You will need to partition the 80gig disk. You won't be able to have them both on the same partition.

BTW
Welcome to TechSpot

Thanks
With the 'ptedit.exe' it was possible to change from two disks
operation to one drive operation.
Best wishes
truthao

O.k. this problem happened to me all the sudden when I was trying to run rollercoaster tycoon 3 and for some reason my computer just froze and the sound messed up when loading. I was really scared because a lot of times my computer has been doing these types of weird problems and I would have to save my files by hooking my hardrive up to one of my other computers to save them then reformat and everything (everyone knows how that goes). But I found this site on google and it wasn't the 17/7 invisible partition problem; that was fine (it was already on '07'). (Ptedit was no help in my case) I just ended up using the command: chkdsk /r in the windows xp setup boot program recovery and it took a while and seemed to have fix it. I deleted that one windows update 805124 and hopefully everything goes fine. Had to like reformat like 5X this year or more, really frustrating. The other times I would just run windows media player or be doing something like searching on the web or playing a game and all the sudden it freezes and the sound scratches, very weird. I would have to reformat cause i could not get back into windows. Hopefully everything is ok now...till next time..who knows, so many problems with windows they need a sp3 that doesn't have all those non sence security programs running in your processes that takes up your memory, but that keeps your computer running fine with no problems.

Hi everyone, I'm having the same problem as above, only it started because my PC froze while defragging my hard drive running Windows XP Home SP1.

I'm running a chkdsk /r right now to see if that will help. Originally I couldn't even get a Windows loading screen, I had to fixmbr to get it. Now I'm just stuck with autchk.exe not found. I cannot reinstall Windows on my active (and only) partition.

I downloaded PTEDIT.exe but how do I run this? I tried running at the recovery console and it said invalid command name. Where do I run this, or how do I make the disk bootable to run it?

I believe you extract ptedit.exe onto a floppy disk then boot up from that a drive and make sure it says '07' in the program when it runs in dos. If not maybe you put the program in your C: and execute it in dos, but you need a floppy disk to boot up ofcourse in that case. One of those should work. chkdsk /r should work it worked for me.. does it not work for u? hope this is helpful

Chkdsk /r didn't help (though it fixed some problems on the HD, but not the problem I was having).

I tried making a MSDOS boot disk in XP on another machine and it didn't work, I'm guessing the floppy was bad, after an hour or 2 I tried with another floppy and it worked, then ran PTEDIT on another floppy and got it all to work. Mine was set to 44 (which wasn't even in the PTEDIT list lol), changed it to 07 and now I'm on my PC. Thanks for the help everyone!

Gonna be backing my info up then probably buying a new HDD, and a portable external.

Thanks bbrass10 for your replies.

I have read and applied your sugestions about the hidden partition, etc, but still the problem remains .

My problem is that after the "autochk.exe program not found - skipping autochk" message, I get a blue screen with the following error:

[COLOR=Red]STOP: c000021a {Fatal System Error}
The Windows Logon Process system process terminated unexpectedly with a status of 0xc000003a (0x00000000 0x0000000)
The system has been shutdown. [/COLOR]

and then the system restarts.

The computer do not start in any mode (safe mode, safe mode with networking, etc, etc).

The computer is a Dell Latitude c640.

I am looking forward to reboot the machine and save the data currently in there. If someone has any idea on how to resolve the problem I would appreciate.

Thanks

Gummel

Have you tried the chkdsk /r command in the winxp startup recovery prompt, it worked for me. Where are those programmers when you need them who know what the heck these numbered error codes are anyways. I wish it were as easy as editing some notepad file and changing a few values. If u have no luck with all ure options,...there is always that last one: reformat and save data, unfortunately to many times things come down to this. But if your computer is jacked up and you really don't wanna take the time to mess around with all the little fixs that seem to do nothing and you wanna start fresh, then reformat..whatelse..

I found this post via google and it was a lifesaver. I wouldn't have had a clue how to get around this problem save reformatting etc. Thanks a lot for the help!

bbrass10,

I booted up and ran ptedit.exe and the partition type was already set to 07... I've got the same problem computer just continuosly reboots after recieving the autochk message. Any other ideas?

I had the same problem today. But I might have found something.
I am reinstalling my computer with XP and to be sure I did this on a new primary partition. I used Partition Magic to switch (make active) between the partitions. At some point I decided to use Ghost 9 to restore an older image I had made and let Ghost make the partition active after imaging. This went fine and it booted to the new installation. So far so good...
I then changed back to the old partition, using PM, and I was treated to the dreaded Autochk not found message. After trying some tips from this forum I saw that my new partition was visible and the old partition was hidden like it should. And like with some others here, checkdisk found errors but didn't solve my problem.
I saw a mention of boot.ini on a website somewhere and thought it was worth looking into.

With the browse function in Partition Magic I copied the boot.ini file from the hidden partition and changed the lines that look like this:
[boot loader] default=scsi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\winnt
to this:
[boot loader] default=scsi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\winnt

And that worked..... strangely enough, because I don't think it should.
The first partition is hidden so the bootloader shouldn't see it and shouldn't start counting there. And it didn't the first few times that I switched partitions.
It might have been caused when I used Ghost to activate the partition because it failed to hide the other one. So mayby now Windows remembers two active partitions and acts accordingly.

I am sure that there is a perfectly logical explanation for this behavior, there usually is, but I don't know what it is.
Anyway, it works, and I hope this of help to someone with the same problem. Just remind me to change the boot.ini back when I delete the old partition.

Hi, this problem has happend to my pc all of a sudden.

I am trying to start ptedit.exe

I run the startup disk (6 disk) then i got the c:/ prompt

so i changed it to

c:/ a:

which changed the prompt to:

A:/

so i typed

A:/ptedit.exe

It says unreconised command.

Please tell me how to start the program.. i.e. what dos command do i need to start ptedit.exe

and yes, ptedit.exe is the only thing in the flow disk.. hence a:/ptedit.exe is the location of the file.

Oky problem soloved no need to get any partition manger

just download autochk.exe and then put it in a floppy..
when it asks you for it give it the location of the floppy and it fixes the problem

I had the same "autochk not found - skipping autochk" message after initially installing Win2000 (SP2) then SP4 on a new harddrive, but Windows would continue on to the login screen and function normally.
I basically copied the autochk.exe file from C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386 to C:\WINDOWS\System32 and the message disappeared.

I had the same problem before didn't able to repair my C: drive using XP CD, and I didn't want to format my drive either. I received all kind of error message after accidently renamed all my drives' name and defraged my drives with errors and power outage (really bad luck).

After 2 days (I mean really 48hrs) searching online trying all kinds of possible rescues. I finally got back most of my data (not all as I'm still trying now in day 2). And I really feel that people are so kind to share their expertise to help the others on this problem (especially those who made the program and let people use it for free, like PTedit.exe and TestDisk.exe, they should really get credits).

I tried Norton Antivirus 05 rescue bootable disks and hope it would fix my drive somehow but no luck on that (or it did, but I just didn't notice, cuz still unbootable after that). Later I tried Partition Magic 8 resuce disk (you have to have PartitionMagic to make that resuce floppy) and once it loaded in DOC, it realized there's error in my boot drive and fixed the partition table. So I tried to reboot but still XP didn't bootup. But this time I was able to repair my XP using XP CD (repair XP I don't mean using "Automated Recovery Console" which is kinda technical, even I did try some comment like fixboot, fixmbr. Luckily I didn't erase all my data in my drive. I suggest try this at last after you have tried all I said in this message) I mean using XP CD to boot and don't hit "R" for repair, instead hit "Enter" to install XP, go to lincese agreement page, press F8, then you MIGHT have the option to "repair previous version of Windows" or "just F3 to quit". If you don't see the repair option, try to use TestDisk.exe, which I mention above, or PTedit.exe (which is downloadable for free and included in Nortion Antivirus Resuce Disk and PartitionMagic 8 resuce disk)to modifiy the PartitionTable, change the "Type" to 07 (which means unhide NTFS, You can find your TYPE using "set type" button in PTedit if you use other format instead of NTFS).

After that I was able to boot to Windows XP but my other 3 drives are gone. After this I found the TestDisk.exe (I wish I found this before, it might have fixed everything in the first place) and it fixed two of my drives. I give up on the third one since there's only some songs in that drive. Only problem is some of my programs don't run anymore and I think I have to reinstall them. But I think a better way is to format all my drive and reinstall everything again after I save the data that I need.

Hope this will help you. :angel:

autockack not (autochk.exe ) not in my Windows Xp becoz when i instal it the autochk.exe where not in the CD there for in is not instaled.
Where i can download it ??????????

like a lot of other ppl im having the same problem

ive read everything said here more than once and im trying to use the ptedit.exe but somehow i cant get it to run.

ive downloaded it, put it om my USB stick and im trying to run it but i get the error ''unknown action'' or whatever.
ive also copied it to the HD but it still wont work.
also ive tried to copy autochk.exe in the right folder, but it says that i do not have permission or that something went wrong....
if i copy it into the windows map(only place i can get in btw) then i have no problems.

this is very strange. i can not permit to format the HD cuz i have a 600 euro program on it with a contract that does not permit me to delete it (yea sounds really serieus doesnt it)

i can not change folder maps so i can get the data from that HD and i do not have an other computer where i can put it in so the only option left is to fix this.

do you guys got any idea to run the ptedit.exe?? or place the file in the right map? thx

I notice that this thread is kinda old, but I just had this problem. I used ptedit to change the partition type and I can get WinXP to start now. The problem is, all of the other partitions on the drive are gone (hidden, I assume). It's a 300GB disk and the first partition that holds WinXP is only 50 GB. Originally I changed the partition type to 0x0c and then read this thread and tried changing it to 0x07 but to no avail. Partition Magic 8 shows the drive as 300GB, but shows it as one 50GB partition (c. Any help would be greatly appreciated. The drive is well over half full and I'd really hate to have to do the dreaded format and reinstall, but I'm quickly running out of options. TIA.

today i got my pc back from local store that has great service and fixed it very fast.

the problem was that the partions were all gone.
the computer could only see 1 big partion (the entire HD) and that one was also unknown for some reason.
now that store used a program to look for all possible partions that exist and restore them or something.
what program that was? i dont remember anymore but you DONT have to format the entire HD for sure.
ill ask them again for more details. but the ptedit didnt work for me and wasnt needed

Thanks for the reply. I hope you can find out the name of the program. Maybe it will work for mine, too. Thanks again.