Dynamic disk questions

[Cozar]

Hello, I have a pc with windows 2k server installed. It is not set up as a domain controller. I am trying to partion an old wd 4 gig hard drive.
I went to disk management it shows the drive listed as drive f: it shows driveC: as disk 0 basic. No problems it is working fine.
It shows disk F: as Disk 1 dynamic unreadable it has a red dot with an x inside of it.
I right clicked in the area where it said this and clicked the line saying revert to basic disk. It gave me the warning about all data will be lost I clicked OK because I just want to start with this disk clean. I click it and the hour glass appears then goes away but the disk still says it is dynamic and unreadable.
What am I doing wrong here??? I am not real experienced with this OS but this looked straight forward but as usual I was WRONG.

I also tried doing this with a windows 98se boot disk with Fdisk but it would not let me delete anything there also thats when I put it on as slave to the pc with 2k server and figured disk management would take care of it. I am really new to this so please be patient. Thanks

I certainly would appreciate any advice here. Thank you for reading my post and thanks in advance for input.

Cozar

[Cozar]

To add to the post I did previous to this one I was checking in the help files under deleting volumes and I don't know if this matters or not but to the right of the area showing dynamic disk unreadable it shows no volumes the area is just grey like the area next to cd rom would be. I am lost here because it says delete volumes first I don't think I have any volumes on that drive. I hope I am making sense here. Thanks.

Cozar

[mtbird]

I'm not too familiar with 2K server, but in disk management, is there an "action" button at the top of the window ? If so, click it, then click to "rescan" drives. See if that brings the drive into focus. It may still be flagged as dynamic, but right click the drive again and see if you have the option to "import foreign disk".

If no joy, we might be able to convert it to basic with ptedit.

[Cozar]

Nice to meet you mtbird, I tried what you said. I hit rescan disk and the little window came up saying "disk scan in progress" no change after that then I right clicked the drive again and clicked on revert to basic disk with no luck still. Also nothing anywhere about "import foreign disk". What is ptedit??

Thanks

Cozar

[mtbird]

Nice to meet you too, Cozar :)

Ok, let's have a quick look at what is going on....
Go to this link and scroll down to PTedit32. Download this to your desktop, unzip it, then just click on the exe. There is no install.
ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/

When the ptedit window opens, look to the top of the window (left side)for a dropdown box. Select drive 2 (this should be drive that isn't playing nice). Could you please take a screenshot of that window and post it back to this thread.

[Cozar]

Hey again mt. Thanks again for offering to help me.

I did as you said and got the ptedit file and ran it. Now please don't laugh at me as I am very new to this but I definitely want to learn. How do I take a screenshot and post it on this thread. I can see all the disk info just don't no how to post it here.

still crawling here but wanting to start taking baby steps,

Cozar

[mtbird]

Morning Cozar :)
Learning is a good thing ! I try to do it everyday ;)

Ok, to take a screenshot of that window, open the PTedit program. Make sure you have changed to drive 2 from the dropdown box. Hit your ALT + Printscreen keys on your keyboard. This will copy the window to clipboard.

Now, open your paint program....(programs>accessories>paint). Hit your CTRL + V keys, and this will paste the image into paint. Go up to file>save as. Name it what you want, and change the file type (dropdown box) from .bmp to .jpg. Save it to your desktop and then post it into this thread.

[Cozar]

Okay mt, I did as you said with ptedit and paint. However, I still don't see in the reply window any icon for attaching the file with the screenshot. What am I missing here?? I am logged in but under posting rules under the quick reply screen it says

You may not post attachments. Geesh, help me.

Cozar

[mtbird]

Oh sorry Cozar, I think you might have to be a subscriber to upload images. Not sure though. Otherwise you have to have them stored offsite. Somewhere like PhotoBucket.
I'll make it easy for you. I'll PM you with an email addy and you can send it to me to check out.

[Cozar]

Thanks mt, the info you gave me corrected the situation. Thanks very much for helping out a newbie.

Cozar

[mtbird]

I'm glad that worked out for you, Cozar.

I'll post your screenshot for anyone else who might have this problem....
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v432/Mtbird/Ptedit_screenshot.jpg

We changed the parameters from the disk being marked as FAT32 (and dynamic)to NTFS, then deleted (zeroed out) the extended partition.