Unusual problem with FDISK and XP Pro

[Jim Richards]

This may not be the right newsgroup for my problem BUY I sure do need some
help.
I am UNABLE to delete the logical drive (D:) When I am in fdisk and display
the partition information, there is a line that states that the extended dos
partition contains logical drive. But when I click on it to display the
logical drive infoe it states that No logical drives defined. It will not
let me delete the extended dos partition because of the logical drive which
I cannot find or display. Is there any way to wipe the entire (120 GB WD)
drive so that I can reinstall XP Pro on a clean drive? I have run Western
Digitals Lifeguard Diagnostics but it says the drive is healthy (No Help
There). Thanks in advance for any help on this. Jim

[Mark F.]

"Jim Richards" > wrote in message
...
> This may not be the right newsgroup for my problem BUY I sure do need some
> help.
> I am UNABLE to delete the logical drive (D:) When I am in fdisk and
> display
> the partition information, there is a line that states that the extended
> dos
> partition contains logical drive. But when I click on it to display the
> logical drive infoe it states that No logical drives defined. It will not
> let me delete the extended dos partition because of the logical drive
> which
> I cannot find or display. Is there any way to wipe the entire (120 GB WD)
> drive so that I can reinstall XP Pro on a clean drive? I have run Western
> Digitals Lifeguard Diagnostics but it says the drive is healthy (No Help
> There). Thanks in advance for any help on this. Jim
>
>

Run FDISK and press 'Y' to treat NTFS partition as large. Select '3' to
Delete Partition or Logical DOS drive. Select '4' to Delete the Non-DOS
partition. Enter '1' for primary partition. Next enter the number of the
non-dos partition. Press enter key then press 'Y' to confirm. Press ESC key
to return to the main screen. Press '4' to view partitions.

If you still can't delete it then Western Digital tools has a zeroing
utility that rights zeroes to all sectors on the disk, thus destroying any
partition and format information. Download the latest version and create a
floppy boot disk.

http://support.wdc.com/download/

Mark

[Anna]

"Jim Richards" > wrote in message
...
> This may not be the right newsgroup for my problem BUY I sure do need some
> help.
> I am UNABLE to delete the logical drive (D:) When I am in fdisk and
> display
> the partition information, there is a line that states that the extended
> dos
> partition contains logical drive. But when I click on it to display the
> logical drive infoe it states that No logical drives defined. It will not
> let me delete the extended dos partition because of the logical drive
> which
> I cannot find or display. Is there any way to wipe the entire (120 GB WD)
> drive so that I can reinstall XP Pro on a clean drive? I have run Western
> Digitals Lifeguard Diagnostics but it says the drive is healthy (No Help
> There). Thanks in advance for any help on this. Jim


Jim:
Is this not the same query you posted a few days ago insofar as the
inability of FDISK to delete a logical drive in an extended partition? I
assume you saw my response to your query explaining this issue did you not?

As to your current query re "wiping the entire 120 GB" HDD, you can simply
make a fresh install of the XP OS onto that drive and in the process delete
whatever partitions currently exist on the drive. Alternatively, if the HDD
is connected as a secondary HDD in your system you can simply use the Disk
Management utility to delete the partitions - including, as I previously
informed you, the logical drive in the extended partition.
Anna

[Mark F.]

"Mark F." > wrote in message
...
>
> If you still can't delete it then Western Digital tools has a zeroing
> utility that rights zeroes to all sectors on the disk, thus destroying any

The line:
"Western Digital tools has a zeroing utility that rights zeroes to all
sectors on the disk"

Should read:

"Western Digital tools has a zeroing utility that writes zeroes to all
sectors on the disk"

Mark

[John John]

Why are you fiddling about with fdisk? If you are installing Windows XP
you can do partition work with the setup cd. If XP is installed and you
want to do partition work you can use Windows XP's built-in Disk
Management Tool.

If you insist on using DOS and fdisk then you will have to use another
tool to delete the logical drive. The fdisk NTFS logical drive loop is
a well known problem. You can use delpart.exe to remove the partition.

http://www.russelltexas.com/delpart.htm

John

Jim Richards wrote:

> This may not be the right newsgroup for my problem BUY I sure do need some
> help.
> I am UNABLE to delete the logical drive (D:) When I am in fdisk and display
> the partition information, there is a line that states that the extended dos
> partition contains logical drive. But when I click on it to display the
> logical drive infoe it states that No logical drives defined. It will not
> let me delete the extended dos partition because of the logical drive which
> I cannot find or display. Is there any way to wipe the entire (120 GB WD)
> drive so that I can reinstall XP Pro on a clean drive? I have run Western
> Digitals Lifeguard Diagnostics but it says the drive is healthy (No Help
> There). Thanks in advance for any help on this. Jim
>
>

[Rock]

"Jim Richards" wrote
> This may not be the right newsgroup for my problem BUY I sure do need some
> help.
> I am UNABLE to delete the logical drive (D:) When I am in fdisk and
> display
> the partition information, there is a line that states that the extended
> dos
> partition contains logical drive. But when I click on it to display the
> logical drive infoe it states that No logical drives defined. It will not
> let me delete the extended dos partition because of the logical drive
> which
> I cannot find or display. Is there any way to wipe the entire (120 GB WD)
> drive so that I can reinstall XP Pro on a clean drive? I have run Western
> Digitals Lifeguard Diagnostics but it says the drive is healthy (No Help
> There). Thanks in advance for any help on this. Jim

Jim, I think you posted this question 3 days a go and had some good replies.
If you can't find a post, search for it using Google Groups Advanced Search.
Search in microsoft.public.windowsxp.general for posts with your name as
author.

http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/list/en-us/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.windows.64bit.gen eral&cat=en_us_10f77ab3-3a83-4eed-b28a-229160b0040c&lang=en&cr=us

You are using OE so it's unclear why you are not seeing it. Are you
downloading enough headers? This newsgroup gets over 400 a day.

Here's a link to your original post and the thread:

http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windowsxp.general/browse_thread/thread/45b11faa5b4835a5/90ab4db729dfa01c?lnk=st&q=&rnum=1&hl=en#90ab4db729dfa01c

--
Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]