# Solved: Partition Magic 8 - yellow bad disk message



## Darth Amilo (Oct 25, 2007)

I've recently re-installed XP Pro on a "designed for XP/Vista Compatible" MESH PC. The previous OS was Vista but the PC didn't like it too much. The disk is partitioned into 4 but Partition Magic 8.0 now shows the disk as "bad" (yellow halo) and does not see the 4 partitions. The PC hangs every now and then, or is sluggish. 

Does anyone have any idea how to sove this problem please? 

Cheers


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

First, stop using any Symantec/Norton products.

Is there any error message? Is XP booting? How does that partition look in Disk Management?

Right-click Computer > Manage > Disk Management.


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## Darth Amilo (Oct 25, 2007)

Elvandil - Roger that. I ceratainly will stop using these products, they're just trashing my PC (also have Norton antivirus). 

At work at the mo. but will check disk management later. I did spot a similar thread to mine after a quick search (apologies) even though the problem seems to be slightly different.

If disk management shows things are OK then "end of" I guess but in the event of a problem, what sort of things will disk management show?


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

It should tell if Windows thinks the partition is valid. Have you been able to access it in Computer, or does it not even show up?

There are plenty of free partitioners and we have far fewer complaints about Parted Magic, for example (that uses gparted) than about Partition Magic. You could see what one of them thinks about that partition and maybe even fix it.

Partitioning Tools-->

Free:

CloneZilla GParted LiveCD (Complete partitioning and drive imaging/restoration tools)
SystemRescueCD
Gparted LiveCD
Parted Magic
Vista Recovery Disk (Shrink, expand, create, delete partitions)
Free Paragon Hard Drive Manager 8.0 Special Edition (Install and make recovery CD for offline partitioning.)
XP Recovery Console CD image (Create and delete partitions with diskpart.exe)
Partition Logic
Ranish Partition Manager
Cute Partition Manager


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## Darth Amilo (Oct 25, 2007)

Elvandil - Thanks for the list and advice. I think the problem is now solved. The Maxtor disk was partitioned into 4 using Partition Magic 8.0. I ran PartInfo and it came up with error messages for the disk (bad geometry etc, error messages 116 and 117 I think, and something along the lines of expecting a "1" when there was a "2"). Checked using XP Disk Management and it said the disk was healthy. However, there was some "odd" free space highlighted in green. Attempting to format this free space and create a new partition failed completely. I suspect Partition Magic was having an issue with this "unrecognized" part of the disk. Just out of curiosity I tried to reload XP, and that failed too with essentially the same message (Windows could't recognize the disk). So it seems the free space was the issue in some way. Oh yes, diskpart also failed.

Somewhere along the line I've managed to mess up the partitioning. Although that said, the PC has been working. I'm ditching PM8. 

I've now backed up most of the files I need, and will shortly re-format the whole disk to get a clean platter, then start again.....


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

That's one way. Grab that free Paragon tool while it's still free, install it, and make the recovery CD so you can partition offline if need be in the future.

Gparted works very well, too, and we've seen far fewer complaints than from Partition Magic (Parted Magic uses gparted).

Due to the possibility of a partition table having an invalid backup copy that doesn't appear until you need it, I always recommend deleting all partitions and making new ones when the opportunity arises. Better that than finding partition problems after your system is all set up.

Then---disk image. If you have a backup of the drive, you can't get seriously hurt again.


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## Arcadion (Sep 2, 2004)

I finally got so sick of Partition Magic thinking my drives were corrupt that I ditched it altogether and switched to Acronis Disk Director, it's a far better program.


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## Darth Amilo (Oct 25, 2007)

Elvandil - thanks v. much. Forgot to mention that I keep an Acronis disk image as a final fail-safe. I figured this time round a complete re-install was worth the effort, just to put the disk back in order as you said, and get the partitions right. The disk is now partitioned into 3 using XP, and that's it. 

Lesson learned I guess. Some of this software causes more harm than good, and with PM, it's easy to put yourself in a whole world of hurt!

Arcadion - couldn't agree more. Acronis is excellent.


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

You can mark your own threads "solved" using the Thread Tools above.


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