Converted C: (MAIN) from FAT32 to NTFS. Now won't boot - Why?

[Richard]

I had two bootable partitions C: (MAIN) and C: (WIN98) on disk 1.
All my data was on D: and higher. I was busy converting D: and above,
from FAT32, to NTFS. I had no problems, I did a few, but not all
of the partitions. Then I chose to do the same with C: (MAIN) on
disk, but now I cannot boot up.

Okay, I had BootMagic installed and Grisoft Antivirus on my main bootable
partition (C: (MAIN)). That's got XP on it. The other bootable partion I had
WIN98SE on it (C: (WIN98)) which is still FAT32.

After the first turn-of, just after using Partition Magic to convert the
file system on C: (MAIN), the PC booted up, obviously found that
C: (MAIN) File System needed to be converted, conversion was
executed, then PC turned itself off again to once again, (post-conversion),
boot up.

But it did not boot up. I get a black screen, and right at the top from
left to right appears some characters, actually something
like:....|||||||.....|||||||||||||||.......|||||, then right at the end, a
blinking cursor.

Okay, now I installed a second HDD, drive 2, and put XP on it, and
that's on IDE 0 - master. I've installed PartitionMagic on it, and
BootMagic. The drive I cannot boot up from, my original drive 1,
is one IDE 0 slave.

Now I can of course boot into XP on drive 2, from C: and I can see
all the files on on disk 1, and I can open them. And it is an NTFS as
it should be. The drives/partitions on disk 1, now appear on drive 2 as
D: (MAIN) (was C: (MAIN)) - to P:

Okay, now I've done Norton Disk Doctor and it reported no errors on disk1.
I've run Partition Info and no errors. However, when in Partion Magic and do
a check for errors I get Error 993, "Partition Contains Open Files" on all
partitions from D: (MAIN): . And that's after I've already run from DOS
CHKDSK /p, aswell as CHKDSK /r. I don't know if Error 993 is a real problem
or not.

Okay, well I installed BootMagic on drive 2, and it recognised three
bootable partitions: Win2k/XP and WIN98 on drive 1, and of course Win2k/XP
on drive 2, which is the one I'm working from. I've enabled BootMagic and
when I rebooted, the two bootable partitions were indicated by BootMagic as
"Unavailable". I'm using "Advanced Partition Hiding BTW with BootMagic
because I have 2 disks.

Okay, what can I do to get the MAIN partition bootable again? I seem to
have tried everything, rescue disks, but nothing. All the files are still
there on disk 1, it looks like there are no errors, but it just wont boot.
Is it to do with open files, or is it something gone wrong with the
BootMagic program that was enabled on disk 1?

Thanks if you can help. Rich.

 

[Richard]

I had two bootable partitions C: (MAIN) and C: (WIN98) on disk 1.
All my data was on D: and higher. I was busy converting D: and above,
from FAT32, to NTFS. I had no problems, I did a few, but not all
of the partitions. Then I chose to do the same with C: (MAIN) on
disk, but now I cannot boot up.

Just to make clear:

Was:

HDD 1:

C: (MAIN); D: ;E: ;F: ;G: ;H: ;I: ;J ;K: ;L: ;M: ;N: ;O: ;WIN98 (Hidden)

*OR*

HDD1:

(MAIN) (Hidden); D: ;E: ;F: ;G: ;H: ;I: ;J ;K: ;L: ;M: ;N: ;O: ;C: (C:
WIN98)

Depending on which bootable partition I chose.

Now:

HDD1:

C: (No Label)

*AND*

HDD2:

DMAIN) ;: E: ;F: ;G: ;H: ;I: ;J ;K: ;L: ;M: ;N: ;O: ;P: ;WIN98 (Hidden)

When booting from HDD1.

As well as being able to boot from C: (No Label), I ought to be able to boot
from MAIN and WIN98*

*(But, still FAT32, so I should not).

 

[Richard]

I had two bootable partitions C: (MAIN) and C: (WIN98) on disk 1.
All my data was on D: and higher. I was busy converting D: and above,
from FAT32, to NTFS. I had no problems, I did a few, but not all
of the partitions. Then I chose to do the same with C: (MAIN) on
disk, but now I cannot boot up.

Just to make clear:

Was:

HDD 1:

C: (MAIN); D: ;E: ;F: ;G: ;H: ;I: ;J ;K: ;L: ;M: ;N: ;O: ;WIN98 (Hidden)

*OR*

HDD1:

(MAIN) (Hidden); D: ;E: ;F: ;G: ;H: ;I: ;J ;K: ;L: ;M: ;N: ;O: ; (C:
WIN98)

Depending on which bootable partition I chose.

Now:

HDD1:

C: (No Label)

*AND*

HDD2:

DMAIN) ;: E: ;F: ;G: ;H: ;I: ;J ;K: ;L: ;M: ;N: ;O: ;P: ;WIN98 (Hidden)

When booting from HDD1.

As well as being able to boot from C: (No Label), I ought to be able to boot
from MAIN and WIN98*

*(But, still FAT32, so I should not).

 

[Richard]

I had two bootable partitions C: (MAIN) and C: (WIN98) on disk 1.
All my data was on D: and higher. I was busy converting D: and above,
from FAT32, to NTFS. I had no problems, I did a few, but not all
of the partitions. Then I chose to do the same with C: (MAIN) on
disk, but now I cannot boot up.

The difference with the first operation is that there were no open files
when I was doing D: and above. When I did C: (MAIN) I had files open from
that drive.

But has that caused a serious unfixable problem. I dunno.

 

[Og]

Welcome to Symantec technical support:

http://www.symantec.com/techsupp/support_options.html

steve

 

[Richard]

The difference with the first operation is that there were no open files
when I was doing D: and above. When I did C: (MAIN) I had files open from
that drive.

But has that caused a serious unfixable problem. I dunno.

Actually no problem. PC turned off before conversion in all instances.

 

[Richard]

Welcome to Symantec technical support:

http://www.symantec.com/techsupp/support_options.html

steve

Been there but nothing much. In the end I just reverse the conversion, went
back to FAT32 on C:. And now drive boots again. I think it's to do with
BootMagic not running on NTFS.