Partitioning - strange results in w2k

[Querty]

In w2k Pro "Disk Management" I've 1 hard drive correctly recognised
as being 19.14 GB in size (from when I was running NT). I've now
installed a second hard drive of similar size, however it is only
recognised in "Disk Management" as being 7.87GB. Following a few
attempts to to fix this, I list below the latest attempt and the
strange results.

1. After low level format of the new HD, w2k "Disk Management"
showed only 7.87GB on drive, as did "Acronis PartitionExpert". So
I went ahead and created 2 partitions in the space anyway.
Then tried "PartitionMagic 5" booted from floppy (won't run in w2k),
which correctly reported the total HD as 19.524GB, and showed
the 2 partitions. So used PM to create a 3rd partition in the free
space and rebooted to w2k.

2. Now Windows Explorer and Disk Management no longer recognise
*any* partitions on the drive, showing it as 7.88GB of healthy
unformatted disk. "Aida32" (freeware tool running under w2k) does
the same, and so does Diskpart. However PartitionExpert (also
running under w2k) reports all 3 partitions as being present!

3. Rebooted PM, which still showed everything OK. Rebooted again
into NT4, which also showed everything OK and which allowed me
to copy a file to each partition OK. But w2k still showing 7.88GB
unformatted, and chkdsk reports the disk file system as RAW.

Now, the only possible clue I've spotted is that PartitionExpert
strangely reports the drives and partitions on the new drive (both
when it didn't recognise the unallocated space and now that it
does) as d(?)p(1), d(?)p(2) and d(?)p(3), instead of d(1)p(1) etc.,
while it correctly reports the original drive as d(0)p(1), etc.
None of my other tools report in this format, so may just be a red
herring?

Any solutions most welcome....

Querty

 

[Dean Barney]

This is similiar to my problems with Partition Magic and
Win2k.
I learned that my drive had been converted from a "basis"
drive to a "dynamic" drive. Dynamic is unique to Win2k.

The Partition Magic manual says that PM will not function
on a dynamic drive. So, if we have "dynamic" drives, we
are restricted to using Disk Manager in Win2k.

I am now searching to find how to convert a dynamic drive
back to a basic drive.
Dean Barney

 

[Querty]

Fairly certain it can't be done, except by copying all files elsewhere and
reformatting drive...