Deleted Active Partition; need to know how to set other Partition as Active

R

Ron Dickerson

Hello,
Thanks for looking/responding. Here's the problem. When
I turn on the computer I get a message that says 'PRESS
A KEY TO REBOOT'. The reason I get ths message is
because I deleted the Active Partition. I had installed
NT WkSt 4.0 as the first partition and then I had XP on
the second partition. Yes, silly, I know.

Problem #2. I do not have the ability to make a Windows
98 bootable floppy so that I can access fdisk and set the
remaining partition as Active, so I believed I am
screwed. Unless someone knows of a way that I can set a
partition as active...

I have tried ERD Commander 2002 but it does not have the
ability access partitions, only logical drives(?). I
have tried kb315261[comp does not start after you change
active partition] but that did not help.

Any thoughts? Thanks and I will mail/paypal 5 bucks to
the person who helps me. :)

Ron
 
V

*Vanguard*

Ron Dickerson said in news:[email protected]:
Hello,
Thanks for looking/responding. Here's the problem. When
I turn on the computer I get a message that says 'PRESS
A KEY TO REBOOT'. The reason I get ths message is
because I deleted the Active Partition. I had installed
NT WkSt 4.0 as the first partition and then I had XP on
the second partition. Yes, silly, I know.

Problem #2. I do not have the ability to make a Windows
98 bootable floppy so that I can access fdisk and set the
remaining partition as Active, so I believed I am
screwed. Unless someone knows of a way that I can set a
partition as active...

I have tried ERD Commander 2002 but it does not have the
ability access partitions, only logical drives(?). I
have tried kb315261[comp does not start after you change
active partition] but that did not help.

Any thoughts? Thanks and I will mail/paypal 5 bucks to
the person who helps me. :)

Ron

So WHICH partition did you actually delete? The first partition with NT4? Or the second partition with XP? Is the second partition physically AFTER the first partition, or was it simply the 2nd one created (and might be physically before the first created one)?

Have you tried booting using the Windows XP installation CD, using the first Repair option to load the Recovery Console mode, and running the FIXMBR (optional) and FIXBOOT commands from there?

Now that you presumably have deleted the first physical partition (that had NT4), you'll probably want to recoup that disk space for use by your install of Windows XP. What drive letter is currently assigned to the partition for Windows XP? C:? You'll need something like PartitionMagic to resize the 2nd partition to enlarge it to consume the unallocated disk space left behind by deleting the first partition. Backups are always a must when doing major surgery.
 
D

davetest

Ron Dickerson said in news:[email protected]:
Hello,
Thanks for looking/responding. Here's the problem. When
I turn on the computer I get a message that says 'PRESS
A KEY TO REBOOT'. The reason I get ths message is
because I deleted the Active Partition. I had installed
NT WkSt 4.0 as the first partition and then I had XP on
the second partition. Yes, silly, I know.

Problem #2. I do not have the ability to make a Windows
98 bootable floppy so that I can access fdisk and set the
remaining partition as Active, so I believed I am
screwed. Unless someone knows of a way that I can set a
partition as active...

I have tried ERD Commander 2002 but it does not have the
ability access partitions, only logical drives(?). I
have tried kb315261[comp does not start after you change
active partition] but that did not help.

Any thoughts? Thanks and I will mail/paypal 5 bucks to
the person who helps me. :)

Ron

So WHICH partition did you actually delete? The first partition with NT4? Or the second partition with XP? Is the second partition physically AFTER the first partition, or was it simply the 2nd one created (and might be physically before the first created one)?

Have you tried booting using the Windows XP installation CD, using the first Repair option to load the Recovery Console mode, and running the FIXMBR (optional) and FIXBOOT commands from there?

Now that you presumably have deleted the first physical partition (that had NT4), you'll probably want to recoup that disk space for use by your install of Windows XP. What drive letter is currently assigned to the partition for Windows XP? C:? You'll need something like PartitionMagic to resize the 2nd partition to enlarge it to consume the unallocated disk space left behind by deleting the first partition. Backups are always a must when doing major surgery.
You can download a freeware partition tool from here. This can be
used to set an active partition.
Normally, when XP is installed as a second system, it gets put into
a logical partition. It's boot up files are put into the primary
so it can control the logon and give you a choice.
Dave
 
D

davetest

You can download a freeware partition tool from here. This can be
used to set an active partition.
Normally, when XP is installed as a second system, it gets put into
a logical partition. It's boot up files are put into the primary
so it can control the logon and give you a choice.
Dave
Oops .. here's the link:
http://www.ranish.com/part/

Dave
 
V

*Vanguard*

davetest said in news:[email protected]:
Oops .. here's the link:
http://www.ranish.com/part/

Dave

I missed something. How can you mark a partition as active that doesn't exist? The OP said he *deleted* the partition, so there won't be that partition for you to mark active. Yes, you can create another new partition using the unallocated space left by the deletion of the prior partition but it will be empty. There will still be no OS loader files in that recreated partition after creating it and marking it as active. You can use a bootable floppy (create one by formatting a floppy in Windows XP to be bootable, or get an image for a bootable floppy from www.bootdisk.com) and use FDISK to create the partition and mark one as active. No 3rd party software is needed for that. Whether using your tool or FDISK, there will still be no NT loader files in that *new* partition which is now active. I haven't used FIXBOOT but hopefully it will put NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM, and a valid boot.ini file in the "system" partition (which is the one used to boot Windows); see http://support.microsoft.com/?id=314470 for Microsoft's reversed terminology regarding system and boot partitions.

Seems a big waste to recreate a new but empty partition in place of where was the old one that got accidentally deleted just to get only the OS loader files over there. If the OP is still left with the "boot" partition containing the rest of Windows XP then all they need to get NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM, and a valid boot.ini (which is a text file) into the boot partition to get Windows XP to load. Then resize the Windows XP partition (now the only one) so you use ALL of the drive's space (i.e., the space left unallocated by deleting the Windows NT4 partition). Windows tools won't do that but PartitionMagic can. Maybe your tool can, too, provided that it will resize at the *beginning* of a partition to encompass unallocated disk space *before* it (since it is likely that the Windows NT4 partition was before the Windows XP partition). I don't know if your tool can convert a logical drive in an extended partition to a primary partition. PartitionMagic can.

A problem that I foresee is that the still existing Windows XP partition might've been assigned drive letter D: (but the partition for C: no longer exists). It can be a pain to get all references in shortcuts, the registry, and configuration files changed to point at C: rather than D:. PartitionMagic includes its DriveMapper tool that is supposed to assist with this. Never used it as I've done the manual changes myself (because I didn't know about this included tool). Although it is probably okay to leave the Windows XP partition assigned to drive letter D:, I have run across some poorly written programs that are hardcoded to expect a C:\<somepath> spec.
 
D

davetest

davetest said in news:[email protected]:

I missed something. How can you mark a partition as active that doesn't exist? The OP said he *deleted* the partition, so there won't be that partition for you to mark active. Yes, you can create another new partition using the unallocated space left by the deletion of the prior partition but it will be empty. There will still be no OS loader files in that recreated partition after creating it and marking it as active. You can use a bootable floppy (create one by formatting a floppy in Windows XP to be bootable, or get an image for a bootable floppy from www.bootdisk.com) and use FDISK to create the partition and mark one as active. No 3rd party software is needed for that. Whether using your tool or FDISK, there will still be no NT loader files in that *new* partition which is now active. I haven't used FIXBOOT but hopefully it will put NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM, and a valid boot.ini file in the "system" partition (which is the one used to boot Windows); see
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=314470 for Microsoft's reversed terminology regarding system and boot partitions.

Seems a big waste to recreate a new but empty partition in place of where was the old one that got accidentally deleted just to get only the OS loader files over there. If the OP is still left with the "boot" partition containing the rest of Windows XP then all they need to get NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM, and a valid boot.ini (which is a text file) into the boot partition to get Windows XP to load. Then resize the Windows XP partition (now the only one) so you use ALL of the drive's space (i.e., the space left unallocated by deleting the Windows NT4 partition). Windows tools won't do that but PartitionMagic can. Maybe your tool can, too, provided that it will resize at the *beginning* of a partition to encompass unallocated disk space *before* it (since it is likely that the Windows NT4 partition was before the Windows XP partition). I don't know if your tool can convert a logical drive in an extended partition to a primary partition. PartitionMagic can.

A problem that I foresee is that the still existing Windows XP partition might've been assigned drive letter D: (but the partition for C: no longer exists). It can be a pain to get all references in shortcuts, the registry, and configuration files changed to point at C: rather than D:. PartitionMagic includes its DriveMapper tool that is supposed to assist with this. Never used it as I've done the manual changes myself (because I didn't know about this included tool). Although it is probably okay to leave the Windows XP partition assigned to drive letter D:, I have run across some poorly written programs that are hardcoded to expect a C:\<somepath> spec.
I see what you mean. It's not stated specifically whether the XP
install was in a logical or primary partition. If it's primary, you
could mark it active and do a repair. If it's logical I don't think
that will work.

Partition MAgic 8 has the ability to recover delete partitions.
Since none of the data is deleted, just the partition table entry
is nulled, PM 8 can start searching from the first sector until
it recognizes the beginning of a partition based on the sector
contents. It will then look for the end. If it successfully finds a
match, it will update the partition table - you got your partition
back!
Dave
 
A

Alex Nichol

Ron said:
Thanks for looking/responding. Here's the problem. When
I turn on the computer I get a message that says 'PRESS
A KEY TO REBOOT'. The reason I get ths message is
because I deleted the Active Partition. I had installed
NT WkSt 4.0 as the first partition and then I had XP on
the second partition. Yes, silly, I know.

Problem #2. I do not have the ability to make a Windows
98 bootable floppy so that I can access fdisk and set the
remaining partition as Active, so I believed I am
screwed. Unless someone knows of a way that I can set a
partition as active...

You can do it by a boot of the XP CD. But if you had a dual boot, you
will be relying on boot files in that old partition and there will be
none on the XP one. If you were to restore them to that, you would find
the XP partition had changed from something like letter D: to C: and a
whole slew of things would not run

So what you need do is to make a replacement partition in that now free
space, and put those files into it. Not too easy (A Win98 startup
floppy would be a big help in making the partition with its FDISK - you
should be able to get an image of one from www.bootdisk.com). Fdisk,
Create DOS Primary partition in the free space, and set it as active;
reboot and FORMAT C: and skip to well down below

If you are stuck with the XP CD :.
Set the BIOS to boot CD before Hard Disk. Boot the XP CD and, instead
of Setup, take the immediate R for Repair. Assume any password
requested is blank, and TAB over.

Give
map
That will tell you that the existing partition for XP is in say
\Device\HardDisk0\Partition2 Note the number of the partition - 1
to 4; and then give

diskpart /add \Device\HardDisk0\Partition1 size
with a number other than that of the XP partition so I use 1
assuming that was 2 'size' is size in MBytes - I think it will
default to the size of available free space, but better use
something you know will fit.

Select partition 1
using the same number

active
exit

Now reboot, again the recovery mode, and I'd check with a DIR C: to make
sure that that letter is NOT the XP partition, but 'not found'. If
that is OK

Format C: /q /fs:NTFS
(or /fs:FAT32 if you want)

If you did manage to get and use the Win98 floppy you then start here,
booting the XP CD as above.

Assuming the CD shows as letter D:

COPY D:\i386\ntldr C:\
COPY D:\i386\ntdetect.com C:\
BootCFG /Rebuild
Fixboot
 

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