Problems with dual O/S and Partitioning 200G hard drive

[Mark]

Hello,

I used Partition Magic to partition my hard drive. The FAT32 partition
was fine, but the three NTFS ones had bad file name errors when checked
with PM. I had no errors using Windows CHKDSK but it was set to read
only.

I then went ahead and installed Win98 Chinese on my first partition and
proceeded to install XP later. When XP asked me which partition I
wanted to install it on, it only gave me one choice, the 47G first
partition. The other 2 NTFS partitions are invisible. I switched back
to my original HD and checked my 200G. One of the partitions was
invisible and only was listed as "unallocated disk space". My drive
info is:
C: 2.957 G
D: 47.787G NTFS
E: 80.325 G NTFS
59.710 G UNALLOCATED

Finally, I got so frustrated and I tried to FDISK the drive but I was
not able to. The Extended partition would not allow me to delete it. I
was only able to delete the primary partition.

Now, I am stumped. I am tempted to run everything on FAT32. as I never
had this issue come up before. NTFS is strange beast. Any ideas?

 

[WTC]

Why don't you make them all FAT32, when done installing OSes. Convert the
FAT32 partitions you want to NTFS.

 

[Rebecca Chen [MSFT]]

William's idea is correct. It would be easier for you to manage partition
in XP system.

FDISK cannot recognize NTFS as non-DOS partition, this is described in the
following KB. When you use FDISK to delete NTFS, you will note there is an
option to delete non-DOS partition, please enter that option to delete NTFS
partitions.

310359 Cannot View NTFS Logical Drive After Using Fdisk
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=310359

In addition,you can use Windows XP installation CD to delete NTFS parttion.
During WIndows XP installation. There is an option for you to format or
re-size the patition after you accept End-User License Agreement.

HTH!

Best regards,

Rebecca Chen

MCSE2000 MCDBA CCNA


Microsoft Online Partner Support
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security

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