Did fixboot on FAT32 partition. How to fix???

[Brett Holcomb]

Hi,
My computer had 3 partitions.
10gb ntfs Windows
10gb linux
60 gb fat32 storage

When I was installing XP I kept getting "disk error"
messages and in order to fix this I ran recovery console
and did a fixmbr and fixboot. This didn't work so I went
back in and being a little frustrated I ran both on every
partition. This got windows to work (yay!), but now the
computer thinks my 60 gig partition is NTFS and ALL MY
FILES ARE GONE!! I think It's a problem with the MBR on
that partition, but here's the problem:

Windows 98 Boot disk (which would restore the FAT32 MBR I
think) doesnt reckognize *NTFS* partition, and while
Recovery Console sees my 60 gig partition it thinks it is
ntfs and wont hook me up with a FAT32 mbr.

I've tried some file recovery programs, but to no avail.
Perhaps they search with the assumpion of NTFS, since that
is what the Boot Record now indicates. Any help is very
much appreciated!
thanks,
-Brett

 

[Alex Nichol]

When I was installing XP I kept getting "disk error"
messages and in order to fix this I ran recovery console
and did a fixmbr and fixboot. This didn't work so I went
back in and being a little frustrated I ran both on every
partition. This got windows to work (yay!), but now the
computer thinks my 60 gig partition is NTFS and ALL MY
FILES ARE GONE!! I think It's a problem with the MBR on
that partition, but here's the problem:

Windows 98 Boot disk (which would restore the FAT32 MBR I
think) doesnt reckognize *NTFS* partition, and while
Recovery Console sees my 60 gig partition it thinks it is
ntfs and wont hook me up with a FAT32 mbr.

The MBR is something that belongs to the disk as a whole (in the very
first sector) and not to any specific partition, nor any specific file
system in its code (which is what fixmbr is dealing with. It contains
also the Partition table, with an entry for each Primary partition (up
to four). The entry includes a flag byte that says what is the type of
file system on it (And that is also in the 'Partition boot sector -
first sector of the partition itself). So what I thing has happened is
that the byte in the relevant partition table entry is damaged. What I
would do is get BootIT NG, from http://www.BootitNG.com ($35 shareware
- 30 day full functional trial)

Download, to its own folder, extract from the zip, run the bootitng to
make a boot floppy.

Boot the floppy, Cancel Install, entering maintenance, then click on
Partition work. Highlight the partition concerned (select physical
drive if needed on the left) and click Properties. You can there take
the Partition type drop down and change it accordingly and OK

The cause is likely to have been running these things from XP when you
have a FAT 32 of over 32 GB - XP will not create or format a partition
of that size other than in NTFS, though it will use one if present, and
it looks as if fixmbr has gone further then it should and 'fixed' this
because it was a 60 GB