# What happens if I delete this partition on my hard drive? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 16, 2004, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-delete-this-partition-on-my-hard-drive/255387 "2004-07-16T08:08:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-delete-this-partition-on-my-hard-drive/255387/21 "2004-08-02T23:06:13Z")
> [@Danalan](#): > > You know, I searched this whole thread, and I didn’t find the word ‘backup’ once. I assume I’m just missing something, because no-one would really recommend messing around with your drive partitions without first backing up your system. Right? > > Right? > > :eek: Nobody has suggested anything that would affect data stored in existing partitions. The OP has already deleted the partition on the smaller disk. We’re only talking about partitions’ boot sectors, and the MBR. ---
**Author:** ![Demo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demo/32/8472_2.png) [@Demo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Demo)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-delete-this-partition-on-my-hard-drive/255387/22 "2004-08-02T23:12:47Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > Ok I did that and got past the DMI Pool Data part, but now I’m getting a BSOD. If I choose to start normally it says there is a problem with atapi.sys. If I start with last know good configuration I get IRQL\_NOT\_LESS\_OR\_EQUAL. Uggh. You’re probably going to need to borrow an XP CD then and use the recovery console. ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-delete-this-partition-on-my-hard-drive/255387/23 "2004-08-03T02:09:05Z")
I personally would have used the [Recovery Console](http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;314058) along with _fixboot_ and perhaps _bootcfg_. Running _chkdsk /p_ wouldn’t hurt either. Now that you’re getting the boot menu at least though, I don’t think the boot sector is a probem. There should be an error number (ie 0x00000a) to go along with your bluescreen text there. It would be helpful to post that. _If_ it indicates a requirement for it, you _might_ end up [repairing your registry](http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;307545). Note also that your data can always be saved by performing a [parallel installation](http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/reskit/en-us/prmc_str_jyof.asp) of XP as a last resort. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-delete-this-partition-on-my-hard-drive/255387/24 "2004-08-03T02:24:51Z")
> [@Nanoda](#): > > There should be an error number (ie 0x00000a) to go along with your bluescreen text there. It would be helpful to post that. The “last good configuration” (DRIVER\_IRQL\_NOT\_LESS\_OR\_EQUAL) number is: ```auto 0x000000D1 (0x00B411B0, 0x0000000D, 0x00000000, 0x00B411B0) ``` And the “start windows normally” (atapi.sys error) number is: ```auto 0x000000D1 (0x89AC9AC4, 0x0000000D, 0x00000001, 0xf8492710) atapi.sys - Adress F8492710 base at F848F000, Datestamp 3b7d83e5 ``` Thanks for all the help so far. ---
**Author:** ![Danalan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/76d3ee/32.png) [@Danalan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danalan)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-delete-this-partition-on-my-hard-drive/255387/25 "2004-08-03T03:12:48Z")
> [@Usram](#): > > Nobody has suggested anything that would affect data stored in existing partitions. The OP has already deleted the partition on the smaller disk. We’re only talking about partitions’ boot sectors, and the MBR. That’s good. Because I wouldn’t want something bad to happen. Like being unable to boot the computer anymore. Uh, wait a minute… 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-delete-this-partition-on-my-hard-drive/255387/26 "2004-08-03T20:08:29Z")
> [@Danalan](#): > > That’s good. Because I wouldn’t want something bad to happen. Like being unable to boot the computer anymore. > > Uh, wait a minute… 😕 Good point… ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-delete-this-partition-on-my-hard-drive/255387/27 "2004-08-03T20:35:39Z")
atapi.sys is the device driver for the hard disks. Maybe it’s somehow confused by the presence of the now-empty 10GB drive… perhaps you could try temporarily disabling that drive in the BIOS (or even physically disconnecting it) and seeing if Windows loads. Also, is the 30GB drive the primary drive on its IDE channel? ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-delete-this-partition-on-my-hard-drive/255387/28 "2004-08-03T21:18:38Z")
> [@Usram](#): > > atapi.sys is the device driver for the hard disks. Maybe it’s somehow confused by the presence of the now-empty 10GB drive… perhaps you could try temporarily disabling that drive in the BIOS Ok, I did that and now it just goes to the DRIVER\_IRQL\_NOT\_LESS\_OR\_EQUAL error. ---
**Author:** ![Balduran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cc9497/32.png) [@Balduran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balduran)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-delete-this-partition-on-my-hard-drive/255387/29 "2004-08-03T22:45:23Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > Ok, I did that and now it just goes to the DRIVER\_IRQL\_NOT\_LESS\_OR\_EQUAL error. Hey Cisco, put DRIVER\_IRQL\_NOT\_LESS\_OR\_EQUAL into google. There are tons of people who have had this problem. From skimming the sites it sounds like a driver error. Although which driver is difficult to determine. Some people have managed to fix this by replacing the nic, ram, fans … Can you start XP in a safe mode? This would reduce the number of drivers its loading. Also, is there some sort of verbose mode for booting? (you can see I don’t really know windows, so it’s good you didn’t trust me before!) maybe you could then find which driver is the problem. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2004, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-delete-this-partition-on-my-hard-drive/255387/30 "2004-08-03T23:02:05Z")
> [@Balduran](#): > > Hey Cisco, put DRIVER\_IRQL\_NOT\_LESS\_OR\_EQUAL into google. There are tons of people who have had this problem. From skimming the sites it sounds like a driver error. Although which driver is difficult to determine. Some people have managed to fix this by replacing the nic, ram, fans … Can you start XP in a safe mode? This would reduce the number of drivers its loading. Also, is there some sort of verbose mode for booting? (you can see I don’t really know windows, so it’s good you didn’t trust me before!) maybe you could then find which driver is the problem. First thing I did was google it and I didn’t really see anything helpful. If I try to start in safemode I just get IRQL\_NOT\_LESS\_OR\_EQUAL instead of DRIVER\_IRQL\_NOT\_LESS\_OR\_EQUAL ---
**Author:** ![Balduran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cc9497/32.png) [@Balduran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balduran)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2004, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-delete-this-partition-on-my-hard-drive/255387/31 "2004-08-04T01:45:28Z")
Well, I think you can rule out third party drivers then. According to some websites, starting in safe mode excludes them. Did you by chance make any hardware changes in any way before all these problems occured? Adding more ram , etc … it seems ram is a frequent cause of this error. I just looked at a site [www.allbootdisks.com](http://www.allbootdisks.com) that has boot disks for all sorts of versions of windows. Maybe you’d like to try that? ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2004, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-delete-this-partition-on-my-hard-drive/255387/32 "2004-08-04T01:56:35Z")
> [@Balduran](#): > > Did you by chance make any hardware changes in any way before all these problems occured? Adding more ram , etc … it seems ram is a frequent cause of this error. I haven’t made any significant hardware changes in over 4 years. I did add some RAM about three years ago though. This all started when I deleted the linux partition on my secondary hard drive. It worked perfectly fine though until I rebooted. I even put about 9.5GB of data on it (it’s a 10GB drive) and had no trouble accessing it. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2004, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-delete-this-partition-on-my-hard-drive/255387/33 "2004-08-04T02:50:30Z")
> [@Nanoda](#): > > I personally would have used the [Recovery Console](http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;314058) along with _fixboot_ and perhaps _bootcfg_. Running _chkdsk /p_ wouldn’t hurt either. I found my XP cd and just did that to no avail. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2004, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-delete-this-partition-on-my-hard-drive/255387/34 "2004-08-04T04:33:25Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > I found my XP cd and just did that to no avail. Errr, I did fixboot and chkdsk /p /r. How exactly is bootcfg supposed to help me? ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2004, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-delete-this-partition-on-my-hard-drive/255387/35 "2004-08-04T11:54:52Z")
One more thing you could check – earlier, someone suggested **fdisk /mbr**. That is not what I meant when I mentioned **fdisk**. I simply meant load it and use it to make the 30GB partition the active one (obviously, be careful with fdisk). **fdisk /mbr** is a little drastic, and I’m not sure that it changes the active partition anyway, although if the 10GB partition is still the active one I wouldn’t have expected the PC to boot at all. But it’s something you could check. ---
**Author:** ![Balduran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cc9497/32.png) [@Balduran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balduran)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2004, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-delete-this-partition-on-my-hard-drive/255387/36 "2004-08-04T13:31:48Z")
> [@Usram](#): > > One more thing you could check – earlier, someone suggested **fdisk /mbr**. That is not what I meant when I mentioned **fdisk**. I simply meant load it and use it to make the 30GB partition the active one (obviously, be careful with fdisk). **fdisk /mbr** is a little drastic, and I’m not sure that it changes the active partition anyway, although if the 10GB partition is still the active one I wouldn’t have expected the PC to boot at all. But it’s something you could check. Well, it sounds like Cisco did use fdisk /mbr from the win98 disk. Maybe this is causing all the problems. Would running “fdisk /mbr” from the xp disk help? I found this link where somebody does the same thing [http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating\_Systems/WinXP/Q\_20931986.html](http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/WinXP/Q_20931986.html) but I am not registered to this system to see the solution. Maybe somebody else here is? ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2004, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-delete-this-partition-on-my-hard-drive/255387/37 "2004-08-04T19:57:43Z")
> [@Balduran](#): > > Well, it sounds like Cisco did use fdisk /mbr from the win98 disk. Maybe this is causing all the problems. :smack: Yes, I did. Could that be what’s screwing me now? ---
**Author:** ![Demo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demo/32/8472_2.png) [@Demo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Demo)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2004, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-delete-this-partition-on-my-hard-drive/255387/38 "2004-08-04T21:47:33Z")
> [@Usram](#): > > One more thing you could check – earlier, someone suggested **fdisk /mbr**. That is not what I meant when I mentioned **fdisk**. I simply meant load it and use it to make the 30GB partition the active one (obviously, be careful with fdisk). **fdisk /mbr** is a little drastic, and I’m not sure that it changes the active partition anyway, although if the 10GB partition is still the active one I wouldn’t have expected the PC to boot at all. But it’s something you could check. Using fdisk /mbr isn’t drastic. Grub was installed and since he didn’t have his XP cd, that is the best way to remove it and rewrite the MBR(I’ve done it 15-20 times myself). It sounds like there’s something else wrong with the MBR though, and you’ll most likely need to use the recovery console to fix it. Since you now have your XP disk, boot up with it in the drive and select “r” (recovery console). Log in and then type in “fixmbr”. This should set things straight if it really is an MBR problem. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2004, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-delete-this-partition-on-my-hard-drive/255387/39 "2004-08-04T22:03:33Z")
> [@Demo](#): > > Since you now have your XP disk, boot up with it in the drive and select “r” (recovery console). Log in and then type in “fixmbr”. This should set things straight if it really is an MBR problem. I tried the other day but it says: > [@](#): > > _ **CAUTION** _ > > This computer appears to have a non-standard or invalid master boot record. > > FIXMBR may damage your partition tables if you proceed. > > This could cause all the partitions on the current hard disk to become inaccessible. > > If you are not having problems accessing your drive, do not continue. > > Are you sure you want to write a new MBR? What do you guys think? ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2004, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-delete-this-partition-on-my-hard-drive/255387/40 "2004-08-04T23:25:47Z")
Ok I tried that and nothing happened. I created a boot disk per the instructions [here](http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q314079) just for shits and giggles and I got this message: > [@](#): > > Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem. > Could not read from the selected bootdisk. Check boot path and disk hardware. > Please check Windows documentation about hardware disk configuration and your hardware reference manuals for additional information. Any ideas? Am I totally boned? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-delete-this-partition-on-my-hard-drive/255387.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-i-delete-this-partition-on-my-hard-drive/255387.md?page=3)