PowerQuest ' PartitionMagic' question

[neodave]

Now when I try to open it this is my message:
Pmagic9X has caused an error in
PMAGIC EXE.
Pmagic will now close.

Then:
Init failed: Error 20
The library or partition is not open

Any ideas?

I tried uninstalling and doing a clean install, no help. I am dual booting ME and Mandrake 8.0. But haven't noticed this problem until now. The only thing I remember doing is uninstalling Sisoft Sandra. I really don't want to format the drive and start over.

[Mntsnow]

Solution: Error 20 The library of the partition is not open

If you are running PartitionMagic within Windows, press CTRL + ALT + DEL and end each task in the Close Program dialog except for PartitionMagic. If the error persists, then in most cases you can avoid the error by booting the computer from the PartitionMagic rescue diskettes and running PartitionMagic from the diskettes.

Problem Description:
Error 20 The library of the partition is not open
Error 20
Program shuts down


Problem Environment:
PartitionMagic


Cause(s) of the problem
This error can result in the following situations: 1. A .VXD file was deleted, or a necessary .DLL file cannot be accessed. 2. Another Windows program is locking the drive. 3. Another program is protecting the MBR.

[shahani]

Try rewriting your mbr. Boot from a dos disk, type a:\fdisk /mbr. Your data/programs will not be damaged. Only a fresh copy of mbr is written. Your mbr is most likely corrupted/virus infected.

You can also use the PM rescue disks but then you don't get the great interface of PM 7.

[lynchmob]

If you do the fdisk /mbr thing,you will have to boot Mandrake with a floppy.Make sure you make a linux boot disk before you rewrite the mbr.
lynch

[bhess]

Caddmann is right. Always make a rescue disk. I did get burned once with PM. I asked for too many changes at once. Do a few at a time. BTW the rescue disk didn't work for me then. :(

[shahani]

Lynchmob is right. have your Linux disk ready and them do the /mbr or /cmbr thing. And, ALWAYS, remember, keep you data backed up before attempting anything. By data I mean any files youy created or downloaded including images/mp3s and so on. Partition Magic has been known to crash.

And bhess is absolutely right. Do one change at a time and apply the change, let PM do its thing, see everything is OK, and make the next change. Everything doesn't take more than an hour in any case so do it serially and NOT in parallel.