Entire Drive is listed as "Unallocated" (Page 1 of 2)

Usually there is some problem with the partition table if GParted shows the entire drive as unallocated.  For example, partitions that overlap.

Would you be able to post the output from the following command?
     fdisk -l -u

This command is included on the GParted Live CD.  You can access it by starting a terminal session, and entering the command on the command line.

I just decided to hand type what came up....

root@debian:~# fdisk -l -u

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30394 cylinders, total 488281250 sectors
units = sectors of 1 * 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x41ab2316

Device Boot
/dev/sda1:  Start = 63;  End = 96389; blocks = 48163+; ID = de;  System = Dell Utility
/dev/sda2:  Start = 96390; End = 976559219; Blocks = 488231415; ID = 7; System = HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30394 cylinders, total 488281250 sectors
units = sectors of 1 * 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/sdb doesn't contain a valid partition table
root@debian:~#

I hope that helped.  Let me know your thoughts, and thanks again for your help with this.

Yes.  It shows both drives as 100% unallocated.

Let me know if this is the problem:
I have 2 hard drives that are set to appear as one using RAID. 

Is there a work around for this?

Any advice as to how I should move forward from this point, or what my next steps should be?

what a coincidence, i am experiencing the same problem; i too, am trying to install windows 7.

using the file system tools directly seems rather risky, is the thing.  Why would using the commands directly, rather than through the regular linux GUI interface be a more ideal approach?

okay
so i will try it tonight
once i backup my data

i will post my results by tonight, or if i fail miserable and will have to reformat my computer than by tomorrow.

thanks.

in case i misunderstood, here is the problem i am having:

Gparted basically says i have two seperate drives which are unallocated
in reality, i do have two seperate drives; but windows treats both my hard drives as one.

my assumption is that my raid controller is fake because computer management and gparted indicate different situations.

should i proceed with the command line stuff?  do you have any alternate suggestions for me?

I have a brand new Latitude E6400, Intel Core 2  Duo P8600, 2.40GHz, 1066MHz   3M L2 Cache, Dual Core running WinXP sp3.
It has a 160GB Hard Drive, 7200RPM with Free Fall Sensor
     Hitachi HTS723216L9A362
          Intel ICH8M-E/ICH9M SATA RAID Controller
The PC works quite well.  I need to find a repartitioning tool that will work with this SATA drive before I use the PC much more.
I am trying to partion the HardDrive into OS, Software, Data, TEMP, ...

I have used Partion Magic 8.0 several times (on non SATA hard drives) to change partion sizes and add new partions.  This all with out losing data or operating systems.  I have tried PartitionMagic 8.0 on this laptop and I cannot install or operate from the bootable CD.

I have also tried GParted 0.3.8 and GParted 0.4.3 
GParted indicates:  There is a tiny partition that DELL put there for testing.  The other 149.05 GiB partition that is marked 'unallocated' is the C: partition with the OS and all else.  I do not think this pre-installed partition is any different from one I would create with a 'clean' install of WinXP.

I will appreciate any help on this.

Hello anderci,

 Device       Boot      Start        End        Blocks       Id    System
/dev/sda1                  63       80324        40131       de    Dell Utility
/dev/sda2      *        81920   312592769    156255425        7    HPFS/NTFS

partitioning of your HDD looks queer ! It has a total of 312,581,808 sectors, but "sda2" ends past this value ( difference 10,961 blocks !). "sda1"  has a size of 40,131 sectors, which should result in an end sector at 40,193 and not 80,324.  I think these values have nothing to do with reality on your harddisk.

I would suggest to examine the partitioning by following resp. searching the Volume Boot Records of the partitions. With two partitions, it's not too complicated. Then I would restore the partition tables in Master Boot Record with the investigated values and at last correct the "Hidden Sector" value for "sda2". With the help of a Vista recovery disk and some rounds of "chkdsk /f /r" , your harddisk should work again. As tool for this task, I would use "MC_HxEd", which is contained in latest "GParted" versions ( start with "fluxbox" menu on desktop).

If you are interested, I will give you detailed instructions.

Regards
cmdr

Hello anderci,

OOPS, I think, I was sleeping. But anyway, its NTFS, what matters.

A picture is worth a thousand words :

Regards
cmdr

Hello anderci,

no need to "guess", mounted USB Stick has  <>-mark in the treeview of refreshed "MC_HxEd". and it must be mounted with the automatic  "Mounting Wizard" of "MC_HxEd". It gets mounted, when you first double-click on any(!) device name (maybe "sdb" itself) and confirm to do so.

This is the 1st important condition !

The blue screen, which pops up, when you click on device names, belongs to "Midnight Commander" (1st screen : hexadecimal editor; later 2nd screen: filemanager ( left side: USB-Stick folder "BootRec" , right side local Linux storage folder "home"). You do copy-operations in the 2nd screen (file manager). BLK-files, the output of "Show_Block(s)" are NOT automatically stored on the USB stick (for safety reasons). You find them in "home". You have to copy them manually. This is very easy to do. The file, you want to copy, must be highlighted (mouse is NOT working; use arrow keys instead). To jump from left side to right side and back, use [Tab] key. If the source BLK-file is highlighted, press [F5] and just confirm (hit [ENTER]-key) ... and it "jumps" to the left. That's all. Now you stored it permanently. Shutdown "GParted" and upload the file. e.g. to "www.mediafire.com", copy the link address and give it to us in your next post.

If you hadn't aborted, you would have seen (on the filemanager screen) the 4MB BLK-file, which will contain an image of the first 82,000 sectors of your corrupted HDD. This is my basis of work! Just copy it to the stick and upload it.

I think, you can manage it now !

Regards
cmdr

I tried again and may have succeeded?
copy file 'sda_0_82000.BLK   to: /mnt/usb/BootRec  [<OK>]
[F10(quit)]

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=220b … f6e8ebb871

It is uploaded now.