[RESOLVED] Deleting Dual Boot and Reinstalling XP Pro problem

[slickcondo]

As you have Seatools working you can zero the drive. Boot with it and look at the top options--the letter "Z" will do it--it's called erase drive.

Ooops !! I wish I had come here first before doing what I did !! I tried to make a fresh reinstall. Please see the LATEST UPDATE post below. I have a few questions there also.

Thanks for all your help and support.

[slickcondo]

LATEST UPDATE

Ok, this is what happened.

Having got fed up not making much progress so far, though along the way, I've learnt quite a bit - thanks to everyone for all your contributions, time and patience - I decided to take the bull by the horn and tried to make a fresh reinstall.

Here's what happened - as much as I can remember as it was pretty late last night when I made this attenpt. Booted up with the Enterprised CD with SP1 incorporated and it went to Windows Setup. Started copying files from the CD to hard disk or was it just checking existing files ( ?? ). Then it asked if I want to repair or make a fresh install without repair. I selected new install without repair. It then asked if I want to make any partition and asked me to select c: drive or the other drive without drive letter of 8MB. When I selected the 8MB by accident, it created another 8MB, again without any drive letter. But nothing else happens. I tried to delete one of the 8MB drives, but it won't let me.

Status then was a c: drive and two 8MB drive without drive letters. I then selected the c: drive and it asked for me to specify the size of the new partition I wanted. After that, it started installing the rest of the Enterprise Edition to hard disk. When it's finished, it asked for the Key Code. I input the Enterprise edition key, it says Not Valid. Used the other Key and it got accepted.

After rebooting, the dual boot up is gone and the laptop seems to work properly-ish. I say _ish becuase:

1) some of the functions like the Wireless Lan drivers were not installed and I had to download it from the Fujitsu site. On first attempt to install the driver, the blue screen error appeared again !!! Turned off computer and reboot. Selected the last known good status position. Tried to reinstall the driver again and it went without any problem.
2) what still bugs me is why the CD key to the Enterprise edition was not accpeted when in the past, there's no problem.
3) also bugging me is the two 8MB. Will this cause any problem further down the line ?
4) the new partition, E: dirve was not fromatted unlike in the past when it was automatically formatted and the partition size was then automatically created. I formatted E: by going into My computer and selected that drive to format.

I've now installed most of my standard programs - antivirus, firewall, etc including updated to SP3

Main Questions:
1) can I change the partition size from here and if so, how ? Through Disk management ?
2) any harm to leave the two invissible 8MB drives alone ?
3) Can I remove one of the 8MB without reinstalling again ? I can't see them on disk management. Is there a way to see them and what's in it ?
4) is there a limit to the use of the key if I were to reinstall again ? I think a full version allows for installing on 2 computers. I have used the second key code twice already. If I were to use it again, will it says it's no longer valid ?
4) do I consider the issue that I originally posted here as resolved and can give it this status ?

Many thanks to everyone for your suggestions and help so far. Hope you can clarify some of my questions asked here. Thanks and have a good weekend.

[SpywareDr]

"8MB" - Some space at the end of the disk is reserved by Setup in case you later want to upgrade the disk to a dynamic disk. Dynamic disk information is saved at the end of the disk. The amount that is reserved is a minimum of one cylinder, or 1MB, whichever is greater. One cylinder can be up to 8MB, depending on drive geometry and translation.

(Note: 8MB is barely enough room to hold maybe three pics from my little point-and-shoot 10MP camera).

[slickcondo]

"8MB" - Some space at the end of the disk is reserved by Setup in case you later want to upgrade the disk to a dynamic disk. Dynamic disk information is saved at the end of the disk. The amount that is reserved is a minimum of one cylinder, or 1MB, whichever is greater. One cylinder can be up to 8MB, depending on drive geometry and translation.

(Note: 8MB is barely enough room to hold maybe three pics from my little point-and-shoot 10MP camera).

Thanks Doc for the info. so I guess the the extra 8MB I accidently created is a waste of memory then !

[SpywareDr]

Yes but, 8MB is a measly 0.0078125 GB . . . less than 1% of your "74.52GB" drive. In other words, your 74.52GB is now 74.51GB.

74.52GB (GigaBytes) = 80,015,240,724 bytes

80,015,240,724 bytes - 8,388,608 bytes (8 MegaBytes) = 80,006,852,116 bytes

80,006,852,116 bytes / 1,073,741,824 (bytes per GB) = 74.51GB

[slickcondo]

Yes but, 8MB is a measly 0.0078125 GB . . . less than 1% of your "74.52GB" drive. In other words, your 74.52GB is now 74.51GB.

74.52GB (GigaBytes) = 80,015,240,724 bytes

80,015,240,724 bytes - 8,388,608 bytes (8 MegaBytes) = 80,006,852,116 bytes

80,006,852,116 bytes / 1,073,741,824 (bytes per GB) = 74.51GB

OK doc. It's just that I don't like wastage . AAnyway, since my last post here, I came across a partition software and managed to claimed about 6MB back to my second partition - D: drive without losing any data. It's a bit of a job getting the right amount of MB as the amount you stated you wanted is pretty different from what it actially is. If anyone wants to have a go regarding resizing partitons without cause data loss, etc, have a look at:

http://majorgeeks.com/EASEUS_Partiti...ion_d5967.html

Hope this is helpful to someone

BTW, I still haven't come across any software that Zero the hard drive for future use. dmeilson said that Seagate's SeaTool for diagnostic have this facility. But on checking, it's not there. Not too sure if it is in the Advanced Test part as the help is not too clear. But certain can't find any Z at the top of the page

All in all, I'm quite happy what I've got on my computer so far and what I've learnt. Only still puzzled why the installation is not behaving as it should - ie asked if you sant to format the drive before installing and automatically set the partition size as it used to.

Thanks everyone for your help and contributions. So how do I mark this as resolved ? I can't find any button to do this ? I hope it's just writing "Resolved" on the title as I've done Have a good weekend.

[dneilson]

You can mark the post Resolved by clicking on Thread Tools at the top of the messages and select it from the drop down.Don't know why you don't have the "Z" option as mine has it, only thing might be is we have different versions.

[slickcondo]

You can mark the post Resolved by clicking on Thread Tools at the top of the messages and select it from the drop down.Don't know why you don't have the "Z" option as mine has it, only thing might be is we have different versions.

The Seagate SeaTool version I have is 1.0.00

I mentioned before that the DBAN was not working for me on CD as well as from Floppy. That was the 2.0 version. I spent this very windy wet afternoon here today gooling for the 1.0.7 that was mentioned somewhere and managed to download the Floppy version which worked !!! It seems when you don't need what you were looking for, they somehow appears !!! Just like the bus service here in the past

BTW, is there a way to set the screen display default to see all the icon as a Thumbnail instead of Tile ? From the HDD, it seems once you set the display the way you want it for each page you visit, they stayed as you set it. But for other external devices, eg USB, they seem to go back to Tiles display when you go back to the same page again. It never happend before. Small point here, I know, but quite annoying !

Anyway, have a good weekend.