Drive containing C: and E: looks like unpartitioned drive to XP CD

[Guest]

I have a two-drive system in which the larger drive contains C: with the
Windows system and files and E: with other files, and the smaller drive is
divided into ten partitions, D: and F: through N:. The drives were formatted
originally while installing Windows 98; Windows XP Pro Upgrade was later
installed over it.

While attempting to install a second Windows XP in partition J: the Windows
XP Setup CD told me that the first drive (C: and E was an unpartitioned
drive O:, with no Windows on it, and the other drive contained D: through L:
(thus the actual J: partition was called H, and when attempting to install
Windows in either H: (my J or J: (my L:, the second choice), Setup refuses
because drive 0 (which is the disk that should indicate it contains C: and
E does not have a Windows-XP compatible partition (of course it does;
Windows XP resides in it and boots from it!).

To add insult to injury, a borrowed Partition Commander CD (which I will
return tomorrow) describes drive 0 the same way, and has no function to
correct this situation. I have too much data on this drive to just wipe it
out. What caused this and how can it be remedied?

BTW the drives are both Maxtors, but the MaxBlast diskette that came with my
latest purchase cannot correct the problem either, without erasing the disk.

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

bad news

Error Message: Setup Cannot Find the End-User License Agreement: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;326673

 

[Guest]

The problem does not occur with the error message cited; CD Setup merely says
that it must write some startup files to the disk, and the disk does not
contain a Windows-XP compatible partition. The entire disk appears to Setup
to be a single non-standard partition, but it was partitioned and formatted
by Windows 98. Windows XP was successfully installed over it as an upgrade,
and in Windows it is two half-disk FAT32 partitions.