L
Lady Margeret Thatcher
To all the experts in this group.
I've been mostly lurking in this group, and I have been helped more
than once because someone else asked a question and other people gave
him good, solid answers. Now it's my "turn". Wish it wasn't.
I have a 3 drive SCSI system. Win 2000, all NTFS partitions. Not the
fastest anymore, but very stable and solid. I was trying to merge two
partitions on my Drive 1. The operation was about 85% complete when
PM showed an error message about a bad sector and then aborted.
I thought, OK, no harm done. Then I discovered that the partition
that I was trying to merge INTO another one was gone. And also the
partition next to that one on the same disk, even though that
partition was not involved in the merge operation.
So I guess I now believe what other people say about Partition Magic
being unreliable.
I used PartitionInfo to look at the disk information. Here is what I
found. If you're familiar with this report, I omitted all the boot
sector info on drives 2 and 3, which are working fine.
I have some questions and comments included. I start those lines
with *******. Thanks for reading and helping.
I'm hoping that this information is enough for some of the real
experts here to tell me how to recreate by hand the missing
partitions. Somehow I feel that should be possible, because I've
noticed that every partitions uses 63 bytes at the start for some kind
of header information.
* * * *
PowerQuest PartitionInfo 8.0 -- Windows NT/2000 Version
General System Information:
Total Physical Memory (bytes): 267,968,512
Used Physical Memory: (bytes): 90,292,224
Maximum Page File Size: (bytes): 647,950,336
Current Page File Size: (bytes): 141,418,496
******* Additional NOTES:
******* Disk 1 is 36 GB. Disk 1 used to have 3 partitions. The
******* second and third are missing.
******* Disk 2 is 72 GB. Disk 2 contains the active C: volume and
******* one other volume.
******* Disk 3 is 72 GB. Disk 3 contains 3 logical partitions within
******* one extended partition.
******* Disk 1 is the problem drive.
******* All boot records for Drives 2 and 3 omitted.
===========================================================================================================
Disk Geometry Information for Disk 1: 8989 Cylinders, 255 Heads,
63 Sectors/Track
Warning: Logical drive chain points to sector without partition table.
******* This line is a clue that there was a partition there once,
******* before Partition Magic did the damage.
System PartSect # Boot BCyl Head Sect FS ECyl Head
Sect StartSect NumSects
===========================================================================================================
0 0 00 1 0 1 0F 1023 254
63 16,065 144,392,220
Info: Begin C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Info: End C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Actual values are:
0 0 00 1 0 1 0F 8988 254 63 16065
144392220
16,065 0 00 1 1 1 07 1023 254
63 16,128 70,187,922
Info: End C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Actual values are:
16065 0 00 1 1 1 07 4369 254 63 16128
70187922
16,065 1 00 1023 0 1 05 1023 254
63 70,204,050 70,525,350
Info: Begin C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Info: End C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Actual values are:
16065 1 00 4370 0 1 05 8759 254 63 70204050
70525350
===========================================================================================================
Disk Geometry Information for Disk 2: 4462 Cylinders, 255 Heads,
63 Sectors/Track
System PartSect # Boot BCyl Head Sect FS ECyl Head
Sect StartSect NumSects
******* This drive is working fine.
===========================================================================================================
0 0 80 0 1 1 07 1023 254
63 63 25,141,662
Info: End C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Actual values are:
0 0 80 0 1 1 07 1564 254 63 63
25141662
0 1 00 1023 0 1 0F 1023 254
63 25,141,725 46,540,305
Info: Begin C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Info: End C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Actual values are:
0 1 00 1565 0 1 0F 4461 254 63 25141725
46540305
25,141,725 0 00 1023 1 1 07 1023 254
63 25,141,788 46,540,242
Info: Begin C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Info: End C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Actual values are:
25141725 0 00 1565 1 1 07 4461 254 63 25141788
46540242
===========================================================================================================
Disk Geometry Information for Disk 3: 8924 Cylinders, 255 Heads,
63 Sectors/Track
System PartSect # Boot BCyl Head Sect FS ECyl Head
Sect StartSect NumSects
******* This drive is working fine.
===========================================================================================================
0 0 00 1 0 1 0F 1023 254
63 16,065 143,347,995
Info: Begin C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Info: End C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Actual values are:
0 0 00 1 0 1 0F 8923 254 63 16065
143347995
16,065 0 00 1 1 1 07 1023 254
63 16,128 50,331,582
Info: End C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Actual values are:
16065 0 00 1 1 1 07 3133 254 63 16128
50331582
16,065 1 00 1023 0 1 05 1023 254
63 50,347,710 64,356,390
Info: Begin C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Info: End C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Actual values are:
16065 1 00 3134 0 1 05 7139 254 63 50347710
64356390
50,347,710 0 00 1023 1 1 07 1023 254
63 50,347,773 64,356,327
Info: Begin C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Info: End C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Actual values are:
50347710 0 00 3134 1 1 07 7139 254 63 50347773
64356327
50,347,710 1 00 1023 0 1 05 1023 254
63 114,704,100 28,659,960
Info: Begin C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Info: End C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Actual values are:
50347710 1 00 7140 0 1 05 8923 254 63 114704100
28659960
114,704,100 0 00 1023 1 1 07 1023 254
63 114,704,163 28,659,897
Info: Begin C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Info: End C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Actual values are:
114704100 0 00 7140 1 1 07 8923 254 63 114704163
28659897
===========================================================================================================
Partition Information for Disk 1: 70,511.9 Megabytes
Volume PartType Status Size MB PartSect #
StartSect TotalSects
===========================================================================================================
Unallocated Pri 7.8 None --
63 16,002
ExtendedX Pri 70,504.0 0 0
16,065 144,392,220
EPBR Log 34,271.5 None --
16,065 70,187,985
G: NTFS Log 34,271.4 16,065 0
16,128 70,187,922
EPBR Log 34,436.2 16,065 1
70,204,050 70,525,350
Warning: EPBR partition starting at 70204050 is without logical
partition.
Unallocated Log 36,232.5 None --
70,204,050 74,204,235
******* The Warning message seems to provide a clue about the
******* location of the missing partition and also about the total
******* size. It seems possible that someone can tell me what are
******* the boot sector parameters for the missing partitions.
===========================================================================================================
Partition Information for Disk 2: 35,001.0 Megabytes
Volume PartType Status Size MB PartSect #
StartSect TotalSects
******* Again, this drive is working fine.
===========================================================================================================
C: NTFS Pri,Boot 12,276.2 0 0
63 25,141,662
ExtendedX Pri 22,724.8 0 1
25,141,725 46,540,305
EPBR Log 22,724.8 None --
25,141,725 46,540,305
I: NTFS Log 22,724.7 25,141,725 0
25,141,788 46,540,242
===========================================================================================================
Partition Information for Disk 3: 70,002.0 Megabytes
Volume PartType Status Size MB PartSect #
StartSect TotalSects
******* Again, this drive is also working fine.
===========================================================================================================
Unallocated Pri 7.8 None --
63 16,002
ExtendedX Pri 69,994.1 0 0
16,065 143,347,995
EPBR Log 24,576.0 None --
16,065 50,331,645
D: NTFS Log 24,576.0 16,065 0
16,128 50,331,582
EPBR Log 31,424.0 16,065 1
50,347,710 64,356,390
E: NTFS Log 31,424.0 50,347,710 0
50,347,773 64,356,327
EPBR Log 13,994.1 50,347,710 1
114,704,100 28,659,960
H: NTFS Log 13,994.1 114,704,100 0
114,704,163 28,659,897
===========================================================================================================
Boot Record for drive G: (Drive: 1, Starting sector: 16,128, Type:
NTFS)
===========================================================================================================
1. Jump: EB 52 90
2. OEM Name: NTFS
3. Bytes per Sector: 512
4. Sectors per Cluster: 8
5. Reserved Sectors: 0
6. Number of FATs: 0
7. Root Dir Entries: 0
8. Total Sectors: 0
9. Media Descriptor: 0xF8
10. Sectors per FAT: 0
11. Sectors per Track: 63 (0x3F)
12. Number of Heads: 255 (0xFF)
13. Hidden Sectors: 63 (0x3F)
14. Total Sectors (>32MB): 0 (0x0)
15. Unused: 0x80008000
16. Total NTFS Sectors: 70187921
17. MFT Start Cluster: 4
18. MFT Mirror Start Clust: 3712015
19. Clusters per FRS: 246
20. Clusters per Index Blk: 1
21. Serial Number: 0x3490FC5D90FC26D0
22. Checksum: 0 (0x0)
23. Boot Signature: 0xAA55
******* This is the boot sector for the good partition on Drive 1.
I've been mostly lurking in this group, and I have been helped more
than once because someone else asked a question and other people gave
him good, solid answers. Now it's my "turn". Wish it wasn't.
I have a 3 drive SCSI system. Win 2000, all NTFS partitions. Not the
fastest anymore, but very stable and solid. I was trying to merge two
partitions on my Drive 1. The operation was about 85% complete when
PM showed an error message about a bad sector and then aborted.
I thought, OK, no harm done. Then I discovered that the partition
that I was trying to merge INTO another one was gone. And also the
partition next to that one on the same disk, even though that
partition was not involved in the merge operation.
So I guess I now believe what other people say about Partition Magic
being unreliable.
I used PartitionInfo to look at the disk information. Here is what I
found. If you're familiar with this report, I omitted all the boot
sector info on drives 2 and 3, which are working fine.
I have some questions and comments included. I start those lines
with *******. Thanks for reading and helping.
I'm hoping that this information is enough for some of the real
experts here to tell me how to recreate by hand the missing
partitions. Somehow I feel that should be possible, because I've
noticed that every partitions uses 63 bytes at the start for some kind
of header information.
* * * *
PowerQuest PartitionInfo 8.0 -- Windows NT/2000 Version
General System Information:
Total Physical Memory (bytes): 267,968,512
Used Physical Memory: (bytes): 90,292,224
Maximum Page File Size: (bytes): 647,950,336
Current Page File Size: (bytes): 141,418,496
******* Additional NOTES:
******* Disk 1 is 36 GB. Disk 1 used to have 3 partitions. The
******* second and third are missing.
******* Disk 2 is 72 GB. Disk 2 contains the active C: volume and
******* one other volume.
******* Disk 3 is 72 GB. Disk 3 contains 3 logical partitions within
******* one extended partition.
******* Disk 1 is the problem drive.
******* All boot records for Drives 2 and 3 omitted.
===========================================================================================================
Disk Geometry Information for Disk 1: 8989 Cylinders, 255 Heads,
63 Sectors/Track
Warning: Logical drive chain points to sector without partition table.
******* This line is a clue that there was a partition there once,
******* before Partition Magic did the damage.
System PartSect # Boot BCyl Head Sect FS ECyl Head
Sect StartSect NumSects
===========================================================================================================
0 0 00 1 0 1 0F 1023 254
63 16,065 144,392,220
Info: Begin C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Info: End C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Actual values are:
0 0 00 1 0 1 0F 8988 254 63 16065
144392220
16,065 0 00 1 1 1 07 1023 254
63 16,128 70,187,922
Info: End C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Actual values are:
16065 0 00 1 1 1 07 4369 254 63 16128
70187922
16,065 1 00 1023 0 1 05 1023 254
63 70,204,050 70,525,350
Info: Begin C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Info: End C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Actual values are:
16065 1 00 4370 0 1 05 8759 254 63 70204050
70525350
===========================================================================================================
Disk Geometry Information for Disk 2: 4462 Cylinders, 255 Heads,
63 Sectors/Track
System PartSect # Boot BCyl Head Sect FS ECyl Head
Sect StartSect NumSects
******* This drive is working fine.
===========================================================================================================
0 0 80 0 1 1 07 1023 254
63 63 25,141,662
Info: End C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Actual values are:
0 0 80 0 1 1 07 1564 254 63 63
25141662
0 1 00 1023 0 1 0F 1023 254
63 25,141,725 46,540,305
Info: Begin C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Info: End C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Actual values are:
0 1 00 1565 0 1 0F 4461 254 63 25141725
46540305
25,141,725 0 00 1023 1 1 07 1023 254
63 25,141,788 46,540,242
Info: Begin C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Info: End C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Actual values are:
25141725 0 00 1565 1 1 07 4461 254 63 25141788
46540242
===========================================================================================================
Disk Geometry Information for Disk 3: 8924 Cylinders, 255 Heads,
63 Sectors/Track
System PartSect # Boot BCyl Head Sect FS ECyl Head
Sect StartSect NumSects
******* This drive is working fine.
===========================================================================================================
0 0 00 1 0 1 0F 1023 254
63 16,065 143,347,995
Info: Begin C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Info: End C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Actual values are:
0 0 00 1 0 1 0F 8923 254 63 16065
143347995
16,065 0 00 1 1 1 07 1023 254
63 16,128 50,331,582
Info: End C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Actual values are:
16065 0 00 1 1 1 07 3133 254 63 16128
50331582
16,065 1 00 1023 0 1 05 1023 254
63 50,347,710 64,356,390
Info: Begin C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Info: End C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Actual values are:
16065 1 00 3134 0 1 05 7139 254 63 50347710
64356390
50,347,710 0 00 1023 1 1 07 1023 254
63 50,347,773 64,356,327
Info: Begin C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Info: End C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Actual values are:
50347710 0 00 3134 1 1 07 7139 254 63 50347773
64356327
50,347,710 1 00 1023 0 1 05 1023 254
63 114,704,100 28,659,960
Info: Begin C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Info: End C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Actual values are:
50347710 1 00 7140 0 1 05 8923 254 63 114704100
28659960
114,704,100 0 00 1023 1 1 07 1023 254
63 114,704,163 28,659,897
Info: Begin C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Info: End C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Actual values are:
114704100 0 00 7140 1 1 07 8923 254 63 114704163
28659897
===========================================================================================================
Partition Information for Disk 1: 70,511.9 Megabytes
Volume PartType Status Size MB PartSect #
StartSect TotalSects
===========================================================================================================
Unallocated Pri 7.8 None --
63 16,002
ExtendedX Pri 70,504.0 0 0
16,065 144,392,220
EPBR Log 34,271.5 None --
16,065 70,187,985
G: NTFS Log 34,271.4 16,065 0
16,128 70,187,922
EPBR Log 34,436.2 16,065 1
70,204,050 70,525,350
Warning: EPBR partition starting at 70204050 is without logical
partition.
Unallocated Log 36,232.5 None --
70,204,050 74,204,235
******* The Warning message seems to provide a clue about the
******* location of the missing partition and also about the total
******* size. It seems possible that someone can tell me what are
******* the boot sector parameters for the missing partitions.
===========================================================================================================
Partition Information for Disk 2: 35,001.0 Megabytes
Volume PartType Status Size MB PartSect #
StartSect TotalSects
******* Again, this drive is working fine.
===========================================================================================================
C: NTFS Pri,Boot 12,276.2 0 0
63 25,141,662
ExtendedX Pri 22,724.8 0 1
25,141,725 46,540,305
EPBR Log 22,724.8 None --
25,141,725 46,540,305
I: NTFS Log 22,724.7 25,141,725 0
25,141,788 46,540,242
===========================================================================================================
Partition Information for Disk 3: 70,002.0 Megabytes
Volume PartType Status Size MB PartSect #
StartSect TotalSects
******* Again, this drive is also working fine.
===========================================================================================================
Unallocated Pri 7.8 None --
63 16,002
ExtendedX Pri 69,994.1 0 0
16,065 143,347,995
EPBR Log 24,576.0 None --
16,065 50,331,645
D: NTFS Log 24,576.0 16,065 0
16,128 50,331,582
EPBR Log 31,424.0 16,065 1
50,347,710 64,356,390
E: NTFS Log 31,424.0 50,347,710 0
50,347,773 64,356,327
EPBR Log 13,994.1 50,347,710 1
114,704,100 28,659,960
H: NTFS Log 13,994.1 114,704,100 0
114,704,163 28,659,897
===========================================================================================================
Boot Record for drive G: (Drive: 1, Starting sector: 16,128, Type:
NTFS)
===========================================================================================================
1. Jump: EB 52 90
2. OEM Name: NTFS
3. Bytes per Sector: 512
4. Sectors per Cluster: 8
5. Reserved Sectors: 0
6. Number of FATs: 0
7. Root Dir Entries: 0
8. Total Sectors: 0
9. Media Descriptor: 0xF8
10. Sectors per FAT: 0
11. Sectors per Track: 63 (0x3F)
12. Number of Heads: 255 (0xFF)
13. Hidden Sectors: 63 (0x3F)
14. Total Sectors (>32MB): 0 (0x0)
15. Unused: 0x80008000
16. Total NTFS Sectors: 70187921
17. MFT Start Cluster: 4
18. MFT Mirror Start Clust: 3712015
19. Clusters per FRS: 246
20. Clusters per Index Blk: 1
21. Serial Number: 0x3490FC5D90FC26D0
22. Checksum: 0 (0x0)
23. Boot Signature: 0xAA55
******* This is the boot sector for the good partition on Drive 1.