Win XP Setup recognizes my SATA HD, but not the partitions!
Hello everyone!
I have a WD 74GB Raptor HD (SATA) installed on my Asus A8N-E motherboard (with AMD 3500+ and Enermax 350W as PSU). This is the single HD I have on my computer. I donated the old IDE I had. When I first installed Windows XP Home SP2, I created 2 partitions (50%-50%) at XP setup and installled Gate's software on one of them and filled the other with files (for backup purposes).
Now I decided to format the boot partition (C:\), so I ran XP SP2 setup. However, during the installation it recognizes my Raptor, but not my partitions. It shows as if it weren't partitioned, with full 74GB. So, I figured I would have to press F6 to install the SATA drivers that come with my mobo, using my floopy. I did that, but it still doesn't recognize the partitions (when i first installed, this step wasn't necessary as it recognized my HDD right away and, therefore, I create the partitions).
My BIOS is using the latest revision (1011) and I'm using the nvidia 6.70 drivers. I even created an slipstreamed CD using nLite with the SATA/RAID drivers that came with the nvdia 6.70 file I download, but windows installation can't recognize the partitions and I don't want to format the whole drive everytime I need to reinstall XP. I've searched Google up and down and all I found was about windows not recognizing the HD (not my case). I couldn't find any single page about my problem: "recognizing the HD but not the partitions". Any suggestions? Any help would be appreciated as I don't know what to do anymore... :banghead:
Thanks,
Gustavo
I have a WD 74GB Raptor HD (SATA) installed on my Asus A8N-E motherboard (with AMD 3500+ and Enermax 350W as PSU). This is the single HD I have on my computer. I donated the old IDE I had. When I first installed Windows XP Home SP2, I created 2 partitions (50%-50%) at XP setup and installled Gate's software on one of them and filled the other with files (for backup purposes).
Now I decided to format the boot partition (C:\), so I ran XP SP2 setup. However, during the installation it recognizes my Raptor, but not my partitions. It shows as if it weren't partitioned, with full 74GB. So, I figured I would have to press F6 to install the SATA drivers that come with my mobo, using my floopy. I did that, but it still doesn't recognize the partitions (when i first installed, this step wasn't necessary as it recognized my HDD right away and, therefore, I create the partitions).
My BIOS is using the latest revision (1011) and I'm using the nvidia 6.70 drivers. I even created an slipstreamed CD using nLite with the SATA/RAID drivers that came with the nvdia 6.70 file I download, but windows installation can't recognize the partitions and I don't want to format the whole drive everytime I need to reinstall XP. I've searched Google up and down and all I found was about windows not recognizing the HD (not my case). I couldn't find any single page about my problem: "recognizing the HD but not the partitions". Any suggestions? Any help would be appreciated as I don't know what to do anymore... :banghead:
Thanks,
Gustavo
0
Comments
Going by the Cylinder/Head/Sector (CHS) math you have the following:
9039 X 255 X 63 = 145211535
Adding your two partitions together we get:
71681967 + 73513440 = 145195407
Allowing for a little slack space these numbers are virtually identical.
You'll also note that the backup partition begins where the primary partition ends. It looks like TestDisk has got it right.
The next step is to let it recover the partitions. Do that and let me know what you find at that point. If it restores your initial C: partition you would be much better off doing a Repair Install than you would were you to try to go the Format route again - you know where that got you.