1993 when EISA bus slots were still being used.

Some people don't like fdisk because they say it is inflexible
( compared to partition magic it is !). BUT it is actually very easy to use and if you are carefull it is hard to get into
trouble with it. If you want to try it I can give you step wise instructions. I just get fdisk up on my screen and I know exactly what you need to do there ( I would post those to the mech for you).

I like a good technical challenge. You kept some stuff to yourself which makes sussing problems even more interesting.
Can't beat a good puzzle\brain twister.

Put it this way if fdisk can't set up the partitions on that old drive NOTHING can ( the drive could be dead and just spitting
burn out data to the BIOS from a bad IDE card interface on the drive ). In which case again your system hasn't a hope of working succesfully with that. I think XP Pro won't work with the old FAT16 file system either ( interesting if someone out there could confirm that) and you may not be able to format it FAT32 in which case you are most likely stuck.

Interesting problem. Now I'll stop gas bagging and let you get back to things.

cheers

Web Gecko

?8o)}

[escapee]

Got the problem fixed!! The way I did it was to boot on the XP disk, select the "E" drive volume and delete it. That put both the "E" drive partition and the "EISA Configuration" partition together as unassigned space in one partition. I then quit the XP installation and formatted that partition using disk manger. I'm back to normal with both disks and the partition all formatted NTFS and working normally.

I ran a search on Google and found that if you make a mirror image on a disk using FAT 32 and then switch to an NT based system like XP it will put a EISA partition on the mirrored disk. I did that when I was using 98 SE and recently upgraded to XP. At least, that's the way I understood what I read. I do get confused about this stuff though. Obviously!!

I still have a problem however. I can't get Check Disk to rum on my "C" drive. That's the drive containing the system. Both the "E" and "F" drives will allow Check Disk to run. When I set Check Disk to run on "C" drive I get a 4 line message. The first line tells me Check Disk is starting, the second line tell me the format is NTFS, the third line tells me Cannot open volume for direct access and the filth line tells me Check Disk is finished. This is a flash screen and can't read in the time it's on the screen. I've seen it enough now to know what it says. I did post a question about this but haven't gotten a reply yet. http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.p...threadid=98485

I'l like to thank Web Gecko for spending so much time trying to solve my problem. To tell the truth I was not knowledgeable enough to follow his instructions.

I'd like to thank Idiot_Y for his suggestion that was very simple and worked perfectly.

Thanks again,

Hank

[Web Gecko]

Hey there escapee

Good to know idiot_Y had the answer for you.

Sorry about my constant rambleing in the previous posts
( was seriously overtired and obviously not focussed enough to get my message across ). I have worked in the IT game since
1982 on and off and find there is always a curve ball waiting
around every bend.

Do you know how much trouble there is packed into every cubic mm of any computer system on this planet or most high tech gizmos ??? I think the answer must be an infinite
number !

There is so much to know in this biz and it changes so fast that noone can possibly keep up 100%. I often find that non technical people ( users ) can teach me heaps about their systems as they have the time to play that I don't.
Nothing surprises me anymore about this hi tech scene
but occasionally it still confuses the hell outta me as well.

idiot_y obviously has a good sense of humour
( smart guy ). There are all sorts of tricks like that out there
which work BUT but that was one approach I don't think MS
would have intended. But what the hell IT WORKS !!!!.
Good for you idiot_Y . There is always something new to learn
and I enjoy the process.

I still don't have a good picture of your disk setup.
I know you fixed your problem but could you tell me how big your two HDDs are ? I think you said you have two partitions on your first drive ( C: and D: ??? XP is on C ).

You have one or two partitions on your 2nd hard drive ???
( you mentioned E: and F: ??? ). If you have an optical drive like CDROM, DVD ( & any burner ) or combo drive it is probably
drive G: ( assuming C, D on 1st HDD and E, F on 2nd HDD ).

I guess you are saying you were running that 2nd HDD as a
FAT32 mirror under 98SE before you upgraded to XP Pro ???
You mean as a RAID mirror drive ? or maybe some other kind of mirror ? What is the unformatted size of your 2nd drive ?
As I recall NT\NT4 may not work with FAT32 ( or was that
Win 2K ??? ) so yes an NT based system may have to convert a FAT32 partition to something else. EISA hard drive controllers
were around when NT came out in 96 ( and FAT32 came in
around the 2nd edition of Windows 95 ).

The info you found on google seemed related to a problem where you try to boot from the secondary mirror
( mirror hard drive on the secondary IDE port - which was a FAT32 partition but now converted to EISA format or config )
then of course an NT system needs a way to work with a FAT32 partition and to boot or start same partition it uses
a universal master boot record or MBR so the system can set the FAT32 partition up for EISA usage ( makes sense as for an NT system EISA controllers and hard drives were already in use
and FAT32 was new on the scene ).

Did you actually know about the second hard drive before your main drive got toasted i.e. you were running that 2nd drive as some kind of mirror before you got XP ?
What kind of system do you have ( CPU etc ) ?

Your check disk problem on C must be related to NTFS but I'm not sure why it's doing that. Pretty sure that NT\NT4
coudln't work with FAT32 so that may explain why a FAT32
mirror partition ( originally used with 98SE as you said )
had to be converted to a format that NT could work with.
NT first came out in 96 I think and the EISA bus system would still have been alive.

Was this the article you located via google about
EISA configuration ???

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;165181

You wrote above :

I ran a search on Google and found that if you make a mirror image on a disk using FAT 32 and then switch to an NT based system like XP it will put a EISA partition on the mirrored disk. I did that when I was using 98 SE and recently upgraded to XP. At least, that's the way I understood what I read. I do get confused about this stuff though. Obviously!!

end of escapee notes

If that's the article you found above about EISA config it does shed some light on the issue ( mainly about problems booting
from a secondary mirror drive under NT though ).

This is a great PC tech forum. Have learned a lot from the people here and occasionally I can return the favour.

Interested in your system specs ( CPU , memory, hard drives and sizes and other drives etc ).

Enjoy your XP system.

cheers

Web Gecko

?8O)}

p.s.s. You're right about simple approaches working best.
Computers in the past were way too cryptic to work
with. Things can still be like that these days but we
need to get away from that any way we can.

chou4now

[Web Gecko]

Hey again

NT wasn't released first in 1996 sorry.

The first version of NT was NT 3.1
and was released in August 1993
with approx 6 million lines of code
( now that's a LOT of trouble !!!).

1993 was pre FAT32 and
EISA config IDE drives and controllers were
still current technology.

I think that puts the lid on it !!!

Trivial I know since that bit of "critical" information didn't
really help you out ZIP !!!!!

Good old idiot_Y. Maybe he's one of those creative
lateral thinkers !!!

Naaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh

common sense and the will to take a shot wins out
most times !!!!!

another win for the people and the republic.

cheers

Web Gecko

?8O)}

[escapee]

Hi Web Gecko,

I'll try to answer some of your questions. I have an Intel 3 processor and 2 hard drives. The large hard drive is 60 gigs and the small drive is 10 gigs. I have partitioned the 60 gig drive into 50 gigs and 10 gigs. My system is on the 50 gig partition. I don't have a system on the 10 gig drive.

The 50 gig partition is labeled C. The 10 gig partition is labeled F. The small HD is labeled E. D drive is my burner/DVD.

The way I understood the reason for the EISA partition is anytime a disk is formatted FAT32 then used as a mirror image disk and then accessed with a disk formatted NTSF the EISA partition is created. EISA is not a format type, just a partition and that partition cannot be deleted or formatted. That last statement I'm fairly sure of. The link you gave is not the one I read and of course I have no idea what the link is that I got my information from. I read several and the one that made the most sense is the one I referred to. As I said, it's possible I missed the point too or misunderstood what I read.

You've got to know I'm not very knowledgeable about computers. Just know enough to get by with help from the people on this forum.

I did find the problem with Check Disk. I use Norton System Works 2004 and was having trouble with the Check Disk and Anti Virus part so decided to uninstall and reinstall the program. That fixed the Anti Virus part but I still couldn't use Check Disk with Norton or using Windows. Last night I went to the Symantec site and found an update for Norton Utilities. That fixed Check Disk and now it will check both with Norton and in Windows.

That reminds me, you wanted to know how I made a mirror image on E drive. I made that with Norton Ghost.

Hank

[Web Gecko]

Howdy escapee

Thanks for the info on your disk setup and system.
I have a better picture now and pretty much understand
what has gone on. That doesn’t mean I know everything
( the devil is in the fine detail ).

You are doing great from what I can see and aren’t the
only one that gets confused. Experienced IT people
can work with systems for years and still know only
a percentage of the software etc and never see
every curve ball that a given system can
produce ( basically because these machines
are very flexible ).

I said in a previous post that XP Pro can’t work
with FAT16. That was wrong.
Your floppy drive uses FAT 16
( 16 bit file allocation table entries
which serve as pointers to where all the
pieces ( clusters = allocation units )
of your files are on a drive.
A file consists of a number of clusters
of sectors.
sector = 512 bytes or characters usually or
multiples of this i.e. 1024 possible
binary info laid out in sequence along
a track ( also called cylinder ).
cluster – a group of sectors maybe 4 or 8 etc).

At one stage NT couldn’t work with FAT32
( only FAT16 or NTSF ) as NT 3.1 came in
in 1993 and FAT32 came in after 95.
Supposedly this was fixed after NT4
service pack 4 but NT/XP Pro obviously has
problems with some types of FAT32 drives
maybe mirror images as you have indicated
( I have used FAT32 partitions with XP Pro
no problem ).

The bottom line is that the EISA ( Configuration )
partition and volume label is created by the
XP Pro upgrade to flag that drive as being one
that it can’t work with right now as it
needs proper configuration ( which you
achieved with your dm and upgrade CD thing ).


Usage of the EISA volume label
( which is an arbitrary choice of label –
they could have used any volume label !!! )
i.e. it is just there to get your attention
that the drive needs configuration
and yes until that’s done XP Pro can’t
work with it.

That volume label is just
a hangover from the days of EISA when
you had that expansion bus ( early days of
NT 3.1 ) and an EISA 16 bit HDD controller card for
your IDE drives.
( these days we use PCI bus and drives on
UDMA ATA IDE ports and now SATA HDDs ).

from what you said :

Your drive layout is probably :

A: floppy

C: ( installed as master on primary IDE port ) 1st HDD
primary active partition 50GB for XP Pro

D: DVD\burner ( installed as slave on primary IDE port )
or it could be master or slave on secondary IDE port.

E: ( master or slave on secondary IDE port )
primary partition for 2nd HDD 10GB

F: Last 10GB of 1st HDD ( logical drive F: in extended
partition of 1st HDD ).

When I started out with Windows I was confused as to how
drive letters were assigned at bootup.
Now it doesn’t confuse me.

1st floppy always assigned A: ( 2nd floppy rare now would be B: )

The system looks at the primary IDE port first for a drive with
a bootable\active partition. This can be an extended partition and
logical drive not just primary partition ( a hard drive can contain
up to 4 primary partitions and many logical drives in the
extended partition of a drive ). Primary partitions are usually
assigned first so your primary on 1st HDD ( XP Pro ) which
is found 1st and is bootable gets C:.

On my system my CD burner is allocated after the partitions on my HDD ( ends up as F: because I have C, D and E on my HDD and I boot off C ). People used to put their CD drives on primary IDE port but this causes efficiency problems\conflict with boot HDD on same channel so best to install optical drive on opposite IDE channel to boot HDD.

Anyway, drive primary partitions get allocated a drive letter first
so your last 10GB of your new HDD ends up as F:
i.e. A: C: primary, D: burner, E: 2nd HDD 10GB primary and F: last 10GB of
1st HDD because it isn’t a primary partition but an extended partition logical drive.

Without any patience or persistence ( which you have )
none of us would hang in with these ornary machines
to make em do anything usefull.

You don’t have to be knowledgeable to work with this
stuff ( not rocket science and I ain’t no scientist ).
You just need some interest, staying power and good
old common sense which the escapee has plenty of.

Anyway, thanks for the opportunity to participate on this one.
As usual every new problem teaches me something usefull.

I have to load up one of my new systems with XP Pro
now.

Have fun with yours. Good to hear you sussed that check disk
problem ( again not rocket science just common sense ).

cheers

Web Gecko

?8O)}

[escapee]

Web Gecko,

Thanks for participating in my original post. I learned a heck of a lot from all your posts.

Hank

[glc]

You need to run chkdsk from a command prompt, not from the run box. Use the following syntax:

chkdsk c: /f

It will tell you the volume is locked, and ask you if you want it to run next time the system is restarted - answer Y and reboot.

[escapee]

Thanks glc, everything is cool now!

Hank

[Web Gecko]

Thanks escapee, I learnt a lot too
( too bad my brain went AWOL early on and
ran off at the lip !!!) ;O)

Initially I thought that 533MB thing was an old HDD
you didn't know was there
( talk about jumping to conclusions ( me that iz )).

Catch you on the mech sometime.

cheers

Web Gecko

?8O)}