Is it possible to recover this partition?

[0b3hks001]

WinXP-Home; one hard drive (80GB) with multiple partitions.

My email client (The Bat!) crashed. When I reboot, I cannot access my
L: drive (the mail directory). However, Partition Magic 8.01's
PartitionInfo report no error on L: drive -- "No partition errors
detected".

However, Partition Magic itself shows some funy statistics: The name
of the partition is "?(L)"; size is 4,996.7MB; Used 1,968,6009.3MB;
Unused 128,542.7MB. Obviously, the "Used" statistic is wrong.

Windows Explorer reports that the L: drive is not formatted. However,
PartitionInfo shows it is a FAT32 partition.

When I run Norton Disk Doctor from the CD, it says it is "Unable to
access drive L:. The volume does not contain a recognized file
system".

I have also tried the PC Inspector's File Recovery 4.0. The scanning
reports "Bad parameter in boot sector. Root directory cluster
(536879106) > count of clusters!"

Is there any way I can fix the problem and get back into my L: drive?

I vaguely remember that there is a DOS command(?) that would fix the
boot sector -- something with a switch of MBR???? Would that help?

TIA

P.S. If this is not the correct newsgroup, please advise which would
be a more appropriate newsgroup.

 

[wemaole]

WinXP-Home; one hard drive (80GB) with multiple partitions.

My email client (The Bat!) crashed. When I reboot, I cannot access my
L: drive (the mail directory). However, Partition Magic 8.01's
PartitionInfo report no error on L: drive -- "No partition errors
detected".

However, Partition Magic itself shows some funy statistics: The name
of the partition is "?(L)"; size is 4,996.7MB; Used 1,968,6009.3MB;
Unused 128,542.7MB. Obviously, the "Used" statistic is wrong.

Windows Explorer reports that the L: drive is not formatted. However,
PartitionInfo shows it is a FAT32 partition.

When I run Norton Disk Doctor from the CD, it says it is "Unable to
access drive L:. The volume does not contain a recognized file
system".

I have also tried the PC Inspector's File Recovery 4.0. The scanning
reports "Bad parameter in boot sector. Root directory cluster
(536879106) > count of clusters!"

Is there any way I can fix the problem and get back into my L: drive?

I vaguely remember that there is a DOS command(?) that would fix the
boot sector -- something with a switch of MBR???? Would that help?

TIA

P.S. If this is not the correct newsgroup, please advise which would
be a more appropriate newsgroup.

I suggest you use Partition Table Doctor to resolve your
problem.The software provides very useful functions:
Backup partition table, Restore partition table, Rebuild
partition table, undelete partition, Fix boot sector, etc.

First thing I recommend you download the demo version of
Partition Table Doctor.( http://www.ptdd.com/download.htm )

Run the program and select "Fixboot",then choose "Interactive" mode.

See more: http://www.ptdd.com/recoverylostpartition.htm
http://www.ptdd.com/partition-recovery.htm

 

[wemaole]

how to use partition table doctor fix boot sector:
http://www.ptdd.com/fixboot.htm

 

[Joep]

Count your blessings that it didn't 'fix' anything.

PC Inspector = Alex Graus open source and *unfinished* Drive Rescue project.
They took this unfinished project, changed the GUI a little and pretend they
wrote it themselves. It can be considerd software in a pre-alpha stage. They
now changed the GUI a bit more and, voila, version 4.0.

Prolly not.