I have 2HDDs ( Disk 0 & Disk 1) in a P IV 1,7, Intel 845GLLY machine.
The 1st HDD has Win XP Pro SP2 on C & 4 partitions D E F G
Tha 2nd HDD had Win 98 SE on H & 5 partitions I J K L M.
As I did not need Win 98 , I formatted this partition H using Partition Magic 8.0.
I found that drive 'I' missing from My comp but visible in Partition magic.
I tried to merge 'I' with H & the files went missing. They appeared to be some where in ROOT which I could not access.
I recovered them by using Magic Recovery & backed them up.
Now I am stuck with the 2nd HDD as H: 6 GB with 0 bytes ( Active Primary), Unassigned 9GB which I am not able to access, I missing, J K L M with about 5 GB each (Logical).
All drives are listed as Healthy in Disk Management window.
I need advice as to

How I can recover the unassigned volume of this HDD - Disk 1
How can I make the entire 2nd HDD as Logical deives ( 4 in number)?
How to format this HDD fully without taking it out?.
In Disk 0 drives 'D' & 'G' are listed as 'page file' What does it signify?
I have backed all data on this Disk on CDs. Should I do the same for Disk0 also?
I would be grateful for advice.
DNaga

Hi dnaga57, welcome to SAF

I will suggest you to wait for more skilled members advices, because any wrong manoever here may wipe out all your data.

In the meantime, you may take a look at this topic:
http://www.suggestafix.com/index.php?act=S...y,and,partition

Chris

Hi dnaga57, welcome to SAF

If you've already saved the important files and have Partition Magic 8.0, you can delete all partitions and then go through the process of creating the configuration you want - this should work. If you still have problems, you could "zero" the drive and then configure it. If you haven't run diagnostics on this drive, I'd recommend the zeroing process that will check each addressable location - this process will take several hours for a drive your size.

Thanks for your inputs. However the following is not clear to me:-
Do I check only drive H:?
Can I leave Disk 0 ( 1st HDD )as it is & deal with disk 1 2nd HDD )only?
How do I recover the unassigned portion of disk 1?
How I make drive H a logical drive from primary' label?
Do I have to reformat both disks & reinstall systems?
What does 'page file' label mean?
Would be grateful for your advice- meanwhile holding any other action.
DNaga57

dnaga57,

Partition C is now your ONLY OS Win XP - Correct ??

Win 98 SE [partition H] is "gone" - Correct ??

If you are satisfied with what's on partitions D, E, F & G then leave them alone !!

Disk 1 may need to be repartitioned and formatted, BUT since I have never owned/used a "third party" partitioning tool, I'm not sure what all your options are.

Wait for further advice on what to do with Disk 1.

Perhaps it would be easier to answer your concerns if you could describe what you want to end up with. In my opinion, you have too many small partitions. A modern Windows OS like XP with a reasonable set of applications such as a complete MS Office will round out at 7 - 8 gigabytes and then you need a reasonable amount of space for other stuff.

When you make a plan for what you want, you need to take into account things like:
1. OS size,
2. Apps size,
3. Swap space,
4. Data Storage space,
5. File System,
6. Users & Security,
7. Etc.

With the changes that you've already made to the 2nd drive, I'd recommend reconfiguring the whole thing and you can certainly do this without affecting Drive 1 unless you have a multi-boot arrangement.

Thank you again
The drives I have are :
1st HDD ( called Disk 0) Dr C with Win XP, D ( pagefile) Softwares, E ( Downloads) G (pagefile) Backup. I think 'pagefile means some software is loaded in that drive ( e.g Office, Antivirus etc. as I get green bands in Disk Defrag windows on these drives & not in others)
2nd HDD ( called Disk 1 in Disk Management window) H 0bytes as Win 98 removed, unasigned - no label, J: Chitra with family files,
K: Downloads, L; Softwares , M: backup

I want to end up with
Disk 0 : C WXP, D: SW, E: Downloads
Disk 1: F: Sanchita personal, G: Santosh personal H: Chitra personal, I: Backup.
Would be grateful how to go about it.
P.S. Should I uninstall Office, Antivirus etc & reinstall to get out of the 'pagefile' restriction.
DNaga57

Still Waiting

Still waiting for help- advice.

Pagefile is a Windows file, not directly controlled by Office or the anti-virus. The pagefile (also known as the swapfile) can be changed by right-clicking My Computer, select Properties, click the Advanced tab, then the Settings button under Performance, the Advanced tab in there, and finally the Change button under Virtual Memory. Here you can move it to any location you wish. By default, it's normally in C: with the operating system. The location you choose will depend on the amount of drive space available in the partition. Normally XP likes to create a file of around 1152 mb.

Once the swapfile has been relocated, hopefully to a partition you don't want to make changes to, then Partition Magic should have no problem resetting all your other partitions the way you want them. To achieve your desired configuration, this will involve a lot of merging and moving of files, which will take a long time, but it should run OK. Take the time to work out a series of changes in an order that will accomplish your goals, then enter them in Partition Magic. If it's too complex, do a few steps at a time. When making changes to the partition containing the operating system, PM will reboot the system and perform the changes from DOS.

I've had excellent results with Partition Magic, and it's never 'messed up' a drive yet, but make sure you understand how to use it. Although it's a large program when installed into windows, it's interface makes it rather simple to use. I'm from the old school, and prefer to use the two boot discs and do it all from DOS.

Good luck!

Thank you, that takes care of 1st HDD - disk 0 as it is listed in disk management.
Can you also help me on my query on 2nd HDD - disk 1 - about aloocating unassigned space, reformatting & resizing! How about the missing deive [I] & its content in [root]
Thank you
DNaga57

QUOTE

I want to end up with: Disk 0 : C WXP, D: SW, E: Downloads Disk 1: F: Sanchita personal, G: Santosh personal H: Chitra personal, I: Backup.

What partition program do you use...??

How much free space do you have on each of the 2 drives.?

I used Partion Magic 8.0. for merging E & F. Also to format H
I have lot of space in both disks ( I presume you meant this when you asked of drives) Tha ctual figures are:
1ST HDD DISK 0:
C: NTFS 24.41 cap 19.34 free
D: FAT32 7.31 cap 5.75 free PAGEFILE
F: FAT32 3.65 CAP 2.19 FREE ( OLD E & F MERGED)
G: FAT32 2.76 CAP 2.33 FREE PAGEFILE
2ND HDD DISK 1
H: FAT32 3.75 CAP 3.75 FREE PRIMARY
I: MISSING
J: FAT32 5,67 CAP 5.54 FREE LOGICAL
K: FAT32 5.67 CAP 4,93 FREE
L: FAT32 5.67 CAP 3.61 FREE
M: FAT32 7.13 CAP 6.21 FREE
In 2nd HDD about 9.5 GB is unassigned but does not show up on My computer.
Hope this will be useful to give me further advice
DNaga57

For Jim holly:
Thanks. I have been able to get the pagefile label off from D & G drives.
However a couple of issues as follows:
1. I opted for system select for swap files in Drive C. It selects only 379 mb & not 1152 as mentioned by you. Is this a problem? should I select 1152 as minimum ?
When I tied min 300 & max 1200 it chose 300mb only.
2. The 381 mb in drive D got released after defrag of D. However Drive G even after defrag shows 381mb as pagefile/sys in red saying it cannot defrag this file. Any suggestions?
DNaga57

I'm assuming you don't have any pagefile settings in System Properties assigned to G:. If so, delete those settings. With the 300 minimum - 1200 maximum setting, the pagefile will grow larger or shrink as the system needs it. In reality, 600-800 megs should be all you need. It would be better to set it at a fixed Min. and Max. of the same value, which will reduce fragmentation.

Does PM show any space at all for the missing I: drive on disc 1? Perhaps it's only missing because the I drive letter hasn't been assigned, just like on disc 0 you no longer show a drive E:. Drive letters can be changed in PM or in Windows Disc Management, but bear in mind this will make any shortcuts or registry references to programs and files on the drives invalid. These can be repaired with programs like Magic Mover (I believe this is part of PM) or COA2.

For Moon
I have given the details in an earlier post about spaces free in diff drives.
Awaiting your advice
DNaga57

Dear helping friends
I have been waiting quite a time... i dont think the problem is beyond you but possibly not getting a lookin
Hoping still
DNaga57

I got Partion Info from Partition Masgic for Disk 2 & drive H. I give it below.
Also it shows an error
Error #109: Partition ends after end of disk.
ucEndCylinder (4869) must be less than 4111.
Error #109: Partition ends after end of disk.
ucEndCylinder (4869) must be less than 4111.
Can some one advise on this as to how to recover error

================================================================================
===========================
Partition Information for Disk 2: 32,247.7 Megabytes
Volume PartType Status Size MB PartSect # StartSect TotalSects
================================================================================
===========================
H:MAIN FAT32 Pri,Boot 3,843.6 0 0 63 7,871,787
Unallocated Pri 9,609.2 None -- 7,871,850 19,679,625
ExtendedX Pri 24,748.6 0 1 27,551,475 50,685,075
EPBR Log 5,812.6 None -- 27,551,475 11,904,165
J:CHITRA FAT32 Log 5,812.5 27,551,475 0 27,551,538 11,904,102
EPBR Log 5,812.6 27,551,475 1 39,455,640 11,904,165
K:DOWNLOADS FAT32 Log 5,812.5 39,455,640 0 39,455,703 11,904,102
EPBR Log 5,812.6 39,455,640 1 51,359,805 11,904,165
L:BACKUP FAT32 Log 5,812.5 51,359,805 0 51,359,868 11,904,102
EPBR Log 7,310.8 51,359,805 1 63,263,970 14,972,580
M:SOFTWARES FAT32 Log 7,310.8 63,263,970 0 63,264,033 14,972,517


oot Record for drive H: (Drive: 2, Starting sector: 63, Type: FAT32)
================================================================================
===========================
1. Jump: EB 58 90
2. OEM Name: MSWIN4.1
3. Bytes per Sector: 512
4. Sectors per Cluster: 8
5. Reserved Sectors: 32
6. Number of FAT's: 2
7. Reserved: 0x0000
8. Reserved: 0x0000
9. Media Descriptor: 0xF8
10. Sectors per FAT: 0
11. Sectors per Track: 63 (0x3F)
12. Number of Heads: 255 (0xFF)
13. Hidden Sectors: 63 (0x3F)
14. Big Total Sectors: 7871787 (0x781D2B)
15. Big Sectors per FAT: 7676
16. Extended Flags: 0x0000
17. FS Version: 0
18. First Cluster of Root: 1896 (0x768)
19. FS Info Sector: 1
20. Backup Boot Sector: 6
21. Reserved: 000000000000000000000000
22. Drive ID: 0x80
23. Reserved for NT: 0x00
24. Extended Boot Sig: 0x29
25. Serial Number: 0xCC8A6BB9
26. Volume Name: MAIN
27. File System Type: FAT32
28. Boot Signature: 0xAA55
)
============================