Can't format using PartitionMagic

[smartscottiedog]

I have added a new 400 GB drive as a slave to my existing XP MC 2005
OS. I would like to make this second disk to store Ghost images of
the master disk (make it FAT32). First I can't even create a
partition on the new disk. The options in PartitionMagic are grayed
out. The PM complains with error...

The selected disk contains one or more partitions which cannot be
moved. To complete the task use the Operations menu rather than a
wizard.

I formated the disk to NTFS (via Disk Management in XP) to see if PM
will then recognize the disk. That didn't help. I also tried this by
booting off via PM CD and no luck there. PM reports that the new disk
is a dynamic disk. Do I have to something different because it is XP
MC? I used PM many times before starting with version 4.0. The
support at Symantec is really bad and can't get any search result that
I need to resolve this issue. TIA.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I have added a new 400 GB drive as a slave to my existing XP MC 2005
OS. I would like to make this second disk to store Ghost images of
the master disk (make it FAT32). First I can't even create a
partition on the new disk. The options in PartitionMagic are grayed
out. The PM complains with error...

The selected disk contains one or more partitions which cannot be
moved. To complete the task use the Operations menu rather than a
wizard.

I formated the disk to NTFS (via Disk Management in XP) to see if PM
will then recognize the disk. That didn't help. I also tried this by
booting off via PM CD and no luck there. PM reports that the new disk
is a dynamic disk. Do I have to something different because it is XP
MC? I used PM many times before starting with version 4.0. The
support at Symantec is really bad and can't get any search result that
I need to resolve this issue. TIA.

This sounds like a question for the PQMagic FAQs, especially
because under Windows everything works the way it should.

 

[News Reader]

Sounds like the disk may need to be fully erased. Find you windows CD and
boot from it, when you are given the disk menu, select the new disk and
remove the partitions on the new disk (not the system disk obviously) and
reboot. The the new disk wizard should come up.

 

[smartscottiedog]

Sounds like the disk may need to be fully erased. Find you windows CD and
boot from it, when you are given the disk menu, select the new disk and
remove the partitions on the new disk (not the system disk obviously) and
reboot. The the new disk wizard should come up.








- Show quoted text -

I'll try that. Do you know if Dynamic Disk is supported in XP MC?
According to MS KB 309044, it is supported in XP Professional. So the
KB indicates like XP Pro is the only OS in XP that supports it. But
in my OS, PM reports that the new disk is dynamic. I'm also going to
try converting this dynamic disk to basic disk to see if that helps.
As for Symantec FAQ, my search didn't return any result so it was
useless. Any other suggestions welcome.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I have added a new 400 GB drive as a slave to my existing XP MC 2005
OS. I would like to make this second disk to store Ghost images of
the master disk (make it FAT32). First I can't even create a
partition on the new disk. The options in PartitionMagic are grayed
out. The PM complains with error...

The selected disk contains one or more partitions which cannot be
moved. To complete the task use the Operations menu rather than a
wizard.

I formated the disk to NTFS (via Disk Management in XP) to see if PM
will then recognize the disk. That didn't help. I also tried this by
booting off via PM CD and no luck there. PM reports that the new disk
is a dynamic disk. Do I have to something different because it is XP
MC? I used PM many times before starting with version 4.0. The
support at Symantec is really bad and can't get any search result that
I need to resolve this issue. TIA.

Two points:

1. You are complicating the situation by using Partition magic, which
is completely unnecessary. Simply do this from Windows XP's Disk
management. Neither PM, nor any other third-party software, is needed
or recommended.

2. When you say "to store Ghost images of the master disk," I assume
that your plan is to use this for backup purposes. If so, I urge you
to reconsider that plan. I don't recommend this approach because it
leaves you susceptible to simultaneous loss of the original and backup
drive to many of the most common dangers, which include severe power
glitches, nearby lightning strikes, virus attacks, and even theft of
the computer.

My recommendation is to mount that drive in an external USB enclosure,
do your backups to it, and keep it connected to the computer *only*
when backing up to or restoring from it.

Read my thoughts on backup at
http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=314

 

[smartscottiedog]

Thank you Ken,
To your point 1, For my ghost files, I need FAT32 in second disk.
From XP DM, I don't have option to choose FAT32, I only have NTFS.
This is the reason I introduce PM to this mess. Now, If you know of a
way to do this from XP, I'll be glad to try since that will resolve my
main problem.

2. My main reason of trying to use Ghost is not necessary to back up,
but to have multiple copies of XPs in different service packs. I have
need to test in clean install of XP and at least with service pack 2.
So in my past, this was easily done via Ghost. I'll install XP
without any service pack, Ghost it, then install sp1, ghost it,
etc....

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Thank you Ken,
To your point 1, For my ghost files, I need FAT32 in second disk.

OK, that wasn't clear before.

Why does it need to be FAT32, by the way? I don't see anything in what
you say here that requires FAT32.

From XP DM, I don't have option to choose FAT32, I only have NTFS.

That's correct. Windows XP won't create a FAT32 partition larger than
32GB, but it will happily use one if created externally.

This is the reason I introduce PM to this mess. Now, If you know of a
way to do this from XP, I'll be glad to try since that will resolve my
main problem.

I still wouldn't use PM. Just boot from a recent DOS diskette with
FDISK and Format commands on it, and do it from that.

 

[smartscottiedog]

Ghost will boot off in DOS and in order to access the image file, the
partition needs to be in one of the FAT version. At least Ghost 2002
that I have is like that. Perhaps the newer version will read off
from NTFS. I don't know.

Ok, I can probably use FDISK. But I remember FDISK having some sort
of limitation on size it can create in FAT or FAT32. Regardless I
should give it a try. Thanks.

 

[Anna]

Thank you Ken,
To your point 1, For my ghost files, I need FAT32 in second disk.
From XP DM, I don't have option to choose FAT32, I only have NTFS.
This is the reason I introduce PM to this mess. Now, If you know of a
way to do this from XP, I'll be glad to try since that will resolve my
main problem.

2. My main reason of trying to use Ghost is not necessary to back up,
but to have multiple copies of XPs in different service packs. I have
need to test in clean install of XP and at least with service pack 2.
So in my past, this was easily done via Ghost. I'll install XP
without any service pack, Ghost it, then install sp1, ghost it,
etc....

smart...
First of all, it's impossible (at least for me) at this distance to
determine why your Partition Magic isn't performing the
partitioning/formatting operation you desire, so I'll let that pass...

If you do require that 400 GB HDD to be formatted FAT32 (and we'll get to
that in a moment), you could in theory use Ken Blake's suggestion to
accomplish that task via the DOS FDISK/FORMAT commands from a DOS boot disk.
But our past experience with FAT32-formatted HDDs > 120 GB has been quite
negative. We all too frequently in the past ran into data loss/data
corruption issues when those relatively large HDDs (back in the Win9x/Me
days) were formatted FAT32. So our advice to users was to create FAT32
partitions < 120 GB. I must admit, however, that in your particular case
involving the storage of disk images that (potential) problem might not
arise.

But it's not clear from your objective why you need a FAT32 partition to
store one or more Ghost disk images. And you are talking about disk images
and not disk clones, right? Are you certain you require FAT32-formatted
partitions for your purpose?
Anna

 

[smartscottiedog]

Hi, Anna,
I don't exactly remember whether Ghost requires FAT or FAT32. All I
know is that Ghost will try to read files located from source disk
when boot off by DOS. Ghost won't even see any NTFS partition for
sure, that I know. When people mention they "ghost" the partition,
they will create a .gho (or .ghs) files that "images" the source
partition. This file(s) will then live some place other than source
partition which during the image process, Ghost will ask you for the
target disk and file name. I think the key is that Ghost is start off
by DOS bootable CD and because of it is running under DOS (some third
party, not MS), it won't see the NTFS partition. So even you can
"image" a partition you have no place to put the resulting FAT or
FAT32 file. BTW, this can get pretty big. Ghost does offer
compression but not that good.

I had some good and bad stories to tell using FDISK. As you
mentioned, because of size limit, I'm little hegitate to use it. I
know I don't need entire 400 GB to store multiple ghost files. I may
partition that, too, to use in my OS as an extra space, perhaps in
NTFS. Since it is a new hard drive, I have no data to lose so I may
try FDISK. Thanks.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Ghost will boot off in DOS and in order to access the image file, the
partition needs to be in one of the FAT version. At least Ghost 2002
that I have is like that. Perhaps the newer version will read off
from NTFS. I don't know.

I don't either. I haven't used Ghost in many years (I prefer Acronis
TrueImage) and don't know much about it. However it seems odd to me
that it would have such a restriction.

Ok, I can probably use FDISK. But I remember FDISK having some sort
of limitation on size it can create in FAT or FAT32. Regardless I
should give it a try. Thanks.

You're welcome. Glad to help. Note that I said a recent version of
DOS, such as what comes with Windows Me. Older versions *will* have
restrictions.

 

[David Webb]

Wow, I don't know which version of Ghost you're using but I don't remember ever
having a problem reading a NTFS formatted drive with it, and I've used both the
original Ghost series and the versions drawn from PM's Drive Image 7.

Read this for some other details regarding FAT32 (one of which is it's
limitation of 4GB files):

Limitations of the FAT32 File System in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314463/EN-US/

If you're really stuck with the DOS startup requirement in Ghost, I'd recommend
looking into Acronis True Image 11 which does not have that limitation. You
could then format the new drive in NTFS.

 

[Terry R.]

The date and time was 5/7/2008 7:53 AM, and on a whim, smartscottiedog
pounded out on the keyboard:

I have added a new 400 GB drive as a slave to my existing XP MC 2005
OS. I would like to make this second disk to store Ghost images of
the master disk (make it FAT32). First I can't even create a
partition on the new disk. The options in PartitionMagic are grayed
out. The PM complains with error...

The selected disk contains one or more partitions which cannot be
moved. To complete the task use the Operations menu rather than a
wizard.

I formated the disk to NTFS (via Disk Management in XP) to see if PM
will then recognize the disk. That didn't help. I also tried this by
booting off via PM CD and no luck there. PM reports that the new disk
is a dynamic disk. Do I have to something different because it is XP
MC? I used PM many times before starting with version 4.0. The
support at Symantec is really bad and can't get any search result that
I need to resolve this issue. TIA.

What version of PM are you using? Asking because if you're using an old
version of Ghost, you may also be using a version of PM that doesn't
support 400 gig drives.

Did you try to boot into PM with a DOS disk? That's usually how I copy
my partitions (since it reboots out of Windows to perform the task
anyway), so I created a DOS partition with PM and other utilities on it
and use BootMagic to select the OS.

--
Terry R.

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[smartscottiedog]

I have used Ghost from Binary Research (before Symantec??) and that
version couldn't read NTFS image files. Now I'm using Ghost 2002 by
Symantec and this one, I didn't even attempt to read anything off
NTFS.

Regardless, I solved my problem. It was how XP will attach new drive
as "dynamic" disk as a default. I converted it to basic disk by right
clicking on the new drive and select "convert to basic" from Disk
Management. Then PM was happy to see the new drive. So I didn't have
to mess with FDISK at all. Easy fix but took a long route to get
there.

ps. I'm using PM 8.0 and this one will handle 400 GB drive ok. I did
divided this one up half and half for one FAT32 and one NTFS and PM
did just fine.

Thanks everyone.

 

[smartscottiedog]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309044

will show how to convert from dynamic to basic and vise versa, fyi