Help! - FIXBOOT turned my FAT32 bootsector into NTFS!

[Tobias Skytte]

Hi,

I have a system with a single 20GB hdd with a single FAT32 partition.
This was running windows XP.
I then got a STOP error with INACESSIBLE BOOT DEVICE.
I booted on a windows98 floppy and could access the files from there
but I didn't backup anything (silly me)
I then ran the XP recovery console (which i ran from the CD) I ran the
FIXBOOT command and it wrongly decided that the partition is NTFS and
said that it had created a new NTFS bootsector! Now it won't even give
me the STOP error and I can't access the files anymore from the
windows98 boot-disk.
I tried a utility called BootItNG (http://www.bootitng.com) as this
was reccomended in another mail in this group, but that utility says
that the partition is still a FAT32, so I can't use that utility after
all.
How can I install a brand new FAT32 bootsector?
Any help would be gratly appreciated.

Regards,
Tobias Skytte

 

[Mark Steel]

Boot with your Win 98 disk and type "FDISK /MBR" to rewrite a
9x-compatible Boot Sector.

Mark

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Tobias.

There's no difference between a FAT32 boot sector and an NTFS boot sector.
But there are important differences between a Win98 boot sector and a WinXP
boot sector!

The first physical sector of each HD holds the MBR, including the Partition
Table, which tells about each partition on the HD, including how it is
formatted. The first physical sector of each primary partition (or logical
drive) holds the boot sector for that volume. The boot sector does not know
or care how its volume is formatted.

The boot sector holds only a few bytes of code. (Each sector is only 512
bytes long, so there's no room to hold very much.) The MS-DOS boot sector
(also used for Win9x/ME) includes code to look in the Root of the system
partition for its two "system files" (io.sys and msdos.sys), load them and
turn control over to them; that's what boots MS-DOS and maybe Win98,
depending on what msdos.sys says. The WinNT-style boot sector code looks in
the Root of the system partition for ITS system files (NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM
and Boot.ini). NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM use the pointers in Boot.ini to find
and load WinXP. So, the WinXP boot sector can't boot MS-DOS or Win98
(unless a dual-boot configuration was created during WinXP Setup) and the
MS-DOS boot sector can't boot WinXP.

It's not clear to me what happened in your case. Stop 0x7B,
Inaccessible_Boot_Device, most often occurs during Win2K/XP Setup on
non-typical HDs. That is, if you try to install WinXP on a computer that
boots from a SCSI or RAID drive, you must press the F6 key during Setup to
install drivers for that HD/controller. Otherwise, after the text phase of
Setup has copied files to your HD and then tries to boot from the HD to run
the GUI phase of Setup, it halts with the BSOD citing Stop 0x7B. Stop 0x7B
seldom occurs "out of the blue" on a system that has already been running
for a while.

Stop 0x7B can occur at other times, though. See if this page from the
online version of the WinXP Resource Kit applies to your situation:
Stop 0x0000007B or INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...indows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prork_overview.asp

(That URL may not land on exactly the right page; it should be in Appendix
C, Common Stop Messages for Troubleshooting. And for details on how to use
fixboot and other commands in the Recovery Console, see Appendix D in the
same area.)

I then ran the XP recovery console (which i ran from the CD) I ran the
FIXBOOT command and it wrongly decided that the partition is NTFS and
said that it had created a new NTFS bootsector!

For the reasons already stated, this makes no sense. Fixboot has nothing to
do with FAT32 v. NTFS and certainly would not have reformatted your HD! If
nothing has been changed except what you described in your message, then you
should be able to boot from an MS-DOS boot floppy and read all your files.
Or you can add the HD as a secondary drive in another computer running WinXP
and read them.

I've never used BootItNG, although many of my friends have used it and
recommend it, so I can't comment on how it may have affected your computer.

How can I install a brand new FAT32 bootsector?

You can't. But you can install a new WinXP boot sector by booting from the
WinXP CD-ROM, choosing Repair, and running fixboot.

If that doesn't work, please tell us, step by step, what happens from
power-up until BSOD. Also, tell us more about your single HD; does it use
any interface (SCSI? RAID?) other than the typical IDE? Is this an OEM
computer (HP, Compaq, Dell...?) that might have a hidden partition on the
HD?

RC

 

[Familie Oor]

Tobias Skytte schreef:

How can I install a brand new FAT32 bootsector?
Any help would be gratly appreciated.

Regards,
Tobias Skytte

Boot up from a W98 bootdisk and type at the prompt FDISK /MBR or FDISK \MBR
('am not sure about the slash it is a long time ago I used it) this command
rewrites the bootsector of you firts master harddisk to a normal w98
bootsector, So XP won't start anymore ! After that you'll have to rewrite
your bootyscetor from under XP to be able to start XP.

 

[Tobias Skytte]

Hi,
Ok, the system is a DELL OptiPlex 150 it uses a standard IDE 20 GB hdd
with a single 20 GB primary DOS partition (FAT32).

This is what happened:
I got the STOP error.
I booted on a win98 bootdisk and could access the files on C:
I ran: scandisk c: /nosummary /autofix /surface
which promptly crashed at 77% into the 'Directory Structure' part of
it.
I then ran Norton disk doctor (ndd) which *also* crashed when trying
to 'diagnose' the disk.
I then ran scandisk and ndd again with the same results.
I booted on win XP cd and got recovery console
I typed FIXBOOT
FIXBOOT Responded with the following:

Are you sure you want to create a new bootsector...
[I typed Y and hit enter]
The filesystem on the startup partition is unknown
FIXBOOT is attempting to detect the filesystem type
The bootsector is corrupt
FIXBOOT is checking the filesystem type...
The partition is using the NTFS file system
FIXBOOT is writing a new boot sector
The new bootsector was successfully written

I then rebooted and instead of getting the STOP error now *nothing*
happens, i.e. I get a black screen with a blinking curser at the top
left.

I then booted on the win98 floppy and typed FDISK /MBR
I rebooted and still it gives me the black screen
I booted again on win98 floppy
I typed DIR
DIR responded with:
File not found
The freespace on drive C: is 12.465.98 (I'm guessing the numbers right
now but
it is about 12GB)

I ran FDISK to check the partition info and it says 20 GB pri DOS
partition so no problem there.
I booted again on the win XP CD and got the recovery console
I typed DIR
DIR responds with:
Directory of C:\
An error occured during dir enumeration

I ran the BootInNG but only to check the partition type and to see
what that program can do. I didn't do anything with it so it didn't
change anything.

What to do? it looks like FIXBOOT screwed up something. Why would it
think the partition type is NTFS?
FDISK /MBR doesn't change anything. Any ideas?

Has FIXBOOT destroyed the FAT? is that why DIR (from the win98 floppy)
responds with File Not Found?
How can I restore the FAT using the second FAT copy which is probably
still intact?

Regards,
Tobias Skytte