Xp installation not found after vista delete

[sjonato]

hey,
I have a big problem so here it is:
I had xp installed on c: vista installed on d: and e: as storage- all on the same physical HD.
I wanted to free the D: drive from vista and put win 7 instead,
so through xp I formatted the d: drive(with vista installation) and rebooted(I diddnt realize that I killed the boot manager).
from that point the I was unable to bot and the only partition that was found was the one I formatted and its not the HD phsical size only the original d: drives size. Can anybody help me recover the lost partitions and the xp installation? I think I need to repair the boot manager but when I put in the vista cd it wont recognize that there is an xp installation...

please help!!
thank you all very much!!!

 

[aford10]

I would try rebuilding your boot.ini file first.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291980

 

[mstaxi]

check in bios that ide is selected not auto or ahci xp only works as ide ok

 

[sjonato]

check in bios that ide is selected not auto or ahci xp only works as ide ok

hey, thanks for the response,
the IDE is actually on "auto" but the options I have are:

IDE Channel 0 Master [Auto] (options: none /man/auto)
Access Mode [Auto] (options: CHS/LBA/Large/Auto)

can you try and be a little more specific?
sorry, first time playing with bios..

Thanks again
Jon

 

[sjonato]

I would try rebuilding your boot.ini file first.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291980

Hey tahnks for the reply ,
I tried this but the Bootcfg dosent recognize the "lost" drives. after a Bootcfg /scan I get no results.
even when I start trying to install xp on the formatted drive the setup disk only "sees" 120Gb(the size of the formatted drive) out of the original 360Gb.
what do you think?

 

[aford10]

It will only see that amount of free space if you try to install inside windows. Is that how you're trying to install?

XP will run on IDE mode if that's the type of drive you have.

 

[sjonato]

It will only see that amount of free space if you try to install inside windows. Is that how you're trying to install?

XP will run on IDE mode if that's the type of drive you have.

it sees this amount when I boot for the xp setup disk too.it can only find the formatted partition.
My HD has only a sata connection, how do I set it to IDE mode?
thanks

 

[aford10]

If your HD is SATA then you don't want IDE mode. I was just saying that mode can be ran in XP in reference to the comment above.

When you boot off the OS disc, you should see a prompt to 'press any key'. When the disc boots, you should see 3 partitions.

 

[Zoron]

XP pre-SP2 could not recognize drives larger than 137GB... this is most likely your issue. Does your copy of XP include SP2?

 

[sjonato]

XP pre-SP2 could not recognize drives larger than 137GB... this is most likely your issue. Does your copy of XP include SP2?

It was sp2, additionally the partitions where less then 130Gb each

 

[sjonato]

If your HD is SATA then you don't want IDE mode. I was just saying that mode can be ran in XP in reference to the comment above.

When you boot off the OS disc, you should see a prompt to 'press any key'. When the disc boots, you should see 3 partitions.

I know I should but I wish I did, it can only see the formatted partition..

I'm running out of hope..

 

[aford10]

Try using the R (repair) option on the partition you can see. That will boot you into the repair console. You can try to change drives at the command line. Try to get to the C: prompt. Then try rebuilding the boot file.