WinME installs OK, but disk I/O error on reboot. Partition issue?

I am reinstalling ME on a new 80GB HD.

I partitioned the drive using the same tool as I did on the previous 20GB HD:
Ranish Partition Manager running from a Windows 98 boot diskette.

I allocated to Windows
- the 1st 15GB PRIMARY partition for the system (which should become C: ),
- the 1st 15GB LOGICAL partition for data files (which should become D: ),
...the rest going to other operating systems.

The WinME installer finds and formats the primary partition as C: as it should
without reporting any problems.

However

- on reboot, I get an immediate "disk I/O error" and boot stops there

- if I reboot with the WinME boot diskette, DOS can read/write the C: drive and see the copied installation files, BUT the D: drive is invisible

- the DOS fdisk sees the primary, but does not see the logical inside the extended.

Uh????


Here are several things that I think have no bearing on this - please correct me:

- NO multi-booting issues:
I let the WinME installer install its own bootloader, and as a result, WinME does start the booting process from the HD. Moreover, I can't count how many times I did "fdisk /mbr" prior to attempting an install just to wipe the master boot record clean!

- NO strange formatting by Linux:
The C: drive was first recognized and formatted booting from a Win98 boot diskette, then recognized and formatted AGAIN by the WinME installer running from CD.

- There should be NO issue with the partitioning tool itself:
I used it for years to partition HD's for Win98 and WinME, and the installer does recognize and use the primary. All my WIndows PCs have drives partitioned with it.

- I'd also rule out a hardware problem:
If I boot Linux from a CD, OR if If I reboot with the WinME boot diskette, both can see the C: drive and the copied installation files. If that wasn't enough, if I boot from the Windows install CD, THE WinME INSTALLER TELLS ME THAT IT DOES SEE AN ALREADY INSTALLED SYSTEM. I also made several Linux installs with all sorts of single-booting or multi-booting, with no failures at all. The MBR of this HD is definitely in great shape!

- Not a BIOS issue either:
The BIOS correctly recognizes the large HD, and lets me boot from any place on it, from the 1st primary (at the beginning of the disk) to the very last one, which for testing I once put at 70+GB from the beginning of the disk. Besides, I installed Linux several times and all works fine...

- I home I am not doing anything blatantly wrong in the reinstall... I reinstalled Windows perhaps 10 times on machines with up to 3 other operating systems and up to 12 partitions, and never had similar problems...



The only things I know to be different are partition sizes.

1) I never had partitions over say 7GB in the past. Hovever, I remember reading that FAT32 is OK up to 20GB or so.

2) Moreover, the partition I'd want to become D: is the first logical partition in a large extended one, which runs from the 15GB point to the 45GB one (counting from the beginning of the drive).



Are a 15GB primary or a 30GB extended partition known problems for WinME?

Can you think of anything I left out so far?

Would Win2K (& NTFS) fare any better?


Thank you in anticipation!

Filippo


.

 

How is this all set up? From your description of things I take it the Linux partition is the first partition on the hard drive followed by an extended partition that contains a primary for ME and a logical partition behind that. If so, that might be the problem. I remember reading in my Partition Magic manual years ago that Win9X needed a partition that starts within the first 8GBs of the disk in order for it to boot. My guess is that ME is probably the same.

If things are set up as I described I think you need to make the first partition on the disk a primary FAT32 partition (15GBS in size) followed by an extended partition 15GBs in size and then create just a logical partition within the extended partition (using the entire 15GB) and leave the remainder for the Linux os. Actually, it shouldn't matter what location the Linux partition or the extended partition are in but I think that the partition that ME boots from needs to be at the beginning of the drive. You don't want to put it in an extended partition in this case.

It's been a long time since I read about the first 8GB thing so I could be wrong and I don't really have time right now to check it out but I thought I'd throw this out there to get your response as to how the partitions are set up and perhaps in the mean time someone else will read this that knows about it and comment on it. Also, just so you know, 15GB Fat32 partitions should be no problem at all for ME.

 

Just to confirm that - I've run WinME on a 40GB FAT32 partition, double that if need be.

Regards - Charles

 

Thank you Charles and Zander, the problem is definitely not WinME's !


Zander:

> I take it the Linux partition is the first partition on the hard drive followed by an extended partition that contains a primary for ME and a logical partition behind that <

Not only not my case, it also isn't possible. I reserved the 1st primary for WinME, and that's the 1st primary slot, i.e. from the start of the drive. An extended partition uses one primary slot. A primary CANNOT be inside an extended. Only logical partitions can.


> Win9X needed a partition that starts within the first 8GBs of the disk "<

Not my case but possible. AFAIK this is a BIOS limitation, but I am not sure. Putting Win9X at the beginning of the disk is the standard procedure.


> I think you need to make the first partition on the disk a primary FAT32 partition (15GBS in size) <

Agreed, that's what I have. Win in general can only boot from a primary partition.


> followed by an extended partition 15GBs in size and then create just a logical partition within the extended partition (using the entire 15GB) <

The point of an extended partition is to have more than one logical in it, because the architecture allows for only 4 primaries. If not, one might as well use a primary instead of a logical wrapped in a primary.


I wonder what the h3(( happened! I also have a very good Linux install + a ton of data already on this disk, and I am loth to move them all to another machine to make room for a native WinME install!

Oh, well, at least I'll be forced to learn how to backup systems onto another PC...

Thank you again!

 

Well, I guess I misunderstood somehow. I took it you somehow created a primary partition in an extended partition. Reading over your post again I'm not sure where I got that idea because I don't see it there now.

Still, it's not real clear to me just how things are set up.

The reason I said create one logical partition in the extended partition is because of what you said here.

This, to me, implies that you have one primary partition of 15GB and one logical partition of 15GB and the remainder of the drive (50GBs) was left for the Linux OS. However, the first quote above implies that the extended partition is larger than 15GBs and you must have left some unallocated that has yet to be partitioned and formatted. Otherwise you wouldn't be you wouldn't be pointing out the fact that the point of the extended partition is to allow for more than one additional partition. Maybe I'm confusing you now. Anyway, it probably doesn't matter but it's not really clear to me just how the partitions and unallocated space (if any) is set up.