MBR fix - how? (2 drives)

[John66]

Tim,

Sorry for not more carefully explaining things!

Regarding your question about the numbers and what they mean...The numbers
at the beginning of the lines referenced the partion numbers in the previous
posts (which were found by using the 'diskpart' command). I will now attempt
to describe what I see in the disk management screen (graphic):

For disk HD(0) or my disk 1, starting from left to right....
Primary partition - Utility partition
Primary partition - marked as 'system'
Logical Drive - marked as 'Boot'
Logical Drive -
Primary partition -

Note: the two logical drives are surrounded by a green box indicating that
they are part of an extended partiton.

For disk HD(1) or my disk 2, starting from left to right....
Primary partition - Utility partition
Primary partition - marked as 'Active'
Logical Drive -
Logical Drive -
Primary partition -

Note: the two logical drives are surrounded by a green box indicating that
they are part of an extended partiton.

I attempted to change the first primary partion (not the utility partition)
to 'active' as you asked me to do. However, when right-clicking on the
drive, the option to 'mark partition as active' is greyed out. In other
words I am unable to select the option. Doing a similar process on each of
the remaining partitions produced various results. In some cases there was
not even an option to 'mark partion as active' available (whereas other
partitions might have the option showing and others would have it showing but
greyed out).

Here are the results as to whether the 'mark partition as active' is an
option I can choose when right-clicking on each partition in the disk
management console.

For disk HD(0) or my disk 1......
Primary partition - Utility partition - option does not show up
Primary partition - marked as 'system' - option shows up but is greyed out
Logical Drive - marked as 'Boot' - - option does not show up
Logical Drive - - option does not show up
Primary partition - Option shows up and I could choose this partition as
active

For disk HD(1) the option to 'mark partition as active' for the partitions
is the same as for HD(0).

Regarding your question as to where 'not available' shows up...The phrase
'not available' is what I made up to describe whether or not the option to
'mark partition as active' showed up when I right-clicked the partition.

HD(0) was cloned from the original HD that came with the PC. It was done
with software that came with the new HD.

I will try to modify the boot.ini file as you described next. I was under
the impression that if I could not mark the HD(0) primary partition as active
then I would be out of luck. I will report back after I finish.

Regarding your other post.... This is a Dell PC - no longer in warranty. I
do not care whether or not I have a utility partition. Thank you for the link
regarding the Dell PCs. I will not be able to pursue this problem until
tomorrow because of prior commitments. I will post when I have completed the
boot.ini task.

Thank you,
John

What do the nos. at the beginning of each line mean? Is there
really an Extended partition box in the 3rd place in the graphic
for Disk Management, followed by 2 boxes for logical partitions?

Where does the phrase "Not Available" appear?

Please say whether the current HD0 is the drive from the PC
manufacturer, or if it resulted from an attempt to clone HD1.

Please add the lines that I mentioned to the boot.ini files of
the system partitions on both HDs and try using them to see
which entry does what.

*TimDaniels*

SNIP.................................

 

[Timothy Daniels]

According to the Disk Management GUI, the boot files reside
in the "system" partition on HD0. The OS resides in the 1st
logical partition (the "boot" partition), also on HD0. And the
mystery is:

1) why the 2nd HD is needed, since the boot.ini files on both HDs
say to find the OS on HD0, and
2) why the boot.ini files say to get the OS from partition(4) and
not partition(3).

I think the problem is caused by cloning the original Dell HD, in
which Dell's proprietary MBR was either overwritten by a standard
MBR in the clone - or by a change in the disk signature resulting
from changes in the size and no. of partitions on the HD, which the
proprietary Dell MBR saw and interpreted as an attempt at pirating
the Dell utility partition. Since you don't need the Dell utility partition,
just delete that partition, and using the Recovery Console in a
Windows XP installation CD, run "fixmbr" to standardize the MBR.
Then see if you can mark the system partition (containing the boot files)
as "active", If so, add those extra entries that I mentioned to the
boot.ini file in the system partition which designate the boot partition
as being partition 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5. Then see if HD0 will boot as a
sole HD with one of the resulting boot menu selections.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Timothy Daniels]

You may not even need to delete the Dell utility partition
if you think you'll never need another Primay partition on the
HD. Just let it sit there unused (and unuseable) and re-
standardize the MBR.

*TimDaniels*