Bulletproof--
Bulletproof's Way Out of Bulletproof's Mess--Let's get this over and get you
onto enjoying your computer.
***Prologue***
Two Point of this prologue: 1) When someone has an XP CD that is retail as
you say you do, they don't need a recovery partition for anything. 2)
Second point--if the H drive or partition you have is large enough to
install Windows XP install it then do so and follow my instructions below to
use diskmgmt.msc in run and with Diskmanagement since you will be on the H
drive in Windows XP you can then right click C:\ and easily format C:\ then
reinstall XP on a clean C:\ and when you set it up make 4 drives and then if
you want to reinstall Vista on one of them, go for it.
There is also another outside chance. I truly don't know what the shape of
that thing you have on C is--the mixed Vista XP. But I do know that Vista
has Win RE in it and I've used it a few times. Win RE has access to a
repair of Vista that could get you an intact Vista ordinarily used in Vista.
But you don't have only Vista on that C:\ drive so all bets are off and Win
RE may not work with Vista hybridized with XP shoved onto the same drive.
I'd bet against it, but trying Win RE to fix Vista on C:\ and installing XP
on H:\ could get you both operating systems working. The problem though is
H:\ may not have enough room for you to run XP and all your programs, and
I'll bet that the space distribution is most all of the real estate is on
C:\ (of course you haven't said) and a H is a small drive that OEM made to
park their so-called Recovery partition.
Why in the world do you need that recovery partition on H? if H were a big
enough drive to be able to use for an XP install at least 2-3GB you can
install XP to H long enough to then format that Vista Drive on C:\ from the
XP you install on the H drive by typing diskmgmt.msc into the run box of the
XP you install on H and formatting the Vista drive after backing up the
Windows.old that you want to save on the C:\ drive which currently houses
Vista. You may also be able to show the partition that's hiding the
material the way I showed you in a prior post, and then when you install XP
to H save it there by creating a partition for it although it's very
probably not worth saving.
You have an XP CD. You have the ultimate Light Sabre that windows XP
provides for recovery anyway. You can do a repair install if you ever need
to--which is the most reliable tool for recovery for XP when F8 options fail
as they do many times. So who cares about what is usually a worthless
recovery partition from OEM. You have the XP CD from MSFT or so you said.
And just for the road, while I'm mentioning "recovery" from Windows XP, the
way MSFT recommends it be done, and most people is outlined in these links:
Resources for troubleshooting startup problems in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308041/en-us
Perform a Repair Installation
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/tips/doug92.mspx
How to perform an in-place upgrade (reinstallation) of Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=315341
I'm not suggesting at all right now that you can perform a repair install
using the XP CD on this XP/Vista OS you have created by installing them in
the same place. Those references were for the future and to make the point
Mr. Bulletproof that you are a whole lot more bulletproof in fixing XP in
the future with that XP CD in hand then you are with a crap recovery
partition from your OEM which in about 1000 cases you would be luck to see
work in 5 of them.
1) I never told you to try to format a drive while you are on it using
diskmgmt.msc in the run box. I explicity typed that you won't be able to as
have a number of other people. It would help for you to read the posts.
2) I have seen people have success with trying <Shift>+<F10> to open a "DOS"
window and ran the Format command from there,, but in those instances, *they
were doing that from a different drive than the target for formatting.*
3) I must say that when you beta test an operating system, have one HD, and
another OS already parked on it,you run into a situation that is unlike
trying other software and other betas and you must realize that by now. You
can beta tests say, Office 2007, or a ton of software, and if you have the
space, no problem--you can put it *on XP or on another operating system--you
can put it on Vista.
But the problem you ran into is that you wanted to test ***another
Operating System*** had not divided your drive yourself apparently, and H
was a partition that your OEM used for some recovery material. Of course
they and MSFT didn't tell you these partitions are the end result of MSFT
and the OEMS screwing you badly because they don't want to arrive at a price
point that they can give you what you really need--an XP CD and in the
future a Vista DVD to insure you can do a repair install in XP and reach
Win RE in Vista.
4) I would strongly urge you to buy a 3rd party partition maker that is
fault tolerant like Partition Magic, but often in the early stages of Beta
Operating systems in early builds people can have problems with it although
many of us find it works well in extending space or making a partition to
put say a test OS like Vista on. It worked fine for me to fix a dual boot
up on one box, and many other people.
Or as Colin Barnhorst pointed out, additionally another standard
alternatives would be to pick up a 2nd hard drive--you can do this
inexpensively often at a "swap meet" or computer parts show. Many of the
stores have sales and rebates now on external hard drives that will allow
you to make partitions for testing things like Vista.
5) Other people in your situation would have backed up their XP in some
fashion--many would have already used an imaging backup like Ghost or
Acronis, but some would have backed up to media either using backup software
or just selecting what they needed to backup (since you don't have another
HD with a CD writer or a DVD writer )and then formated the XP and used that
XP format to create new partitions to park Vista on. That would again, not
have impacted that H partition that OEM put that questionable value
"recovery material" on.
You could have installed Vista to H and as Colin said earlier on in this
thread, you would not have harmed the recovery partition and as I pointed
out after trying about 1000 of those OEM recovery partitions and recovery
CDs in XP--it's a worthless piece of crap anyway.
6) You have yet another alternative theoretically but I'll bet H drive is
too small for this to be a reality, You have not said how large the H
partition is. My guess is that it is 3-4GB or even much smaller. But I
don't know You drop information piece meal little by little. If H were say
2-3GB, you could install XP on it. You could format that recovery material
for all it's worth--believe me. Then you would have XP on H and from there
you could format Vista easily by typing diskmgmt.msc into run box,right
clicking the C:\drive and formatting off Vista.
This assumes you would backup Windows.old that you mentioned you have on
your C:\Drive with Vista because you indicated you want that material.
That "OEM" recovery partition on H and its probable value: Recovery
partitions and recovery discs from OEM don't work anyway the vast majority
of the time--in the very high 90 percentile-- if you try 1000 of the--and
again you have an XP CD--you don't need that recovery partition for a thing.
If you remember the story of Superman and Kryptonite, I guarantee you you
can make a room of live MSFTies quiet who know the operating systems well by
waving some Kryptonite and pointing out that they damn well know the
screwing they are inflicting upon you with the OEMs preinstalled OS, and
they damn well know that the guy who runs OEM for MSFT Scott di Valerio is
not a trained computer science engineer --he's an accountant who doesn't
give a damn whether you can do a repair install with the crap Recovery CD or
partition that the OEMs stick you with. Believe me the last thing a group
of engineers who are MSDN presenters or Technet presenters, or national
heads of Technet, or work on the Vista team want to talk about is the
crappy situation for MSFT's 500 OEM preinstalled customers in XP or in Vista
in the coming 24 months with lack of the one piece of media that can insure
they can repair the OS--I can promise you I know that this scenario is true.
You can test it at the next event where you see them.
It's 100% reproducible 100% of the time.
If you challenge anyone from MSFT on the Vista team to try to take a roomful
of computers and recover either Vista or XP with half of the computers using
retail MSFT media and the other half using the crap that they allow OEMs to
ship you, you'll be met with straight up silence. They damn well know two
things. They work on Vista maybe even Win RE or System Restore or file
systems that support VSS or other parts of these features. They, their
friends and their families have ready access to a Vista DVD anytime any
place. The public will have to buy one to reach their product Win RE in
Vista or to do a repair install in XP. They know they don't have the guts
to insist that their product reaches the public and they know it won't.
They probably don't know Scott di Valeriano's name or will ever see or hear
of him,but most of all they won't give a flying frigging format and they
won't say a word when confronted with this on a forum where they hang or in
person.
He'd like you to buy the preinstalled OS--the one that Eric Rudder bragged
MSFT makes $140 on in 1996 when he solicited investment money from Warren
Buffett in the recently leaked memo from litigation in Minnesota, and then
go into a store or go to the MSFT web site and buy another retail Windows XP
or soon Vista.
Or you could buy at a reduced rate the surplus legal OEM actual retail CDs
or soon DVDs without the book and package that will circulate at computer
swap meets at least in my country the US--and these are to be distinguished
from the crap recovery CDs socalled that OEM vendors will stick you with
because you don't have the kahonas to say I'm not buying your multihundred
or multithousand dollar hardware until you buy me a genuine MSFT retail
media CD XP or in the future Vista DVD.
7) We now have about serveral repeat admonitions (nearly 10 of them) to use
the XP CD to format and reintsall on that suggestion which for some reason
you have said in your OP you can't do--that you get the same "newer version"
that people sometimes run into with an .mshtml.dll update with IE where
versions get confused and they already have a newer version incorporated
into the XP SP2 they have on the box--and I don't know why but one thing I
do know is we're going to get several more suggestions on this thread to
format with the XP CD. I understand people get tired in threads much
longer than 3 posts of reading prior posts. So they just look at the topic
and post what comes to mind.
I do not know why in the world you couldn't format that C:\ drive with the
XP CD as we have all said. It is one thing to install a hotfix ocassionally
where the service pack has a newer version than the hotfix of a .dll, and
that shouldn't happen but it comes up particularly when people are using a
specific hotfix/update out of chronological sequence to target a specific
problem. But the XP CD shouldn't be deterred by Vista on the drive on a
reinstall.
At any rate, at the top of this post, I've offered you a workable
alternative. If you can get XP installed onto that H"\drive, from there you
can format C:\ and you're out of this mess and can start fresh with some of
the suggestions we've given you.
Good luck,
CH
