Windows XP compatible partition??? - Tech Support Forums

CraigK · February 3rd, 2005, 05:02 PM

My friend has recently tried partitioning his two hard drives. He did this because he has been having a lot of OS problems and I told him he should partition his drives so he can periodically reinstall the OS.

Here's the big problem though, He DLed a program , Acronis Disk Director 9.0, that allowed him to partition his drives while running windows. He allocated all the stuff he wanted to keep on the various partitions and left a 5gig partition for his OS. He is now trying to load up windows with a fresh install, but whenever he tries to load it on the 5gig partition, he gets a message saying
"this disk does not contain a Windows XP-compatible partition.
To continue installing Windows XP, return to the partition selection screen and create a Windows XP-compatible partition on the disk..."

how do we create a Windows XP-compatible partition?

As always your help is greatly appreciated.
CraigK

Jarhed7276 · February 3rd, 2005, 05:28 PM

He can boot from the WinXP CD and create the boot partion from there. After the OS is installed he can partition and format the rest of the drives from Windows in disk management (right click on My Computer and click on Manage).

I would also make the boot partition a bit larger, 8-10 gig. WinXP needs 3-4 gig to start with and tends to grow over time.

CraigK · February 3rd, 2005, 05:47 PM

The problem is creating the boot partition. We have been using the Win XP disk, and tried deleting and repartitioning. It keeps giving us the message that the volume does not contain a windows XP-compatible partition

Jarhed7276 · February 3rd, 2005, 05:55 PM

Download Killdisk at www.killdisk.com. You will need a blank floppy disk to put it on. Put all but the documents onto the floppy. Boot the pc with a boot disk (a Win98 boot disk will be fine). Then run the Killdisk program from the floppy you made. This will put the hard drive in a just out of the box condition. Then boot from the WinXP cd.

CraigK · February 3rd, 2005, 06:06 PM

He was really hoping he wouldn't have to wipe his hard drive clean. He is something of a pack-rat when it comes to his school documents. Hopefully someone else knows a way to. If not we will definitely wipe it clean with the killdisk program.

harper · May 10th, 2006, 04:49 AM

hello

the problem is that windows cannot recoganize any of the partitions as active.
all you need to do is set the partition to active using fdisk(option 2) or partition magic(set it as primary and not logical).
but you will loose data on that partition only.

magicianofdark · September 6th, 2007, 01:02 AM

Recently i encounter a simliar problem.
I had 3 harddisk; 2 of 80GB hitachi, 1 of 80GB maxtor

1 of the Hitachi had 3 partition which i used 1 of it to install OS in.
When i tried to install, those error message u mentioned earlier appeared.

I tried to use 1 of the other 2 partition by deleting it and install but didnt work.
I tried to unplug the hitachi HD (Which i used for OS) and replug but also cant work.

Strange encounter:
When i tried to unplug the other 2 HD and went to the BIOS, It cannot even detect the main HD i used for OS! Even though it is still plug in!
But when i replug the other 2, All 3 could be detected?!

So i unplug all the 3 HD and plug in back...finally..It could be installed.
what the heck is going on...who knows?

btw, this error message is also possible to be happening on vistsa.
During the try out, i used vista and a different msg appeared.
It was "Windows is unable to find a system volume that meets its criteria for installation"

oh ya..when i install the vista, it indicates that the HD(which im installing OS) is primary. Even so, why can't it be installed? lol..