In my repairs, I have occasionally had a drive with unknown partions that would give me a problem. We would use a program from Gateway called GWScan to write 0's and1's to the hard drive, then start over as if it were a new empty drive. GWScan - http://support.gateway.com/support/drivers/search.asp?param=gwscan&st=kw This will create a bootable floppy with the program on it. Just boot the machine with the floppy and select write 1's and 0's to drive. It is a slow process on a large drive, but has always worked for me unless the drive had bad sectors. Fran ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ian C>" <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Monday, September 01, 2003 10:37 PM Subject: Re: Partition Woes > Bob, I 'd already removed & recreated partitions w/ p'magic (ver 8) > leaving 12MB blank , and was unable to successfully re-install OS. Also > tried HP's HD utility, which reported no errors. Was unable to get > ahold of HP's recovery disc, so it looks like "low-level" format is in > order. > > Tony Mayer, the /mbr switch was one of the first things I tried, to no > avail. > > Thanks for the responses guys. > > Ian Carmichael > > > > At 11:57 PM 8/31/2003, Ian Carmichael wrote: > > > >> Hello all. I have an HP laptop here that although had only Win98 > >> installed, also had an unknown boot manager (based upon info supplied > >> by owner). Partition type reads as UNKNOWN ......... > > > > > > Bob Wright wrote: > > Since you have Partition Magic, the first thing to do is remove all > > partitions > > so the drive is totally empty. Now, using Partition Magic, create a > > primary > > partition, Fat32 that is 98% of the available drive....... > > > > If you cannot accomplish this with Partition Magic,...... > > Go to the manufacturer's web site and find their low-level format > > utility.... > > > --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.514 / Virus Database: 312 - Release Date: 8/28/2003 PCBUILD's List Owners: Bob Wright<[log in to unmask]> Drew Dunn<[log in to unmask]>