RazgrizSeed

Ok. I found an old XP disc for an earlier version of XP. I unclipped the missing sector and before my operating system could kick in to re-clip it, i installed the older version of XP to A) format and partition that space and B) keep my media center edition from getting rid of that area (again).

Upon doing so, I booted into media center edition again and reformatted that partition. Now I have two full partitions on my drive. How can I take the E:\ partition and turn it into the back half of the C:\ partition? Norton partition magic refuses to work because my hard drive is a 120GB but cuts off partition magic at the 55 GB mark, causing an error and it won't start the program. I get error 117 when booting and then when I do the disk scan to see why it says error 108.

How can I go about doing this? (here's what I'm looking at)

Attached Images

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RazgrizSeed

GOOD NEWS!

Fixed it. I used seceditor and zeroed the LBA-3 script and then used norton partition magic to copy over and exact image of my hard drive, then just resize the C: partition and BAM! Done! works great!

BCCOMP

Hi RazgrizSeed,
Wow!! You sure had a battle with this one.
I am glad you got it fixed!
Thanks for posting your results.
Bill

RazgrizSeed

Considering how much trouble this was, and how much of a growing problem this is becoming with modern laptops I am writing a help guide. I am going to compile all of the information I have found on this information and write it in such a way so that it will be designed for open distribution. In fact, CMS products has requested a copy of this help guide. I will make a post with the file when I have completed it.

cullen88

Hi RazgrizSeed,

I have had the exact same problem with my Dell Inspiron 6400 laptop with XP Home edition when I tried to clone my OS onto a new bigger hard drive. I'm just wondering how you are getting on with the guide you mentioned. It would be greatly appreciated as it is starting to drive me mad now.

RazgrizSeed

We can all breathe easy now!

I am creating a thread specifically for the distribution of my help guide.

Thread title is:
The ultimate cure to your clipped hard drive!

Robustus

Here's the dedicated thread mentioned above:
The Ultimate Cure To Your Clipped Hard Drive!

I had the same problem, and this write-up solved it for me.

ter11

Hi all!

Thank goodness I found this thread. I am also planning to clone my Inspiron 6400's hdd to a bigger one. After reading through all of this, I have some questions:

If I use Roadkil’s Sector Editor to delete Sector 3 on my old hdd and then clone it, it should work fine - right?

What now if - before deleting Sector 3 - I export Sector 3 to a binary file. If after the whole cloning I re-import Sector 3 to my old hdd, everything will be back to normal using my old hdd?
...but i guess that trick won't work with the new hdd, as there the hidden mediadirect partition will be missing anyway.

finally: what happens if i press the mediadirect-button running the new hdd? i have read some stories, that this could corrupt the mbr... what do u say?

and a last question: when does the trunctuation of the new hdd happen? apparently only when copying both mbr (sector 0) and LBR (sector 3) to the new hdd. so a solution could be to just clone the visible partitions and then manually re-import sector 0 to the new hdd....is this correct? i would prefer this, because i preferably dont want to do any alterations to my old hdd such as zeroing sector 3.

thanks!
ter11

RazgrizSeed

Official Article:
http://www.techsupportforum.com/arti...ll-laptop.html

Answers to your questions:
The LBA-3 Script is a code made for your current hard drive defining the size of the C:\ partition. Placing it back on your new hard drive will re-truncate it.

If you press the media direct button with your new hard drive, you will see the automatic BIOS display screen, and then Windows will boot up. I looked into possibly restoring my media direct feature and the Dell website says that in order to recover it, you will have to re-install/re-partition for the feature. This will re-write a new LBA-3 script for your new hard drive BUT will erase ALL data on your hard drive. Personally, I decided against this and went with the fact that I probably would never need it (plus, I could use the extra space).

The only thing that the LBA-3 script does (or as far as I know) is defines the limitations of your partitions on the hard drive to prevent them from writing over the HPA. Like I said earlier, re-importing the LBA-3 script will re-truncate your drive to the old size.

If you have further questions, feel free to PM me. I enjoy the attention.

-Raz