I combined 2 partitions into one partition using Partition Magic

Follow the steps from this site http://www.wikihow.com/Change-the-Active-Partition-of-Your-Hard-Disk-with-Parted-Magic. When you changed the active partition you told the computer to look for information from the wrong partition. Using the program from that site will allow you to make the other partition active again. You'll then be able to boot into Windows again. As far as making backup discs, I believe you hit F11 while booting to access the recovery partition. From there you can make your recovery discs. Not 100 percent sure on that though. And you will need to get the windows partition set back as active first.

#105 Partition starts on wrong boundary
You may need to use the FDISK program from a recent DOS version because earlier versions may refuse to delete HPFS or hidden partitions, and the OS/2 FDISK program may recognize the partition's corruption and refuse to modify it.
In some cases, you can resolve partition table errors manually.

If the computer is already running with Windows, then you can use a program called Partition magic to partition the C drive into two partitions - a C and a D drive.
If you are installing Windows from scratch then you can use the Windows installation CD to install Windows. When the Windows installation begins, delete the existing partition, then create a new partition but size the 1st partition (C drive) to what you require and continue with the installation.
When Windows has finished installing you can create the D drive by opening Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Computer Management - Disk Management - click on the un-partitioned portion of the hard disk, create a extended partition - and then format this partition in NTSF When completed Disk 1 will be shown as Healthy (system)

Yes you can use programs like Partition Magic that allows you to create, resize and merge partitions on your hard drive without destroying data. It can also help organize and protect your data, run multiple operating systems, convert file system types and fix partition table errors.

From the data you provided, the D drive is deleted and is newly created. But it is not yet formatted. So the data is virtually deleted. Why I said virtually is because, the data is still there on the drive physically and you can recover it using third party tools like OO disk recovery tool. That is why partition magic is still showing data on it.
And it is also obvious that the task which Partition Magic started (splitting drives) is not finished properly. That is why K partition is incorrectly formatted. It is natural that it asks format of D drive because D drive belongs to no file type and it must be of FAT32 or NTFS or other file system.
The solution for your problem is try recovering your data on D drive using disk recovery tools. Then format it using FAT32 or NTFS. Format K drive also in FAT32 or NTFS. Use either partition magic or Computer Management. Since already PM caused problems on your computer, try computer management. It is safe.

Since you have used the recovery disc to restore the system, it will automatically create partitions on the system, in your case, just one major partition which is Drive C (C:). If you want to add partitions on your system, you can use partition editor software such as Norton Partition Magic 8.0 and Acronis Partition Manager. These software gets a portion of the main Partition (Unused / Free space) and creates a new one. You can create multiple partitions depending on the size of the Hard Drive on the system. These Software are not Free, if you want to use a free software for editing the parition, you can use Gparted (Found in : http://gparted.sourceforge.net/ ). Though Gparted is free, it is harder to use compared to the first 2 software mentioned. If you want to use a user friendly sofware, I suggest that you use Acronis Partition Manager or Norton Partition Magic 8.0.

You don't need to format it. You can also just convert it to NTFS and keep the current data.
There is also no requirement to create more than one partition.

In the command prompt window, type
convert drive_letter: /fs:ntfs


You'll find this in Windows Help. Just search for convert ntfs.

most hard drives have that erie only 2 partitians at a time this is with your computer how it can handle since you made three particians there is a chance that it only allows partitions of only 2

say for instance you have a celeron your comp would only allow what you memmory can give you this would knock out the 2 partician when created the 3rd partician
not enough memmory to fill all 3 partitians

safe end to this particians in long run can hurt your comp more than help it i suggest buying another hdd to make your back ups or get a portable pull out system hdd this ensures your files are as easy to get as putting in a new hard drive
hope this gave some insite

Re: Error 983 while using Partition Magic Error 983: "Too many errors found, process halted"
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPOR...gic&svy=&csm=no

Utilize the following maintenance programs before using Partition Magic:

Description of the Disk Cleanup Tool in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...2&Product=winxp

How to Perform Disk Error Checking in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...5&Product=winxp

HOW TO: Analyze and Defragment a Disk in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...1&Product=winxp

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for you able to combine again. you can use the software named partition magic.