D
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
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