Anilrgowda

I have been very stupid not to heed warnings about Partition Magic.

I tried to merge 2 non-adjacent partitions, both NTFS. Neither was the partition with the OS on it. It was the first and third partition on the drive, the second being the one with XP (home media centre SP2) on it.

Partition Magic rebooted the laptop to merge the partitions, and got to 12% and gave the error "Error 4 Bad argument/parameter".
The PM support site is not too helpful about this error.
"Error 4 Bad argument/parameter"

So I rebooted, and got the error "Cannot Find \Windows\System32\hal.dll" (This may not have been the exact wording)

I panicked a bit, (I have not backed up data) as I don't have an XP Cd, only a recovery CD, and have not installed Recovery console.

I booted up with a Win98 CD, and went into FDisk, the partitions seem to be as they were before this messup, and the partition with the OS is the active one.

I ran fdisk /mbr , rebooted, and the error I got was "operating system not found". And here I am. I don't want to do more without advice from the Pros, in case I ruin my chances of data recovery.

I am thinking to get a hold of an XP CD from somewhere, load the Recovery console, and issue the FIXMBR command.

Another sticking point for me is that it is proving impossible to remove the hard drive from the laptop Sony Vaio N11h without damaging the case. I have always been able to take laptops apart, but this one seems impossible to take apart.

Anilrgowda

Unfortunately, it is too late - but you shouldn't have run the fdisk /mbr - this is why you now have "operating system not found" - this command is not supported on NTFS volumes!

You should have found a windows cd first, and done a fixmbr from that!

You can still try this, and I would recommend running fixboot and a chkdsk /r as well (in case PM has screwed up the file structure)

You may still be unable to boot your OS after this - but you can try...

If not - you will have to do a repair install -

References - How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install
Windows XP Professional (Pro) Repair Guide

JediMaster

Partition Magic, got Error#4,
I also had this error and can get ur problem fixed.

It sounds like the program that runs after the merge has ran, changing the stuff that was directed to the second Partition (D:\ for me)
to the directory name you specified (DATA was mine)
error "\Windows\System32\hal.dll" happens mainly when the windows\system32 folder is moved or deleted or not found.
Then you stupidly erased ur Master Boot Record Which was working fine, its ur boot.ini that is now misdirected as is all ur windows programs that were installed on the second partition.
Boot a Floppy of Dos, with edit.com on it.
Type at C:\>a:\edit c:\boot.ini
where it says \windows\
change it to \DATA\windows\
***********************************************
****** <>Replace DATA with "" name for the **********
** folder you where going to move the merged drive to. ***
*************************************************
Get a Legal Copy Of XP, Boot that Hit "Enter" then "R" at prompts.
Login using Administrator, then type
C:\>FixMBR
C:\>Fixboot
Y the error i'm yet to find out. Keep you posted.

Then you can undo the changes Partition magic made in registry and shortcuts etc and mainly re-installing.

I also had this error and can get ur problem fixed.

It sounds like the program that runs after the merge has ran, changing the stuff that was directed to the second Partition (D:\ for me)
to the directory name you specified (DATA was mine)
Then you stupidly erased ur Master Boot Record Which was working fine, its ur boot.ini that is now misdirected as is all ur windows programs that were installed on the second partition.
Boot a Floppy of Dos, with edit.com on it.
Type at C:\>a:\edit c:\boot.ini
where it says \windows\
change it to \DATA\windows\
************************************
***<>Replace DATA with "" name for the ***
folder you where going to move the merged files to.
************************************
Get a Legal Copy Of XP, Boot that Hit "Enter" then "R" at prompts.
Login using Administrator, then type
C:\>FixMBR
C:\>Fixboot
Try Booting Partition magic off the floppy rescue disks
Run a Partition Check First, then try merge using the same folder name as before.


"Error 4 Bad argument/parameter"

Mine was different, i have xp installed on the partition 1.
So hope it works