Paritioned hard drives on Win98

hi there

i have 2 hard drives....120Gb and 40gb. 120gb is split into 3 using partition magic. My 40gb hard drive is faster so i decided to swap them to boot off that rather than one of the partitions on the 120gb.
i changed the cables inside installed windows on the 40gb but the pc now can't see the 2nd and 3rd partition on the 120gb....it only reads the first partition which is approx 55gb.

Other than that the pc is working perfectly. i reinstalled partition magic but it wont start..it keeps saying "read error:init failed ". i have 5000plus mp3s and countless other things on the "invisible" partitions and dont want to lose any info.

Any thoughts anyone?....
many thanks
David

 

darich,

On the 40GB, try uninstalling PM again, & clean the registry of it's entries, delete any leftover files on the hard drive in Program Files, then re-install it. Hopefully it will install better next time.

Once accomplished, Partition Magic should see all of the partitions, on both drives, whether Windows does or not.

You can go into PM & check to see if these partitions are listed as hidden. If so, unhide the ones you want to be able to access using PM so that Windows can see them. In Partition Magic 8.0 , right click on a partition you want to unhide on drive 2 (120GB), & go to Advanced. On the pop-out there will be several options, one of which is unhide partition. Click. Then say OK, then I think you will have to go down to the button that says Apply over on the left, & click that to actually get it to do the operation. My sequence may not be exact, but you will find it all. You've used PM before, so you know it asks several questions.

Not sure how you do it in PM 7.0.

If there are no OS primary's on the 120gb, unhide any that are listed as hidden.
-----------
Since you are running Win 98, any primary's you have on drive 2 (120GB) with an OS installed on them, should be designated as hidden. If not, then hide it\them. If an OS primary is there, & already hidden, it should remain hidden, but you can unhide all of the logicals.

If you have an OS installed on the 120GB, & want to keep it, you need a boot manager installed on drive 1 (40GB). Do you have Boot Magic? It should have came on your Partition Magic disk. If you don't have Boot Magic, here is a freebie that I have seen recommended.

Ranish Partition Manager: http://www.ranish.com/part/

Hope this helps.

Please post back with results, good or bad.

 

Partition problems

Deloris
thanks for the help.
I managed to get Partition Magic to run although I don't know what I did to fix my problem before!
Partition Magic 8.0 cannot see anything beyond the 55gb part of the 120gb disk. It did however seem to say that there were 2No 33gb partitions unallocated. I thought I had it sussed!!
But when I allocated a letter to the first 33gb and rebooted the 55gb has become 31.4gb..almost as if the 33gb that was allocated has disappeared too. So my drive is now smaller than before and I still cannot get to the parts I want to!!
I'm fairly sure nothing has been deleted becuase I've not done anything I'm not 100% sure about and now that I cant get to the hidden parts, I think all my files are simply sitting and not being accessed.
I'm not a pc dummy but this one has me stuck!
I can't unhide any partitions becausde PM8.0 doesn't see them and I cant allocate any letters because PM8.0 can't see them.
I'm really struggling here!!....
any more suggestions?
thanks
David

 

Just a question/possibility.

Did you run any Disk checking/setup software that may have come with the HD before doing anything else.

I ran into problems with a 40gig HD until I wiped it completely and ran the HD checking/setup software first.

Another question. Does the BIOS see the full 120gig ?

BillyBob

 

What mystifies me is that from the way you describe this, they both were recognized just fine while the 120GB was the master & the 40GB was the slave & this only happened after you swapped them. I have swapped mine around a couple of times & this never happened, so I honestly can't relate to the problem that well.

If I am understanding you correctly, PM is seeing the other two partitions on the 120GB as unalocated space. Just labeling them will not allocate the space. The way I understand it, the unalocated space has to be given to an existing partition, or you have to create a partition out of the unalocated space.

It is really wierd that the 55GB dropped to 30 or so after you tried to fix it.

I know I'm not being of much help here, and this is really a puzzle.

I think I would try going into the BIOS & see if the BIOS is set properly. If that don't give any clues, I'd try swapping them back to the original hardware configuration & see what happens.

 

Partition problems

Hi

All hardware on my machine is the same as it was before swapping the drives over. My pc could see the full 120gb when i first bought it. It registered as approx 111gb (due to the loss in size when 1024x1024 is greater than 1000x1000).In answer to billybob's question/suggestion, I didn't run any checking software but I didnt when I first installed it. Do you think i should?..do you know of any i should try?

I have tried going back to my original setup but with no luck. I've also tried swapping the masters and slaves around but still no luck.

I'll try it again over this weekend and post here the outcome...hopefully good!

thanks
David

 

David,

Thank you for posting back.

I must admit, I am at a loss on this one. I know I would be pulling my hair out right about now.

I surely hope you get it fixed.

Please let us know what happens, & how you fixed it. Positive thoughts here.

 

I didn't run any checking software but I didnt when I first installed it. Do you think i should?..do you know of any i should try?

There was a floppy disk that cam with my WD 40gig. It checks the disk and marks any possible bad spots and then the partitons can be set up with it.

Is there or is there not a limit somewhere in some OS that limits partitions to 32gig. ( guessing on that one ).

Sugestion from experience.

Once you have HDS set up and working don't move them. Not all systems will except the changes.

A thought. When you changed them did you deactivate the primary partiton on the slave ?

BillyBob

 

thanks for the tips.

Billybob, i didnt deactivate the primary partition on the HD with the OS on it. first couple of times after swapping the drives, my machine was booting from the slave because it was the only drive with an operating system on it.

as for the 32gb limit..you're right about that but i've sorted that by setting the jumpers correctly. i had partitions greater than 32gb before the swap.

I'm gonna pay a visit to the local pc shop next week and ask their advice. I'll post back here what they suggest and if it works.

cheers
Dave

 

Hi guys

looks like i solved my problem....and i caused it myself by being stupid!! I had the jumpers set wrongly!..they had clipped the drive to 32gb!!. I adjusted the jumpers and Partition magic could then see the remaining 82gb approx that was unallocated. I allocated a letter and everything seems ok now

bad news is all my mp3s and aother stuff is gone

good job i have broadband....I'll be doing a lot of downloading to get that stuff back!.

many thanks for all your help and apoplogies for being such a dummy!!

thanks
David

 

Well, that IS something you will remember!!

You answered one question I had: whether win98/SE would be able to use a 120GB hdd or not, without unusable space (above 60 something GB).

I have 3 60 GB drives and am thinking of updating to 120s or so.

 

hi there
Win98 sees almost the full 120GB drive...according to Partition magic 8.0 there is approx 7.8mb unallocated and which cannot be allocated to anything....no loss really when you have 120gb!!!

the reason all my files were lost i think was because the drive was clipped to 32gb adn i then put one partition on it thinking that it would enable me to see the whole thing...what it actually meant that i had clipped it and partitioned it so the drive was wiped completely.

thankfully a spare 30gb i had lying around had about 95% of my mp3 and a couple of cds i burned a couple of months back had about 75% of everything else.

but you;re right!!...I wont do it again thats for sure!!!!

 

Wonderful darich. I am so glad you didn't lose all your stuff after all. Something like that is always good news.

 

Hi all,
Reading through this post doesn't quite solve my hic-up that I am having.
Running Windows 98SE
I just installed a older Maxtor 6.4Gig HD as my No.2 drive. It had previously been Partitioned into 2 equal drives that show up on my PC as F & G which is ok as I have my No1 HD partitioned in C- D- and E. I have Formatted both F&G; fdisked the drive and formatted again Partition Magic will not delete the Partition or Merge the 2 it hangs every time half way and then I have to format in DOS again when I format both drives they both work ok but I just want it as 1 Drive F.
My last attempt was fdisk again to delete the partition, but I must be doing something wrong as I endet up with
Disk2
F. 3,129.8 MB Fat 32
Unallocated 3,035.7 MB
Extendet 6,165.6 MB
Would someone please explain this dummy on how he will get one drive F with 6 Gig
thanks
hawk22

 

Have you tried switching the jumpers. Making the old drive the main drive temporarily. Booting it into DOS with the floppy, then not just fdisking, but actually deleting the partitions in DOS? After deleting them, switch the jumpers back.