Windows XP Disk Management Console Problem

[ewemoa]

Tried to make an additional NTFS partition today using Windows XP's disk management console and met with an unfortunate result.

Not only was there a failure to create a new partition, but information in the MBR listing an existing Linux swap partition seems to have been altered.

Started with an extended partition containing two logical partitions (one was ext3 or ext4, and the other was the swap partition) separated by a fair bit of space.  Tried to create a logical NTFS partition between the two partitions, but received an error (sorry, it wasn't in English).  After dismissing the dialog box, disk management console displayed a layout for the disk that no longer showed the swap partition.

Got the swap partition back via TestDisk (via Parted Magic) and the UUID of the partition seemed intact.

Wondering if it was a fluke, I repeated the steps and ended up with the same result

Any one else experienced a similar situation?

[40hz]

I'm guessing the error message was informing you the utility was unable to write information back to the partition table. But without the full error message it's gonna be difficult trying to figure out exactly what happened or if it was a fluke. Fortunately, no non-temp data gets written to swap. It's just a scratch space so it's no big deal if you ever need to recreate it.

FWIW, once I create non-windows partitions on a disk I try to avoid using Windows' drive manager. I haven't experienced your specific problem, but I've run into other issues (mostly minor) that make me think there are subtle differences in the way the partition tables and MBR gets written that can introduce compatibilty issues  when flopping between two different OS's disk utilities.

[ewemoa]

I think the following is likely to be the English version of the error:

An unexpected error has occurred. Check the system event log for more information on the error. Close the Disk Management console, then restart Disk Management or restart the computer.

So I looked in Event Viewer and found what I think translates as:

Source: LDM
Type: Error
Event ID: 2
Description: The parameter is incorrect. (80070057).

Restarting Disk Management Console still shows a missing swap partition.

So far the closest report I've found is:

http://forums.window....php?showtopic=36574

[ewemoa]

FWIW, once I create non-windows partitions on a disk I try to avoid using Windows' drive manager.

-40hz (October 12, 2011, 10:46 PM)

Hmm...may be I should keep this in mind for the future...

[ewemoa]

As a side note, I wish to express my thanks to the authors of Disk Management Console as this incident provided an opportunity to finally try out TestDisk.  Thank you (nameless?) folks at Microsoft(?)