missing mbr(?) on secondary disk

  • Thread starter Thread starter albert
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A

albert

System: WinXP Pro; P III, 640mb Ram
Two disks -- Disk 0 ( C: and E:, 80 Gig total)
Disk 1 ( D:, 60 Gig)

I use D: as my backup and reserve storage disk -- regularly use Norton's
Ghost
to store images of C: and E: to a directory on D:, also store uncompressed
backups
of various other files and pictures to D: directories.

But, all of a sudden, the system can no longer "see" or find D:. Windows
boots up properly to C:, and identifies the second partition on disk 0 as E:
(the correct designation). The computer CMOS knows it has a Disk 1 (drive
D:), and correctly identifies it. But Windows cannot see D:.

I have opened up the machine and checked and reseated all cables. I tried
using Device Manager (which saw drive D: and reported it as "working
properly") to remove D: -- and Windows saw the drive on the next bootup as a
new drive. But even though it saw it, it did not appear in Windows
Explorer.

I tried using my WinXP Pro disk, repair option, but telling it I wished to
check my Windows installation simply resulted in booting up and seeing no D:
( I could be doing it wrong, since I have never done this before).

Using the command prompt -- and attempting to change to D: -- either it
tells me "the system cannot find the drive specified," or, on other
bootups, trying to use Chkdsk, it has told me it "cannot open volume for
direct access.".

Using the "Computer Management" console from Administrative tools --
Computer Management (Local) | Storage | Disk Management -- D: is currently
reported as "unallocated". (on earlier bootups, it was reported as
"uninitialiized.") It *was* an NTFS disk (originally FAT, and converted to
NTFS some time ago). I am guessing that the MBR on this disk has gone
south.

While the Management Console tells me I could create a "new partition" on
this disk, I would rather not -- as I understand it, that would wipe out all
the data I have on it.. While the table may be shot, I am guessing that
most, if not all of my actual data is still there.

Isn't there supposed to be some sort of backup MBR or file table held on an
NTFS disk? If so, how do I restore it?

Any help will be much appreciated.

TIA

albert
 
Any chance the partition on disk 1 is now listed as hidden ?

albert said:
System: WinXP Pro; P III, 640mb Ram
Two disks -- Disk 0 ( C: and E:, 80 Gig total)
Disk 1 ( D:, 60 Gig)

I use D: as my backup and reserve storage disk -- regularly use Norton's
Ghost
to store images of C: and E: to a directory on D:, also store uncompressed
backups
of various other files and pictures to D: directories.

But, all of a sudden, the system can no longer "see" or find D:.
Click to expand...

<snip>
 
You can use a Win98 floppy boot disk with Fdisk on it,
Also by using a 3rd party partition manager such as Partition Magic or
BootIt NG.
The disk manager in XP will only show the partition as Healthy(Unknown
Partition) if it is hidden.
 
I no longer have a Win98 floppy boot disk. But, I am pretty sure the disk's
partition is not "hidden". This is because the XP disk manager sees it as
"Unallocated" -- with no indication about its health or "Unknown
Partition." It thinks there is no partition at all.
 
I hope you find an answer,
It looks like the partition is lost.
If you have a chance to remove the drive and install it on another machine,
it will tell you if you still have a good drive.
 
Squire,

Thanks for trying. The partition is gone -- I downloaded and used a Maxtor
utility (it's a Maxtor drive). I ran its quick and in-depth tests, and
everything on it is reported as OK, *except* of course, it reports that it
is not partitioned.

Before I give up, I will try to get some help in finding a strategy to
attempt to recover/rebuild its partition data. I'll post questions, ask
around -- there must be some way to do it, or at least to try.

albert
 
albert said:
Using the "Computer Management" console from Administrative tools --
Computer Management (Local) | Storage | Disk Management -- D: is currently
reported as "unallocated". (on earlier bootups, it was reported as
"uninitialiized.") It *was* an NTFS disk (originally FAT, and converted to
NTFS some time ago). I am guessing that the MBR on this disk has gone
south.
Click to expand...

That would appear to be true. If CM saw the disk before as
"uninitialized", then it saw the partition definition in the boot sector
MBR, but it wasn't "setup" for XP yet. There is a command in CM to do
that and give the partition a drive letter. If it now considers the disk
"unallocated", then it sees no partition defined in the MBR.

Are you using any third-party boot/partition manager, or did you
uninstall some third-party boot/partition manager software? That would
mess up your MBR. A reinstall might bring it back.
 
Kent,

Thank you. Now I understand better what the system was telling me when it
said "uninitialized," as opposed to the present "unallocated."

No, I was not using any third party software (this is a pure Windows XP
machine, and was WinME before that) -- no partition manager, no "GoBack,"
and because I regularly use Norton Ghost, no restore points.

As to my next step: I am assuming that the drive is probably surface
"challenged" and, even if restored to active duty, will unpredictably
continue to fade away. I am researching software which can rebuild/recover
lost partitions. Acronis seems to offer something that might do the trick,
or perhaps Partition Magic (now owned by Norton) might be appropriate for
me, and there are other programs I am looking at. Hopefully I will be able
to pull this out of the fire. Whether or not I succeed, I am also
considering buying SpinRite -- even though it will not rebuild the MBR (at
least not for someone of my limited skills). I like the idea that it can
monitor drive health at a deeper level and effectively (according to the
website) outdo OEM programs at marking potentially bad sectors. Monitoring
my disks' health more effectively seems a prudent path for the future, as
SMART and OEM hard drive software gave me no indication that trouble was
afoot.

If you know of any partition restoration software you think particularly
good, I'd much appreciate any recommendations. Any other comments or
suggestions you might have are also most welcome.

albert
 
[snip]
Using the "Computer Management" console from Administrative tools --
Computer Management (Local) | Storage | Disk Management -- D: is currently
reported as "unallocated". (on earlier bootups, it was reported as
"uninitialiized.") It *was* an NTFS disk (originally FAT, and converted to
NTFS some time ago). I am guessing that the MBR on this disk has gone
south.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a pretty good guess.
While the Management Console tells me I could create a "new partition" on
this disk, I would rather not -- as I understand it, that would wipe out all
the data I have on it.. While the table may be shot, I am guessing that
most, if not all of my actual data is still there.

Isn't there supposed to be some sort of backup MBR or file table held on an
NTFS disk? If so, how do I restore it?
Click to expand...

The partition boot sectors are backed up, but the MBR is not (unless
you made a backup yourself). You will need a recovery tool that can
rebuild the partition table.

Take a look at "Simple Steps for Partition Table Recovery" here:

http://bootmaster.filerecovery.biz/recover_mbr.html

Regards,

Bob
 
albert said:
As to my next step: I am assuming that the drive is probably surface
"challenged" and, even if restored to active duty, will unpredictably
continue to fade away. I am researching software which can rebuild/recover
lost partitions. Acronis seems to offer something that might do the trick,
or perhaps Partition Magic (now owned by Norton) might be appropriate for
me, and there are other programs I am looking at. Hopefully I will be able
to pull this out of the fire. Whether or not I succeed, I am also
considering buying SpinRite -- even though it will not rebuild the MBR (at
least not for someone of my limited skills). I like the idea that it can
monitor drive health at a deeper level and effectively (according to the
website) outdo OEM programs at marking potentially bad sectors. Monitoring
my disks' health more effectively seems a prudent path for the future, as
SMART and OEM hard drive software gave me no indication that trouble was
afoot.

If you know of any partition restoration software you think particularly
good, I'd much appreciate any recommendations. Any other comments or
suggestions you might have are also most welcome.
Click to expand...
Acronis products are good for solving software problems. There is no
software that can help with hardware problems. That's the "house on the
bed of sand" problem. If you really suspect hardware failure, buy
another disk and pull off as much data as you can. Forget the OS.

I like SpinRite, although it was long in the tooth. There is a new NTFS
version now that is well worth a look.
 
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