Partition manipulation

My computer currently has four partitions: A 5GB partition which contains a physical flaw on the hard drive (which when accessed causes the computer to crash); my primary partition, which has windows and all of my applications installed on it; and two FAT32 partitions, one of which used to be a linux partition I used to try out different distros, and both of which are now just used for storage.

I recently reformatted the windows partition and reinstalled windows. Before reformatting it, it was drive C:, the flawed partition was D:, the two FAT32 were E: and F: and the CD drive was G:. However, after reformatting the windows partition, it became G:, the flawed partition C:, the FAT32s D: and E: and the CD drive F:.

Before formatting the windows partition, I had never had any problem keeping the flawed partition clear of files. But afterward, windows decided to dump a bunch of files on it without my knowledge. Some of them I could delete and some of them Windows wouldn't let me.

The next time I turned on my computer, windows wouldn't boot and I got an error: NTLDR is missing. I booted to DOS through repair mode from my windows CD, and found out that the letters for my windows partition and CD drive had been switched somehow. Thinking the problem was the change in letter of the windows partition, I split an empty one into two in order to push the windows partition letter back up to G:, which it did. However, windows would still not boot and I continued to get the same error message. I reformatted the flawed partition to get rid of the files (taking several hours to get through the flawed part) and then reinstalled windows on drive G:, which seemed to fix the problem, for now.

So I have a few questions:

First, how do I redesignate the partitions so that my windows partition is C: again, as before?

Second, is there any way to completely deny windows access to the flawed partition, so that it doesn't try to put crap on there, and the partition doesn't even show up on "my computer"? (And I don't mean hidden, I mean not accessible at all by windows).

Third, is there a way to keep this from happening again?

Thanks for your help.

 

I would think that if you delete the flawed partition it wouldn't show up anywhere except in Computer Management > Storage > Disk Management, and even there it should appear as 'unallocated' and Windows won't write to unallocated drive space. As far as getting C: back to where C: should be, I think only a Windows reload will do it. Just be very aware of the partition you select for the install. Have you considered just buying a new, larger hard drive? HD's over 200gb can be had for under $100 these days.... just something to think about.

hd2k

 

No, this is a laptop so I can't just buy a new hard drive.

 

Why not? Laptop hard drives are no different than desktop hard drives, only smaller..... If it's a matter of transferring data from the old drive to a new one, all you'd need is a $20 +/- USB adapter or enclosure. You'd remove the old drive and install the new drive in the laptop. Then partition and format the new hard drive as desired and install your OS. After the OS load is done, and all the drivers are loaded, you'd simply hook up the old drive via the USB adapter (or enclosure) and copy the data back to the new hard drive. If you needed to 'image' the old drive to the new one, so that you'd lose no programs and the PC would run as it does now (only with the new HD), there's plenty of imaging software available that will do the job. Check the Backup and/or the Drive Utilities sections here at Major Geeks....

hd2k