[cinzia]

Welcome to Geeks2Go, nuthatcher

Windows XP setup is quite capable of both creating and formatting a partition prior to installing XP.

Having said that, it's unusual (very unusual in fact) for a new hard disk to be supplied pre-formatted. If it was, it could very well have been a second-hand one. I've bought 6 new hard disks over 4 years and none of them were partitioned, let alone formatted. That's how new hard disks are usually supplied. Your "new" disk could have been faulty when you bought it. It's almost certainly been used before you got it, unless the store is in the habit of formatting new disks for it's customers? I've never known any store do that, unless they formatted it to 'wipe' the data of a previous owner (as I said, second-hand). But then they should not be selling it claiming it to be 'new'. It could even be argued that the process of formatting it before it's sold renders it 'used' and not new, but that's probably verging on the ridiculous.

In view of it's having been already formatted, I think I would have run a disk-diagnostic utility on it before installing the OS, to satisfy myself that it was in a healthy state. Indeed, you could still do that now. determine what brand it is, then visit the manufacturer's website->customer service->downloads page.
All the main HD maker's offer free disk-checking tools for checking their own disks. They run from a floppy disk or bootable CD-R so you can check the disk even if Windows won't run.

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I'm confused as to what is the issue here?
You have quoted a response from over a year ago but have provided no information to what your issue is or even requested any assistance.
Please provide more info and details to your issue and what you would like to have assistance for.

[rshaffer61]

I'm confused as to what is the issue here?
You have quoted a response from over a year ago but have provided no information to what your issue is or even requested any assistance.
Please provide more info and details to your issue and what you would like to have assistance for.

[cinzia]

sorry. the older answer affixed to my email, and i could not delete or overwrite it.

I have a windows xp system with a 320 g drive. I used Partition Magic to partition it so that the operating system was in "C", and the other partitions were apps and data. I began getting a Windows blue screen error, which meant absolutely nothing. the system still worked ok. Then, one afternoon when I went to check mail, my browser could no longer connect. long story short: Partition Magic says I don't have an active partition anywhere on the drive, and the drive is completely filled. PM won't let me change partition size (apparently my C partition became full and overwrote something critical. Windows shows the C partition with about 5% space, and healthy, as are the others on the disk. I've redone the MBR, which did nothing. I really don't want to have to reformat and lose all the info. any help would be appreciated (maybe something like FestDisk?)

thanks..
cynthia

[rshaffer61]

Problem one is the amount of free space left on main drive is not enough to let the OS run correctly.
Second of all with so little space left the MBR is probably corrupted.
Third you need to backup the data files and other files that you can get rid of.
Once this is all safe then we can proceed to repair the system files and get you back up and running.
Right now with the low disk space we won't be able to correct anything.
I suggest using a linux based live cd to backup your data or at least files that can be saved and then deleted from the main drive.
Ubuntu or Puppy Linux are the two we suggest most often for this.
Below are the directions for Puppy

Get Puppy Linux Download this file:
puppy-2.16-seamonkey-fulldrivers.iso
and burn it to cd
..
If you don't have a burning program that will burn .ISO files get burncdcc from my signature below ..a small FAST no frills iso burning program...

NOTE...do not put a blank cd in until burncdcc opens the tray for you
1. Start BurnCDCC
2. Browse to the ISO file you want to burn on cd/dvd ....in this case its puppy-2.16-seamonkey-fulldrivers.iso
3. Select the ISO file
4. click on Start

make sure in the bios the cd drive is the first boot device....

put the cd in the cd drive..boot your computer....puppy will boot and run totally in ram...if your hardware is in good working order you will know...
after you get it running and your at the desktop...you take the puppy linux cd out and then you can use the burner to copy all yor data to cd/dvds
you can also use it to backup your data to a external usb harddrive..You must have it hooked to the computer when you boot up with puppy.

[cinzia]

I have a windows xp system with a 320 g drive. I used Partition Magic to partition it so that the operating system was in "C", and the other partitions were apps and data. I began getting a Windows blue screen error, which meant absolutely nothing. the system still worked ok. Then, one afternoon when I went to check mail, my browser could no longer connect. long story short: Partition Magic says I don't have an active partition anywhere on the drive, and the drive is completely filled. PM won't let me change partition size (apparently my C partition became full and overwrote something critical. Windows shows the C partition with about 5% space, and healthy, as are the others on the disk. I've redone the MBR, which did nothing. I really don't want to have to reformat and lose all the info. any help would be appreciated (maybe something like FestDisk?)

thanks..


*************************

deleted everything i could, and the c drive now has 23% free space. is this enough to try to fix things?
cynthia

[rshaffer61]

Download and install Free Everest Home Edition
Open it.
1: In left pane expand Computer folder.
2: Click once on Summary
3: In upper menu, go Report
4: And then to Quick Report-Summary
5: Save it in text file, and paste it in your next post.
Click the + by computer, click on Sensor. Get a screenshot and post it so I can check your temps and voltages...

DO NOT INCLUDE ANYTHING UNDER THE LINE THAT SAYS "DEBUG- PCI"

[cinzia]

have attached the two reports.

Attached Files

•  Computer_Summary_Report.txt   32.81KB   74 downloads
•  Screen_shot.txt   28.54KB   77 downloads

[rshaffer61]

C: (NTFS) 27988 MB (4102 MB free)

This is your C drive where Os is.
As you can see it is 30 gigs with only 4 gigs free.
This is barely enough for the MFT to function and probably was less when you started receiving the BSOD's.
Now we need to do some cleaning to try and get this opened up.
The Data looks like it is all on the other partitions.
Is this correct?

[cinzia]

yes, I've removed as much from C as I think I safely can. Most of the files are now system related and updates. All the data is on the D: partition. I just removed Norton 360 tho, and the C drive now shows 207 G of free space. I have no idea what's going on.

sorry, misread. ignore previous free space comment.

Edited by cinzia, 12 September 2009 - 06:40 PM.

[rshaffer61]

Since C is the OS partition if you formatted it then the data on the other partitions should be safe.
You would have to reinstall all programs

[cinzia]

I've never formatted a partition. Do I just reinstall the OS to that drive or is there a specific command and how do I get to it?

[123Runner]

Are you able to boot this computer?
Are you able to get to safe mode?
How did you uninstall Norton 360?

You could try a repair install of the OS if you have your XP CD.

[cinzia]

the computer works fine 95% of the time, e4xcept my browsers can't connect (altho other software updates perfectly fine). I used Windows Add/Remove to uninstall, and I tried to get rid of programs that lived on the C drive. I can (usually, that's one of the "maybe" actions) get repair console to run, but I'm lost after that. Can I reformat just the C drive from Repair Console?

[rshaffer61]

A format is the last step we want to take.
Since you said the computer works fine 95% of the time then what we have is just some issues that need to be resolved.
Can I reformat just the C drive from Repair Console
Is this a laptop or a desktop?
It is possible but if you are going to do all this then why use Recovery Console ?

[cinzia]

this is a desktop. i would vastly prefer not to reformat. is there any way to fix the partition problem without? i can reload the mbr, tho last time i did it there was no change at all anywhere.