could someone explain this?

[X'tyfe]

heyas

im hopfully looking for someone that has exerpince using partition magic in windows
cus i just recovered from somethign that almost destroyed my system
and i want to make sure i dont do what i did again 

anyways, im running partition magic 8
i want to merge an empty partition into my system HDD
so i tell it to merge it, and it restarts and does its thing, it gives me 2 errores
and restarts windows, now heres when the shit hits the fan

windows boots and my rez is at 640x480 and my bit depth is at 4
my USB and sound card drivers have uninstalled themselfs, and i cant set my rez and a bit depth higher
at this point im screaming and pulling my hair out, thinking my system is done for

i tried booting into the last known good config, no luck
my last option is to use system restore, now im not sure how. but it works
everything is back to normal except i have to reinstall my usb and sound card drivers
and check the rest of my computer out, to see if there were any other damages
it checked out fine as far as i could see

now call me stupid, but i tried it again lol, it still gave me an error, but it didnt fuck up my system like it did the first time
i look throught he help files in partition magic, and of course found nothing, other then a better and faster way to merge my partition lol
so now im kinda pissed off that i went tgough all that when there was a better and safer way

of course, im still wondering if there are problems that i didnt find from this, corrupt files and stuff like that
so im hoping someone could tell me how i could check to see if anythign else was damages and more importently, what the heck happened in the first place

[[BTF]EyEsTrAiN]

I know nothing about partition magic, but....

windows boots and my rez is at 640x480 and my bit depth is at 4
my USB and sound card drivers have uninstalled themselfs, and i cant set my rez and a bit depth higher
at this point im screaming and pulling my hair out, thinking my system is done for

that sounds to me like you were being booted up in safe mode for some reason. It wouldn't uninstall your drivers, just won't start them up (ie start up with the basic drivers; vid, sound, ect).
Other than that, that is all I can contribute. 

[console]

of course, im still wondering if there are problems that i didnt find from this, corrupt files and stuff like that
so im hoping someone could tell me how i could check to see if anythign else was damages and more importently, what the heck happened in the first place

That's a pretty weird thing to have happen from a partition merge.  I'd agree with EyE-sTrAiN that it does sound like "safe mode".  But... Hmm...

I had beaucoup hard drive troubles last week.  I had good results with "bootit NG"
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.html
which is kind of like Partition Magic and Ghost rolled into one program.

Did you happen to write down the errors you got when you tried to merge the partitions?

Did the partitions actually get merged?

For verification of your system, I dunno.  You could try chkdsk with the /R flag, which in addition to checking the filesystem structure, also checks for bad sectors on the hard drive.

You could also try reinstalling the latest service pack for your OS, as a way to force your key operating system components back to a good state.

Other than that, dunno . . .

Regards,

[themuffinman]

Everyone I know who's used that partition magic crap has fucked up thier pc. Just seems funny how every single person who i know has used it got shit from using it.

[X'tyfe]

i thought it was safe mode aswell, but it didnt give me an option when it went in or to go to normal windows
i have heard of bad stuff too corn, this prooves it 

i didnt write down the errors and the partition never got merged
except after i tried the second way of doing, which was just deleting the emtpy partiton and resizing the main one
so things worked out ok i guess :p

ill try checking for errors with the settings you suggested console, i beleave there is a way to also scan the windows files to see if they have been modified or currupt
sfc /scannow is the command if you guys have sp2 installed

if it does find something bad,. it will prompt me for my windows cd so it can fix it with that, microsoft is finaly using there heads for something other then there asses for once

[X'tyfe]

well i did what you suggested console
unfortunatly, i seem to be in that same "safemode" state again
and i dont know how to get back to normal windows

i tried booting into the last known good configuration and boot into windows normaly, but i keeps taking me to safe mode

[[BTF]Defiant!]

There are many bootable Linux CDs.  For people who don't know linux but want a recovery option try

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

This WinPE clone lets you boot XP from a CD.  This is great for people who don't know Linux but want a recovery option.  You can also load it it up with tools for disk cloning etc..  And it is legally free. 

Def

[X'tyfe]

thanks defiant, except. iw as able to fix my problem already
it also messed up my net settings after i fixed it, but i got it working out ok in the end
still doesnt explain what happend

now to fix my next problem my monitor lol
i cant set my refresh rate past 60hz without it over heating and the screen going black after showing bright colors on the screen
if had it fixed 3 times and replaced once so far for this same problem, now they want me to send it back to the other side of the friggin world to get fixed yet again
which probably wont fix it at all  and will cost just as much as the monitor rofl. it never ends for me

[plastik]

I used partition magic 8 also and its the best partition program out there for windows.  I've never had problems like those before.  we're you trying to merge a partition from a seperate HD?  same one?  hard drive that windows is on?   2 seperate HD's as one partition == a no no
and using partitioning on any drives that contain XP will possibly cause problems  mainly because c:\ == boot    NEVER ever use partition magic on any drive that contains windows, whether its splitting or merging UNLESS you resize or partition only the freespace.  partition magic usually uses only either the beginning or the end of a drive to do it's dirty work.  you have to do all this stuff BEFORE you put windows on the drive.  say you want to install xp on the main drive, partition / seperate drive for windows (like i said before... 2.0-4.0GB)  then leave that partition alone.  never touch it again.  you can actually cause windows files to be split from one partition to the other since partition magic does some of its jobs under DOS, theres no protection for system files.

[X'tyfe]

it was the disk with windows on it, iv done it many times before
split and merging on the same disk and never had any issues like that
i agree that its bad, and partition magic should have some warnings or safeguards

not sure why i was doign it so much hehe, i even did it again to dual linux

im really itching to wipe my system disk though, so what ever happend will be fixed if it didnt fix before
all my non system file are safe on another hard disk

[plastik]

yeah, starting over is always good.  i do it about once or twice a year, if not more.  but the only hard process is putting back all of your program files, since they will have to be added to the registry again.  I just save the setup files for all the application i install, then reinstall them all at once.   there is a program called tuneup utilities 2006 and it has ALOT of features. 

-process manager
-registry editor
-registry cleaner
-registry defrag
-ram optimizer
-process explorer
-rescue center
-file shredder
-styler
-system optimizer
-system cleaner
-file undelete wizard
--and it only weighs about 18.5MB--(shareware,  but some of us out there know how to get around such things ) 

and it keeps me from formatting too much.  but sometimes you gotta. especially with those windows updates., which can be worse having the updates sometimes than without them.  windows updates, all of them take up about 2-3GB of Hard drive space as it is (from experience) which is rediculous.  the updates take up from 2 - 3 times as much space as the raw operating system.  thats a hell of alot more code processing.  but it is true, XP does run better than any other windows, even on older slower PC's.  I used to swear by WinME until i got XP.  i rarely have crashes, and if i do, its just the program, not the entire OS.  thank goodness for the task manager too, no longer do all of your programs halt when you press ctrl+alt+del

[Art]

The last time I redid my os was 5-02, with win2kpro and haven't had to mess with anything since. That was only because I upgraded the HD. How good it is !

[Om3ga]

last times i redid mine was like last month when i had a new pc. i was transferring my hd to my new pc, and then i had to redo windows (i got a western digital 40 gb).

[[BTF] Reflex]

runnin on my 02 install also (XP Pro).  but on the verge of a format for my os drive though.