"locked" Hard Drive

[nan0click]

Recently, I've had an urge to resize my 80gb hard drive so I can put a 2nd partition on it and install Windows XP64. The best way that I know of is to open up PartitionMagic and just shrink down the current partion by a few gigs and then format the newly created space. All goes well until I reboot and PM begins to resize. When it trys to begin, i get the message that says something like "CANNOT CONTINUE, DRIVE IS LOCKED"

I've done some searching on google and found a few answers, but I dont like them, they all involve having ot fdisk or somthing drastic like that. Another solution was to boot in DOS and try the command "Unlock C:" but I am unsure if the program NTFS DOS is able to carry over commands such as that. I really don't want to reformat, so I thought you guys might have a better solution then the so-called experts out on the internet.

 

Last time, before I last reformated, I was able to use PM easily when resizing partitions and combining and splitting and everything else, so I dont know why it's not working.

 

Some quick facts about the drive in case anyone wonders:

80GB Western Digital Caviar 7200rpm

ATA100

obviously set as Master of IDE0

 

Thanks in advance

[markiemrboo]

At a guess I would say that probably means some process is holding a file open on whatever partition you're trying to edit. First thing I would try is to end all unneccessary processes running, till you have the bare minimum (explorer and a couple of other things basically), then try again.

 

Does it always want you to reboot before partitioning? Cause when I last used it I don't think it did, not unless you wanted to do something to the drive that had Windows on, but then it would reboot and install a boot loader and do all the partitioning before Windows started, so as to avoid 'locked'/in use files.

[cchalogamer]

DO you have enough free space on the drive to drop that partition down as low as you want? That COULD give such an error, and where did you get the drive?

[nan0click]

Because it reboots my computer, I have no access the processes. When it reboots, it appears to load windows, then, before the login screen, a blue screen appears (like it would show to verify my hard drive) and it's titled Partition Magic and it says drive is locked; press anykey to reboot.

 

It always tells me it has too reboot because I'm trying to resize my windows drive. Which could be a possibility as to why the drive is always found itself "locked" but souldn't PM's boot loader start after the computer POSTs? Any idea why it loads after Windows does? It's like it tells windows to run PM before the login screen shows and after the Windows loader...

 

There's 16GB left, and I just want a 10GB partition. I could clear off more, its just dvd ripping has been a bear, but that's a different topic, and I'm trying to figure that out myself.

 

I bought it off of Newegg

Edited May 21, 2005 by nan0click

[markiemrboo]

With 2000 (dunno about XP), it starts loading Windows and you get the Windows splash screen, but it stops and you get a kind of.. half splash screen half dos box come up, then partition magic starts doing its thing. So yes, after windows splash screen and before login is about right.

 

So, since i'm still not clear on the situation (don't think you mentioned a blue screen in the first post). It's all good, it reboots, it starts partition magic before the window login? What's this blue screen to verify your hard disk about? What's the exact error? All it has written is 'drive is locked' ?

[nan0click]

I'll go and try running it again and right down the error...

[markiemrboo]

Ok, don't think I ever seen a partition magic blue screen, or a verify hard disk blue screen either.

[nan0click]

The error says:

 

"Error 27. Cannot lock drive."

 

"Entire progress 100%"

 

"Error 27. Cannot lock drive."

 

And I attached a picture of it.

 

And PM doesnt show the verify HD screen I'm not sure of the exact name of it, but every once in a while, if something screws up, windows will run ChkDsk or something....

Edited May 21, 2005 by nan0click

[markiemrboo]

Ah I know what you mean now. Picture helped

 

Have you tried running chkdsk?

 

C:\Documents and Settings\admin.PIE-NET\Desktop>chkdsk c: /V /R
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Cannot lock current drive.

Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another
process.  Would you like to schedule this volume to be
checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N)

 

Stick chkdsk c: /R in a DOS box (or just start -> run box even) and answer yes, then restart and let chkdsk do it's thing.

[nan0click]

ok, thanks, i'll go ahead and run it and probably update this post later today

[red930]

it might not do it because it is the primary dynamic drive, you might have to change it to a basic drive to perform these tasks. i am not sure how, because i have had the same problem extended my primary dynamic drive with some unallocated space, and wont be done by Fdisk. my solution to that was using partition magic, but i had to use the newest one to get the job done. maybee you need the newer version, if you have an older one.

[cchalogamer]

This is why i stopped using PM and moved to acronis disk director, it doesnt seem to have these problems, it allso seems if my memory serves me right that it uses its own boot loader to boot and make changes BEFORE windows starts at all. maybe go to their site and DL a trial and see if that works for ya.