Partitions no longer recognized

  • Thread starter Thread starter Alredhel
  • Start date Start date
A

Alredhel

Hi there,

I just installed an OEM version of Windows XP SP3 (I think) on the second
partition of my first hard drive. I've been using Win2k for the last several
years.

Now, everything seemed to be a-ok, except that now the machine no longer
seems to recognize the partitions on my second and third hard drive. They
are all NTFS partitions, by the way. The BIOS sees the disks, but neither
good ol' 2K nor XP see any partitions?

Any ideas, anyone? Does it have anything to do with "dynamic disks"?

Help?

-R
 
XP wont install on a dynamic disk.As for recognization,in xp open cmd,in
cmd type:DiskPart In DiskPart,type:list disk Type:list volume Type:HELP
for all cmds.DiskPart is also available in recovery console,however the disk/
volumes show auto..
 
Alredhel said:
Hi there,

I just installed an OEM version of Windows XP SP3 (I think) on the second
partition of my first hard drive. I've been using Win2k for the last several
years.

Now, everything seemed to be a-ok, except that now the machine no longer
seems to recognize the partitions on my second and third hard drive. They
are all NTFS partitions, by the way. The BIOS sees the disks, but neither
good ol' 2K nor XP see any partitions?

Any ideas, anyone? Does it have anything to do with "dynamic disks"?

Help?

-R
Click to expand...

If they were setup as dynamic disks..then yes
you have a real problem.

If they were not setup as dynamic disks...
look in disk management . What does it report?
 
If they were setup as dynamic disks..then yes
you have a real problem.

If they were not setup as dynamic disks...
look in disk management . What does it report?
Click to expand...

Hi there

The disks never were setup as dynamic disks, disk management shows them
as standard disks. No partitions or volumes are assigned to them however.

Trying to "convert" them to dynamic disks doesn't seem to do much if anything.

I would rather not start messing around with PartitionMagic or stuff like
that, though
I do have programs like that. Of course they were installed Win2k...

Just to top it off, now my Win2k installation won't even start because it
cannot find
\winnt\system32\config or something similar. Ah, they joys of dual booting
different Windows installations.

-Al
 
Andrew E. said:
XP wont install on a dynamic disk.As for recognization,in xp open cmd,in
cmd type:DiskPart In DiskPart,type:list disk Type:list volume Type:HELP
for all cmds.DiskPart is also available in recovery console,however the disk/
volumes show auto..
Click to expand...

list disk shows this:

Disk 0 connected (translated, not sure what it is in English) 279 GB 0 b
free
disk 1 connected 298 GB 298 GB free
disk 2 connected 466 GB 466 GB free

List Volume shows

Volume 0 F DVD-ROM 0 B
Volume 1 C System FAT32 Partition 20GB OK System
Volume 2 D Games NTFS Partition 130GB OK Startup
Volume 3 E Programs NTFS Partition 130GB OK

None of the disks are listed as dynamic, and they never were as far as I can
remember. Windows just doesn't seem to recognize any partitions/volumes on
my two second disks.

Hmm, come to think of it, perhaps it has something to do with my motherboard
drivers. I seem to remember installing some kind of "special", optional IDE
driver. I will have to check that out. I'll let you know how it goes.

-R
 
Alredhel said:
Hi there

The disks never were setup as dynamic disks, disk management shows them
as standard disks. No partitions or volumes are assigned to them however.

Trying to "convert" them to dynamic disks doesn't seem to do much if anything.

I would rather not start messing around with PartitionMagic or stuff like
that, though
I do have programs like that. Of course they were installed Win2k...

Just to top it off, now my Win2k installation won't even start because it
cannot find
\winnt\system32\config or something similar. Ah, they joys of dual booting
different Windows installations.

-Al
Click to expand...


Aargh

Do not even think of converting them to dynamic disks
you will loose all your data for sure.

If they show up as NTFS but no drive letter,
simply assign the drives letters and you should be OK

if they show up as blank...then you have a real problem on your hands
 
Aargh
Do not even think of converting them to dynamic disks
you will loose all your data for sure.

If they show up as NTFS but no drive letter,
simply assign the drives letters and you should be OK

if they show up as blank...then you have a real problem on your hands
Click to expand...

Too late to not think of converting them to dynamic disks, I'm afraid, hehe.

Yes, they show up as blank. Nothing is "assigned" to them. No
primary/extended/whatever partitions and no volumes.

Oh well, I guess I'll just have to get my hands down and dirty by using some
of my
data recovery utilities. I'm not really worried - yet. I know the data is
still
on the disks. Sigh. I was hoping there was some easy solution though.
Some obscure setting in the registry or something.

-Al
 
Alredhel said:
Too late to not think of converting them to dynamic disks, I'm afraid, hehe.

Yes, they show up as blank. Nothing is "assigned" to them. No
primary/extended/whatever partitions and no volumes.

Oh well, I guess I'll just have to get my hands down and dirty by using some
of my
data recovery utilities. I'm not really worried - yet. I know the data is
still
on the disks. Sigh. I was hoping there was some easy solution though.
Some obscure setting in the registry or something.
Click to expand...

Well if they were never setup as dynamic disks, they
should have been recognized as NTFS.

Before you go too far, did you have any third party utility installed
such as Go Back (or perhaps even a drive overlay)

If you had been using GoBack,
the partition will be identified as a "Go Back" partition
and XP will not know how to handle it.

There are fairly easy solutions if that was the case
 
Back
Top