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General discussion

Second HD reverts to Hidden after reboot

Sep 5, 2006 10:00PM PDT

I have a problem I cant get a handle on. I have installed a second HD and after partitoning, formatting, etc. the partitons change to Hidden after reboot.
I have used Partiton Magic, the PowerQuest version, Computer Management/Disk Management utility in XP Pro and still I have the same problem.
Is there any help out there?
Thanks

Discussion is locked

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From the PM Manual.
Sep 5, 2006 10:23PM PDT

"Hidden Partitions
The PART utility uses the same mechanisms as Partition Magic and GDISK (Ghost) to Hide and Unhide
partitions. These utilities typically add 10 hex to the DOS partition type code. Since all the DOS
partition type codes are less than 0F hex, this will always result in a type code between 10 hex and 1F
hex. Since no valid partition type codes currently exist between 10 hex and 1F hex (DOS or otherwise),
it can be assumed that any partition with such a type code is a hidden partition. DOS will simply ignore
partitions with type codes between 10 hex and 1F hex (since those types are undefined) and no drive
letter will be assigned. In order to return such a hidden partition to service, it is a simple matter to
subtract 10 hex from the type code and reboot."

What this tells us is some program is changing this table. Since Windows doesn't do that you have to find it.

Bob

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Thanks for the info, Now What?
Sep 6, 2006 9:36PM PDT

Bob,
Thanks for the info!
I looked in my PM manual and didn't find your reference in my manual, glad your's is more complete.
So know that I know that the partition codes are not valid what do I do?
It appears from your answer that even if I use fdisk I will have the same problem.
How do I get a second drive without using something like raid0 or raid1? Striping if fine, as long as it is R5, and I don’t need a mirror.

What to do...What to do?

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No Offense Ment!
Sep 6, 2006 9:43PM PDT

the ''don’t'' in my reply is a result of using MS Word to compose/edit my reply.

I did not mean any perceived disrespect.

tpm

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None taken.
Sep 6, 2006 9:51PM PDT

I was reading the online manual. I used that as a clue that something is rewriting the table. Now to find it.

Bob

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OK great What do I do now
Sep 7, 2006 12:04PM PDT

OK great What do I do now?

I don't want to ditch the drive. I had another drive on this board and OS and it worked just fine.

Only the the bios sees the drive, even my LINUX distro doesn't see the 'new' drive.

I used disk management from winXP and partitoned the drive with a primary and logical partiton and only the logical is visible.

My question is how do I get all partitons visible to the OS? What do I need to change? will the set-up disk set anything different? The vendor is WD.

HELP!!!

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Did you just reveal some new clue?
Sep 7, 2006 1:08PM PDT

Is there an issue with this drive?

If so, there were some rare drives that needed a firmware update but it's so rare I only ran into it once.

-> Tell the full story here. Make model and more.

Wierd reading....

"However, beware of an obscure bug in DOS/Win9x when there are logical partitions and the last logical partition is invisible (either hidden or non-FAT). In this circumstance, the extra primary may be inaccessible or may be accessible but data corruption may occur. To avoid this bug, keep the last logical partition visible to DOS/Win9x. (Remember, DOS/Win9x do not officially support extra primary partitions, so we can't get too upset about this bug.)"

http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/notes.htm

I wonder if you've repeated some history here.

Bob

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Make model and more.
Sep 7, 2006 10:54PM PDT

OK here are the details:

Drive #1 - SAMSUNG SP0802N (74 GB)
Partition Type Drive Start Offset Partition
Length
#1 (Active)FAT32 C: 0 MB 20002 MB
(SYSTEM)
#2 Linux 67884 MB 8463 MB
#3 Linux swap 66872 MB 1011 MB
#4 FAT32 D: 20002 MB 18786 MB
#5 FAT32 E: 38789 MB 18786 MB
#6 Linux 57576 MB 8463 MB
#7 FAT16 G: 66040 MB 831 MB

Drive #2 - WDC WD800BB-00CAA0 (74 GB)
Partition Type Drive Start Offset Partition
Length
#1 Unknown(Code: $17) 0 MB 38162 MB
#2 NTFS S: 38162 MB 38154 MB

BIOS Properties
BIOS Type Award
Award BIOS Type Phoenix-Award BIOS v6.00PG
Award BIOS Message 7VBA133U-2BA1
System BIOS Date 10/01/02
Video BIOS Date 12/18/01

Operating System Properties
OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Professional
OS Code Name Whistler
OS Language English (United States)
OS Kernel Type Uniprocessor Free
OS Version 5.1.2600 (WinXP Retail)
OS Service Pack Service Pack 2
OS Installation Date 1/9/2005
OS Root C:\WINDOWS

All right, here are the Drives and partitions, the Mboard, BIOS, ans OS info. What's the Clue?

The Logical Partition on drive 2 was tried because drive 1 has that set-up. The original config was two primary partitions. That would have made up four entries into the master partition table, the other Linux is a logical drive.
So presently I am still at a loss, I don't want drive 2 to be a logical partition to drive 1.

Clueless

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How did you do this?
Sep 7, 2006 11:14PM PDT

This is getting a bit long but if I recall you wanted that partition to be FAT32 which XP will kick you and not allow that. Make that partition 32GB and try again.

How did the zero wipe of the drive and a do-over turn out?

Bob