Error reformatting (0x8004240f)

[Mike]

This is my current setup:

Dell Inspiron Laptop
Windows Vista Home Premium
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 Ghz
GeForce 8600 GTS
100 GB SATA HDD with 2 partitions: a 10 GB recovery partition (formatted in
FAT32) and a 90 GB "main" partition where Vista is installed (formatted as
NTFS).

So here's the story. I was trying to install XP in dual-boot with Vista, so
I tried making another partition but even after defragmenting my C: drive, I
still couldn't create a partition bigger than 700 MB. I then tried
defragmenting with Partition Magic 8 (which apparently has compatibility
issues with Vista) and it moved 3 files but it wasn't able to recognize my
Vista partition. As soon as I closed PM8, I got a blue screen of death and I
haven't been able to load Vista ever since. If I try to start Vista up again,
it gets to the loading bar before causing another blue screen of death and
automatic restart.

If I try to use the recovery options integrated to Vista, they aren't able
to detect my Vista partition, only the recovery one. At first, when I tried
to do a fresh install from my Vista installation CD, it showed me both
partitions although it listed the Vista partition as unused. When trying to
install on it, it told me it was unusable because it was formatted as FAT32,
which it isn't. I also can't delete or format my Vista partition (they're
grayed out), nor can I resize it (I get error message 0x8004240f when I try
to). When I tried to reinstall the drivers for my HDD from my drivers CD,
both partitions disappeared from the list.If I try to boot from the XP CD, it
only detects the recovery partition and doesn't let me create any new
partitions.

Even the Dell System Recovery, which completely reformats the HDD to its
factory defaults, doesn't work. It gets about half-way through reformatting
before coming up with a blank error message. As for the other recovery
options, it seems like they're unable to identify the problematic partition.
When I search through My Computer using the command line, I only see the
Recovery partition and my CD drive. Only the Vista installation CD seems to
be able to see it as unused disk space.

So I'm completely lost as to what I can do now. I'm having my BIOS run tests
on my HDD to see if it's corrupted or malfunctioning, but everything seems
fine so far (testing the HDD takes forever). If anyone knows a way to recover
my Vista partition and get my machine running again, that'd be the best
option (although I know that's not likely). Otherwise, if anyone knows how I
can just do a clean sweep of my HDD or at least remove that corrupted
partition to create new ones for my XP and Vista installations, that'd be a
great help as well.

Sorry if it seems like I wrote a lot but I wanted to be as thorough as
possible to have the best odds of getting this fixed. Thanks in advance to
anyone who takes the time to respond to this.

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi,

Yep, PM8 did a number on it. There is mbrwork from terabyteunlimited that
may be able to help you recapture the partition, the tool is free to
download and use (http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/utilities.html), and at
this point you're pretty much hosed anyways. If that doesn't work, get a
utility to erase the drive and start over (I'm hoping you had already backed
up data that was on it). The best source for these is the drive manufacturer
themselves who usually provide them for free.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[Mike]

Thanks for your help so far. Unfortunately, if I try to use the command line
to boot MBRWORK.EXE from a USB key, it tells me the file cannot be found.
However, when I do a dir C:, the file is listed at the root of the drive.
Wierd. I'm going to try the second option you mentioned, which is to
completely erase the drive with a utility from my manufacturer's website.

 

[Mick Murphy]

It would help if you had posted what the problem was!