How To Format Drive?

mr_quick

Jun 23 2004, 02:15 AM

the problem begins when i am trying to copy a running windows xp using norton ghost. After finished copying, i installed the drive to its original PC, but it won't start it only says that "missing operating sytem". I tried to boot a win98 start-up to check the contents of the drive but i was so shocked when it only displays the 6GB total capacity. I was so confused where is the remaing 34GB because it is a 40GB maxtor. I used Max Blast (Disk Manager) but it only frozen my system it seems that it cannot read the disk present.

HERE ARE MY QUESTIONS
1.)Is there any ways to resolve this problem?
2.)If yes, what is the best utility to be used in terms of partioning & formatting?
3.)Do I need to partion it using linux bootable disk? Because i am new to LInux thats why i don't know what i does..

Please i need ur help here THANKS ..

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mr_quick

tweakz20

Jun 23 2004, 02:45 AM

QUOTE

"missing operating sytem"

What are the contents of the boot.ini file?... Linux has a different way of booting, but windows uses the boot.ini file (found in C:\ or default drive...) to see what OSs are present... it may help a little...
Here's mine for an example of what it should look like...

CODE

[boot loader]
timeout=0
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

QUOTE

I tried to boot a win98 start-up to check the contents of the drive but i was so shocked when it only displays the 6GB total capacity.

Windows 98 boot disk can only read win32 partitions... NT and any linux ones can't be read

mr_quick

Jun 23 2004, 03:05 AM

tweakz20, i am expecting that using norton ghost it will automatically copy the contents of the drive including the partion table even the destination drive is of different types (fat32 fat16 NTFS or any).

QUOTE

What are the contents of the boot.ini file?... Linux has a different way of booting, but windows uses the boot.ini file (found in C:\ or default drive...) to see what OSs are present... it may help a little...
Here's mine for an example of what it should look like...

CODE
[boot loader]
timeout=0
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

Ok i'll check this afterwards

But any way thank your for your suggestions..

JDog45

Jun 23 2004, 06:25 AM

did you boot with your norton ghost boot disks???

DumpZ

Jun 23 2004, 08:35 AM

Can you boot with Partition Magic? Because if your drive still has a linux filessytem maybe you can convert it. But the filesystem of a partition is also stored in the ghost image so i assume your boot record is damaged.

So what i recommend is boot with an windows 98 boot disk, and do

CODE

fdisk /mbr

This will restore the boot record if im not mistaken

mr_quick

Jun 23 2004, 10:34 AM

QUOTE

did you boot with your norton ghost boot disks???

nope, i only put the exe file to the source drive and boot it using win98 start-up disk. My source drive has deep freeze locking on it so i need to have bootable disk in order to look the contents of that drive.

QUOTE

Can you boot with Partition Magic? Because if your drive still has a linux filessytem maybe you can convert it. But the filesystem of a partition is also stored in the ghost image so i assume your boot record is damaged.

CODE

fdisk /mbr

This will restore the boot record if im not mistaken

sorry i don't have the full working version, only i have the v8.02.

QUOTE

So what i recommend is boot with an windows 98 boot disk, and do

NOt tested yet..

strasharo

Jun 23 2004, 11:17 AM

Mr_quick,i had the same problem a couple of times and i used DBAN,and resolved it successfully.
Basically it fills the entire harddisk with nulls and wipes all existing partition info.So after that the drive is like new.You just need to make the new partitions.That`s all.

The web page of DBAN is:
http://dban.sf.net/
Have a nice day!

Partizaan

Jun 23 2004, 03:23 PM

Other tools that kan help

zapdisk.exe (whipes the partitiontable)
Partition Magic Bootdisk but 'The Server Edition'

However I think the boot.ini is missing. prolly on another partition. So u can edit it in notepad and ad it with the ghostbrowser. I always use hirens bootcd. it has massive partition (also ntfs) and disk tools for troubleshooting.

mr_quick

Jun 24 2004, 01:41 AM

OK, thanks to all the suggestions guys i'll start searching these tools now. And i'll post it here if ever the problem will be resolved;)

mr_quick

Jun 24 2004, 02:57 AM

yeheey!!! it works now guys and i only used the partition magic from a friend..THANKS for spending time..

SeNSeMaNN

Jun 24 2004, 12:49 PM

QUOTE (mr_quick @ Jun 23 2004, 02:15 AM)

the problem begins when i am trying to copy a running windows xp using norton ghost. After finished copying, i installed the drive to its original PC, but it won't start it only says that "missing operating sytem". I tried to boot a win98 start-up to check the contents of the drive but i was so shocked when it only displays the 6GB total capacity. I was so confused where is the remaing 34GB because it is a 40GB maxtor. I used Max Blast (Disk Manager) but it only frozen my system it seems that it cannot read the disk present.

HERE ARE MY QUESTIONS
1.)Is there any ways to resolve this problem?
2.)If yes, what is the best utility to be used in terms of partioning & formatting?
3.)Do I need to partion it using linux bootable disk? Because i am new to LInux thats why i don't know what i does..

Please i need ur help here THANKS ..

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mr_quick

set your system partition as active, reboot and have fun !!