E
enTRAP
*** This is a LONG Story and I am sorry. There are many details and
some blabber. I appreciate any time taken to read this and help me.
***
A bit of background… I consider myself a near expert with PC's. I
got my A+ Cert. in 1998, took a few NT & 2000 classes and worked
support for a few years before I decided to try a career change. In
both of my recording studios, I have ran 2000 since it came out and XP
for almost a year now on 3 different systems, so I'm very familiar
with it. Everything always works great under my supervision, for the
most part.
The only thing I am really unfamiliar with is NTFS. I ALWAYS used
FAT32 because I knew I could pop in a Win98 boot disk and fix things
in good old DOS if I couldn't boot. When XP was installed on these
systems (NOT by me), the drives were converted to NTFS because he just
said yes to everything like an end user. No big deal until now.
At one of my studios, I experienced a BSOD upon boot indicating that
there were problems with my C: drive (strictly programs and the OS)
and to run CHKDSK on it. I tried Last Known Good & Safe Mode, but
kept getting the F*%#@^$ error.
I boot from the CD thinking I would run the Recovery Console for the
first time ever. I drop into the "command line" and try to run
"CHKDSK C:" It hangs for about 10 minutes. Too long for an 8gb
drive... Twice. I impatiently rebooted and tried to repair the
installation. Setup tells me there is a problem with the MBR. I got
nervous.
At the C: prompt, I ran a "DIR". Can't read it. It reads all the
other drives fine, including the other partitions on the same disk
though. No FDISK to try to fix it. I noticed "FIXMBR" when I ran
help. I tried it, and it said it worked. All the other drives are
still fine. Then tried to "CHKDSK C:" again. Nope, still hangs.
I decided to just run XP setup, kill the partition, format it back in
FAT32 and reinstall clean. I can delete it and create a New Raw
partition just fine. Can't run either the quick or full format in
both setup and command line environments. I can't install to the
other hard drives because they are FULL of audio files. About 60gb,
some of which I need to back up. No spare hard drives and I don't
want to buy another if I don't have to.
I could just pop the drives in another PC to back them up because they
are FAT32. Then FDISK and format C: to (probably) get it working
again, but all that transport makes it a pain.
I am probably just missing something or did something wrong because of
my lack of NTFS repair experience.
Please tell me that I am stupid because all I have to do is
___________.
I plan on booting from a Win98 boot disk and formatting from DOS,
which has never failed, but it's doubtful. I don't have another PC
there either, so I need to research elsewhere and go back and forth to
fix it. I'm hoping that I will have a solution by the time I head out
tomorrow.
Any suggestions or solutions???
some blabber. I appreciate any time taken to read this and help me.
***
A bit of background… I consider myself a near expert with PC's. I
got my A+ Cert. in 1998, took a few NT & 2000 classes and worked
support for a few years before I decided to try a career change. In
both of my recording studios, I have ran 2000 since it came out and XP
for almost a year now on 3 different systems, so I'm very familiar
with it. Everything always works great under my supervision, for the
most part.
The only thing I am really unfamiliar with is NTFS. I ALWAYS used
FAT32 because I knew I could pop in a Win98 boot disk and fix things
in good old DOS if I couldn't boot. When XP was installed on these
systems (NOT by me), the drives were converted to NTFS because he just
said yes to everything like an end user. No big deal until now.
At one of my studios, I experienced a BSOD upon boot indicating that
there were problems with my C: drive (strictly programs and the OS)
and to run CHKDSK on it. I tried Last Known Good & Safe Mode, but
kept getting the F*%#@^$ error.
I boot from the CD thinking I would run the Recovery Console for the
first time ever. I drop into the "command line" and try to run
"CHKDSK C:" It hangs for about 10 minutes. Too long for an 8gb
drive... Twice. I impatiently rebooted and tried to repair the
installation. Setup tells me there is a problem with the MBR. I got
nervous.
At the C: prompt, I ran a "DIR". Can't read it. It reads all the
other drives fine, including the other partitions on the same disk
though. No FDISK to try to fix it. I noticed "FIXMBR" when I ran
help. I tried it, and it said it worked. All the other drives are
still fine. Then tried to "CHKDSK C:" again. Nope, still hangs.
I decided to just run XP setup, kill the partition, format it back in
FAT32 and reinstall clean. I can delete it and create a New Raw
partition just fine. Can't run either the quick or full format in
both setup and command line environments. I can't install to the
other hard drives because they are FULL of audio files. About 60gb,
some of which I need to back up. No spare hard drives and I don't
want to buy another if I don't have to.
I could just pop the drives in another PC to back them up because they
are FAT32. Then FDISK and format C: to (probably) get it working
again, but all that transport makes it a pain.
I am probably just missing something or did something wrong because of
my lack of NTFS repair experience.
Please tell me that I am stupid because all I have to do is
___________.
I plan on booting from a Win98 boot disk and formatting from DOS,
which has never failed, but it's doubtful. I don't have another PC
there either, so I need to research elsewhere and go back and forth to
fix it. I'm hoping that I will have a solution by the time I head out
tomorrow.
Any suggestions or solutions???