The case of the disappearing partition

[Guest]

I have a customer's relatively new Win XP system - they bought it to me about
a month back when it wouldn't boot - at which time I soon discovered that
what used to be a 40GB hard drive with a NTFS Partition - was now a 40GB hard
drive with an "unknown partition" - I was able to format the drive and
re-inatall Windows and all was well - until yesterday when my customer tried
to boot their system they got the same problem as a month go and once again I
have their system on my work bench with an "unknown partition" so i gather
the NTFS partition has become corrupt.

So obviously I am looking for reasons that this might occur the reasons I
can think of myself are.....

- an electrical mishap
- dodgy hard drive
- installation of malicious software (do you know of any that cause the
partition to become corrupt?)
- Virus (again do you know of any that cause the partition to become corrupt?)

Any other theories out there - my feeling is that the electrical mishap and
the dodgy hard drive theories are unlikely in this case....

So any other possible explanations or if you can point your finger at to an
item of malware or a virus that might cause this i would be keen to know




in particular is there any viruses that cause this if so what.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I have a customer's relatively new Win XP system - they bought it to me about
a month back when it wouldn't boot - at which time I soon discovered that
what used to be a 40GB hard drive with a NTFS Partition - was now a 40GB hard
drive with an "unknown partition" - I was able to format the drive and
re-inatall Windows and all was well - until yesterday when my customer tried
to boot their system they got the same problem as a month go and once again I
have their system on my work bench with an "unknown partition" so i gather
the NTFS partition has become corrupt.

So obviously I am looking for reasons that this might occur the reasons I
can think of myself are.....

- an electrical mishap
- dodgy hard drive
- installation of malicious software (do you know of any that cause the
partition to become corrupt?)
- Virus (again do you know of any that cause the partition to become corrupt?)

Any other theories out there - my feeling is that the electrical mishap and
the dodgy hard drive theories are unlikely in this case....

So any other possible explanations or if you can point your finger at to an
item of malware or a virus that might cause this i would be keen to know




in particular is there any viruses that cause this if so what.

I had the same happen to my own laptop three times in a row
when it was brand new. Since it happened prior to me loading
any software and prior to connecting it to the Internet, I was
able to exclude virus action. After a bit of table thumping HP
agreed to take it back and fix it under warranty. They never
told me if it was the motherboard or the disk. The problem
never occurred again.

 

[DL]

A choice;
HD/Mobo/Pwr supply

 

[Guest]

What the BIOS saying and is the BIOS Up2date?.
Look in the BIOS to see if the HDD is Recog there, it may end to flash the
BIOS and run the Diagnostic on the HDD Drive to see if it healty or not.
HTH.
Regards,
nass

 

[Jonny]

I have a customer's relatively new Win XP system - they bought it to me
about
a month back when it wouldn't boot - at which time I soon discovered that
what used to be a 40GB hard drive with a NTFS Partition - was now a 40GB
hard
drive with an "unknown partition" - I was able to format the drive and
re-inatall Windows and all was well - until yesterday when my customer
tried
to boot their system they got the same problem as a month go and once
again I
have their system on my work bench with an "unknown partition" so i
gather
the NTFS partition has become corrupt.

So obviously I am looking for reasons that this might occur the reasons I
can think of myself are.....

- an electrical mishap
- dodgy hard drive
- installation of malicious software (do you know of any that cause the
partition to become corrupt?)
- Virus (again do you know of any that cause the partition to become
corrupt?)

Any other theories out there - my feeling is that the electrical mishap
and
the dodgy hard drive theories are unlikely in this case....

So any other possible explanations or if you can point your finger at to
an
item of malware or a virus that might cause this i would be keen to know




in particular is there any viruses that cause this if so what.

Guessing its the mbr, that's where record of partition and type are kept.
That area of the hard drive may be iffy for holding data.

 

[Kerry Brown]

I would suspect a flakey hard drive or a bad driver for the controller. If
the drive passes the manufacturer's diagnostics I would make sure the
motherboard BIOS and hard drive controller driver are the latest versions.