Vista - XP Clean install can't repartition vista disc

Help. I have a 160gb hdd in a system which was only running Vista. I decided
to wipe and clean install XP, but when XP gets to its partitioning screen, it
sees a 24mb MBR volume and then a 'disc' with no drive on it. I cannot do
anything to partition the free space on the drive.

I have tried going through Vista setup and deleting the partition, which it
claims it did, but XP still can't see the disc. I have also tried fixmbr with
no luck.

I'm sure this is a relatively easy fix, but I'm not sure what else to try.

On Fri, 11 Aug 2006 19:28:01 -0700, Dan
<Dan@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>Help. I have a 160gb hdd in a system which was only running Vista. I decided
>to wipe and clean install XP, but when XP gets to its partitioning screen, it
>sees a 24mb MBR volume and then a 'disc' with no drive on it. I cannot do
>anything to partition the free space on the drive.
>
>I have tried going through Vista setup and deleting the partition, which it
>claims it did, but XP still can't see the disc. I have also tried fixmbr with
>no luck.

This is totally speculation... I haven't actually seen this problem.

Is your XP install CD an original, pre-SP2 version? They changed how
NTFS works at SP2, and Vista uses the new version. It is similar
enough that the old XP won't see it as free space, but different
enough that it can't be altered by pre-SP2 systems.

I suspect if you could find an "XP with SP2" install CD it would know
how to work with both versions of NTFS. Otherwise, a low-level format
should get you back to real free space.

I did run into sort-of the opposite situation. I made an NTFS
partition with Linux, and when I went to install Vista into it, it
didn't qualify as "new" NTFS. At least the Vista installer knew how to
delete it and re-create it as "new" NTFS.

Loren

"Dan" <Dan@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:7ECBE950-CF03-45CA-9424-F4BBFECD4465@microsoft.com...
> Help. I have a 160gb hdd in a system which was only running Vista. I
> decided
> to wipe and clean install XP, but when XP gets to its partitioning screen,
> it
> sees a 24mb MBR volume and then a 'disc' with no drive on it. I cannot do
> anything to partition the free space on the drive.
>
> I have tried going through Vista setup and deleting the partition, which
> it
> claims it did, but XP still can't see the disc. I have also tried fixmbr
> with
> no luck.
>
> I'm sure this is a relatively easy fix, but I'm not sure what else to try.

You can use the manu's software to wipe the disk.

C.