Something got screwed up using PartitionMagic--can't boot to Windows anymore! Help!

Something got screwed up using PartitionMagic--can't boot to Windows anymore! Help!

Okay, here's my situation. I recently installed Windows XP on a 74GB Raptor, and I kept my old installation of Windows on my IDE drive to transfer data, settings, etc. After I had my new installation of Windows up and running with all my data, I wanted to delete the partitions on my IDE drive and create a new one for data storage. I used PartitionMagic 8.0 to delete the partitions. Once I selected the partitions to delete, I tried to set my Raptor as the "active" partition, but that option was grayed-out in PM. I went ahead and applied the changes--PM rebooted the computer and proceeded to delete the partitions on my IDE drive. It rebooted again and Windows started to load (scrolling bar screen), but instead of booting into Windows it stopped and displayed the following message:

"PartitionMagic is unable to read the batch file. Verify that the system32 directory is not compressed or corrupt. Press any key to continue."

I pressed a key and it went to a blue screen with the WinXP logo and just stopped... I tried to use the PM floppy boot disk that I created, but it still wouldn't let me set the Raptor as the active partition. Does anybody know what's going on? Please help me. This new build has been an absolute nightmare for me... It shouldn't be this difficult.

Here is some additional information that may be relevant. Before doing any of this, my Raptor drive with the WinXP installation was labeled "G:", while my old installation of WinXP was labeled "C:". However, I was definitely booting to the Raptor the whole time and setting up the OS on that drive. When I told PM to delete the partions on my IDE drive (C and D), I told it to rename my Raptor drive to "C:". I thought it was odd that I couldn't set my Raptor to be the active partition... maybe I should have stopped at that point.

After doing some research, I think my problem is definitely related to the fact that I changed the drive letter of the Raptor where Windows was installed. Apparently this is a big no-no... Is there anything I can do to rectify this situation relatively easily, i.e. without starting over? It still bothers me that Partition Magic will not let me make the Raptor the "active" partition. I couldn't find any information on this particular problem.

Now, assuming that I do have to reinstall Windows on the Raptor, please let me know if this is the correct way to approach it.

All of my data is on the Raptor (default "My Documents" location in the Windows installation), so I assume that I cannot just reformat and reinstall Windows on the drive. My plan is as follows:

1) Put a temporary installation of Windows on my PATA drive.

2) Attach the Raptor, but boot to the PATA drive Windows installation.

3) Transfer all important data from the Raptor to the PATA drive (it won't be a problem accessing information in this old Windows installation, will it?)

4) Disconnect the PATA drive (to ensure that Raptor is assigned the letter C), format the Raptor and install Windows.

5) Reconnect the PATA drive but make sure to boot from the Raptor.

6) Transfer data from the PATA drive back onto the Raptor.

7) Reformat the PATA drive and use it as a data storage drive.

This will take a while, and I'm really dreading this because I finally had my Windows installation set up on the Raptor with all the updates and applications installed!!!! Please tell me there's another way.

Try booting off of the windows cd, and then select the repair option. When the command screen comes up select the install you want to repair then hit the enter key at the admin password prompt leave it blank if there isn't one or enter it in then press enter. Then you will be presented with a command prompt. Type in fixboot follow along with what it asks. Then type fixmbr press enter and follow along. That should fix all of your problems.

Do you still have the floppy with the sata drivers, because you MIGHT need it. If so use the disk to install the drivers then follow the directions above, and everything should work fine.

matttaylor said:

Try booting off of the windows cd, and then select the repair option. When the command screen comes up select the install you want to repair then hit the enter key at the admin password prompt leave it blank if there isn't one or enter it in then press enter. Then you will be presented with a command prompt. Type in fixboot follow along with what it asks. Then type fixmbr press enter and follow along. That should fix all of your problems.

Do you still have the floppy with the sata drivers, because you MIGHT need it. If so use the disk to install the drivers then follow the directions above, and everything should work fine.

Click to expand...

Yes, I was able to reach the Windows recovery console and access the Windows installation on the Raptor before I left for work. However, I am clueless as to how to use the recovery console. I will try what you have suggested when I get home.

However, while researching this issue I found that this did not seem to fix the problem for some people. Windows actually starts to load off the Raptor, but it reaches an error when Partition Magic tries to recall a batch file it wrote somewhere in the system32 directory. Wouldn't this indicate that the master boot record is okay? I don't know exactly what information the mbr contains.

The fixboot option will fix the boot loader and fixmbr will change the raptor to c: and place it back as the boot drive. It seems that partition magic doesn't like your raptor. But i'm just trying to figure out why PM didn't finish the job. This is definately a weird issue.

matttaylor said:

The fixboot option will fix the boot loader and fixmbr will change the raptor to c: and place it back as the boot drive. It seems that partition magic doesn't like your raptor. But i'm just trying to figure out why PM didn't finish the job. This is definately a weird issue.

Click to expand...

By using "fixboot" and "fixmbr", is there any risk of making the data on the drive inaccessible, even from another installation of Windows on a different hard drive?

Mate,

Let me know if I'm missing something here.

Issue:
You had two drives, IDE and SATA. The goal was to install Windows on the SATA drive, using it as the primary drive and formatting the IDE (which was to be used for storage).

Possible solution:
-Use the Promise controller for the Raptor. Select Onboard IDE operating mode.
- Install Windows onto the Raptor.
- Connect the IDE to the Master IDE Port (First one.See the manual.)
- Set HDD Priority to the SATA drive, in the HDD Boot Priority menue.
- Save and exit from the BIOS.
- When you boot up, the fresh XP installation on your SATA drive beings to run. There is no ambiguity here.It all depends on your choice of HDD Priority.
- Copy the necessary files from the IDE to SATA.
-Format IDE.

You are done!

A good way to check if your MBR is messed up would be to run each drive individually. The MBR can be reliably fixed, so this should not be a problem.

Hope this helps.

S-N

Super Nade said:

Mate,

Let me know if I'm missing something here.

Issue:
You had two drives, IDE and SATA. The goal was to install Windows on the SATA drive, using it as the primary drive and formatting the IDE (which was to be used for storage).

Possible solution:
-Use the Promise controller for the Raptor. Select Onboard IDE operating mode.
- Install Windows onto the Raptor.
- Connect the IDE to the Master IDE Port (First one.See the manual.)
- Set HDD Priority to the SATA drive, in the HDD Boot Priority menue.
- Save and exit from the BIOS.
- When you boot up, the fresh XP installation on your SATA drive beings to run. There is no ambiguity here.It all depends on your choice of HDD Priority.
- Copy the necessary files from the IDE to SATA.
-Format IDE.

You are done!

A good way to check if your MBR is messed up would be to run each drive individually. The MBR can be reliably fixed, so this should not be a problem.

Hope this helps.

S-N

Click to expand...

I did everything exactly as you said: I had Windows up and running on my SATA drive and I transferred data over from my IDE drive. The problem occurred when I used Partition Magic to do some additional operations. The reasons I wanted to do so are as follows:

1) I installed Windows on my SATA drive while I had the IDE drive connected, and for this reason my new Windows installation was given a drive letter of G: (C = old Windows installation partition on IDE drive, D = data storage partition on IDE drive, E = ZIP drive, F = optical drive). I wanted the Raptor to be recognized as C:.

2) I only wanted 1 partition on my IDE drive rather than keeping the 2 existing partitions.

I thought Partition Magic would be a good tool to solve both of these problems, so I deleted the 2 partitions on the IDE drive and renamed the SATA drive to C:. When I told PM to apply these changes, it warned me that there was currently no "active" partition. Well, unforunately the program would not give me the option of making the SATA drive the active partition. It was grayed-out in the menus. I decided to apply the changes in spite of this, so PM rebooted the machine and proceeded to delete the 2 partitions on the IDE drive and attempted to change the G: drive to C:. PM then automatically rebooted my system a second time, and everything seemed to be working great. Windows started to boot off of the SATA drive, but then I got the error message described in my first post, followed by a blank blue screen with the Windows logo...

KillrBuckeye said:

I did everything exactly as you said:

I had Windows up and running on my SATA drive and I transferred data over from my IDE drive. The problem occurred when I used Partition Magic to do some additional operations. The reasons I wanted to do so are as follows:

1) I installed Windows on my SATA drive while I had the IDE drive connected, and for this reason my new Windows installation was given a drive letter of G: (C = old Windows installation partition on IDE drive, D = data storage partition on IDE drive, E = ZIP drive, F = optical drive). I wanted the Raptor to be recognized as C:.

Click to expand...

That is something I wouldn't have done.

2) I only wanted 1 partition on my IDE drive rather than keeping the 2 existing partitions.

I thought Partition Magic would be a good tool to solve both of these problems, so I deleted the 2 partitions on the IDE drive and renamed the SATA drive to C:. When I told PM to apply these changes, it warned me that there was currently no "active" partition. Well, unforunately the program would not give me the option of making the SATA drive the active partition. It was grayed-out in the menus. I decided to apply the changes in spite of this, so PM rebooted the machine and proceeded to delete the 2 partitions on the IDE drive and attempted to change the G: drive to C:. PM then automatically rebooted my system a second time, and everything seemed to be working great. Windows started to boot off of the SATA drive, but then I got the error message described in my first post, followed by a blank blue screen with the Windows logo...

Click to expand...

The SATA Option was greyed out because your first boot device may have been your IDE Drive. PM was confused by this and probably messed up your MBR. Did you try the fixmbr option in XP? Why don't you reinstall XP on the SATA drive if fixmbr or repair XP doesn't work (do ot format any partitions! Just do a reinstall)? Did you try a system restore (if you can get to the option screen by pressing F8) ?

Another option would be to reinstall Windows on the IDE, read data off the SATA, format the SATA, disconnect the IDE and reinstall XP on the SATA.
IDE drives are basically plug and play, but since solitary SATA drives operate/show themselves as onboard IDE (stupid VIA chipset nomenclature), its best if you perform independent installations.

Good Luck!

S-N

Super Nade said:

That is something I wouldn't have done.

Click to expand...

If only I had known this before...

Super Nade said:

The SATA Option was greyed out because your first boot device may have been your IDE Drive. PM was confused by this and probably messed up your MBR. Did you try the fixmbr option in XP? Why don't you reinstall XP on the SATA drive if fixmbr or repair XP doesn't work (do ot format any partitions! Just do a reinstall)? Did you try a system restore (if you can get to the option screen by pressing F8) ?

Click to expand...

I'm confused as to how the IDE drive could have been my first boot device if I was booting to the Windows installation on the SATA drive. I am going to try the "fixmbr" option this evening; however, I have been reading a bit and some people feel that changing the drive letter of the OS will screw up everything. So even if I can successfully boot to Windows as the C: drive, my registry entries and such will be pointing to G:. Is this true, and if so should I try renaming the SATA drive back to G:?

Super Nade said:

Another option would be to reinstall Windows on the IDE, read data off the SATA, format the SATA, disconnect the IDE and reinstall XP on the SATA.
IDE drives are basically plug and play, but since solitary SATA drives operate/show themselves as onboard IDE (stupid VIA chipset nomenclature), its best if you perform independent installations.

Click to expand...

This is what I'm going to do if all else fails. However, I'm confused about the drive lettering scheme that Windows uses. If I install windows on my IDE drive, it will be C: by default. After I transfer data from my SATA drive to the IDE drive, I will disconnect the IDE drive and then reformat and install Windows on the SATA drive. Again, Windows will be installed on C:. When I reconnect the IDE drive that has a Windows partition on it, will the SATA drive remain as C: as long as I make sure to boot from it??? If not, then I'll encounter the same problem I had in the first place.

I've used fixmbr and fixboot to solve the same type of problem. I've never had any issues where windows was looking in the wrong place(registry wise). If neither of these options works, then it's time to reinstall. At some point all of this becomes to much, and a reinstall is the easy way out. But if you dont want to do a reinstall, then just run the fix commands. I would definately disconnect the ide drive while youre running the repair operation, because the install/repair functions might try to do their magic on the ide drive instead of the sata. Good luck either way, and let us know if you need any more help.

Matt

Thanks for all of your suggestions. I tried just about everything possible to save my existing OS partition, but nothing worked. I reformatted both drives and I'm slowly getting everything back on-line.

Now I can see why so many people hate Partition Magic... it is an evil, evil program. Granted, it's my fault for not knowing that one should never rename the OS partition, but I can't believe that a commercial program like this would allow a user to completely screw up his/her system without so much as a simple warning. Even then, I'd think it would be intelligent enough to make the appropriate changes to the system directories where it stores its batch files to carry out operations after a reboot. This would have prevented such a catastrophic failure. I will never again touch this program.

Mate,

Did you try the drive letter remapping option in PM? I totally forgot about it!

Too late now

Super Nade said:

Mate,

Did you try the drive letter remapping option in PM? I totally forgot about it!

Too late now

Click to expand...

I can't remember exactly how things unfolded yesterday, but I'm pretty sure that the drive remapping option wasn't available when I used the PM boot disks. I figured that it was because my other partitions were deleted, and PM decided that the only remaining partition with a Windows installation could not be changed to anything other than C:.

I actually installed Windows on my IDE drive and tried to access the data off of my SATA drive, but the SATA drive would not show up in Windows, even after installing the SATA driver and rebooting. I wasn't about to wait around for another few hours trying to figure out what could be wrong, so I just said to hell with it and I reformatted. The only data that I lost which is not replaceable is about 3 months worth of e-mail messages. It's a good thing I don't run a business of this computer or something. I will definitely take more precautions in the future.