Problem with disk configuration after Windows 8 installation

Rob Sherratt

New Member
Messages
2
Location
Corfu, Greece
This is a bit complicated! Prior to installing Windows 8 my computer went through the following "Evolutionary steps"

1. New motherboard fitted
2. Windows XP installed (baseline full install)
3. Windows 7 upgrade installed on a new disk drive, which then became drive C: - I created a dual boot system
it was also possible to boot Windows XP from what then became drive D:
4. Installed Windows 8 upgrade onto drive C: (also created a bootable USB dive with Windows 8 upgrade on it)
5. After installation, deleted the Windows.Old (Windows 7) because was running out of disk space
6. Deleted all files off the Windows XP Drive C:

In terms of hardware ID's the Windows 8 drive C: is hardware ID 0
The Windows XP disk drive D: is hardware ID 2

Now I am trying to "reclaim" the old Windows XP drive and reformat it for general use, I don't want to use it as a system disk.
The system will not let me!! Here is the status from DISKPART:

DISKPART> select disk 0

Disk 0 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> detail disk

WDC WD6400AAVS-00G9B1 ATA Device
Disk ID: 4D314D30
Type : ATA
Status : Online
Path : 1
Target : 0
LUN ID : 0
Location Path : PCIROOT(0)#PCI(1F02)#ATA(C01T00L00)
Current Read-only State : No
Read-only : No
Boot Disk : Yes
Pagefile Disk : Yes
Hibernation File Disk : No
Crashdump Disk : Yes
Clustered Disk : No

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 2 C Windows 7 NTFS Partition 596 GB Healthy Boot

DISKPART> select disk 2

Disk 2 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> detail disk

WDC WD6400AAVS-00G9B1 ATA Device
Disk ID: EC40EC40
Type : ATA
Status : Online
Path : 0
Target : 0
LUN ID : 0
Location Path : PCIROOT(0)#PCI(1F02)#ATA(C00T00L00)
Current Read-only State : No
Read-only : No
Boot Disk : No
Pagefile Disk : No
Hibernation File Disk : No
Crashdump Disk : No
Clustered Disk : No

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 4 D Windows XP NTFS Partition 596 GB Healthy System

DISKPART> select partition 1

Partition 1 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> inactive

DiskPart marked the current partition as inactive.

DISKPART> clean

Virtual Disk Service error:
Clean is not allowed on the disk containing the current boot,
system, pagefile, crashdump or hibernation volume.

DISKPART>

I can confirm that my computer believes that Drive D: is a system disk and that Drive C: is not.

Now at this point I am lost and would be really grateful for help on what to do next, in order to reclaim my disk D: and use it as a non-system-disk. I guess I need to turn the Windows 7 disk into a system disk first. Or maybe I should re-install Windows 8 in some way, only problem being that I deleted my earlier installation of Windows XP & Windows 7.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro 64 bit
    CPU
    Core 2 Duo 6600 @ 2.4 Ghz
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS4
    Memory
    4G
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD3870 X2
    Sound Card
    Motherboard default
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG L1980U & LG M2762DP
    Screen Resolution
    1280 x 1024 & 1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    2 x 500 GB
    2 x 250 GB
    PSU
    750 Watt
    Internet Speed
    0.5 Mbit/s up & 8 Mbit/s down
It is probably the system volume.

To save running commands, mark your win8 partition active and run startup repair from win8 boot media.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    7/8/ubuntu/Linux Deepin
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Thanks for the suggestion which I tried as follows.

I set the partition on Drive D: inactive and the partition on Drive C: active using DISKPART, I then rebooted the system using the Windows 8 USB drive (because at that point Windows 8 would no longer boot at all so I could not use the repair options from the HD installation). It was a very frightening experience.

I tried using the "Refresh System" option - it said my system disk was locked. I then used the AutoRepair option. It ran OK, and set things back exactly the same way as reported in my post above. The system disk is still drive D: which still has an active boot partition on it that I cannot remove. And Drive C: (The Windows 8 installation) still has no boot partition on it.

So I think we need to explore other options ... any advice please?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro 64 bit
    CPU
    Core 2 Duo 6600 @ 2.4 Ghz
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS4
    Memory
    4G
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD3870 X2
    Sound Card
    Motherboard default
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG L1980U & LG M2762DP
    Screen Resolution
    1280 x 1024 & 1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    2 x 500 GB
    2 x 250 GB
    PSU
    750 Watt
    Internet Speed
    0.5 Mbit/s up & 8 Mbit/s down
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