repartition the HDD

[Guest]

Gents,
I lost the hard drive partition on a new laptop. what I need is to
partition the hard drive again so I can format and install windows xp. How
can I do that if I do not have a floppy drive to load the partitioning This
is a new laptop designed for win xp home edition. Please show me a way to do
that taking in consideration that I do not have an integrated floppy drive
neither an external one. Is it possible to do that from CD?

 

[Yves Leclerc]

If you have an XP Home install CD, then the partition will be done by the set
up process when you boot from that CD.

If you have a recovery CD, then this should place the partition, and software,
back to factory defaults.

 

[Guest]

thank you for replying Yves.
i really thought the same but the results come to be different. win xp did
load the post files prior to installation and then alerted me of quitting the
setup as it did not detect any HDD installed.
No, i do not have a recovery cd. what i need is a partition utility that i
can run it from the cd and not from the floppy drive. what do you think?

hope i am evaluating the things in the right way. appreciate your help in
advance.

 

[Donny Broome]

Please explain your opening statement: "I lost the hard drive partition..."

Huh?

The drive may be DEAD if the XP installation routine does not detect it.
Most drives have a three-year warranty - for good reason. Many of them fail
after that time frame.

 

[Yves Leclerc]

The install CD will detect the hard drive and it will partition it correctly.

You need to provide more detail as to how your hard drive is connected. If
the hard drive is IDE/ATA/PATA type, XP should automatically detect it and
partition it correctly.

If the hard drive is Serial ATA/SATA, SCSI or RAID based, you may need to
provide additional driver prior to XP set up. This is usually done by
pressing <F6> to load additional drivers (shown on the screen during boot-up.)

If you still can not re-install XP, check the BIOS to see it can "see" the
hard drive. If not, then this is the "ultimate" reason why you lost the
partition.

If the BIOS can "see: the drive, then the drive might be becoming flaky and
will completely fail soon.

If either of these last two steps happen to you, replace the hard drive as
soon as possible.

 

[Guest]

the chance that the hdd is dead is very low. this is a new laptop that i
bought couple of weeks ago. i lost the partition when i inserted a dvd that
was meant to be a recovery dvd so the process of repartitioning the harddisc
has started then a message on the screen asking to insert the recovery cd No
2 popped up. since i do not have any other recovery cd else than this dvd i
couldn't continue and had to cancel the process by illegally switching the
laptop off (no other way) and thus loosing everything. i tried to boot from
win xp, it does check for computer configuration and load the post files
prior to win setup. the next screen is a confirmation message tha win
installer couldn't detect any harddrive installed.
sorry for the many lines that i wrote. i wanted to explain what happened.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I lost the hard drive partition on a new laptop. what I need is to
partition the hard drive again so I can format and install windows
xp. How can I do that if I do not have a floppy drive to load the
partitioning This is a new laptop designed for win xp home edition.
Please show me a way to do that taking in consideration that I do not
have an integrated floppy drive neither an external one. Is it
possible to do that from CD?

You don't need a floppy drive, and you don't need to format the drive before
installation--formatting is done as part of the installation process.

Just boot from the Windows XP CD (change the BIOS boot order if necessary to
accomplish this) and follow the prompts for a clean installation (delete the
existing partition by pressing "D" when prompted, then create a new one).

You can find detailed instructions here:
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

or here http://windowsxp.mvps.org/XPClean.htm

or here http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/clean_install.htm

 

[Ron Martell]

thank you for replying Yves.
i really thought the same but the results come to be different. win xp did
load the post files prior to installation and then alerted me of quitting the
setup as it did not detect any HDD installed.

If the Windows XP installation CD did not detect any hard drive
installed then your hard drive has apparently died and you need to
replace it.

Do you know the make and model of your hard drive? Go to the
manufacturer's web site and download their diagnostic software and
create a bootable CD with this on it. Use that to check out the
problem hard drive.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
Syberfix Remote Computer Repair

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."

 

[arachnid]

Gents,
I lost the hard drive partition on a new laptop. what I need is to
partition the hard drive again so I can format and install windows xp. How
can I do that if I do not have a floppy drive to load the partitioning This
is a new laptop designed for win xp home edition. Please show me a way to do
that taking in consideration that I do not have an integrated floppy drive
neither an external one. Is it possible to do that from CD?

You can download the gparted ISO here:

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/

Gparted is a Linux program but you don't have to worry about that. The ISO
includes a small version of Linux and, assuming your made-for-Windows
hardware is supported, will boot directly into gparted without your
having to mess with the underlying OS. From there it's all point-and-click.

 

[Rock]

Gents,
I lost the hard drive partition on a new laptop. what I need is to
partition the hard drive again so I can format and install windows xp. How
can I do that if I do not have a floppy drive to load the partitioning
This
is a new laptop designed for win xp home edition. Please show me a way to
do
that taking in consideration that I do not have an integrated floppy drive
neither an external one. Is it possible to do that from CD?

After reading all the posts in this thread, I would suggest you boot the
computer and enter the BIOS setup. Is the hard drive detected there? If
not then either a connection came loose internally or the drive died. Yes
hardware does fail on new devices. It could be coincidental that it died
just as you were doing whatever it was you were doing.

If you don't know how to enter the BIOS check the documentation that came
with the computer. Usually a screen will display telling you what key to
press to enter setup (BIOS).

Here is a link on how to do a clean install. Of course it won't work if
there is no hard drive detected, but once you get that sorted out, this is a
good resource.

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

 

[Jonny]

Gents,
I lost the hard drive partition on a new laptop. what I need is to
partition the hard drive again so I can format and install windows xp. How
can I do that if I do not have a floppy drive to load the partitioning
This
is a new laptop designed for win xp home edition. Please show me a way to
do
that taking in consideration that I do not have an integrated floppy drive
neither an external one. Is it possible to do that from CD?

Uhh, use the recovery CD. Happens again, contact tech support of the maker
of the laptop. Probably defective hard drive or cabling problem in that
case. Heck, contact the tech support people now. Fill out needed
paperwork. Return it to the place of purchase. Why are you here?

 

[Guest]

Gents, thanks for all he help offered. I am glad to be in these newsgroups
where there is a wealth of information and the most important is whenever i
ask for help i always find someones ready for that.
i figure out the problem. all i had to do is to disable the SATA native
under the system configuration table in the BIOS.
here i go, hdd partitioned, formated, OS as well as other applications were
installed.

 

[Jonny]

Something's amiss here, not right. PC or laptop bios from mfr should
default to settings applicable to the hardware including ide hard drive
installed for booting as in your case.

 

[Guest]

I have then same problem, xp will not detect any hard drive. I couldnt figure
out how to partition the drive so i used a disaster disk that i had made for
my drivers and i can go online but I have so many crashes with hard disk
error but no one can figure out how to put the d/ part w/ drivers back