Is it possible to ruin a HDD through software?
I was attempting to set up a Vista / XP home dual boot. I set up a new 50GB partition on the vista drive using disk management & shrink. When I went to install XP but XP didn't see the partition as 50GB but 131GB or 131072 MB to be exact (on a 320 sata drive).
I screwed around with volumes & partitions in diskpart, ended up dumping the Vista install. I think I got the disc back to its original size & shape of 320. Went back to Vista and used their install procedure to set the drive up again as C: 50 and D: 248 partitions. Went back to XP install but it wasn't seeing the 50 & 248 just this weird 131072 MB (for both C: and D: ) business again. So being fed up I just decided to install XP using the 131 size it was giving me but it's now in this loop where it then prepares to set up by copying files, resets, then asks me to do it all again (install on to what drive, format because there is *something* on there, copies files).
If I go back to Vista install and check it still gives me the option to install to either a 50 GB partition or a 248 GB partition.
Does anyone know what is going on? Is the drive screwed or is it an XP issue?
I've spent about 5 hours on this going around in circles and I'm going spare.
