NTFS Partition problem for new HDD

[patrickshort13]

I have a couple of computers at work I take care of. I have one problem I can't seem to solve. A HP running WinXP lost it hard drive. I bought a 20GB hard drive to replace it. My plan was to format and partition then copy the contents of another HP system (exact same model). The problem is I can't get the new hard drive partitioned with NTFS greater than a 2 GB partition. It just won't let me do it. I don't have an updated copy of partition magic, I purchased Paragorn Drive Image, but it won't partition larger than 2 GB either. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Pat

 

[wolluf]

return the drive (if it really won't take > 2gb partition)?

fat32/fdisk?

XP's disk management (good idea if XP's going on - run diskmgmt.msc with drive as slave).

Drive manufacturer's tool for transferring old drive to new (you don't say how you intend doing that) - doesn't need pre-partitioning, does that as part of transfer.

 

[firewolfrl]

the concern I have is "Why did the HP lose its first drive?"
check the drive on a different machine.
how old is the HP?
how big was the previous drive?
get the latest BIOS flash for the machine.
did the machine recognize the 20 gig on boot?
did you set the drive to the HP's BIOS?

HP did not use the highest quality parts for their machines

 

[patrickshort13]

I'll try to give some more detail. The drive will partition with fdisk Fat32 to 19.8Gb. I've tried to then convert it to NTFS but I can't seem to get that to work. I have not tried XP disk management (unaware of it). I will try that. I don't think IBM has a drive transferring tool unless I am missing it. I downloaded the disk manager to partition and format the drive but I don't see any transfer capabilities but I'll look again.

I do not care for HP either. The first drive just says no O/S found when you boot to it. It can not find it if you boot to floppy either. Where can I get BIOS update? This machine is about 2 years old (Walmart special). Also, how do I set the drive to HP Bios? Thanks for all the help.

Pat

 

[wolluf]

http://www.hp.com/cposupport/sampler/pvpc/upgradesanupdatpdatesbios.html

I can't see any IBM transfer utility either (can never find anything on IBM since they merged with Hitachi!). Will your Paragon Drive Image do the trick? (once you've partitioned & formatted). Can you just do it with FAT32 partition (can always run XP's convert utility once you are up and running - type convert /? at command prompt to see how to run it).

'Also, how do I set the drive to HP Bios' - do you mean, how do you get into bios settings? If no instructions on POST screen, this page

http://h20015.www2.hp.com/en/document.jhtml?lc=en&docName=bph04778#P4_663

says press F1 for Pavilion PCs.

 

[firewolfrl]

Thanks wolluf for the great replies.

load the XP cd.
when you get to the partition area of the load.
delete all the existing partitions on the drive
then let xp do it thing and create a new NTFS partition

this should work.

 

[patrickshort13]

Thanks for the help. Therein lies the whole problem. I do not have an XP cd. These two HP machines (both from walmart, MY boss bought them not me) did not come with XP cd. It states in the paperwork you have to call HP to get XP cd if you need it. I did this and they tell me they don't have on and never made a recovery WinXP cd for the HP XT963 model. Just wonderful HP aren't they? Anyway, that is why I am trying to partition and format new HDD, then copy contents of good HDD on second machine over to new one. I am not making much progress, though. Anymore suggestions?

Pat

 

[wolluf]

1. Have you tried disk management to create partition yet?
2. What does Paragon software need to work (ie, if you partition the drive elswhere - eg, fdisk or disk management, will the Paragon software then do the transfer for you? Think it will have to be done from a floppy or reboot, as XP locks various system files so you can't copy them while operating system is up).
3. Is the current installation on ntfs or fat32? What I was thinking is if fat32, and you format new disk fat32, you could boot from win98 floppy and use xcopy to transfer all files (not sure about long name support on win98). Or you could copy everything that will copy from within XP using explorer - make note of files it can't copy & copy those from dos/win98 boot floppy.
PS. There is also freeware here

http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/NTFSDOS.shtml

which would let you read ntfs partition from dos/win98 boot floppy.
4. Also if fat32, would your version of Partition Magic be able to copy the partition from the rescue diskettes?
5. If you do manage to copy files/partition across you will probably need to fix the boot sector on the new disk (ie, run fixboot from Recovery Console). You can get the 6 XP setup disks from here

http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

(you can start recovery console from them).

 

[firewolfrl]

what OS did the two computers originally come with?
is there a restore partition on either computer?
How did you get XP on the Computers?

 

[patrickshort13]

Both computers are identical HP XT963 model that came WinXP already installed. They did not come with XP cd's. HP states you can get the cd if needed but tech support says they don't have any and never did. The damaged computer will not let me get to the restore partition but the good computer does have a restore partition. Still getting ready to try the disk management tools on XP that I was unaware of. Does anyone know a way to partition with NTFS to full disk size? (ie: 20GB)

 

[wolluf]

Just run disk management and create a partition which uses the whole drive (you'll probably get asked to let it write signature to disk first if new to XP - let it do so). On a blank disk, you can basically create and format as many or as few partitions and you want with disk management. Its quite straightforward to use.

You haven't made any comments about my previous post. One further thing I would say - if you intend copying to this new disk, make it fat32 - it gives you far more options. Once you've got XP up and running on it, you can convert it to ntfs if you want to (command prompt, use convert utility).

 

[wolluf]

Just run disk management and create a partition which uses the whole drive (you'll probably get asked to let it write signature to disk first if new to XP - let it do so). On a blank disk, you can basically create and format as many or as few partitions and you want with disk management (Ntfs, fat32 or fat). Its quite straightforward to use.

You haven't made any comments about my previous post. One further thing I would say - if you intend copying to this new disk, make it fat32 - it gives you far more options. Once you've got XP up and running on it, you can convert it to ntfs if you want to (command prompt, use convert utility).

 

[patrickshort13]

Okay,

Here's where I am at now. I hooked the new 20GB IBM drive to the good HP computer as a slave drive. Ran diskmgmt.msc. It will only allow me to make a partition of 2GB. I do not understand this. This is the same problem I had using Paragorn Drive Image. It would allow me to partition and format the drive (NTFS) but only 2GB size. When I used fdisk on this new drive, Fat32 partition of 19.8GB worked, then formatted, no problem right. Hooked it up as slave back in the good Hp machine and Paragorn Drive Image would not recognize the partition. I have not tried to run diskmgmt thru XP on this drive after it has a 19.8Gb partition. Also, the convert doesn't work because it doesn't recognize the Fat32 partition. Any solutions??????

 

[firewolfrl]

get yourself an ATA 100/133 IDE PCI card
they are cheap!!!!
give that a try.... ?

 

[wolluf]

when you used diskmgmt - what type of filestore did you select? (not FAT? - because that has a 2GB limit). have you tried fat32 using it?