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Rad Community Technical Discussion Boards (Computer Hardware + PC Software) >> PC Hardware + Software (except Cloning programs) >> Anybody Familiar with Partition Magic?
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Message started by richkl on Jun 13th, 2009 at 9:41am

Title: Anybody Familiar with Partition Magic?
Post by richkl on Jun 13th, 2009 at 9:41am
My PM 8.0 has developed an interesting problem. 

I can't boot from the CD or the rescue floppy disk.  It takes me to a DOS screen with (I think) three utilities.  I also get an error message that it can't find MSCD001, a  driver or file for the optical drive.  By the way I have PM on a second partition, where I keep most applications.  Could it be looking for this file that actually is on the C drive with the OS?

When I run PM loaded on my computer it tells me the whole first hard drive where the OS is located is bad.  The error message is 106 which I haven't been able to find on the Symantec or PowerQuest website. Of course everything on that drive works fine.  Is this part of having the application on a different partition from the OS- WinXP SP3?

The Microsoft disk management utility says all partitions on that hard drive are healthy.

The thing is, PM used to work just fine and it booted correctly from the CD or from the application on the second partition.  I did make a clean install of WinXP around the end of 2008 but PM was left alone, not being on that drive.

Richard


Title: Re: Anybody Familiar with Partition Magic?
Post by Rad.Test on Jun 13th, 2009 at 11:52am
PM 8.05 is the latest, I think.

After purchasing Powerquest, Symantec has not continued to develop PM very much, if at all, besides changing the name to Symantec.

I have developed doubts about its use. Seems to introduce incompatibilities.

I have much experience with many versions of PM. I always do a fresh reboot b4 attempting anything, and always apply each small step, rather than que'ing up a whole bunch of jobs.

I feel it has continued to age and Symantec has not kept it current with the latest changes to Windows. So I would look at trying other partitioning utilities.

Title: Re: Anybody Familiar with Partition Magic?
Post by MrMagoo on Jun 13th, 2009 at 3:39pm
I've had really good luck with GParted.  It's free/open source.

Title: Re: Anybody Familiar with Partition Magic?
Post by richkl on Jun 14th, 2009 at 10:25am
I appreciate the two comments.

However the PM bootable CD should boot even in case of an unformatted new hard disk and partition it and format each new partition.  Windows should not even enter the picture.  This is my past experiences with my PM boot CD.

My problem is that a previously trouble-free PM bootable rescue CD now no longer will boot correctly. 

I am looking at some new partition managers.  GParted looks like considerable expertise is required to use it.  If I am reading the how to do it notes correctly that may be a little complicated for my knowledge.
I can consider Symantec's new Partition Magic and Acronis's Disk Director as hopefully user friendly applications.  Any thoughts on these?

Richard

Title: Re: Anybody Familiar with Partition Magic?
Post by NightOwl on Jun 14th, 2009 at 1:50pm
@ richkl


Quote:
When I run PM loaded on my computer it tells me the whole first hard drive where the OS is located is bad.  The error message is 106

Do you have other drives hooked up as well--do those show up in DOS PM okay--or does PM fail to load completely?

That error #106--I'm going from memory right now--but I think I got that same error when I was playing with a 1 GB flash drive--loaded the Panasonic DOS USB drivers and ran the DOS PM program.  PM loaded and my other drives showed up fine.  And the flash drive was listed too, but when I clicked on the drive in the drop-down box in PM's DOS interface--got that error!  Basically, saying it could not properly access that flash drive.

My research so far suggests that the problem is in the Master Boot Record--the *media descriptor* is for  *removable media* on the flash drive which PM does not allow access to--the *media descriptor* has to indicate a *fixed drive*.

So, since you last used DOS PM--have you played around with any types of boot loaders--any non-standard disk utilities--or other actions that might have had an effect on the Master Boot Record in some way?  Any special anti-viral software settings to *protect* the HDD form various forms of *viral access*?

Have you had to make any repairs to the Master Boot Record?  Basically--anything that might have changed the Master Boot Record from its *standard* format?

I have noticed that non-standard Master Boot Records can be successfully ignored by WinXP--but DOS utilities are not so forgiving!

Title: Re: Anybody Familiar with Partition Magic?
Post by MrMagoo on Jun 14th, 2009 at 5:53pm

Richard K wrote on Jun 14th, 2009 at 10:25am:
GParted looks like considerable expertise is required to use it.If I am reading the how to do it notes correctly that may be a little complicated for my knowledge.

Nah, I don't think its any different than PM.

Title: Re: Anybody Familiar with Partition Magic?
Post by richkl on Jun 18th, 2009 at 9:02pm
NightOwl,
I feel like I am starting to beat a dead horse, as they say.

I did have Diskeeper do a boot time defragmentation on the C drive when I installed it.  I really can't recall if I used the PM boot disk since.

I haven't used anything else I know of that could have changed the Master Boot Record.

Your Ghost boot CD starts OK as well as the Acronis boot rescue disk.

Oh well, enough of this mystery.

Thanks,
Richard

Title: Re: Anybody Familiar with Partition Magic?
Post by Rad on Jun 19th, 2009 at 12:00am
i have beat a few dead horses in my day.

Title: Re: Anybody Familiar with Partition Magic?
Post by NightOwl on Jun 19th, 2009 at 1:14am
@ Rad


Quote:
i have beat a few dead horses in my day.

;D  Ya...me too!

@ richkl

How dead do you want to beat that horse?!

You could try disconnecting your HDD or HDDs and then booting from the PM boot CD.  If there is not a *bad* or *unrecognized*  MBR for PM to *see* when it first runs, then you might have a successful boot!  But, of course, if you do not have any HDD hooked up, there will be nothing for PM to show you--you could hook up another HDD temporarily for testing to see if everything works.

If you can now boot to PM--that would tend to confirm that there's something amiss with your MBR on your primary HDD--you could then possibly try the *Recovery Console* and do a *Fixmbr* function--that re-writes the MBR--maybe that would solve the problem.  (Make sure you have a reliable HDD backup image before you start playing with your MBR!!!!)

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