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partition problem

earth2011earth2011 Member Posts: 131


i hade made 3 partitions of my hard drive and then install three operating systems on them - after this i made only one partition but i still shows the other two partition when the laptop starts and when i click them it shows that the operatin system dosent work properly - how can erase the other two without the need of erasing the whole hard drive


i made then only one partition with c: and that is the only one that exists but when the laptop starts its shows three


 


i use easeus  free partition manager to do it , both the partitions and then erasing them and making them one


 


winxp shown as earlier op system( c:)  win7 and ubundu


  i am on winxp


 


 


thanks

Comments

  • ScrimMalteseScrimMaltese Member Posts: 469

    If you're on Vista or 7:

    Control Panel -> Admin Tools -> Computer Managment -> Storage -> Disk Managment

    Then delete the extra partitions, and extend your volume into that space.

  • earth2011earth2011 Member Posts: 131

    Originally posted by ScrimMaltese

    If you're on Vista or 7:

    Control Panel -> Admin Tools -> Computer Managment -> Storage -> Disk Managment

    Then delete the extra partitions, and extend your volume into that space.

     it shows  one partion  the one i am using c:  it  does not show the extra partitions there but it shows them when the laptop starts

  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,355

    If you installed an OS on each, then one partition with an OS may be unable to see another partition that also has an OS.  Try going to each of the partitions that you want to get rid of and wiping them from within their own partition.

  • earth2011earth2011 Member Posts: 131

    quiz i erased the partition - nothing is on it if i click windows 7 or ubundu it will give me this error

     

    status oxcoooo225

    the boot selection failed because a required device is incaccesible

     

    do i have to install win7 and ubundu again  i do have the disks if  needed  , i think i need to fix the boot loader

  • RidelynnRidelynn Member EpicPosts: 7,383

    There is a thing called a "boot manager" that gets installed on your first partition. It's unclear from your description if it's the Windows boot manager, or LILO or GRUB from your Linux installation (probably one of these two, since the Windows manager doesn't support anything but Windows installations).

    It sounds like you have already merged the partitions, so you only have Windows XP still installed, correct?

    The easiest way to fix this, is to use the Windows XP install CD, and just re-install Windows XP on top of itself. Don't format or repartition the hard drive, you just need to do the basic re-install right on top of the old copy. This will clear up the old boot loader, and re-install and re-activate the default Microsoft boot loader on the first partition.

    Your programs will remain on the drive, although you may need to manually recreate launch links for the start menu, or reinstall for registry entries. You will also need to reapply some security patches and drivers.

    There are other ways to get this fixed, but they get much more involved and complicated.

  • noquarternoquarter Member Posts: 1,170

    You've deleted the partitions but the boot manager still has residual entries pointing to where the old OS's used to exist. You just need to remove the extra boot options from the config file it uses.


    There's several ways to remove the unwanted entries. Easiest is probably to run msconfig, click the boot tab and delete the unwanted entires.

    Otherwise if it's the Windows XP boot manager you can use these instructions:
    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/289022

    If it's the Win 7 boot manager you should have a tool called bcdedit.exe in your Windowssystem32 folder that will help you edit the boot configuration data. Here's some instructions on how to use it:
    http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2676-bcdedit-how-use.html


    You can also just edit the boot.ini in notepad.


    If it's LILO or GRUB you'll have to spend some time on google. But it is most likely the Win 7 boot manager as it would replace the Win XP one when you installed it, and the Windows boot manager does support other OS's, they just show up as 'Other OS' (which you could rename if you were inclined).

  • GrogerGroger Member Posts: 5

    IMHO if you want to be quick but this should be last resort do a complete reinstallation of your OS. BOOT from your OS (winxp /win vista/ win 7) then do your partition there. or go to this theard i google it for you http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/266901-32-partition-problem. I hope this helps goodluck!!

  • Loke666Loke666 Member EpicPosts: 21,441

    Uhm, yes. The master boot records still see the earlier OS operations. You can either edit them out in boot.ini or right click on my computer and choose setting/options (or the one furthest down, my version is in Swedish so I have to guess what they translated).

    Then you choose advanced settings (furthest down in the right upper corner). Choose advanced and pick the startup options button. Then just put the waiting time to xero or erase the older OSes.

    Formating your harddrive will not help. Formating your MBR will but in that case you will have to reinstall windows again. And that is silly since it takes 30 secs to fix the issue inside windows.

  • Loke666Loke666 Member EpicPosts: 21,441

    Originally posted by Quizzical

    If you installed an OS on each, then one partition with an OS may be unable to see another partition that also has an OS.  Try going to each of the partitions that you want to get rid of and wiping them from within their own partition.

    Quizz, quizz, quizz. You usually know your stuff very well, you should know that this information is stored in the master boot record and that he can format and wipe all he wants, it wont dissapear anyways. :)

    This is a common issue for anyone with several harddrives or partitions that changes place for the system drive. Happened to me a dozen times, but is easy to fix (see my post above).

  • earth2011earth2011 Member Posts: 131

     I tried some of the option mention but it seems the only way  to work was to do a fresh install so i did since i keep my stuff on a external hard disk

  • RidelynnRidelynn Member EpicPosts: 7,383


    Originally posted by Loke666
    And that is silly since it takes 30 secs to fix the issue inside windows.

    Only if it's the Windows Boot Manager, if it's one of the GPL ones (LILO or GRUB), you gotta do some voodoo. If you know exactly what your doing, it may be 30 seconds, if you don't it could be 30 hours researching on the internet.

  • Darry25Darry25 Member Posts: 6

    The easiest way to fix your problem is do a fresh install or use a third paty program like partion manager or partition magic

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