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Unwanted partition

Discussion in 'Storage and Networking' started by FlyingAce, Nov 5, 2004.

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  1. FlyingAce Newcomer, in training

    I used to dual boot with WIN2K and Win98. I removed the Win98 partition and consolidated it into WIN2K (with Partition Magic). Everything works fine, but the WIN2K boot selector screen shows 2 WIN2K partitions at startup. The second one won't boot, and it's only 8 meg. It's not really a big problem, but I would like to get rid of the 'choice' I need to make.

    Any help appriciated.
  2. RealBlackStuff Newcomer, in training

    Edit boot.ini and remove the line with the partition(s) you don't want
    keep the line that looks like this:
    multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows 2000 Pro" /fastdetect

    where "rdisk(0)partition(1)" is in.
    set the default to:
    default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
  3. FlyingAce Newcomer, in training

    Thanks Theblackstuff.
    Unfortunately, this didn't work. This what my boot.ini looks like now:
    [boot loader]
    timeout=30
    default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
    [operating systems]
    multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

    Rebooting with this config did not change the boot screen. To credit your knowledge, there was a second partition line prior before I changed it.

    I suspect Partition Magic is at the bottom of this. When I view my partitions in P.M., there is one primary NTFS and one primary unallocated (with status = none). I can't get rid of of it with P.M. nor can I redistribure it as free space.
  4. Liquidlen TechSpot Paladin

    I am sure you are correct PartitionMagic doesn't re write Window's core files it wraps around them so to speak.I don't believe you can remove that 8Mg partition without a format and reload.At least it was like that in my win 98 days.Maybe newer versions are different.I haven't used it since.
    It's why I do not like it ,as it intervenes between the Hdd and O/S forever.
  5. FlyingAce Newcomer, in training

    Even a reformat didn't get rid of it - but I wasn't reformating for this problem. I think I will need to run fdisk or something that really can delete partitions.

    I'm going to just live with it until the time comes to deal with it again. I've learned the hard way to live with small inconveniences.

    Thanks for everyone's help.
  6. Liquidlen TechSpot Paladin

    I apologize ,I was thinking re partition > reformat but whatever !
  7. LNCPapa TS Special Forces

    From http://www.bootdisk.com/bootlist/107.htm#3

    That 8 meg partition is autocreated to handle dynamic disk information. When a disk is converted to dynamic in the Disk Management snap-in, information regarding the configuration and any dependencies (e.g. software RAID) are stored on disk at the end of the drive. This is how a drive can be moved from one dynamic disk array to another and be recognized as foreign drive.
  8. FlyingAce Newcomer, in training

    I would agree except that it is unallocated space - nothing is in it. It can't be used for anything. I strongly Partition Magic left this behind.
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