Corrupt master boot record? Help!

[Guest]

OK my machine has 2 hard drives, 1 IDE and 1 SATA. I moved the XP home
install to the new SATA about 4 months ago and have had no problems. The old
drive (now my secondary) was reformatted. Recently it was getting sluggish,
however and I wanted to clean out a lot of old junk, so I decided to
reinstall XP (on the new SATA). When I boot to the install CD, before the
install starts, I get a message that there is not enough free space on the
drive to install. No problem, I figure. So I exit out of the install, but
when I try to reboot, the BIOS recognizes the drive but XP won't boot. So I
run the install on the secondary drive no problem, but when I pull up the
SATA drive in explorer it says it is not formatted(!?!) Now when I try to run
the XP install on the SATA drive it says half the drive is partitioned and
half is unpartitioned. Previously there was only 1 partition containing the
whole drive. So I figure the master boot record has been corrupted, so I
enter the repair console and try "fixmbr" which gives me a message
resembling:

"an invalid or nonstandard partition table signature is detected, you will
be prompted whether you want to continue. If you are not having problems
accessing your drives, you should not continue. Writing a new master boot
record to your system partition could damage your partition tables and cause
your partitions to become inaccessible."

My question is will this "damage my partition tables and cause my partitions
to become inaccessible"??? Is there a better way to fix this? Would "fixboot"
work? I REALLY need to get the data off the drive and don't want to re-format
or re-partition!!! Help!

 

[Patrick Keenan]

OK my machine has 2 hard drives, 1 IDE and 1 SATA. I moved the XP home
install to the new SATA about 4 months ago and have had no problems. The
old
drive (now my secondary) was reformatted. Recently it was getting
sluggish,
however and I wanted to clean out a lot of old junk, so I decided to
reinstall XP (on the new SATA). When I boot to the install CD, before the
install starts, I get a message that there is not enough free space on the
drive to install. No problem, I figure. So I exit out of the install, but
when I try to reboot, the BIOS recognizes the drive but XP won't boot. So
I
run the install on the secondary drive no problem, but when I pull up the
SATA drive in explorer it says it is not formatted(!?!)

This would indicate partition damage.

Now when I try to run
the XP install on the SATA drive it says half the drive is partitioned and
half is unpartitioned.

So the partition tables are damaged.

Previously there was only 1 partition containing the
whole drive. So I figure the master boot record has been corrupted,

That's probably not correct, or more to the point the corruption is below
that level, meaning everything above it appears corrupt.

so I
enter the repair console and try "fixmbr" which gives me a message
resembling:

"an invalid or nonstandard partition table signature is detected, you will
be prompted whether you want to continue. If you are not having problems
accessing your drives, you should not continue. Writing a new master boot
record to your system partition could damage your partition tables and
cause
your partitions to become inaccessible."

My question is will this "damage my partition tables and cause my
partitions
to become inaccessible"???

Will it? There's no way to know until you try it, and lose the data or
not. Might it? Yes.

Is this the wrong tool? Yes.

Is there a better way to fix this?

Yes, by using partition repair and data recovery tools. Those aren't
fixboot or fixmbr.

Would "fixboot"
work?

No, those are the wrong tools for the task. These won't fix partition
table damage.

I REALLY need to get the data off the drive and don't want to re-format
or re-partition!!! Help!

You need to either boot from a CD that has partition repair and data
recovery tools, or attach the drive to another system that does. Using
another system is probably a better plan, as that will likely give you
storage space for the files you want to recover.

Google "data recovery software" and "partition repair", and find software
that offers repairs to your scenario. You should be able to get a demo
version, so you can figure out if you *need* to pay before doing so.

Be patient with this - haste will not be your friend here.

HTH
-pk

 

[Anna]

OK my machine has 2 hard drives, 1 IDE and 1 SATA. I moved the XP home
install to the new SATA about 4 months ago and have had no problems. The
old
drive (now my secondary) was reformatted. Recently it was getting
sluggish,
however and I wanted to clean out a lot of old junk, so I decided to
reinstall XP (on the new SATA). When I boot to the install CD, before the
install starts, I get a message that there is not enough free space on the
drive to install. No problem, I figure. So I exit out of the install, but
when I try to reboot, the BIOS recognizes the drive but XP won't boot. So
I
run the install on the secondary drive no problem, but when I pull up the
SATA drive in explorer it says it is not formatted(!?!) Now when I try to
run
the XP install on the SATA drive it says half the drive is partitioned and
half is unpartitioned. Previously there was only 1 partition containing
the
whole drive. So I figure the master boot record has been corrupted, so I
enter the repair console and try "fixmbr" which gives me a message
resembling:

"an invalid or nonstandard partition table signature is detected, you will
be prompted whether you want to continue. If you are not having problems
accessing your drives, you should not continue. Writing a new master boot
record to your system partition could damage your partition tables and
cause
your partitions to become inaccessible."

My question is will this "damage my partition tables and cause my
partitions
to become inaccessible"??? Is there a better way to fix this? Would
"fixboot"
work? I REALLY need to get the data off the drive and don't want to
re-format
or re-partition!!! Help!

fuzzmaster:
Your post/query is unclear - at least it's unclear to me.

Let's forget about your secondary PATA HDD for a while, OK?

If I correctly understand you, all you want to do is make a fresh install of
the XP OS onto your SATA HDD, yes? You indicated that "it (the SATA HDD,
yes?) was getting sluggish, however and I wanted to clean out a lot of old
junk, so I decided to reinstall XP (on the new SATA). "

Well if you make a fresh install of the OS obviously all the partitions/data
on the drive will be lost. I'm reasonably certain you understand that,
right? So why are you concerned with "damage (to) my partition tables", a
possibly corrupted MBR, etc., etc.?

But are you *really* wanting to make a fresh install of the OS onto that
SATA HDD or are you "really* interested in a Repair install of the OS
already on that drive?

If you're *really* interested in a fresh install of the XP OS onto that SATA
HDD, why don't you just disconnect your PATA HDD from the system while you
use your XP installation CD to make that fresh install? See what happens
under those circumstances.

But if that's what you *really* don't want to do, perhaps you can clarify
your ultimate objective(s). Or maybe someone else can respond to your query
who has a better understanding than I of your current situation & future
intentions.
Anna

 

[Guest]

I wasn't looking to do a complete wipe and "clean" install. I guess you would
call it a "re-install", where the windows settings are all reset, but the
non-windows files (and partitions) are unchanged. Does that answer your
question?

 

[Anna]

I wasn't looking to do a complete wipe and "clean" install. I guess you
would
call it a "re-install", where the windows settings are all reset, but the
non-windows files (and partitions) are unchanged. Does that answer your
question?

fuzzmaster:
OK, that's clear to me now. What you wanted to do was to run a Repair
install of the XP OS, which of course would be undertaken with the XP
installation CD. But you say "When I boot to the install CD, before the
install starts, I get a message that there is not enough free space on the
drive to install." And you can no longer boot to that SATA HDD which I take
it was your primary day-to-day boot drive.

However, you apparently have the XP OS also installed on your secondary PATA
HDD and you can boot to that drive. But when you do, the SATA HDD is shown
(partially or fully - it's not clear) as unformatted. I guess that's what
you mean when you say "but when I pull up the SATA drive in explorer it says
it is not formatted". Although you go on to say "half the drive is
partitioned and
half is unpartitioned. Previously there was only 1 partition containing the
whole drive." Although you don't say, I assume no data is shown on that SATA
HDD or if there is, you're not able to access it.

In any event, it seems clear that the SATA HDD is badly corrupted or
possibly even defective. Since you can't access that drive through the XP
installation CD and at least try some of the usual fixes through the
Recovery console, e.g., fixmbr, fixboot, etc., I really don't know how you
can return that drive to a bootable functional state.

It might be a good idea to use the HDD diagnostic from the manufacturer of
the SATA HDD and test it out. Although I would guess it's non-defective and
the problem is simply a badly corrupted HDD. So my only suggestion would be
to boot to your other HDD and using Disk Management, delete any & all
partition(s) on the SATA HDD (after trying to access/copy any data that you
can from that SATA HDD) and just start over with a fresh install of the XP
OS onto that SATA HDD. If, on the other hand, there is data on that SATA HDD
that you *must* have, well, that's another story...
Anna

 

[Guest]

OK. First of all thank you for the response. To address your questions:

Yes, I now have a working OS on the PATA HDD and the BIOS and windows
recognizes that the SATA drive is present, but if I try to access it in
Windows Explorer I am told it is not formatted. On the other hand, if I try
to install the OS onto the SATA, I am told that half the drive is partitioned
and half the drive is unpartitioned. Previously there was only a single
partition covering the whole drive.

You say "I assume no data is shown on that SATA HDD" Not sure what you mean
here. It won't let me access the files in explorer. Not sure where else data
would be "shown"?

I will try the Seagate diagnostic tools, but I agree that most likely the
drive is not damaged, but merely corrupted. Of course the obvious question is
WHY!?!?!? Why would a repair install (that hadn't even started yet) corrupt
my partition??? Very frustrating.

I CAN access the recovery console, but when I tried "fixmbr" I got the
warning message saying that I had "an invalid or nonstandard partition table
signature" and continuing could "damage my partition tables and cause my
partitions to become inaccessible", so I did not continue.

I believe erasing or reformatting the disk would return it to a perfectly
usable state, but I REALLY want my data back!!!!!

Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[Anna]

OK. First of all thank you for the response. To address your questions:

Yes, I now have a working OS on the PATA HDD and the BIOS and windows
recognizes that the SATA drive is present, but if I try to access it in
Windows Explorer I am told it is not formatted. On the other hand, if I
try
to install the OS onto the SATA, I am told that half the drive is
partitioned
and half the drive is unpartitioned. Previously there was only a single
partition covering the whole drive.

You say "I assume no data is shown on that SATA HDD" Not sure what you
mean
here. It won't let me access the files in explorer. Not sure where else
data
would be "shown"?

I will try the Seagate diagnostic tools, but I agree that most likely the
drive is not damaged, but merely corrupted. Of course the obvious question
is
WHY!?!?!? Why would a repair install (that hadn't even started yet)
corrupt
my partition??? Very frustrating.

I CAN access the recovery console, but when I tried "fixmbr" I got the
warning message saying that I had "an invalid or nonstandard partition
table
signature" and continuing could "damage my partition tables and cause my
partitions to become inaccessible", so I did not continue.

I believe erasing or reformatting the disk would return it to a perfectly
usable state, but I REALLY want my data back!!!!!

Any ideas?

Thanks!

I really don't know what else to suggest other than your trying one of those
"data recovery programs" that are widely available to recover whatever data
you can. If you're not familiar with them do a search on Google. Many, if
not most of these programs, have demo versions available which can tell you
whether specific data can be resurrected.
Anna

 

[John]

On Aug 8, 10:00 am, fuzzmaster <[email protected]>
wrote:

Hard to follow what is going on with your drives but if you have
trouble with your partition tables, and MBR, I strongly recommend you
go to www.dfsee.com and take a look at that tool. Its not free, but
you can use it for 30days. There is nothing like it, and you will want
to buy it, because it can save your bacon in so many ways

The support group is on Yahoogroups, and is a good resource. The
author is on top of things, and really knows his stuff. There are
diagnostic tools you can run, and send to him, and he can provide
batch files and directions to rescue more anything that goes awry.
(if you are a customer)

He is not God, but sometimes, he looks darn close!

Fixing the mbr, is a piece of cake with dfsee. In addition, it can
clone drives, remarkably well, which is a tremendous method for
backing up your whole machine.

I don't work for the author, but I am one very happy customer. I think
you might find what you need if you check it out.

HTH,

John

 

[Neil]

What I would suggest get hold of Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery
Software a file and partition recovery utility. It will help you to
recover your data from inaccessible hard drive. It perform an
exhaustive scan of the drive to locate lost data and partitions. All
found data in the lost partition is then presented in a tree structure
so that you can copy your lost files to a other working drive.
Download the demo from: http://www.stellarinfo.com/partition-recovery.htm