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New XP install does not recognize new partition on HDD


oldtiger64

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Long story short, I have the need to install my legal copy of Windows XP on a new 64 bit AMD HP 455G1 laptop running Windows 7 Pro, because my old software does not operate correctly in the XP virtual machine mode!

 

So, I added a new 80GB partition (currently W) on the HDD of my laptop. I was able to get the XP SATA driver for another model HP AMD laptop, and have slipstreamed my Windows XP SP2, SP3 and x86 driver into an ISO file using nLite.

 

The installation works fine up to the point where it asks where to install XP and the partition (W) I created is not shown, so setup stops.

 

Any ideas how I can get my laptop to recognize the new partition? As you all know there ain't nobody out there supporting XP anymore, and that is a crying shame!

 

oldtiger64

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Do you mean that you can see "other" *partitions* but not the "W:" one?

Strictly speaking the "W:" is not a partition it is a drive letter assigned to a volume, or even more exactly it is a mounpoint for the volume implicitly created inside the partition you created.

Even if the XP setup can see that volume, it will assign to it by default a different letter (much "lower", like E: , provided that you have the hidden windows7 partition, a "normal" largish partition as C: and a DVD drive with letter D: )

But, depending on the size of the hard disk and on where (towards the beginning or the end of the disk) you created the partition you may be affected by the so-called LBA48 barrier, roughly around 128Gb.

In any case installing an XP on a disk where 7 has been already installed needs a couple tricks to later allow for dual booting.

Can you post some more details on your hardware and describe EXACTLY how you created the added 80 Gb partition?

jaclaz

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jaclaz, thank you for your response, first off let me say my computer experience is limited so some of your terms and comments my be over my head!

 

The computer that I need XP is a HP ProBook 455G1, with an AMD A6-4400 M APU. *GB RAM runnining a 64 bit copy of Windows 7.

 

The 698GB HDD hard drive is partitioned as follows C: Windows 604.18GB, D: Recovery 11.45GB, E: Tools 1.99GB, :System (no drive letteror size showing) and the drive I installed W: 80.0GB using Windows 7 disk management tools to shrink the existing space on the main drive

 

Windows disk management shows all drives as healthy and I can write and read data to the W: drive I created without any problem. The W: drive is showing as 3 in the list of the 5, between C: and D: (Again, my terminology may not be correct, but hopefully this gives you a better understanding of my current dsetup)

 

I really appreciate you trying to help me!

 

oldtiger64

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Yep. :yes:, now it is much more clear.

If you reduced the "thing" that you see as C: from the original 604 Gb to roughly 524 Gb in order to create the 80 Gb "thing" that you see as W:, then the "W: thing" begins past the 128 Gb mark in any case, no matter if the "C: thing" is actually at the beginning of the disk or not (usually it comes after the "system" partition, which should be normally 100 Mb in size).

The issue is detailed here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/303013/en-us

It is possible - for any reason - that the EnableBigLBA setting is not in the Registry of the Setup CD you made  :unsure: nlite should have made that set properly, but you never know.

But there is also another problem.

The "system" partition (that MS insists on calling the other way round) is actually the "boot" partition, see:
http://www.multibooters.co.uk/system.html

Basically what you see as "system" and without a drive letter assigned is a primary partition with an ID of 0x27 (this is a "special" partition ID that makes Windows 7 NOT assign a drive letter to it), which is actually a NTFS formatted volume inside a partition that is marked as "Active" (and that would normally have a partition ID of 0x07).

Windows XP knows nothing about a partition with ID 0x27, and this is very likely to create issues when installing, once the other issue has been solved.

Bear with me, please.

Right now your PC boot sequence is the following:
BIOS->MBR->bootsector of the Active partition (the "no drive letter", "system" partition with ID 0x27)-> BOOTMGR ( residing also on the "no drive letter", "system" partition with ID 0x27)->choices in \boot\BCD( residing also on the "no drive letter", "system" partition with ID 0x27)-> WINLOAD.EXE (residing on the "C: thing")-> Windows 7

The normal booting sequence of XP is instead:
BIOS->MBR->bootsector of the Active partition (which cannot be of type 0x27, and it is usually at the same time "system" and "boot" volume, and that in your case will probably correspond to the "W: thing" )->NTLDR (residing on the "W: thing")->choices in BOOT.INI (also residing on the "W: thing")->Windows XP kernel (also residing on the "W: thing").

In other words, even once we will manage to have the XP install "see" the "W: thing" you should NOT proceed to install.
IF you do install in that situation AND the XP install gives no issues, you will lose the possibility of booting to the Windows 7 (and it might be tricky to fix the situation), while IF you do install in that situation BUT the XP install has any issue, you will have a completely NON bootable system, i.e. both XP and 7 will fail loading) :ph34r:

All MS OS installs are "predatory" in the sense that they take over the boot sequence, altering it along the lines of what they think is "best".
Of course when you install a later OS (let's say a Windows 7 after having installed the XP) the setup has an automatic option to "import" the existing previous OS booting, but obviously a previous OS knows nothing about a later one and simply writes the "own" boot sequence.

A procedure is given here (option 2):
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8057-dual-boot-installation-windows-7-xp.html
BUT it is NOT advised (by me) to follow that method, as it gives you not any control on drive letter assignment (in the XP) and it is more generally "risky" and needing tools that I (personally) do not recommend.

Still it is useful :) as a reference.
Right now you did what is detailed on that guide under "option 2" up to point 5, I believe.

Questions:

1) What do you see right now at that step?
(I need to understand what is the situation now, before suggesting you how to go on).
2) Can you (if needed) re-create the .iso (with or without nlite)?
3) Do you have a PE of some kind (please describe) or the Windows 7 install DVD?

 

jaclaz

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Even though your knowledge is WAY beyond mine, I pretty much understand what you are saying about the differences in the way Win 7 and XP setup and that installing the additional XP system on the HDD might just screw up things so I have NO functional computer.

 

As for answering your specific questions, let me give it a shot.

 

1) What do you see right now at that step? Not 100% sure what you are referring to here, but if it is what I see during my attempted install to the W thing, setup will run until it reaches the point where it asks WHERE to install the program and shows all the items described previously, except the W thing, so I am unable to go further.
(I need to understand what is the situation now, before suggesting you how to go on).

 

2) Can you (if needed) re-create the .iso (with or without nlite)? Yes, I could recreate the iso file again using nLite.

 

It is looking more like what I really need to do is buy an old laptop and use it to run my old inventory program. When I bought this laptop I specifically bought with a version of Windows 7 that would run the XP virtual machine. My program runs, up to a point, in the virtual machine, but is essentially useless.

 

3) Do you have a PE of some kind (please describe) or the Windows 7 install DVD. I do not know what a PE, is but yes, I do have a copy of the original DVD setup for the copy of Wiindows 7 installed on the laptop.

 

Again, appreciate you time and help!

 

oldtiger64

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HP 455G1

I was able to get the XP SATA driver for another model HP AMD laptop

I guess driver dosn't match.

Which HardwaeID does match HP 455G1 Sata controller?

Which driver did you add? Did you usesd textmode mode.

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@oldtiger64

#1 I mean, follow the "Option 2" in the given reference guide:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8057-dual-boot-installation-windows-7-xp.html

when you get to Step 5, the guide shows this screenshot:

9109d1240933975-dual-boot-installation-w

Which I would describe as

three partitions are listed:

C: Partition1 (System Rese) [NTFS] 100 MB (75 Mb Free)

D: Partition2 (Windows 7) [NTFS] 40856 MB (35747 MB Free)

E: Partition3 (Winodws XP) [NTFS] 40959 MB (40872 MB Free)

 

can you provide the description of what you see at that step?

#2 good :)

#3 good, the Windows 7 install uses a sort of "reduced" OS which is called Preinstallation Environment or PE for short, that would be (since it is Windows 7 based a PE 3.x), this may be useful for the install procedure.

 

@cdob

I believe that once the right driver (should the current one not be it) is found/integrated there will be anyway a couple of issues, the NTLDR/BOOT.INI/NTDTECT.COM will need to be installed to the "System" partition to fit into "early LBA", but I am not sure that the actual XP can be installed in a volume that resides entirely above the 48 bit LBA limit :unsure:

Do you recall similar setups?

 

jaclaz

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OK, I understand your ? about the Step 5 now, but I do not remember specifically what the screen looked like when I got to that point in the XP install.

 

What I will have to do is create a new ISO file using nLite and the HP driver I have and try and run setup again. I will take a picture of the screen I get at Step 5 and get back to you. It mighet be a couple days or more before I can do this. I do know that it showed all the "things" on the laptop HDD EXCEPT the W "thing" and I knew better than to try and install XP to any of them as it might possibly destroy the existing Win 7 OS install.

 

I have installed or upgraded every previous Windows operating system going all the way back to 3.11 to many  IDE and EIDE HDD's, but never to a SATA drive, to my knowledge. I cannot remember ever having any particular problem with an installation. I have also reinstalled XP and it's SP3 upgrade a number of times and had to update the bios and drivers, and again do not recall any unusual problem(s).

 

Will get back to you when I can create the new ISO file and try XP install again.

 

Thanks again!

 

oldtiger64

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Yep :), it is needed to review what EXACTLY is shown at that point of the install, the issue is whether the disk is seen (and HOW it is seen and some of the partitions on it are seen - and HOW exactly, but not those starting beyond 128/137 Gb or crossing that boundary) then the SATA drive probably is the "right" one and the issue is somehow connected with LBA48, if the disk is not seen it is possible that the SATA driver is not the "right" one.

But even if it is the "right" driver AND the Registry key for LBA48 is enabled, it  is still possible that the issue is connected, as hinted in my previous note directed at cdob,  with the need of a "boot" partition (what the good MS guys call "system") to host the NTLDR and related files below the LBA48 limit.

 

jaclaz

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jaclaz, just saw your other 2 questions:

 

Which Hardware ID does match HP 455G1 Sata controller? I asked on the HP forum if there were any XP drivers available for my specific model laptop and was advised that there were none BUT, to try the AMD SATA drivers for another model, which were the last XP SATA drivers HP provided for their AMD laptops. That is the driver I am slipstreaming into the ISO file I have created.

 

Which driver did you add? Did you usesd textmode mode.Yes, I am using the default textmode to slipstream the driver into the ISO file and using the x86 driver,

 

The HP driver I am using will at least let me get to Step 5 in the setup process, before Setup stopped at the point where it asked if a driver needed to be installed, and since I did have a driver, Setup stopped.

 

oldtiger64

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but I am not sure that the actual XP can be installed in a volume that resides entirely above the 48 bit LBA limit :unsure:

Do you recall similar setups?

I don't known.

But does this match OP situation? Which ID refers to the 100 mb partiton currently?

Windows 7 setup creates a 100 mb system partition:

ID 0x7, is not hidden, but no drive letter assigned

Given a 100 mb system partition , a 200 gb partition and a 40 gb empty partition.

XP SP3 setup finds the all three partitions, installation to 40 gb partiton is possible.

ntldr and boot.ini are at 100 mb partiton in front of media.

KB303013 refers to XP gold and XP SP2.

 

I knew better than to try and install XP to any of them as it might possibly destroy the existing Win 7 OS install.

XP setup disables Windows 7 boot. Has to be repaired after.

 

That is the driver I am slipstreaming into the ISO file I have created.

Which driver did you add? Name the URL. Which other HP modell did you select to download the driver?

Which XP version do you use? Use a SP3 version.

Try modde AMD drivers, post #234

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/135840-integration-of-amd-ati-sb7xx-textmode-raid-ahci-drivers-on-an-xp/page-10#entry1012118

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but I am not sure that the actual XP can be installed in a volume that resides entirely above the 48 bit LBA limit :unsure:

Given a 100 mb system partition, a 200 gb partition and a 40 gb empty active partition.

Windows SP3 XP setup set letter c: to 40 gb active partition.

Installation finishes. ntldr and boot.ini are at 40 gb active partition.

All XP files are at 48 bit LBA range.

 

 

I asked on the HP forum

This one? http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Operating-Systems-and-Software/Windows-XP-SATA-drivers-for-HP455-G1-Probook-Laptop/td-p/4888270

Did you used AHCI drivers from sp43839.exe or sp57528.exe? Files from sp57528.exe should work.

Delete the partition. Does XP setup detect free space at hard disk?

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Given a 100 mb system partition, a 200 gb partition and a 40 gb empty active partition.

Windows SP3 XP setup set letter c: to 40 gb active partition.

Installation finishes. ntldr and boot.ini are at 40 gb active partition.

All XP files are at 48 bit LBA range.

 

Good to know, particularly the fact that SP3 NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM can "live" above the 48bit LBA limit :thumbup, but you seemingly cheated :w00t::ph34r: in the sense that you made a test on a different setup.
 
In oldtiger64's situation the 100 Mb partition would be the active one, and thus it would most probably get the C:\ drive letter and hold the NTLDR/NTDETECT.COM/BOOT:INI, I presume that a migrate.inf will be needed to avoid this. :unsure:
 
I mean, making (once it has been made sure that it is "seen" by the setup) the "W: thing" the active partition may be a good thing :yes:if the scope is to get the C:\ drive letter assigned to it, but not if one wants to keep the "W:" (or some other drive letter).
 
To be on the safe side :unsure: I would however add the usual BOOT.INI with a C:\grldr entry and grldr to both the "system" partition and to the "W:" thing, this way there should be a way out should any booting issue arise.
 
jaclaz
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Good to know, particularly the fact that SP3 NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM can "live" above the 48bit LBA limit :thumbup, but you seemingly cheated :w00t::ph34r: in the sense that you made a test on a different setup.

 

In oldtiger64's situation the 100 Mb partition would be the active one, and thus it would most probably get the C:\ drive letter and hold the NTLDR/NTDETECT.COM/BOOT:INI,

The example was described at post #12. I should have clarified the 100 mb active partition.

Yes, c:\ refers to the 100 mb partition that way. It's the natural XP sort order.

 

I presume that a migrate.inf will be needed to avoid this. :unsure:

Yes, a migrate.inf can set drive letters that way.

Or after textmode first reboot:

boot another OS, e.g. Windows 7 and adjust XP registry.

Drive letters can be changed at MountedDevices so far.

I would prepare a USB stick to boot windows 7 from hard disk:

Use bcdboot to transfer bootmgr and \boot\ at USB stick.

Booting this can be tested before.

In a case of emergency, it's possible to boot windows 7 from hard disk still.

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