Messed with my Partitions - bad PBR, hard-disk read failure

[stas007]

Hello,

Big problem with Dell laptop, XP Home. I wanted to create a Linux
partition but now I can't access my data. Here's what happened:

- I ran Partition Manager 7. It Listed 3 partitions and one free space;

partiton 1) FAT - 50 MB (contains Dell Utilities)

partiton 2) NTFS - 57 GB (contains all my stuff)

partiton 3) FAT - 3 GB (i think this was leftover data from when I
converted from FAT32 to NTFS)

4) free space, about 50 MB



- tried resizing partition 2 and it failed, so I deleted the contents
of partition 3 figuring I would install Linux there. The contents were
deleted but reformating the partition for Linux failed.

- then i took a one day break, rebooted several times, browsed the net,
downloaded stuff, all was working fine but then it got ugly.

- Opened Windows Partition Manager (don't recall the exact name of the
utility) which listed the same details as Partition Manager i.e. 3
partitions and 1 free space. I then set partition 3, the one whose
contents I had deleted, to "Active".

- Rebooted immediately. Didn't boot, message was "Bad PBR"

- then I ran DISKPART from the XP recovery disk, and deleted partition
3.

- On reboot the message was still "Bad PBR" (i think), so from the
recovery disk I ran FIXMBR.

- On reboot the message was "No bootable devices"

- starting to sweat and panic, I ran DISKPART to create a 10MB
partition inside the free space, figuring the system needs to see 3
partitions

- On reboot the message was still "No bootable devices", so I ran
FIXMBR again which before running alerted "This computer appears have a
non-standard or invalid boot-record. FIXMBR may damage your partition
tables if you proceed". I proceeded anyway and FIXMBR said "writing new
MBR...\device\hardisk0\partition0"

- the contents of boot.ini at this time are:
[boot loader]
timeout-30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\windows
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\windows="Microsoft XP Home"
/fast detect /Noexecute=optout

- on reboot i selected to boot from the Dell Recovery and Utilities
option ( partition 1 i assume).

- ran tests for the hard disk and it detected only some bad blocks that
were far away from the start : "block 116233432 - incorrectable data
error or media is write-protected, Continue or abort Test?"

- I didn't abort and continued testing and it uncovered several other
blocks in the same region. (I had run Windows DefragDisk the day before
and there were a few damaged blocks and I figured these were the once
being detected.) I'm surprised the test did't uncover the MBR damage.

- For each damaged block I clicked "Continue testing" and it tested
about ten (the last block number I jotted down was 116236402). Then the
testing froze, I waited 15 minutes and turned off the laptop..

- I rebooted but the recovery disk took about 4 times longer to startup
and displayed "
"The path specified is not valid".
"C:>\"

- getting much uglier, I ran CHKDSK, CHKDSK C:, CHKDSK /r, with the
result being in each case: "The specified drive is not valid or there
is no disk in the drive". Tried other things which gave these messages:


- on CD Windows : "path or file specified not valid"

- on reboot: "hard-disk read failure"

- on DISKPART : "setup cannot access this disk" - 57 GB, Disk 0, id 0,
Bus 0

- on FIXBOOT: "cannot find the system drive"

- on MAP: D: \device\cdrom0

- on D:\dir, it listed all the files on the recovery disk...


===============================

So that's what happened.
It's the damn Linux that made me do it I tell you!
Any suggestions as to what I should do now?

 

[Guest]

umm. i well aint too sure, but which linux are you using ??
just do a clean format of your hard drive if you can.. then partition it.

but then just make 2 partitions, just leave one raw and one for your
windows, make sure your windows on 1st then run linux. the just linux to
create your partitions you, thats it....


try using fixboot in the console that may work.. .

--
壮大ãªãƒžã‚¹ã‚¿ãƒ¼

Hello,

Big problem with Dell laptop, XP Home. I wanted to create a Linux
partition but now I can't access my data. Here's what happened:

- I ran Partition Manager 7. It Listed 3 partitions and one free space;

partiton 1) FAT - 50 MB (contains Dell Utilities)

partiton 2) NTFS - 57 GB (contains all my stuff)

partiton 3) FAT - 3 GB (i think this was leftover data from when I
converted from FAT32 to NTFS)

4) free space, about 50 MB



- tried resizing partition 2 and it failed, so I deleted the contents
of partition 3 figuring I would install Linux there. The contents were
deleted but reformating the partition for Linux failed.

- then i took a one day break, rebooted several times, browsed the net,
downloaded stuff, all was working fine but then it got ugly.

- Opened Windows Partition Manager (don't recall the exact name of the
utility) which listed the same details as Partition Manager i.e. 3
partitions and 1 free space. I then set partition 3, the one whose
contents I had deleted, to "Active".

- Rebooted immediately. Didn't boot, message was "Bad PBR"

- then I ran DISKPART from the XP recovery disk, and deleted partition
3.

- On reboot the message was still "Bad PBR" (i think), so from the
recovery disk I ran FIXMBR.

- On reboot the message was "No bootable devices"

- starting to sweat and panic, I ran DISKPART to create a 10MB
partition inside the free space, figuring the system needs to see 3
partitions

- On reboot the message was still "No bootable devices", so I ran
FIXMBR again which before running alerted "This computer appears have a
non-standard or invalid boot-record. FIXMBR may damage your partition
tables if you proceed". I proceeded anyway and FIXMBR said "writing new
MBR...\device\hardisk0\partition0"

- the contents of boot.ini at this time are:
[boot loader]
timeout-30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\windows
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\windows="Microsoft XP Home"
/fast detect /Noexecute=optout

- on reboot i selected to boot from the Dell Recovery and Utilities
option ( partition 1 i assume).

- ran tests for the hard disk and it detected only some bad blocks that
were far away from the start : "block 116233432 - incorrectable data
error or media is write-protected, Continue or abort Test?"

- I didn't abort and continued testing and it uncovered several other
blocks in the same region. (I had run Windows DefragDisk the day before
and there were a few damaged blocks and I figured these were the once
being detected.) I'm surprised the test did't uncover the MBR damage.

- For each damaged block I clicked "Continue testing" and it tested
about ten (the last block number I jotted down was 116236402). Then the
testing froze, I waited 15 minutes and turned off the laptop..

- I rebooted but the recovery disk took about 4 times longer to startup
and displayed "
"The path specified is not valid".
"C:>\"

- getting much uglier, I ran CHKDSK, CHKDSK C:, CHKDSK /r, with the
result being in each case: "The specified drive is not valid or there
is no disk in the drive". Tried other things which gave these messages:


- on CD Windows : "path or file specified not valid"

- on reboot: "hard-disk read failure"

- on DISKPART : "setup cannot access this disk" - 57 GB, Disk 0, id 0,
Bus 0

- on FIXBOOT: "cannot find the system drive"

- on MAP: D: \device\cdrom0

- on D:\dir, it listed all the files on the recovery disk...


===============================

So that's what happened.
It's the damn Linux that made me do it I tell you!
Any suggestions as to what I should do now?

 

[PA20Pilot]

Hi,

Before you get drastic with things, I mean, more than you already have,
is there a chance you can put your hard drive in another computer and
try to access your stuff from it?



---==X={}=X==---

Jim Self

AVIATION ANIMATION, the internet's largest depository.
http://avanimation.avsupport.com

Your only internet source for spiral staircase plans.
http://jself.com/stair/Stair.htm

Experimental Aircraft Association #140897
EAA Technical Counselor #4562

 

[Andy]

You're fearless.

Hello,

Big problem with Dell laptop, XP Home. I wanted to create a Linux
partition but now I can't access my data. Here's what happened:

- I ran Partition Manager 7. It Listed 3 partitions and one free space;

partiton 1) FAT - 50 MB (contains Dell Utilities)

partiton 2) NTFS - 57 GB (contains all my stuff)

partiton 3) FAT - 3 GB (i think this was leftover data from when I
converted from FAT32 to NTFS)

4) free space, about 50 MB



- tried resizing partition 2 and it failed, so I deleted the contents
of partition 3 figuring I would install Linux there. The contents were
deleted but reformating the partition for Linux failed.

- then i took a one day break, rebooted several times, browsed the net,
downloaded stuff, all was working fine but then it got ugly.

- Opened Windows Partition Manager (don't recall the exact name of the
utility) which listed the same details as Partition Manager i.e. 3
partitions and 1 free space. I then set partition 3, the one whose
contents I had deleted, to "Active".

- Rebooted immediately. Didn't boot, message was "Bad PBR"

- then I ran DISKPART from the XP recovery disk, and deleted partition
3.

- On reboot the message was still "Bad PBR" (i think), so from the
recovery disk I ran FIXMBR.

- On reboot the message was "No bootable devices"

- starting to sweat and panic, I ran DISKPART to create a 10MB
partition inside the free space, figuring the system needs to see 3
partitions

- On reboot the message was still "No bootable devices", so I ran
FIXMBR again which before running alerted "This computer appears have a
non-standard or invalid boot-record. FIXMBR may damage your partition
tables if you proceed". I proceeded anyway and FIXMBR said "writing new
MBR...\device\hardisk0\partition0"

- the contents of boot.ini at this time are:
[boot loader]
timeout-30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\windows
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\windows="Microsoft XP Home"
/fast detect /Noexecute=optout

- on reboot i selected to boot from the Dell Recovery and Utilities
option ( partition 1 i assume).

- ran tests for the hard disk and it detected only some bad blocks that
were far away from the start : "block 116233432 - incorrectable data
error or media is write-protected, Continue or abort Test?"

- I didn't abort and continued testing and it uncovered several other
blocks in the same region. (I had run Windows DefragDisk the day before
and there were a few damaged blocks and I figured these were the once
being detected.) I'm surprised the test did't uncover the MBR damage.

- For each damaged block I clicked "Continue testing" and it tested
about ten (the last block number I jotted down was 116236402). Then the
testing froze, I waited 15 minutes and turned off the laptop..

- I rebooted but the recovery disk took about 4 times longer to startup
and displayed "
"The path specified is not valid".
"C:>\"

- getting much uglier, I ran CHKDSK, CHKDSK C:, CHKDSK /r, with the
result being in each case: "The specified drive is not valid or there
is no disk in the drive". Tried other things which gave these messages:


- on CD Windows : "path or file specified not valid"

- on reboot: "hard-disk read failure"

- on DISKPART : "setup cannot access this disk" - 57 GB, Disk 0, id 0,
Bus 0

- on FIXBOOT: "cannot find the system drive"

- on MAP: D: \device\cdrom0

- on D:\dir, it listed all the files on the recovery disk...


===============================

So that's what happened.
It's the damn Linux that made me do it I tell you!
Any suggestions as to what I should do now?

 

[Dr. C.Joseph Drayton, Ph.D. AS&T]

Hi,

It sounds to me like you have three distinct problems;

1) Retrieve data
2) Get your system bootable
3) Install Linux

To the first one, I would not do ANYTHING else to the hard disk. I
would make a BartPE disk on another machine and boot from it. I
would then copy my files from the hard disk to external USB hard disk.

On number 2, I hate to say it, but I would do a clean install. I
hate clean installs since it takes many man hours to restore
applications. I would do it in this case, because I would not be
sure what else was damaged besides the MBR.

As to the third, I cheated. I now support a couple of clients who
use Linux, so I needed Linux on my laptop. I do all of my work on my
laptop and don't even have a desktop any more. I know they say that
Linux will not hurt your Windows partitions. But after 2 years of
crashes, I heard of something called VMPlayer by VMWare. It is a
free download from WMWare. I then downloaded a Fedora Core 4 VM from
the same site and it works great. I would recommend that you also
download the four Fedora Core 4 ISOs so that you can add the
packages that you need. Don't bother with the Debian VM since it
will not allow you to add hardware. I have all of my hardware
working (except for my Canon ip90 printer) working perfectly. One of
the nice things about using a VM is that You are actually still in
Windows. All you do is a [Ctrl] + [Alt] and you are back on your
Windows system. The Fedora VM runs everything that would run if you
physically installed Fedora to a hard disk partition. The only
limitation it has is that it will only store 4GB of data. For my
purposes, that has not been a problem.

Ciao . . . C.Joseph

That which a man buys too cheaply . . .
He esteems too lightly

Hello,

Big problem with Dell laptop, XP Home. I wanted to create a Linux
partition but now I can't access my data. Here's what happened:

- I ran Partition Manager 7. It Listed 3 partitions and one free space;

partiton 1) FAT - 50 MB (contains Dell Utilities)

partiton 2) NTFS - 57 GB (contains all my stuff)

partiton 3) FAT - 3 GB (i think this was leftover data from when I
converted from FAT32 to NTFS)

4) free space, about 50 MB



- tried resizing partition 2 and it failed, so I deleted the contents
of partition 3 figuring I would install Linux there. The contents were
deleted but reformating the partition for Linux failed.

- then i took a one day break, rebooted several times, browsed the net,
downloaded stuff, all was working fine but then it got ugly.

- Opened Windows Partition Manager (don't recall the exact name of the
utility) which listed the same details as Partition Manager i.e. 3
partitions and 1 free space. I then set partition 3, the one whose
contents I had deleted, to "Active".

- Rebooted immediately. Didn't boot, message was "Bad PBR"

- then I ran DISKPART from the XP recovery disk, and deleted partition
3.

- On reboot the message was still "Bad PBR" (i think), so from the
recovery disk I ran FIXMBR.

- On reboot the message was "No bootable devices"

- starting to sweat and panic, I ran DISKPART to create a 10MB
partition inside the free space, figuring the system needs to see 3
partitions

- On reboot the message was still "No bootable devices", so I ran
FIXMBR again which before running alerted "This computer appears have a
non-standard or invalid boot-record. FIXMBR may damage your partition
tables if you proceed". I proceeded anyway and FIXMBR said "writing new
MBR...\device\hardisk0\partition0"

- the contents of boot.ini at this time are:
[boot loader]
timeout-30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\windows
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\windows="Microsoft XP Home"
/fast detect /Noexecute=optout

- on reboot i selected to boot from the Dell Recovery and Utilities
option ( partition 1 i assume).

- ran tests for the hard disk and it detected only some bad blocks that
were far away from the start : "block 116233432 - incorrectable data
error or media is write-protected, Continue or abort Test?"

- I didn't abort and continued testing and it uncovered several other
blocks in the same region. (I had run Windows DefragDisk the day before
and there were a few damaged blocks and I figured these were the once
being detected.) I'm surprised the test did't uncover the MBR damage.

- For each damaged block I clicked "Continue testing" and it tested
about ten (the last block number I jotted down was 116236402). Then the
testing froze, I waited 15 minutes and turned off the laptop..

- I rebooted but the recovery disk took about 4 times longer to startup
and displayed "
"The path specified is not valid".
"C:>\"

- getting much uglier, I ran CHKDSK, CHKDSK C:, CHKDSK /r, with the
result being in each case: "The specified drive is not valid or there
is no disk in the drive". Tried other things which gave these messages:


- on CD Windows : "path or file specified not valid"

- on reboot: "hard-disk read failure"

- on DISKPART : "setup cannot access this disk" - 57 GB, Disk 0, id 0,
Bus 0

- on FIXBOOT: "cannot find the system drive"

- on MAP: D: \device\cdrom0

- on D:\dir, it listed all the files on the recovery disk...


===============================

So that's what happened.
It's the damn Linux that made me do it I tell you!
Any suggestions as to what I should do now?