Trying to repartition IDE drive

[Ucla74]

I want to repartition one of my hard drives. I have a 120GB IDE drive as C: and 2 160GB HDs on SATA 1 & 2. The SATA 1 drive is D: (at least XP thinks it is) and contains the OS.

The computer boots normally, although boot.ini pops up 2 choices; I have the default set to the second and everything seems fine.

However, Partition Commander installs to C: (no option here), and upon bootup, it tells me syscmndr.bin (not sure of the suffix) is missing. Well, syscmndr.xxx is for the optional boot selector program, which I didn't install.

At any rate--the file is on the drive, in the \PC (Partition Commander) folder. Researching the error seems to indicate an MBR problem, but I'm reluctant to mess with the MBR since the machine boots fine when PC isn't installed.

Any ideas out there? Is there something screwy in my boot.ini? Is my MBR really faulty?

For that matter, which MBR is being read? C: or D:?

 

[eurovw]

go to disk management, rename C: drive with another letter, then go back and rename D: drive to C: drive

 

[Ucla74]

Originally posted by: eurovw
go to disk management, rename C: drive with another letter, then go back and rename D: drive to C: drive

Tried that; won't let me rename C: or format C:

(Incidentally, there's nothing on C: that I want or need; I recently reinstalled XP Pro SP2, and just before doing that, reformatted the IDE drive.)

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: eurovw
go to disk management, rename C: drive with another letter, then go back and rename D: drive to C: drive

. . . and then rename the first one as D. But - that can impact on your OS if it thinks it is on D. Many of its registry entries will be pointed to D, not C. That's a mess!

So, you may just want to dump Partition Commander and get software that you can control. Are trying for a dual boot or what? That's sort of what it sounds like. To just change or repartition an existing drive, the weapon of choice is Partition Magic using it's bootable CD off line.

 

[Ucla74]

Originally posted by: corkyg

Originally posted by: eurovw
So, you may just want to dump Partition Commander and get software that you can control. Are trying for a dual boot or what? That's sort of what it sounds like. To just change or repartition an existing drive, the weapon of choice is Partition Magic using it's bootable CD off line.

I think that may be the ticket. Unfortunately, while I have my PM 6 & 7 license codes, I can't find the software (received via d/l, and the CD I burned them to is missing). So I was trying to save $30 by getting another product. There doesn't appear to be an upgrade route from PM 7 to PM 8.

Does PM still include Ghost?

EDIT: And no, not trying to dual boot. In fact, it was a VISTA 64-bit install that started this whole mess--it wouldn't let my find my original XP install without booting from a CD. But that's another story...

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: Ucla74

Does PM still include Ghost? [/quote]

Not to my knowldge - but there are such bundles available . .

Bundle

 

[eurovw]

try to disconnect the IDE drive, install your program, and then reconnect IDE drive.