Can't create new primary partition... Only logical drives. Using fdisk or disk mngmt

[Eric]

Thanks Carey,

I had already tried to partition using the XP CD, with no success. I
tried it one more time just to make sure I wasn't doing anything wrong,
but I still end-up with logical drives instead of primary partitions!!!
I went back to disk managment to see that my new operating system is on
a logical drive. I now had the option of deleting the other logical
drive, but not of reformating it as a primary partition, only as a
logical drive...

Any other ideas? I really don't get it...

Bye the way, I made myself a new boot floppy using XP (the other one I
have was made with Win98) to try partitionning with it, but when I
start-up using it, it doesn't recognize "FDISK" as a valid command.

Thanks for your time, if you have more suggestions...

Eric

PS Thanks for your very well structured reply!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

']Apparently, you are attempting to reformat your drive
the old fashioned way. Read the following for an easy
procedu

The Windows XP CD is bootable and contains all the tools necessary
to partition and format your drive. Follow this procedure and allow
Windows XP to partition and format your drive:

...


2. Insert your Windows XP CD in the CD Drive and reboot your
computer.

3. You'll see a message to boot to the CD....follow the
instructions.

4. The setup menu will appear and you should elect to delete all the
existing
Windows partitions, then create a new partition, then format the
primary
partition (preferably NTFS) and proceed to install Windows XP.

5. Clean Install Windows XP
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html]

 

[Enkidu]

Thanks Carey,

I had already tried to partition using the XP CD, with no success. I
tried it one more time just to make sure I wasn't doing anything wrong,
but I still end-up with logical drives instead of primary partitions!!!
I went back to disk managment to see that my new operating system is on
a logical drive. I now had the option of deleting the other logical
drive, but not of reformating it as a primary partition, only as a
logical drive...

Any other ideas? I really don't get it...

Bye the way, I made myself a new boot floppy using XP (the other one I
have was made with Win98) to try partitionning with it, but when I
start-up using it, it doesn't recognize "FDISK" as a valid command.

You can't make a boot floppy using XP. What did you actually
do? You can make floppies to boot from if you can't boot
from CD. You can also make a floppy to boot from if the MBR
is damage but which will use your hard drive to load the
system from.

It sounds to me like you somehow created an extended
partition which uses all your drive. Then you can only
create logical partions because there is no space for
primary partitions.

Cheers,

Cliff