Solved partitioning a hard drive

I just got a new hard drive for Advent 5421 vista basic that apparently needs partitioning inorder to get the vista installation disc to complete as it will not install it at present as keeps coming up with diskpart error. So I went to command prompt typed in diskpart pressed enter...selected disk 0.....said disk 0 selected...but when I go to create partition primary it says not enough disc space to create partition etc...Any ideas before I have to visit the PC World shop to get them to sort it out. Appreciate any help thanks

Hello Angie,

Since you have a Vista installation disc, you could run a clean command on the new HDD first. Afterwards do the create partition primary to be able to install Vista on it.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

hi brink, so to do that do I boot from the vista disc then go to command prompt and do the clean from there? It will not do anything to the vista installation disc will it or should I eject the vista disc when I get the command prompt up?

Yes, that's exactly how you would do it. The link above will give you more details on how.

As long as you only select the HDD in Diskpart to run the "clean" command on, nothing will happen to your installation disc.

hi brink, when I got to the part where is says list disk it came back saying Disk 0 (under disk 'heading') No Media (under Status 'heading') 0B (under Size 'heading') 0B (under Free 'heading') nothing under 'heading's of Dyn or Gpt

If you ran the Clean subcommand of DiskPart then there should be nothing on it. There's no partition table, no MBR, nothing. Now you need to create one or more partitions. If you want just one big partition then
>create partition primary


Here's an easy step by step you would use if making a bootable USB key.
Just so you get an idea of the sequence of commands.
Diskpart: Bootable USB in 10 easy steps | Bootable USB Flash/Pen/Thumb/Key Drive

If you select the HD and just format one partition then all commands will go to the right place.
There's only one partition so you can't pick the wrong one etc..
Just adapt it for a HD not a USB key. You'll likely want to format as NTFS rather than FAT32 etc..

after putting in clean it comes up with message Virtual Disk Service error:
There is no media in the device


Any ideas as to why I cannot create a partition on an empty.. it seems ...drive

I have managed to get it partitioned (used another new harddrive) went to install vista disc it goes to 2 of the 5 sections but when it gets to 3 (installing windows) after a while it comes up with a message saying (Failed to apply vista.wim) any ideas now to help in getting these stupid discs to install...thanks

Angie,

Unfortunately, that error message usually means that your installation disc is corrupted, and may need to get a new copy of it from Advent.

If you still have the original HDD that came with your Advent 5421, and it wasn't formated, then you might be able to put it back in and try to create a new recovery disc from it.

Recovery and Recovery Disk FAQs - read before posting : Advent Recovery Disk Support • Advent Support

Hi brink, this is a second set of disc that I have been sent as the first set did same so rang them up and they sent me another set but it still coming up with same error message as before. Is it not to do with a image that needs installing like I have read when I googled the error message. Say is there anyway I could get the image downloaded from another of the same computers and put onto a disc and then transfer to this computer or is it nothing to do with that.

If it's the same model number as your computer with Vista, then yes you could create a Vista factory recovery disc from it to use on your computer.

Does the HDD show as a formated drive with a drive letter in diskpart before you try installing Vista?

well I assigned it with the letter C so it does but thats because I gave it one....it says it partitioned and its formatted to ntfs and it says healthy but it just will not complete the installation

oh and I can not do a recovery disc from other computer because we only get one chance to do it and it didnt complete properly so thats why I had to buy a disc.
I am starting to wonder whether PC World have done this on purpose as it seems strange as to how that never competed when we went to do that and I have now had two different discs from them and still both doing same error.
I have even tried putting the new harddrive into the working computer and then used the recovery disc on there to check that if it did same error on there then it has nothing to do with a fault on the computer its self and guess what it came up with same error message so it has got to have something to do with the discs and it seems strange that it still has the same error message appearing on a computer that is working. Another money making scam from them it seems....cos if I cannot get it sorted myself guess what...I will have to go and pay them to do it for me.....Think thats the idea they had planned..........Anyway any suggestions :-)

Yeah, it sounds like the installation disc may be no good. You might contact Advent about getting another replacement installation disc and mention what is happening to see what they think as well.

My advice would be to get a real partitioning tool like this:
Partition Wizard Bootable CD allows user to boot computer directly to manage partition.

Often you have to set several attributes of a partition before you can install to it. I would read the Partition Wizard help or docs. You may need to set the partition as Active. This page may help:

Set Active/Inactive - Partition Wizard Help

Also unless you absolutely need some software that comes on the recovery discs, I'd just try to find a Vista install DVD iso image and install it with no product key. That will give you 90 days to come up with a better solution(free 90 day product evaluation.) In the meantime you can use your PC for 3 months.

edit: also if an MBR type partition doesn't exist you'e pounding sand. Need an MBR type to have boot code written to the drive.

I used your instructions to clean then partition then formatt.....so thats done atleast....just in need of installing an operating system now...see my other thread.....Thanks for the info on partitioning, easier than thought