Partition Magic and DDS9

[EJogr]

I have used DDS9 to create partition, resize partition to have a 2nd os installed using OS Selector. When i dont need it anymore, i erase the partition that contained the second OS and resize the space left into other partition D:.

When i tried to run Partition Magic, it will not run instead of just came out
with a message:

Error #117: Partition’s drive letter cannot be identified

From the User manual:
Error #117
Under OS/2, PartitionMagic must be able to find the drive letter for each
partition before modifications can be made. There are various reasons why OS/2
might not be able to find a drive letter for each partition. For example, a
driver on your system may change the drive letters from their defaults, or your
partitions may not have serial numbers.
You may also see this error when running PartitionMagic under Windows.
The solution is to run PartitionMagic from DOS or from MS-DOS mode (in
Windows 95 or Windows 98). When PartitionMagic runs from DOS or from
MS-DOS mode, it does not need to be able to find the drive letter for each
partition. Thus, if the problem indicated by this error message is the only
problem, PartitionMagic can run successfully.

Even running disk checking on windows xp will not reveal this problem.
If i run partition info(a utility of partition magic), it will have
something like this(i dont remember it exactly):

a partition is not started from sector that it should be, if partition magic still continues
on this hardisk, data loss will occur.

I only managed to get partition magic run by deleting the partition D:(where the space from 2nd os have been added to using DDS9) and then recreate a new partition from the unallocated space. I think DDS9 has lost it usefulness as a partition utility because i just cannot solve it by resizing the partition. I think DDS9 or OS Selector have left out some sector.

I have repeat this(installing a second OS) a second time but the result is the same. I would like to know what DDS9 or OS Selector is doing that causing this problem, whether any disk space is lost (because of not start of sector that it should?) or is it going the damage the hardisk?

[Acronis Support]

Hello EJogr,

Thank you for using Acronis Disk Director Suite (http://www.acronis.com/products/diskdirector/).

Please note that we don't support PowerQuest Partition Magic. Please also note that Acronis Disk Director Suite 9.0 is the utility for Windows and Windows doesn't report any error on the hard disk drive after using Acronis Disk Director Suite.

We do know that PowerQuest Partition Magic reports strange error messages. Please contact their technical support in order to clarify what these error messages mean.

Thank you.

[EJogr]

But apparently this is cause by DDS9.

[Acronis Support]

Dear EJogr,

We are sorry to say but we cannot help you to resolve the issue with PowerQuest Partition Magic. Please contact their Support Department.

Thank you.

[Warlock_BA]

I am very sorry to report that DDS9 is really damaging harddrives, i bought two other partitioning tools, and PowerQuest is reporting the above mentioned error. And the other tool (Partition Commander) sees three of my partitions as free space, after repartitioning with DDS9. I chose others because DDS9 will not move/resize my ext3 partitions. A stop sign is displayed on them, and it is reported that i do not have enough disk space to move a 70MB partition but there are 2.6gb free, just left of it ...

[Emendelson]

Start up Partition Magic in DOS mode, with this command line:

Pqmagic.exe /IPE

That's space-slash-IPE (Ignore Partition Errors).

(The /IPE switch may or may not work with the Windows application - I can't remember, but it can't hurt to try; it definitely works with the DOS version.)

Partition Magic tends to be overstrict in refusing to load when it finds what it thinks are errors in the partition table; sometimes it seems to be mistaken about whether those are really errors or not. Please try it and let us know what happens.

[EJogr]

I dont know it is which one's fault, Partition Magic or DDS9. But there is no message like this if you create the partition after a hardisk format. But if you resize existing partitions, then this problem will surfaces. Anyway, i am not very satisfy with the answer given by the Acronis Support which only ask me to contact DDS9's Support Department.(It is like blamming on other, put it on other's responsibility.) And didin't even answering my question?

[Emendelson]

I've never seen any damage resulting from this situation. If you can actually use your hard disk, then the other partitioning software is mistakenly reporting errors. It doesn't make any sense to blame DiskDirector for mistakes in other programs.

In my experience, PartitionCommander is *really* dangerous, and has wiped out a hard disk more than once (I now use it only for <10GB hard disks on old systems). PartitionMagic is *sometimes* dangerous, especially when it reports an error that isn't a real-world error (in other words, when the system works, although PartitionMagic thinks that something is wrong but isn't wrong); I've stopped using it entirely, except for the superb PQBoot.exe program. Both PartitionCommander and PartitionMagic report errors that aren't real errors, sometimes because they use out-of-date alogorithms and don't understand new file systems, and that may be part of the reason that they're dangerous.

I've never had any problem at all with DiskDirectorSuite. Other people have apparently had problems with it, but I haven't.

[Acronis Support]

Hello all,

Thank you for your interest in Acronis Disk Director Suite (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/diskdirector/).

Please understand that we cannot help you if any third-party partitioning tool reports errors on your drives. We will definitely help you if Windows reports such errors after using Acronis Disk Director Suite. We will definitely help you if Acronis Report utility shows errors.

Thank you.

--
Andrew Berezovsky