This is just great.  As the mobo in my current rig is on the fritz, I bought a new dual-core Athlonx2 HP Pavilion.  Now, I want to partition the hard drive, as only idiots keep everything on the C:/ drive.  However, HP in its infinite wisdom, will not let me partition the drives.  After partitioning the drive with Partition Commander, I reboot, when suddenly my machine asks for the rescue discs.  I pop it in, and it uninstalls my partitions, and loads the stock WinXP Media center 2005, and all of the other useless junk.  I am tempted to go and buy XP Pro, and install that.  Does anyone have an easy solution besides a sledgehammer?  Thanks, -Starkdog

Attached Link: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&cc=us&product=71021&dlc=&docname=c00239036#N633

1. Use MSConfig or whatever your OS has or one of the freeware startup utilities and see what's running on boot up. There may be some disk checking thing they've included that you can disable. 2. Don't know if this is relevant but perhhaps: "Removing the System Recovery Partition" from HP's site.

instead of a partition i just got myself an external hard drive. this way if i want to move stuff from one pc another i can do so via usb and the size of the file be it 1 or 20 gigs makes no difference. i always have it switched off unless i'm moving stuff to or from it. usually if i'm modelling i wait till i have about 2 gigs worth of saved files then slap em in a folder and move them over. doing it this way also leaves me plenty of space on c drive for apps and other stuff. i look at it like this....if my pc goes wonky bob it can also affect the partition if you have to do a wipe. with the external hard drive everything is saved bar a gig or two. not sure what i'm talking about but it works for me. my last pc had 2 partitions and when it went down i lost the lot

billy

Attached Link: Some reasons for using multiple partitions

It's true that having multiple partitions may not necessarily work as data protection, especially if you have a mechanical/on-board controller failure of the HD. Partitioning is more about efficiency and organization. Especially with today's large drives, it's usually better to divide the space into two or more partitions.

Well maybe there is a option in your BIOS that makes the HP machine look for HP HD's with  HP data in its Bootblock.. and when the Bios dont see it its says OK this drive iswrecked lets install all the data from recover disks on it...

If its in your Bios i sure hope you can switch it off.

I just did a other brand computer that had the same kind of "error" and the bios did not have a switch off for the BootBlock search.. So i totaly screwed the Bios and flashed it with the Normal Bois from the MB brand ;} ..

But you do that kind of things on your own risk. when you KiLL the Bios HP wont take it in for repairs etc etc.

Chris 

Quote - It's true that having multiple partitions may not necessarily work as data protection, especially if you have a mechanical/on-board controller failure of the HD. Partitioning is more about efficiency and organization. Especially with today's large drives, it's usually better to divide the space into two or more partitions.

what you say is definitely true and good advice......though i prefer the external. i have a toshiba sat 5200-900 and the multi drive went caput. when i had to reformat i found to my consternation i couldn't. a new drive cost me almost 400$. the reason being it's a unique shape and has to be done by a toshiba specialist........anyway long story.....i lost everything 3 partions and what was on em. often even a virus can wipe out the partions if you move stuff about on them.. now i just use the exteranal as storage for everything and copy to dvd when i have enough to fill a disk.. one of my main problems here in the philippines with my desk top pc is power outage.  can't believe the number of times i've had to reformat because i lost power and had the registry duffed up. the external is also a great way to move or use files on another pc specially tuts lol.

billy

Ouch! You definitely need to invest in a UPS. They're pretty cheap (at least here). A cheapie won't give you much battery time but at least enough to shut down safely. I agree on the utility of an external drive. My computer budget is zero at the moment or I'd probably invest in one. I have a friend who brings me old PCs to salvage what I can from them. I have too many (relatively small) HDs for one case so I currently have a "file server" with the overflow, an old Seagate 800MB and a Quantum 2.1GB out of an old Compaq - Tiny by today's standards, but enough for my needs at present. If I deleted all of the gigs of Poser zips I'll never use in my lifetime I'd have oceans of space but alas, packrat syndrome...

Ok,

I got everything to finally work.  I used Partition commander to clear the hard drive and re-partition it.  Here's the important part- I set the first partition as the bootable OS partition.  I then set my other partitions accordingly.  I then used the rescue discs to re-install everything.  Viola, I have everything as I wanted it.  Thanks once again for all the help, -Starkdog.

i have a surge protection device and it worked okay in the uk...here though the power can go on and off 3 or 4 times in an hour. as soon as it goes off a genny kicks in and then when it comes back on it stops. we have a rainy season and fantastic thunder storms that frequently kick out cable, phones and pc's.  the laptops okay cos it has a built in battery. as you can gather the electrical systems fluctuate more than the the price of oil. it's pretty archaic to say the least but you learn to live with it lol. the first time i tried a ups i never made any difference lol and there pretty cheap here too.

billy

Starkdog, have you considered a personal media drive, I'm guessing your machine has the two doors on the front of it, one for the media drive, I recently bought a new Hewlett-Packard machine that came with one of these drives and I think they're a great idea, you just push you it in and forget about it, they come with powerpack so you can use it on other computers as well.  The catch is that they are rarer than rocking horse poop if you want to buy one separately, the only ones I've seen for sale are the 160 GB models...... Steve