Hi Jeanette, hello everyone, Start the computer with the WinME boot disk. At the A:\> type fdisk and press [Enter] Select the option to display partition information, should be option #4. Post back with that information. Best Regards, Mesich

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Hi mesich :o) You were a great!!! help to me twice before nice to see you again.. Okay, this is what comes up after selecting #4. Display Partition Information... Current fixed disk drive: 1 [Partition] C: 1 [Status] A [Type] PRI DOS [Volume Label] {nothing there} [Mbytes] 16387 [System] FAT32 [Usage] 29% Under the above heading is another line.. [Partition] (#2) [Status] (nothing there) [Type] EXT DOS [Volume Label] {nothing there} [Mbytes] 40868 [System] (nothing there) [Usage] 71% Total disk space is 57255 Mbytes (1 Mbyte = 1048576) The extended DOS Partition contains Logical DOS drives. Do you want to display the logical drive Information (Y/N) All Chinese to me...:o)

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Hi Jeannette, hello everyone, Thank you for the kind words. It's nice to see you again also. I'm just doing my part with the team here. :-) Looks good. The primary partition is using 29% and the rest of the hard drive has been assigned to the extended partition. The extended partition allows for one to create logical partitions with the space allocated to it. You could actually assign 23 logical partitions within the extended. With that said, the primary will be assigned C: and the first logical partition within the extended would be assigned D:. The second logical would be E: and so on. Yes, please post back with the logical drive information. Some things appear Chinese to me, such as the science homework my son brought home. :-) Best Regards, Mesich

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Okay..:o) now, what do I do next? You've reassured me that it looks good...but still somewhat Chinese to me. How do I get the "logical drive information"? Is that not my C: drive what I just gave you above? Do I still have my Windows XP installed? Since I formatted my C: drive I'm assuming it formatted the whole drive and not just a partition. Thanks for your patience.

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Hi Jeannette, hello everyone, When you run fdisk and select option #4 to display the partition information, it should allow you to view the logical partitions as well. Post back with the information for the logical partitions. Best Regards, Mesich

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Hi Jeannette, Michelle67, Rich Mentzel, Dave357, dropkick, hi everyone "How do I get the "logical drive information"?" "The extended DOS Partition contains Logical DOS drives. Do you want to display the logical drive Information (Y/N)" Press the [Y]key to display logical drive information. "Is that not my C: drive what I just gave you above?" Partially, a hard drive can be divided into several parts. Imagine a cupboard without shelves, that's the hard drive with one huge partition (C: drive), you can fill it with stuff (programs/data etc.). Place a smaller cupboard without shelves in the original cupboard and you have divided the cupboard in to two sections, the C: drive (partition #1) and the EXTended partition (partition #2) When you put in one or more shelves in to the smaller cupboard, the cupboard obviously gets divided it into separate sections, thus the hard drive now is partitioned in to more pieces i.e. the PRImary partition C: (partition #1), the EXTended partition (partition #2) which holds the Logical DOS drives; D: (partition #3), E: (partition #4) drive and so on. Windows XP probably still is installed somewhere on one of your logical partitions. However since you have formatted the C: drive, the PRImary partition which contains the necessary files to boot the computer and direct it to appropriate partition where Windows XP is to be found is wiped clean, it temporarily is inaccessible. As Dave mentioned earlier: "...you have not formatted your entire harddrive...only the C: partition on it. You evidently have at least 2 partitions...C: and D:." Best Regards and Wishes, The Count, Co-webmaster of mesich.com

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Hello 'The Count'..thanks for the detailed explanation on Partitions.. I got it now :o) 'Mesich'..thanks for the "baby steps" to get me to the logical drives..unfortunately some of us need ...baby steps :o) Okay.. the Logical DOS drive Information page says... ---No Logical Drives defined-- Total extended DOS Partition size is 40868 mbytes.

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Jeanette: Currently your drive has an empty (but fat32 reformatted) Primary partition; and an XP installation in the Extended partition. XP is missing its boot/start-up files which normally reside in the Primary partition. Restore those and one other minor missing item (the XP mbr) and you're away. The XP boot-files were in alongside the ME installation initially, and reformatting c: wiped them out - thus no boot to XP... So... Presuming that c: "has" been reformatted as fat32 (via a '98 or ME bootdisk) all you have to do to recover access to XP (installed on d: ) is run XP setup and choose the repair option. Follow the routine detailed at: http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm (the section titled "XP Repair Install") This will do all that's needed... In your initial situation (an unintentional dual-boot) all you had to do to lose ME (installed in the Primary partition - c: ) was to boot to XP, and ensure that XP was set as the default OS to boot; then via XP Explorer locate/delete the ME folder from the c: partition. To take it even further you could also hve deleted the single line entry in the XP boot.ini that referred to ME. And finally emptied the recle-bin and defragged the c: (Primary) partition. Job done. The only drawback with having XP installed in the Extended partition and virtually nothing in the Primary partition is that it's a little unconventional... But otherwise it's OK. You can still use the Primary for data etc. If you want to go more conventional and have XP (alone...) in the c: Primary, then simply run XP setup and go for a clean/fresh installation; accepting the default location c:\windows (or c:\winnt - whichever it offers). Do NOT accept any offers to (re)format the c: partition, or to change the file format (on either partition)... Once XP is installed in c: you may have a dual-boot XP/XP (it may find and add the version in d: ) to the boot-menu (it may not...). Either way once XP is installed in c: , simply ensure it boots to it by default and then delete the XP installation in d: (via XP Explorer in c: ). As before empty the recycle-bin and defrag d: afterwards. Job done. I like the Count's analogy of a cupboard and shelves...; a better/improved variation on the more usual filing cabinet analogy... There is no need to totally reformat the drive, to reconfigure the drive etc. afresh. It's already partitioned in "an ideal manner" - i.e. Primary for OS/apps and Extended for data.

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Hi Jeannette, Michelle67, Rich Mentzel, Dave357, dropkick, trvlr, hello everyone, Hi trvlr, I think I am getting a bit confused, or just need a couple of more beers, not sure which. :-) Jeanette's hard drive is showing the correct amount of space. 16387MB on the Primary partition. 40868MB on the Extended partition. Total of 57255 Mbytes 1 Mbyte = 1048576 bytes so the drive size would be 60GB. In response #6; Drive D: 14 files 655.851 bytes 0 dir 1,427.456 bytes FREE That shows there is .6KB on drive D: with 1.4KB free. I don't see how there could possibly be a WinXp installation on that. Drive D: is actually the information for the extended partition which has not yet defined any logical drives. If one creates a Primary Partition and only uses 20% for the primary and then creates an Extended partition with the remaining 80%, nothing can be put on the extended until a logical drive is created. Sorry if I have confused this thread but it really makes no sense that WinXp is currently installed on the extended partition without a logical drive being defined. Also with the Extended Partition only showing 1.4KB free. Best Regards, Mesich

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Hi Mesich, Count, Jeanette, trvlr, et al, Although trvlr's method will work, it's somewhat messy & liable to leave some unneeded clutter. Fdisk reports: >---No Logical Drives defined-- This information is probably incorrect for the following reasons: 1) XP installation probably formatted the partition as NTFS file system, rather than FAT32. (It would do this by default.) 2) Fdisk has trouble with NTFS logical drives. If you truly want to wipe the HD and install WinXP into a single partition, there are several steps that you will need to take, in the following order: 1) Delete the logical partition (which fdisk doesn't recognize). 2) Delete the Extended Partition. 3) Delete the Primary Partition. 4) Create a new Primary Partition, utilizing all of the harddrive. 5) Format the new partition. 6) Install WinXP. The good news is that (as long as you're willing to accept the NTFS file system) all of the above steps can be accomplished with the WinXP setup. It will prompt you whether or not to repartition & format the HD. Just choose YES. The bad news is that if you want FAT32 for any reason, it will get a lot more complicated. XP Setup won't create a FAT32 partition greater than ?35? GB. (I don't remember the size offhand, but it's less than 40-GB.) So you'll have to use the WinME version of fdisk to create the partition, but there's another catch...fdisk won't delete the NTFS Logical Drive within the Extended Partition, so you'll need to use a utility like delpart (scroll down to the partitioning tools at this link) to delete the partitions, then use fdisk to recreate the new one. Next use the WinME bootdisk to format the partition, then install WinXP. Hope I haven't muddied the waters too much here. HTH Dave If Wile Coyote had enough money for all that Acme crap, why didn't he just buy dinner?

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Hi Mesich, You snuck in a post while I was typing. LOL Jeanette, the reason that you cannot access your D:\ drive is because your WinME bootdisk is actually MS-DOS, and MS-DOS doesn't recognize NTFS drives. If you were to (hypothetically) slave the harddrive into another computer running NT/Win2K/WinXP, the D:\ drive would be visible. HTH Dave If Wile Coyote had enough money for all that Acme crap, why didn't he just buy dinner?

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Ouch!!! that's a lot to take in :o) I'm going to print all your replies and see what I can accomplish. Thanks so very much everyone. You've all been a great help. I'll be sure to post back to let you know how I made out.

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Hi guys. This is why I said to delete all partitions and reformat with XP. It is a lot more easier and less confusing. If Jeannette wanted to install XP then it should be done with a clean install. Here is a link for it: http://www.theeldergeek.com/xp_home_install_-_graphic.htm At least I hope it showed up as a link for you. If not copy and paste.

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Hi everyone.. You've all given me a huge amount of support and patience with your information...'Michelle67' GREAT!!! web site. Thank you.. After printing all the above, most of it fell into place as far as understanding what I wanted to do. I was going to follow 'dropkick' and 'trvir' suggestions to reinstall a clean fresh Windows XP...now the problem is..I can no longer access the CD-ROM drive, even with my old Windows ME boot disk. I have the boot sequence in my BIOS as. #1 [ATAPI CD-ROM] #2 [Floppy] #3 [ Hard drive]. If I boot with the Windows XP installation disk in the CD drive, I get the message {Boot from Atapi CD-ROM} < No emulation> Booting with my old Windows ME boot disk helped to access the CD drive but I found out that Windows XP cannot be installed in DOS. I tried FDISK as 'Dave357' suggested (response 16) 1) Delete the logical partion...message I get {No logical drives defined} 2) Delete the Extended Partition...message I get {cannot delete extended DOS partition while logical drive exist} 3) Delete the Primary Partition...message I get {WARNING.Data in deleted Primary DOS partition will be lost. What Primary partition do you want to delete (?) etc... Sooooo... I'm stuck... I was able to get access to the Windows XP installation disk but with the help of Windows ME boot disk yesterday where I had choices to repair or install but today, I no longer can... Now I'm looking at a big elephant and not knowing what to do with it :o) Thanks again everyone...

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Going back a little to XP setup basics; useful to understand overall? The standard approach to installing XP is either to boot via the CD and follow the on-screen prompts to install XP (usually the default is to the Primary partition - c: , but this can changed); or use the 6 XP boot-floppies (+ the CD), and likewise follow on-screen prompts - the floppy has to be first boot option in the bios. It can be done via a '98/ME bootdisk (with CDROM drivers) too; though I think this latter is less common?. If the drive is already partitioned/formatted you can simply pick your target/partition (where you wish to install XP) and leave the file format as is; "usually" it will be fat32 (as it's usually preformatted via '98/ME bootdisk)... XP setup (usually) offers to reformat it as ntfs (by default); an offer I tend to decline, preferring fat32 in a domestic environment.. If the drive is not partitioned etc. then XP setup will offer to do that too; an offer you can accept - and you can also decide just how large you want the Primary partition (where XP sill usually be installed) to be. The balance of the drive(if you don't use it all for Primary) can be configured/formatted later via XP Disk Admin tools. In my book it's wise to have an Extended partition area for data etc. - only. Now back to your current messages re' Fdisk: (From which I read that you have not managed to delete any partitions on the drive... - I hope.) Fdisk cannot delete an ntfs partition/logical-drive - if it's in the Extended partition location; Fdisk will only delete a Primary ntfs partition. To delete an Extended ntfs area typically one would use delpart.ext (a freebie util from M$ NT days). There are other ways too - but let's not go down those roads at this time; it's unnecessary. When asked to look for/see an ntfs area in the Extended partition space - Fdisk will not see it; just as it can't delete it as a result. The drive will be reported as having no logical-drives present - as your error message #1; and when you try to delete the Extended partition you will get the logical-drive(s) present error message - as in your error message #2... One must delete all logical-drives before one can delete an Extended partition (using Fdisk). "Usually" you cannot delete a Primary partition until all logical-drives and the extended partition have been deleted; which is not say it can't be done even if those items still exist. Quite why you are unable to boot via the CD - ??? Why can you not see/access the CD via an ME bootdisk? Did you reset the bios to floppy first, and does the disk have CDROM drivers included? However as you have web access, go to bootdisk.com and download the (6) separate images for the XP bootdisks (one for each floppy). Save each to a harddrive and then (self-)expand each to a floppy. These floppies are your XP bootdisks. Next ensure the bios (in the problem PC) is set to allow a floppy boot as first option. Then load the first of the 6 XP floppies you have made (and load the XP CD into the CDROM) and boot up. Follow on-screen prompt as regards the other floppies. At this stage - as you have not deleted (or have you...) the Extended partition, where XP is (hopefully) still resident - you could follow either of my earlier routines; i.e. either allow XP to repair the current installation in the still existant Extended partition (I posted a link to a detailed "how to repair XP " site); or simply install XP to the Primary partition. Setup will default to c:\windows (or c:\winnt - whichever it coughs up). Fine - accept it and complete the installation. Setup may or may not detect the version in the Extended partition and add it to the boot.ini created/installed in c: (the active Primary) as per normal setup. If it doesn't add it to the boot.ini you "can" do it manually later; or you can simply delete that version in the ntfs Extended partition via XP Explorer now installed in the c: (Primary) partition.ini. A detailed "how to intall XP" site - in case of need... http://www.networkcert.net/xp/install.htm#fromCD http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;316941 The M$ KB also includes the assorted repair routines... There really is no need to reformat the partition(s); nor to totally wipe and reconfigure the drive; no need of Fdisk/format routines in order to get going again. It can all be done with the drive configured/formatted as is. And a "very" detailed Fdisk tutorial from M$ (for future reference: http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q255/8/67.ASP

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Thank you again 'trvir' You've been a big help. I will go to the web sites you suggested and do my best. I do know that I can re-install my Windows ME if all else fails. Thanks to all for your time and efforts.:o) You all deserve a round of applause. I'll be sure to update these postings for someone else who may have the same problem. Bye for now...

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