Partitioning issue

E

Eddie Haskell

New Member
Last week my hard drive failed and I replaced it with a new WD 160GB HD and now I want to partition it so I can use the whole HD since it only sees 127 gig available. I have 2 HD's installed, the new one (C: drive), and a 40GB, the 40GB is partitioned with a small allocation for system restore (D: drive and E: drive (SR), this was the original C: drive). The problem I'm having is that when I run Partition Magic I get an "error 100, partition table is bad", I assume my motherboard can't recognize 4 drives. My MOBO is an oldie but a goodie, Gigabyte 7ZX with an AMD 1.2 Thunderbird (top of the line when it was new).
My question I guess is; what would be the best way to go about re-partitioning everything so I can utilize all the space and still have an allocation set aside for system restore, or do I not have to have that set aside seperately on it's own "drive"? Thanks for you help
 
Cromewell

Cromewell

Administrator
Staff member
system restore files go into the windows area so you don't need a partition for them. if you are going to make a drive image it is better to have the images on their own partition (or drive). One thing with system restore is a lot of virus'...virii?....whatever....embed themselves in the restore files
 
E

Eddie Haskell

New Member
OK so I can delete the "E" drive without any issues, good! I would like to know how to find out why I get this "Error 100" and if that will fix it.
Here's what the manual says;
"Resolving Partition Table Errors
Partition table errors are errors in the 100 - 199 range. In most cases, you must resolve partition table errors by creating new, error-free partition tables. The general steps are: (1) ensure you have no viruses (I've done that!), (2) back up the data on the affected partitions, (3) delete the partitions, (4) recreate them, and (5) restore their contents. You may need to use the FDISK program from a recent DOS version, as earlier versions may refuse to delete HPFS or hidden partitions, and the OS/2 FDISK program may recognize the partition’s corruption and refuse to modify it.
This is something where I'm not real sure what they mean. I would like to know if I just have too many drives for the hardware/software to handle or what my actual problem is. I am running XP Home by the way. what do you think this error is telling me to do? Like I said I have 2 hard drives and the one that is 160 GB is too big to be recognized as 160GB, it shows up as 127ish. I guess what I'm asking is what is the best solution to make my computer see my large HD as it really is, even if it appears as two different drives.
 
Yeti

Yeti

VIP Member
The reason its only seeing 127 GB is, I'm assuming, that you are running an old version of WinXp. If you update to SP1 or SP2 it will resolve that issue so you can have a single 160 GB partition (to do this you'll have to reformat the entire drive) or else you'll have a separate 30 GB partition. You don't have too many drives - if the motherboard has so many connections it can support so many drives.

Edit:
I guess I failed to consider that you do have a SP in which case go to drive manager and you should see the 30 GB part of the drive as an unpartitioned space. You can either set this as a partition or as I said before you can have a 160 GB partition - oh yeah, to do that you'll have to slipstream your copy of windows with the service pack.
Drive manager: right click my computer -> manage -> disk management
 
Last edited:
E

Eddie Haskell

New Member
Windows is all up to date. I got it figured out but not quite the way I wanted to. I went back into partition magic and clicked on the un-allocated space and told it to make it a partition and it did that, however I wanted to split the HD in half so I had 2 80's but when I tried to "redistribute free space between the 2 drives it gave me the error again so screw it! I have the usable space and that was the important part.
I plan on building a different computer here soon, I will cross that bridge when I get to it. Now I have to fill all this space up with something. Thanks for the help people.
 
B

Bobo

banned
Cromewell said:
One thing with system restore is a lot of virus'...virii?....whatever....embed themselves in the restore files
Click to expand...

Is there any way to delete the restore partition? Mine won't let me
 
Cromewell

Cromewell

Administrator
Staff member
Bobo said:
Is there any way to delete the restore partition? Mine won't let me
Click to expand...
it shouldnt be on its own partition by default, just disable system restore under system properties and it will delete all your restore files
 
B

Bobo

banned
Cromewell said:
it shouldnt be on its own partition by default, just disable system restore under system properties and it will delete all your restore files
Click to expand...

Mine was, and it let me move it
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top