windows 7 sees it fine in disk management  healthy disc   Its xp that shows it as foreign. dynamic. with the yellow symnbol over it.  when I right click the options are import foreign disk and convert to basic disk.  the other options are greyed out other than properties and help

Converting the dynamic drive back to normal should fix the problem.  You will probably need to backup the data, re-format the drive, then copy the data back onto it.
 

Ok I can probably move the data onto the new 1 tb drive in win 7.  that is what I will try to do.  Now.  when I format it again will it be a dynamic or basic.  I mean what is the difference?  I think it has to be basic ton install an OS

> windows 7 sees it fine in disk management  healthy disc  
 
I asked you:
"could you please confirm how your problem partition is formatted (anything other than NTFS?)"
And also for a screenshot (I provided instructions in my last post).
 
We really need to know how it is formatted in Windows 7. Please ignore what XP says for now as it could be reporting anything. Until we actually know the detail I strongly recommend holding off any action.
 
I am just trying to help you avoid doing anything unnecessary or dangerous. Any formatting to be done should be done in Windows 7 anyway and not XP, but we really need to know what your unidentified partition in XP actually is (Windows 7 is going to tell us that).

Thanks.

HighAndDry
...I think it has to be basic ton install an OS

You're confusing me now.  I thought you said that the problem drive was the one you use for storing your projects.

Kev999

HighAndDry
...I think it has to be basic ton install an OS

You're confusing me now.  I thought you said that the problem drive was the one you use for storing your projects.

It is.  I was just asking a general question about basic vs dynamic. It is not the one with OS

CakeAlexS
> windows 7 sees it fine in disk management  healthy disc  
 
I asked you:
"could you please confirm how your problem partition is formatted (anything other than NTFS?)"
And also for a screenshot (I provided instructions in my last post).
 
We really need to know how it is formatted in Windows 7. Please ignore what XP says for now as it could be reporting anything. Until we actually know the detail I strongly recommend holding off any action.
 
I am just trying to help you avoid doing anything unnecessary or dangerous. Any formatting to be done should be done in Windows 7 anyway and not XP, but we really need to know what your unidentified partition in XP actually is (Windows 7 is going to tell us that).

Thanks.

Yes you did.  a screen shot from windows 7 wouldn't help because that OS sees it fine.  
  Anyway, I backed up the data and formatted the drive (in Win 7) just quick format  Now disk management sees the drive in XP.  so the good news is that I have the data..  I am now formatting it NTFS in Win XP and it is already showing up in my computer with only 2% formatting
Thanks for the help   Hopefully that will take care of it.  

> a screen shot from windows 7 wouldn't help because that OS sees it fine.  
 
With respect a screenshot would have helped us find out what the issue is, that is why I requested it. You were the one asking for help after all and I try not to ask silly questions. We could have identified what your actual partitions was formatted as, and we never actually found that what that partition was in the end (i.e. NTFS, WinFS, Win32). Some partitions formats are not compatible with XP. Also we could have given you the wrong advise if we had misunderstood your first post (and it appears some people had including me). BTW this basic vs dynamic thing was a distraction because XP can get confused when it does not recognise a particular partition format. That is why I kept recommending to get away from XP so we could actually troubleshoot the issue. Telling people to format a drive is something I would never do unless I was absolutely certain. Regardless you never supplied us the information that we needed and asked for, and I tried to keep what I was asking down to a bare minimum and kept things simple.
 
I did say earlier it is better to format it in Windows 7 rather than XP- anyway hope it works (it should be if it's NTFS although I would have still used Win7). There could have been other options available which may have been better for you, but it looks like you didn't really need our help anyway (and I could have helped somebody else instead who needs it, it is frustrating!).
 
Next time please try the windows forums, and good luck!

CakeAlexS
> a screen shot from windows 7 wouldn't help because that OS sees it fine.  
 
With respect a screenshot would have helped us find out what the issue is, that is why I requested it. You were the one asking for help after all and I try not to ask silly questions. We could have identified what your actual partitions was formatted as, and we never actually found that what that partition was in the end (i.e. NTFS, WinFS, Win32). Also we could have given you the wrong advise if had misunderstood your first post (and it appears some people had). Telling people to format a drive is something I would never do unless I was absolutely certain. Regardless you never supplied us the information that we asked for.
 
I did say earlier it is better to format it in Windows 7 rather than XP- anyway hope it works (it should be if it's NTFS although I would have still used Win7). There could have been other options available which may have been better but it looks like you didn't really need our help anyway (and I could have helped somebody else instead who need it, it is frustrating!).
 
Next time please try the windows forums, and good luck!

I'm sorry I didn't mean to appear disrespectful. I am grateful for the help.  I tried to do a screen dump in xp (which is where the problem was) and was unsuccessful. I understood your directions to be pertinent to windows 7 (snipit) Windows 7 saw the drive fine so that wouldn't have helped. (And I am a newbie at posting photos to forums.  I need to get up to speed on that)   I tried to give as much info as I could regarding disk management in xp. yes the screen shot would have removed any doubt I guess.  And I remembered you saying formatting in win 7 would be better after I started the XP format.  but thanks again!!And sorry again if I appeared disrespectful or ungrateful!

No probs sorry bad day!