NT 4.0 Data Recovery.

[Ta Kendisi]

Hi!

My NT 4.0 server won't start after a power cut. The message was as
follows:

Disk I/O Error: Status= 00001000
......
Windows NT could not start because the following file is missing or
corrupt:
\WINNT\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

There are 4 disk in that machine. First with 2 partitions wich one of
them holds OS. The other 3 disks are 120GB HDDs which set with "stripe
set with parity".

After a few try I decided to repair the OS with NT setup. (But I have
no ERD) I was not able to repair. Then I installed a new NT 4.0 Server
OS. The stripe set with parity was not there. I used "FTEdit" to make
the set as suggested at Microsoft. But it still wont work. So I
installed the sp4 and sp6. (For larger disk support) Then I used
FTEdit again. The set was there but the disks were "Unknown". I
repeated the steps again from the start. After restart CHKDSK was
applied and then I saw the set and NTFS. I give the letter E. Now I
can explore the E but there is no files. I can see that 153GB is free.

Is there anything that I can do to have my files back?

 

[Eric Gisin]

You should always backup the registry on NT with "rdisk". You would have
copies of the system hive, on floppy and in a backup folder. Besides easy
recovery of this common boot failure, you would also be able to import any
volume/stripe sets from another installation of NT in windisk.

The chkdsk probably zapped the boot sector. If you have properly recreated the
stripe, there are data recovery programs that will see the files. Svend's
findntfs will not, but either File Scavenger or Stellar Phoenix will do
stripes.

 

[Ta Kendisi]

Thanks Eric. I tried another methods but still there where I was.
Finally I will try data recovery tools. Thanks again for your kind
interest.

 

[Carl Farrington]

Thanks Eric. I tried another methods but still there where I was.
Finally I will try data recovery tools. Thanks again for your kind
interest.

nightmare mate. SP6 won't help. If your boot files have become corrupt, and
then you do a 'repair' of NT4, the disks driver (ntbootdd.sys .. a renamed
version of atapi.sys or yourscsicard.sys ) is then no longer within the
first 8GB of the disks space. either that or NTDETECT.COM isn't in the first
8gb.. I can't remember.

What I recommend you do is create a win2000/xp floppy boot disk by
formatting a floppy in Win2000, and copying the NTDETECT.COM & ntldr files
from the 2000/xp machine to the floppy. Make the boot.ini correct on the
floppy and all should be well.

Longer term fix would be to write the 2000 bootsector onto the machine and
replace the ntldr and ntdetect.com on the HD, but I have not done this. My
NT4 server machine with it's 80GB disks has been booting up off a floppy
ever since the secretary accidentally unplugged it last year

I'm sorry this is a bit vague but it should certainly give you enough
information to google for full information.

best regards,

Carl

 

[Carl Farrington]

Thanks Eric. I tried another methods but still there where I was.
Finally I will try data recovery tools. Thanks again for your kind
interest.

Oh and by the way, there is a backup Partition table and boot sector on the
drive. There are freeware tools out there to fix that.
Only reason I mention this is that the previous poster mentioned a possible
screwed bootsector.

good luck