XP Pro NTFS partition resizing problem with PM7

[Alan C. Brown]

I apologise for posting this here, but Symantec does not provide personal
customer support for Partition Magic 7, and I cannot find a good Partition
Magic user's newsgroup.

I have a Toshiba Satellite 5105-S702 with Win XP Pro (NTFS), and a 60 GB HDD
that I re-partitioned into 4 partitions using Partition Magic 7. The
current status of the partitions is :

Total Used Unused
GB GB GB
C: OS ------------------ 10.23 5.10 5.13 Active Primary
D : Apps--------------- 10.00 0.83 9.17 Logical
E: Data&Dowloads -- 9.99 6.03 3.95 Logical
F: BackUps----------- 27.01 5.25 21.76 Logical
I was just about to resize all the partitions, mainly to increase the size
of the C: partition, but also so that all partitions would show a better a
better reflection of actual space usage.

Total
GB
C: OS ---------------- 17.5
D : Apps --------------- 7.0
E: Data&Dowloads -- 17.5
F: BackUps ------------ 15.23

The PM7 Resize process is a 2-step process. The first step is to setup the
changes of the partition sizes, and the 2nd step is to apply the changes

However when I try to apply the changes in PM7, a warning box pops-up with
the message - "There is no active partition. Are you sure that you want to
apply the changes ?" So of course I click on the "No" button to cancel the
the resizing.

This is in spite of the fact that the Partition List is showing that the C:
partition status is "Active".

Also I did not have this problem when I originally used PM7 to partition the
hard drive into C, D, E & F back in Aug 2002.

The same thing happens even if I try to reduce the size of just one of the
Logical partitions on its own (that is, not interferring with thesize of the
C: partition), creating a corresponding amount of unallocated space.

Would appreciate if anyone can explain why this is happening.

What would happen if I were to ignore the "No Ative Partition" warning and
apply the changes ?

Thank you

Alan C. Brown

 

[Crusty \(-: Old B@stard :-\)]

Did you try using Partition Magic by booting up with the two floppy set of
emergency disks?

Don't try to do this stuff from within Windows. It is very likely to cause
problems. I have seen Windows crash during procedures like this and P/M has
NOT been able to gracefully recover.

The only thing that can happen from the DOS environment is a power failure.
And I have seen P/M recover gracefully from a power failure and go on to
completion.

--
Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard

 

[Alan C. Brown]

Thanks for your reply.

I'll give that a try.

Alan C. Brown

--------------

 

[dglock]

you should update to pm 8, it has better support for xp.
don

 

[Alan C. Brown]

I assume that you mean customer/technical support ?
Does it work any better with XP Pro ?

Partition Magic works out to be very expensive, when you consider how
infrequently it is used. But I think that I will get PM8. Can it be
downloaded ?

Thank you

Alan
----------------------

 

[CS]

The current version is PM 8.1 and can be purchased from several web
discounters at a very good price. I purchased my copy for $35.00 plus
shipping\handling. (That's US $)

 

[Alex Nichol]

I assume that you mean customer/technical support ?
Does it work any better with XP Pro ?

Yes - it handles XP version of NTFS much better. If I were a PM user I
would want to upgrade to ver 8

Partition Magic works out to be very expensive, when you consider how
infrequently it is used. But I think that I will get PM8. Can it be
downloaded ?

Take a look at the tool I *do* use - BootIT NG, from
http://www.BootitNG.com ($35 shareware - 30 day full functional trial)

That started out as a boot manager, but is also a comprehensive
Partition Manager. It can be run from a boot floppy it creates, without
taking the Installation, and while the GUI is not as intuitive as PM,
it does have the benefit of being totally independent of any system

 

[Alan C. Brown]

Well I have tried repartitioning my HDD using the PM7 Rescue Disks, but I
hit a problem at the 3rd step. I had planned to do it in 4 separate steps
for safety.

Step 1 - reduce size of F: from 27.01 to 15.18 CB, creating 11.83GB
Unallocated Space between E: & F:

Step 2 - incorporate the Unallocated Space between F: & E: into to E: (total
21.82 GB), and then reduce the size of E: (from 21.82 GB) to 17.44 GB,
creating 4.38 GB Unallocated Space between E: & D:

Step 3 - incorporate the Unallocated Space between E: & D: into to D: (total
14.38 GB), and then reduce the size of D: (from 14.38 GB) to 7.19 GB,
creating 7.19 GB Unallocated Space between D: & C:

Step 4 - incorporate the Unallocated Space between D: & C: into to C:, to
increase the size of C: to 17.42 GB.

Step 1 & step 2 - no problems, went smoothly

Step 3 - PROBLEM - as soon as I tried to apply the Step 3 changes, a box
popped up saying "Error 732", but gave no indication of the nature / cause
of the error.

Step 4 - not done as a consequence of the step 3 problem.

I then did a search on the Symantec website and found a webpage on Error
732, containing, it would appear, info that was originally published by
PowerQuest :

http://www.symantec.com/techsupp/primus/id2562.html.

The info given is as follows :
-----------------------
Solution: Error 732 Attempt to handle too many NTFS attributes (EA3902DC)

To determine the cause of this error, please send the following information
to PowerQuest Technical Support:

- Include a Debug report (see Running a Debug Report)

- A PARTINFO report created by you. (For information on using PARTINFO, see
PowerQuest Solution "Running a PartitionInfo.")

- The information outlined in PowerQuest Solution "Information Needed for a
Trouble Report.",

- If you are running under Windows ME, the VFNSTDBG.TXT file located in
C:\Program Files\PowerQuest\PartitionMagic 6.0\Win9X\VFD.

- A copy of the contents of the Master Boot Record captured with WRPROG.EXE.
(For information on using WRPROG, see PowerQuest Solution 777 "Instructions
for Using the WRPROG.EXE Utility."


Problem Description:
Error 732 Attempt to handle too many NTFS attributes
Error 732
EA3902DC
------------------------

Partition Magic is now owned by Symantec, who do not provide support for
PM7. Nevertheles, I will try to obtain all the information outlined above.

In the meantime, I would appreciate advice from anyone who is familiar with
Error 732, and knows how to overcome this problem.

The strange thing is that D: is the most underutilised partition in terms of
"Used Space" (0.83 GB out of 10.00 GB), although functionally speaking, it
is probably the 2nd most used after C:

The only thing that I can think of doing is to try to reformat the D:
partition (which contains my Applications) from the PM7 Rescue Discs. If
succesful, I can then carryout Step 3 and Step 4 to resize D: & C:, and then
re-install the applications that I have on D:

Is this feasible ?

By the way, I can access D: in Windows Explorer, and run the Applications
without any obvious problems. That is, D: appears to be functioning
normally.

Thank you

Alan C. Brown

-----------------

 

[Alan C. Brown]

I ran the "Error Check" from the PM7 Rescue Disks, and it gives the same
"Error 732" .

I also ran chkdsk d: /f /n during the start up of XP Pro, and there did not
seem to be anything amiss.

Alan C. Brown

-------------------------

 

[Crusty \(-: Old B@stard :-\)]

You do know that Partition Magic 8 was the first version designed
specifically for Windows XP!

Now there is version 8.1, a bug fix.

--
Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard

 

[Alan C. Brown]

Well PM7 was claimed by PowerQuest to support Windows XP.

Anyway I'm going to get PM8 and try it on D: , and if that does not work,
hopefully I will be able to get some free support from Symantec on the Error
732 problem.

I assume that PM8.1 can be downloaded as a free upgrade ?

Regards

Alan C. Brown
--------------------

 

[Richard Urban]

Yes it can! It can not install though without a valid PM 8 install key.

--
Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard

 

[Alan C. Brown]

Yes - it handles XP version of NTFS much better. If I were a PM user I
would want to upgrade to ver 8

---------------

Take a look at the tool I *do* use - BootIT NG, from
http://www.BootitNG.com ($35 shareware - 30 day full functional trial)

That started out as a boot manager, but is also a comprehensive
Partition Manager. It can be run from a boot floppy it creates, without
taking the Installation, and while the GUI is not as intuitive as PM,
it does have the benefit of being totally independent of any system

-----------------------
Thanks for the info.

1. What do you mean by "It can be run from a boot floppy it creates, without
taking the Installation" ?

2. Would I have any problems using BootitNG to repartition my HDD, which is
already partitioned using Partition magic 7 ?

3. I have an External Firewire HDD that I purchased as part of the ABSplus
Backup System from CMS Products, and I noticed from the website info that
BootitNG has a backup feature.

Does the Backup feature on BootitNG allow you to:

- backup to an external firewire HDD ?

- do incremental backups of new & changed files that are on the computer
HDD ?

- purge files on the External HDD that are no longer on the computer HDD ?

- make a bootable backup ?

Alan C. Brown