[ykad]

HI piyushsingh,

Thanks, I get you on the extra 20GB issue.

After check disk, the disk management utility shows exactly the same thing as the screen shot I posted before. Thanks.

[ykad]

Hi rgreen4,

Just found out that my bank can furnish me with the documents. So, the most important data is "recovered".

I just discovered a HDD recovery freeware. It does show something is lost on the new drive. I will keep you guys posted on the outcome.

If the freeware is useful, I will post the link.

[rgreen4]

That's good news. You never really posted what you long term intent was on the larger HD, but I assumed that it was because the older 70GB was getting crowded.

If that was the case, and the XP installation is a good one, stable and preforming well, then I would recommend one of two actions going forward. One is to format the new drive as a data drive and move all of your data to that drive, leaving the OS and applications in the first partition (C:). Empty the other three partitions and use a partitions software to remove the three, or simply reinstall XP and the applications, using the format of the install disc to clear out all the partitions and use the entire 70GB for a system drive.

The second is to purchase a cloning sofware (I use and like Acronis True Image 11) and simply clone the 70 onto the 320. It will move the OS, applications and data. It will proportion the partitions and maintain all partitions. Thus if you have 4 equal partitions now, you will have 4 roughly equal partitions on the new drive. Then you can reformat and use the older smaller drive as a backup drive for your critical data.

[ykad]

Hi regreen4,

I intend to use the older drive as a backup and the new drive as a system drive. I have tried out 2 freewares and they didn't any good. So now it is time to take some drastic measures.


Now the issue is, as you have seen, the size of the new disk in disk management utility and windows expolerer does not tally. I think simply format the drive won't do. I am thinking about using the XP install CD to delete the partition on the new drive, and then repartition it into two and reformat. What do you think? Thanks

[piyushsingh]

ykad - I would say don't use the XP disc to format. With your current setup as it is , just go to disk management and delete the 298GB disc space. This will result the 128GB partition to vanish from the explorer. Now from disk management only , create new partitions with the size you want.
Its always better to partition just the system drive with the install disc and other partitions are made from the easy to use disk management later according to need.
So use the disk management instead of install disc.

[ykad]

thanks, piyushsingh.

I intend to use the new disk as a system drive. Shouldn't I use XP CD for delete and re-partition and then proceed to a clean installation? Or it doesn't matter and disk management utility will work just fine: I can use disk management and only then proceed to a clean installation. Thanks.

[piyushsingh]

OK , if you want to use it as a system drive then its fine.

[rgreen4]

You may want to also go to the Western Digital website and download the DataLifeguard program for your drive. You did not give model so I could not definitively determine the version but they are apparently up to Ver11. This will reformat and prepare the drive, and you can also preform very detailed testing. I have not used it for a long time as up until last month it had been almost 10 years since I had purchased a WD internal drive. Not that I had anything against them, it was just that I had become used to Seagates and their Seatools software.

Once you have performed the testing and it clears, you should be able to partition (make it one partition at first), and then format with either the existing XP SP2 that is on the system drive or the XP on the disc.

This brings us back to the fact that initially you formatted the drive with XP SP2, but then you tried to install an original XP disc w/o even SP1. Is this disc the original disc that came with the machine and had been updated with SP1 and then SP2? Or is it another disc entirely?

When you install XP on the new drive, disconnect the power and signal cables to the older drive so that only the new drive is active. This will reduce the possibility of cross contamination of the MBR's. This is a precaution and will not in any way limit or change your ability to boot into either drive. This is the method I have used in all of my multi-boot installations where the OS's are on separate and distinct drives. That way I can add or remove the second or third boot drive and OS as I like.

[ykad]

Hi rgreen4.

Sorry for the late response. I had been caught up at work for the last two days. My original XP CD is before SP1. I upgrade it to SP2 using the CD distributed by Microsoft. So, they are on entirely different dics.

[rgreen4]

I understand fully. Unfortunately, sometimes the grindstone has to take precedence.
Have you tried to download the data lifeguard tools?

[ykad]

Hi rgreen4. Yes, I have downloaded and tried WD Data Lifeguard. Just as you recommended, I deleted the old partition and recreated a new one.


Then I proceed to do a clean installation using XP CD. You know what, Setup still cannot recognize the new drive correctly, saying the partition size is only 131GB and file format unknown. I totally give up hope on installing directly on the new drive.

When I tried Lifeguard tools, it cloned the orginal system drive C: to the new drive and the new drive boots perfectly well. So, i think I will get around the problem by performing a clean installation on the original old drive and then clone over to the new drive.

But if work get hectic again, I think I will just leave the system as it is now. "If it ain't broke, dont fix it"! :D

[piyushsingh]

ykad - one thing just came to my mind after seeing 127GB partition. Did you use FAT32 file system instead of NTFS to format the drive from the XP disc ?This is the only possible reason left that the partition size comes approx 127GB only.

[ykad]

piyushsingh - I have been using NTFS all the while for formatting. That's why I am puzzled by the problem!

[rgreen4]

Ykad - what I wanted you to do is use the Data Lifeguard tools to erase all existing partitions on the new drive and format it as if you were going to use the drive as a SINGLE VOLUME WITHOUT PARTITIONS. At this point the drive should have only a single volume equal to the drive size and no OS, no partitions.

I do not know how Data Lifeguard clones a drive, but if it properly cloned the drive you would have a mirror image of your old drive with the same number of partitons and all the data that was there with the partitions on the new drive being the same percentage of the total volume as on the old. Thus, if partition 2 was 25% of the old drive, it would be 25% of the new drive. Acronis True Image does this as do other true cloning applications. I do not think that is your situation.

Then remove the current system drive by disconnecting the cables. With only the new formatted single volume drive in the machine, install XP WITHOUT ATTEMPTING A PARTITION.

Then, after XP is installed, you can partition the drive. XP installation does not play nice with partitions on the system drive.

[ykad]

rgreen4 - What I did is exactly identical to what you mentioned: One volume without partitions. I have also disconnected the old drive before installation. I did not repartition using XP setup.

Lifeguard only clones the system partition. It does not clone the entire hard disk. Well, this is exactly what I want.

Please let me ask a question: When I merge the partitions in the old drive, is it OK to merge all partitions into the system partitions, C: using Partition Magic? I just afraid I will create the another hiccup. Thanks.