I Screwed up Windows XP install

[Doug]

Hi All,

OK, I screwed up. On a friends HP Pavilion ze4430us Laptop I was attempting
to do a clean install of Windows XP. The disks that came with the computer
were labeled a bit strange, but essentially there was an Operating System
Disk, and a set of 5 CD's all called Windows XP recovery disks.

I tried the Windows XP disk first and seemed to work fine, but there were
lots of drivers needed to get rid of hardware issues. I thought, what the
heck, I'll run the recovery disks in hopes that it would install the correct
drivers and all the hardware would be recognized. Well, the computer just
shut down several times and trying to run the disk set was a total failure.
So at that point I had nothing. Therefore, I decided to run the Windows XP
(SP1) disk again and that worked fine. I went to the HP site and downloaded
all the drivers I needed to get everything all up and running. So all
seemed well at that point. Not!

I went ahead and downloaded all the critical updates, 59 of them. Then I
downloaded SP2 and installed it. Then another 34 critical updates. Then
all the other software that I needed to put on, including anti-virus
software and few other apps. After I set up everything to get connected to
the Internet, plus Outlook Express settings, I got the bright idea to check
My Computer and see how much disk space was now available. OMG! I couldn't
believe my eyes. On a 40GB HD, it showed about 5GB being used, another 5GB
available, and almost 30GB unallocated!

I tried to merge the C partition to include the unallocated space using
Diskpart.exe, but it wouldn't let me. I guess because it won't merge a
partition with the boot sector on it. Something like that.

So, I have to get the rest of this HD usable, and this friend does not want
an additional partition. Therefore I have to find a way to either merge the
unallocated space or start all over from scratch. I REALLY don't want to
start all over. It took me forever to get everything on this computer and
it's working good. With the exception of this little problem that is. Oh
yeah, I had to call Microsoft to activate Windows too. Sheesh. I could
just kick myself, what was I thinking. I should have checked that sooner.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone had any great ideas that I could try.
Maybe a trial version of a disk utility that would merge the unallocated
portion of the drive, or some other idea. I guess it would almost be worth
it to buy Partition Magic, although I don't know how much use I would get
out of it after fixing this. I believe PM can do this.

I get the sinking feeling I'll be doing this install all over again. If I
do, how do I get Windows XP to format the entire drive including the
unallocated portion if only one partition exists?

Thanks for reading this bloated explanation! Any help will be greatly
appreciated. Thanks!

~ Doug

 

[Daave]

Hi All,

OK, I screwed up. On a friends HP Pavilion ze4430us Laptop I was
attempting to do a clean install of Windows XP. The disks that came
with the computer were labeled a bit strange, but essentially there
was an Operating System Disk, and a set of 5 CD's all called Windows
XP recovery disks.

I tried the Windows XP disk first and seemed to work fine, but there
were lots of drivers needed to get rid of hardware issues. I
thought, what the heck, I'll run the recovery disks in hopes that it
would install the correct drivers and all the hardware would be
recognized. Well, the computer just shut down several times and
trying to run the disk set was a total failure. So at that point I
had nothing. Therefore, I decided to run the Windows XP (SP1) disk
again and that worked fine. I went to the HP site and downloaded all
the drivers I needed to get everything all up and running. So all
seemed well at that point. Not!

I went ahead and downloaded all the critical updates, 59 of them.
Then I downloaded SP2 and installed it. Then another 34 critical
updates. Then all the other software that I needed to put on,
including anti-virus software and few other apps. After I set up
everything to get connected to the Internet, plus Outlook Express
settings, I got the bright idea to check My Computer and see how much
disk space was now available. OMG! I couldn't believe my eyes. On
a 40GB HD, it showed about 5GB being used, another 5GB available, and
almost 30GB unallocated!

I tried to merge the C partition to include the unallocated space
using Diskpart.exe, but it wouldn't let me. I guess because it won't
merge a partition with the boot sector on it. Something like that.

So, I have to get the rest of this HD usable, and this friend does
not want an additional partition. Therefore I have to find a way to
either merge the unallocated space or start all over from scratch. I
REALLY don't want to start all over. It took me forever to get
everything on this computer and it's working good. With the
exception of this little problem that is. Oh yeah, I had to call
Microsoft to activate Windows too. Sheesh. I could just kick
myself, what was I thinking. I should have checked that sooner.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone had any great ideas that I could
try. Maybe a trial version of a disk utility that would merge the
unallocated portion of the drive, or some other idea. I guess it
would almost be worth it to buy Partition Magic, although I don't
know how much use I would get out of it after fixing this. I believe
PM can do this.

I get the sinking feeling I'll be doing this install all over again.
If I do, how do I get Windows XP to format the entire drive including
the unallocated portion if only one partition exists?

Thanks for reading this bloated explanation! Any help will be greatly
appreciated. Thanks!

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

Notice Step #10.

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Hi All,

OK, I screwed up. On a friends HP Pavilion ze4430us Laptop I was
attempting to do a clean install of Windows XP. The disks that came with
the computer were labeled a bit strange, but essentially there was an
Operating System Disk, and a set of 5 CD's all called Windows XP recovery
disks.

I tried the Windows XP disk first and seemed to work fine, but there were
lots of drivers needed to get rid of hardware issues. I thought, what the
heck, I'll run the recovery disks in hopes that it would install the
correct drivers and all the hardware would be recognized. Well, the
computer just shut down several times and trying to run the disk set was a
total failure. So at that point I had nothing. Therefore, I decided to
run the Windows XP (SP1) disk again and that worked fine. I went to the
HP site and downloaded all the drivers I needed to get everything all up
and running. So all seemed well at that point. Not!

I went ahead and downloaded all the critical updates, 59 of them. Then I
downloaded SP2 and installed it. Then another 34 critical updates. Then
all the other software that I needed to put on, including anti-virus
software and few other apps. After I set up everything to get connected
to the Internet, plus Outlook Express settings, I got the bright idea to
check My Computer and see how much disk space was now available. OMG! I
couldn't believe my eyes. On a 40GB HD, it showed about 5GB being used,
another 5GB available, and almost 30GB unallocated!

I tried to merge the C partition to include the unallocated space using
Diskpart.exe, but it wouldn't let me. I guess because it won't merge a
partition with the boot sector on it. Something like that.

So, I have to get the rest of this HD usable, and this friend does not
want an additional partition. Therefore I have to find a way to either
merge the unallocated space or start all over from scratch. I REALLY
don't want to start all over. It took me forever to get everything on
this computer and it's working good. With the exception of this little
problem that is. Oh yeah, I had to call Microsoft to activate Windows
too. Sheesh. I could just kick myself, what was I thinking. I should
have checked that sooner.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone had any great ideas that I could try.
Maybe a trial version of a disk utility that would merge the unallocated
portion of the drive, or some other idea. I guess it would almost be
worth it to buy Partition Magic, although I don't know how much use I
would get out of it after fixing this. I believe PM can do this.

I get the sinking feeling I'll be doing this install all over again. If I
do, how do I get Windows XP to format the entire drive including the
unallocated portion if only one partition exists?

Thanks for reading this bloated explanation! Any help will be greatly
appreciated. Thanks!

~ Doug

If you reinstall, boot from the SP1 CD. Pay close attention when you are
specifying where it installs to. You will be able to delete the existing
partition, create one new large one, and format it. XP has no tools to
otherwise alter the system partiton size; you can only delete and create at
the beginning of setup.

When done, go directly to the SP2 install. Do not bother with any updates
before that. This will save you significant time.

HTH
-pk

 

[Doug]

Hmm.. SP2 doesn't seem to be an option until after I get the first 60
critical updates. Using the express or custom install, it's just not in the
list to download. This is what happened to me last time too. After I got
the first 59 critical updates and installed them, SP2 showed up when I went
back to Windows Updates.

 

[Guest]

I've used BootitNG sucessfully for that situation, available here, as a trial:

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.html

Download | install | READ, Read, read | make floppy | boot from floppy |
Cancel when it asks if you want to install (from floppy) | click Partition
Work | Resize

[Work done using the trial software Will Not be undone when the trial period
ends.]

After resize and reboot, Windows will want to run Chkdsk. Let it. Done.

-hth-

Hi All,

OK, I screwed up. On a friends HP Pavilion ze4430us Laptop I was attempting
to do a clean install of Windows XP.

 

[RMD]

Hi All,

OK, I screwed up. On a friends HP Pavilion ze4430us Laptop I was attempting
to do a clean install of Windows XP. The disks that came with the computer
were labeled a bit strange, but essentially there was an Operating System
Disk, and a set of 5 CD's all called Windows XP recovery disks.

I tried the Windows XP disk first and seemed to work fine, but there were
lots of drivers needed to get rid of hardware issues. I thought, what the
heck, I'll run the recovery disks in hopes that it would install the correct
drivers and all the hardware would be recognized. Well, the computer just
shut down several times and trying to run the disk set was a total failure.
So at that point I had nothing. Therefore, I decided to run the Windows XP
(SP1) disk again and that worked fine. I went to the HP site and downloaded
all the drivers I needed to get everything all up and running. So all
seemed well at that point. Not!

I went ahead and downloaded all the critical updates, 59 of them. Then I
downloaded SP2 and installed it. Then another 34 critical updates. Then
all the other software that I needed to put on, including anti-virus
software and few other apps. After I set up everything to get connected to
the Internet, plus Outlook Express settings, I got the bright idea to check
My Computer and see how much disk space was now available. OMG! I couldn't
believe my eyes. On a 40GB HD, it showed about 5GB being used, another 5GB
available, and almost 30GB unallocated!

I tried to merge the C partition to include the unallocated space using
Diskpart.exe, but it wouldn't let me. I guess because it won't merge a
partition with the boot sector on it. Something like that.

So, I have to get the rest of this HD usable, and this friend does not want
an additional partition. Therefore I have to find a way to either merge the
unallocated space or start all over from scratch. I REALLY don't want to
start all over. It took me forever to get everything on this computer and
it's working good. With the exception of this little problem that is. Oh
yeah, I had to call Microsoft to activate Windows too. Sheesh. I could
just kick myself, what was I thinking. I should have checked that sooner.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone had any great ideas that I could try.
Maybe a trial version of a disk utility that would merge the unallocated
portion of the drive, or some other idea. I guess it would almost be worth
it to buy Partition Magic, although I don't know how much use I would get
out of it after fixing this. I believe PM can do this.

I get the sinking feeling I'll be doing this install all over again. If I
do, how do I get Windows XP to format the entire drive including the
unallocated portion if only one partition exists?

Thanks for reading this bloated explanation! Any help will be greatly
appreciated. Thanks!

~ Doug

Download the trail version of Acronis TI. Create its boot CD.

Using the TI boot CD image your installation to an external drive.

Then using the tools on the TI CD sort out your hard drive, as in
reformat etc.

Then image back again onto the hard drive.

Finally, buy TI and don't worry about re-installing again.

Ross

 

[Doug]

Thanks to everyone for your help and suggestions. I ended up just starting
over and reinstalling everything. This time I paid very close attention to
how Windows was going to utilize the HD. And of course I checked it as soon
as Windows was installed to make sure it was correct. Live and learn I
guess.

Everything went as it should and the laptop works great at this point. I
guess if I did this stuff for a living I'd be way ahead by buying Partition
Magic or some of the other software suggested. But I just though since I
was the bonehead that screwed this up I should just sit down and make it
right. "Get'r done" so to speak.

Thanks again!

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Hmm.. SP2 doesn't seem to be an option until after I get the first 60
critical updates. Using the express or custom install, it's just not in
the list to download. This is what happened to me last time too. After I
got the first 59 critical updates and installed them, SP2 showed up when I
went back to Windows Updates.

Get the whole SP2 as a separate (266 meg!) download, save it to CD for later
use, and install it from the local dowload. You will probably find that
this is a faster and more reliable method of installation, and it won't
require you to get any previous updates.

Get the full SP2 file here:
http://tinyurl.com/ywejft

which will take you to:
https://www.microsoft.com/downloads...be-3b8e-4f30-8245-9e368d3cdb5a&displaylang=en

HTH
-pk