Hey Guys - I really hope you can help me on this because Im going to be so gutted if I have to loose 120 gigs of data!
QUICK SUMMARY - PARTITIONED NEW HARDDRIVE INTO 5 PARTITIONS USING DISK MANAGEMENT, INSTALLED OS ONTO NEW HD, RESTARTED COMPUTER, MY COMPUTER NOW DISPLAYS THE HARD DRIVE AS 10 GIG SYSTEM (LIKE PLANNED) AND THE REST ALL AS ONE PARTITION AND NOT 4.
Ok, Lets try and explain this to you all - best place to start = the start
Sorry if its too detailed but its better to tell you everything and let you decide what you need to know.
So
MAIN SPEC
WINDOWS XP
512 DDR 333mhz RAM
2100XP+ AMD CPU
I had 40 gig IBM (crappy i know) 7200RPM Hard Drive
AND
a 120 gig IBM Hard Drive also 7200RPM
On the 40 (42) gig was the following partitions,
10 gigs - WINDOWS - C
30 gigs - WORK&EDITS - D
2 gigs - DOWNLOADS - G
Then on the 120 gigs i had
100 gigs - STORAGE - F
20 gigs - GAMES - E
I think that is correct, as far as i can remember. The partition table there is correct but maybe the drive letters and capacity maybe slightly out.
Anyway,
I purchased a new 160 MAXTOR DIAMONDMAX 9 HD because the 40 gig was overheating and i had also got a new cooling case meaning i can get rid of the 40 and replace it with the 160.
I planned first what I wanted my final system to end up like. I came up with the following:
(I study media/film hence the need for editing partition for when i make visual projects)
DRIVE LETTER - NAME OF PARTITION - CAPACITY - FAT32orNTFS?
120 GIG IBM
D - DOWNLOADS - 2G - FAT32
E - EDITING - 100G - NTFS
W - WORK - 10G - FAT32
160 GIG MAXTOR
C - SYSTEM - 10G - FAT32 (To be converted to NTFS when OS installed) - Would have to make 'D' temporarily because drive letter 'C' was being occupied by the 40 gig - until removed)
S - STORAGE - 37G - NTFS
G - GAMES - 15G - NTFS
M - MUSIC - 20G - FAT32
V - VIDEO - 70G - NTFS
I checked around with people first to make sure that that many partitions wont cause problems, I was re-assured with them all saying it should be ok,
I admit, im not very good with partitions, im one of those guys who think they know what their doing but when things like what i am about to explain happen it proves that i have alot to learn in this subject area. You are probably already thinking why I made strange choices between NTFS and FAT32 partitions. The reasons for this is I wanted everything that I needed to be reliable and stable under NTFS and any partition which would contain backuped files and small size files as FAT32 (plus its quicker so i understand). So that is the reasoning for the choices - I am probably totally wrong but...oh well
So using Computer Managements > Disk Management on WINDOWS XP i formatted the new HD to my stated specification above.
So next was how to transfer the data between hard drives and being able to get it onto the correct partition - was not going to be easy.
But after a day i managed to have everything sorted, I cleared the 40 gig hard drive of everything except for the 10 gig SYSTEM partition which I was still running so i didnt want to delete that!
So once these two partitions:
30 gigs - WORK&EDITS - D
2 gigs - DOWNLOADS - G
off the 40 gig were clear I deleted the partitions (all this was done via Computer Managements, Disk Management) All this was now shown as free space. So now i had 10 GIGS for WINDOWS and 30 GIGS of FREE Space combined into one on the 40 gig.
Then I wanted to clear the 120 gig so i could format it and set up the partitions on it. So i did so, i transfered all the files across to my new HD again. The 120 was now empty and therefore i cleared all partitions so i had a 120 GIG Unallocated free Hard drive - to be partitioned when the 160 gig was up and running.
Next (in my head) was to install XP again onto the new hard drive (160) as if i was to get rid of the 40 gig, that had the OS on it.
I shut down my computer and removed the 40 gig hard drive
Put the 160 gig as PRIMARY and disconnected the 120 gig to avoid any corruption or damage to it.
I switched on my computer again and went into DOS using an ME Bootup disk.
***Bear in mind my CD drives were disconnected throughout all this because I needed the IDE lead for the third hard drive. Only now was a CD drive reconnected for use when installing the OS.*****
So in DOS I looked at FDISK to see what it was viewing the partitions as, it didnt seem happy with the large 6 digit number of the new hard drive, The number went over to the system collumn. Something like 15500 was displayed on the capactiy then on the partition title had the 8 (end digit of the capacity) - dunno if you understand that! Sorry!
Anyway, i exited FDISK without touching anything and installed XP. Didnt format the SYSTEM partition because XP had already done that for me. At the end of the instal I let it convert the 10 gig OS partition on the 160 HD into NTFS as its more stable.
***********THE PROBLEM**************
When going into the newly installed XP with the 120 GIG now reconnected as slave to the 160, the partitions were like so!
C - SYSTEM - 10 GIG
D - ±°½Í8─ëX - 14.6 GIG
The 120 wasnt located on the MY COMPUTER screen because it was unallocated, i was planning to format and partition that on the next stage, but seeming this stage was far from complete it never happened.
I went into disk management again and it found both hd, the 120 as all unallocated space (as expected) but the 160 as 10 gig SYSTEM and 150 gig (±°½Í8─ëX).
I went into this partition (which is only displayed as 14.6 gig in MY COMPUTER) and inside it was 38 folders with a manner of wierd titles like üý!.¤Ô«, t$▄Ïç═▄
.Ðß and ▓│áÛÛ .ô░¶. Some folders were hidden others werent. There were also files with the same strange 'windings' names.
I cannot go into any of the folders because i get the error message - *NAME OF FOLDER* is not accessible. The Filename, Directory name, or volume lable syntax is incorrect.
DAMN! DAMN! DAMN! DAMN! DAMN!
THat 160 HD has everything on it, all my editing and work. I really could do with getting it back badly!
Any help would be much appricated, I dont really wanna touch anything like the programmes until you tell me to because at the moment everything is pretty much untouched and if i start formatting i could loose everything! I was thinking maybe it went out of sync when i converted the 10 gig partition to NTFS from FAT32. I was thinking about maybe reformating that SYSTEM partition and making it FAT32 again and seeing if XP will recognise the other partitions.
At the moment i am back on my 40 gig HD with the 160 as slave. I have tried making the 160 secondary, slave, primary....all sorts of combinations and the both reveal the partition(s) as the same problem. Also it says that the ±°½Í8─ëX partition is FAT32. Dunno if that helps.
As for when i did the partitioning on the 160 gig, i think i made the SYSTEM the PRIMARY partition, The GAMES the EXTENDED PARTITION and then the rest LOGICAL partitions. SO it may be finding the games partitions (seeming the capacity of the ±°½Í8─ëX matches the capacity of the games partition) but not finding the logical partitions and therefore merging it all into one. That could just be me talking crap though :)
I dont THINK i made any of them dynamic, but again not sure what all this dynamic stuff is all about, it doesnt seem to explain it!
ANYWAY, ANY HELP OR QUESTIONS YOU WANT TO GIVE ME I WILL ANSWER ASAP because I cant do alot at the moment,
Thanks in advance for ANYONEs help! Much appriciated!
Hope the answer ' YOUR SCREWED ' is not given by anyone but i have a feeling it might be! I will loose everything! 120GIGS worth of stuff!
Stupid computers,
Anyway, ive been going on enough now,
THANKS THANKS and really sorry if you dont understand all that, its really hard to explain!!
CHRIS!
