problem with fixboot

J

Joern Helbert

Hi
we had a crash of our xp home system. It refused to boot and a repair
installation wouldn't work. So I booted the repair console and checked the
XP guide on my laptop. Using 'map' showed for the c partition no
filesystem, while the d partition was shown as FAT32. So I tried 'fixboot'
as suggested in the XP guide. fixboot report that there is a problem with
the disk and asked if it should rewrite the partition-info. Unfortunately
'fixboot' converted the disk to a FAT16 filesystem. While before I could at
least see the files on the drive using a linux-on-cd system, I get no only
rubbish.
I'm really lost now, is there a way to repair the damage done by
'fixboot'?? The disk contains all the images of our 4 week old baby girl. I
don't care whether I can boot the system again or not.. but at least I want
to get it to a status where I can copy files of the disk.
Any help would be appreciated.

cheers
Jorn
 
F

Folkert Rienstra

Joern Helbert said:
Hi
we had a crash of our xp home system. It refused to boot and a repair
installation wouldn't work. So I booted the repair console and checked
the XP guide on my laptop. Using 'map' showed for the c partition no
filesystem, while the d partition was shown as FAT32. So I tried 'fixboot'
as suggested in the XP guide. fixboot report that there is a problem with
the disk and asked if it should rewrite the partition-info. Unfortunately
'fixboot' converted the disk to a FAT16 filesystem. While before I could at
least see the files on the drive using a linux-on-cd system, I get no only
rubbish.
I'm really lost now, is there a way to repair the damage done by
'fixboot'??
The disk contains all the images of our 4 week old baby girl.

You might try resqdata from http://invircible.com
 
Z

Zvi Netiv

Joern Helbert said:
we had a crash of our xp home system. It refused to boot and a repair
installation wouldn't work. So I booted the repair console and checked the
XP guide on my laptop. Using 'map' showed for the c partition no
filesystem, while the d partition was shown as FAT32. So I tried 'fixboot'
as suggested in the XP guide. fixboot report that there is a problem with
the disk and asked if it should rewrite the partition-info. Unfortunately
'fixboot' converted the disk to a FAT16 filesystem. While before I could at
least see the files on the drive using a linux-on-cd system, I get no only
rubbish.

I'm really lost now, is there a way to repair the damage done by
'fixboot'?? The disk contains all the images of our 4 week old baby girl. I
don't care whether I can boot the system again or not.. but at least I want
to get it to a status where I can copy files of the disk.
Any help would be appreciated.

Reverting FIXBOOT's doing should be possible, but I'll need a few more details
to tell.

Most important is that you do not attempt changing anything on the drive before
having fully assessed the problem, as if you do, then you may perpetuate the
problem and lose any chance to recover anything at all.

Questions: You write that the D: partition showed as FAT-32. Was it indeed?
Is D: still accessible when booting of a Win 98 boot floppy, or did it disappear
too? Did you have a D: partition at all?

What's the hard drive capacity? What was the C: partition capacity before
being messed up? Do you remember what was the file system used on C:? NTFS, or
FAT-32?

If you don't know the answers, then you may run RESQDISK /ASSESS from floppy and
post the report (a:\resqdisk.rpt) here. Available from www.resq.co.il/resq.php

Lastly, Folkert suggested that you try RESQDATA (contained in the RESQ package,
above). Sorry to tell, but it won't work in your case, as RESQDATA relies on
the boot sector to tell it how to read the partition, and the FAT16 boot sector
put there by FIXBOOT is obviously wrong (and the MBR probably too). We'll have
to restore these first, to regain access to your files.

Regards, Zvi
 
J

Joern Helbert

Hi

thanks for your reply. I stopped doing anything on my disk for now. I'm
currently getting a new harddrive to get the computer back up and hope
to be able to salvage as much as possible from the old harddrive.


Now to answer your questions:
Questions: You write that the D: partition showed as FAT-32. Was it
indeed? Is D: still accessible when booting of a Win 98 boot floppy,
or did it disappear too? Did you have a D: partition at all?

D: was indeed a FAT32 partition, it was used by the WinXP system
recovery and it is still accessible using a Linux-on-CD system.
What's the hard drive capacity? What was the C: partition capacity
before being messed up? Do you remember what was the file system used
on C:? NTFS, or FAT-32?
It is a 80GB hard drive and C: was using 75GB. The file system was
indeed FAT32.

Thanks for your support
Jörn
 
J

Joep

Joern Helbert said:
Hi
we had a crash of our xp home system. It refused to boot and a repair
installation wouldn't work. So I booted the repair console and checked the
XP guide on my laptop. Using 'map' showed for the c partition no
filesystem,

What *was* the file system really? FAT32 or NTFS?
while the d partition was shown as FAT32. So I tried 'fixboot'
as suggested in the XP guide. fixboot report that there is a problem with
the disk and asked if it should rewrite the partition-info. Unfortunately
'fixboot' converted the disk to a FAT16 filesystem. While before I could at
least see the files on the drive using a linux-on-cd system, I get no only
rubbish.

As the boot sector is now completely hosed.
I'm really lost now, is there a way to repair the damage done by
'fixboot'??

Probably, it depends a little on what the original file system was on how to
tackle the problem.

In case FAT32: In the cases I saw, Fixboot did only screw up the first
sector of the partition + it adjusted the partition table, in all cases we
have been able to fix this. If you're confident using a hex editor it's
simply a matter of copying the backup boot sector (that FAT32 keeps at
sector 6 of the partition normally) on top of the 'fixed' FAT16 boot sector.

The partition table needs to be updated so the partition is again seen as
FAT32, and the size in the partition table needs to be adjusted. Even the
DiskPatch demo (logfile) can give you values that you'd need to enter to the
partition table.
The disk contains all the images of our 4 week old baby girl.

Congratulations with the baby girl!
don't care whether I can boot the system again or not..

If indeed the backup boot sector is there, the system will boot again after
repairs are made.
but at least I want
to get it to a status where I can copy files of the disk.
Any help would be appreciated.

cheers
Jorn

Kind regards,
Joep

--
D I Y D a t a R e c o v e r y . N L - Data & Disaster Recovery Tools

http://www.diydatarecovery.nl
http://www.diydatarecovery.com

Please include previous correspondence! Support only through DIY
DataRecovery Forum!

DiskPatch - MBR, Partition, boot sector repair and recovery.
iRecover - FAT, FAT32 and NTFS data recovery.
MBRtool - Freeware MBR backup and restore.
 
F

Folkert Rienstra

Zvi Netiv said:
Reverting FIXBOOT's doing should be possible, but I'll need a few more details
to tell.

Most important is that you do not attempt changing anything on the drive before
having fully assessed the problem, as if you do, then you may perpetuate the
problem and lose any chance to recover anything at all.

Questions: You write that the D: partition showed as FAT-32. Was it indeed?
Is D: still accessible when booting of a Win 98 boot floppy, or did it disappear
too? Did you have a D: partition at all?

What's the hard drive capacity? What was the C: partition capacity before
being messed up? Do you remember what was the file system used on C:? NTFS,
or FAT-32?

If you don't know the answers, then you may run RESQDISK /ASSESS from floppy
and post the report (a:\resqdisk.rpt) here. Available from www.resq.co.il/resq.php

Lastly, Folkert suggested that you try RESQDATA (contained in the RESQ package,
above). Sorry to tell, but it won't work in your case,

Aah. I was under the impression that RESQDATA was just reading blocks sequentially,
looking for jpeg signatures. It doesn't?
 
Z

Zvi Netiv

Folkert Rienstra said:
Aah. I was under the impression that RESQDATA was just reading blocks sequentially,
looking for jpeg signatures. It doesn't?

It does, but seeks to synchronize on cluster boundary, for speed, which is the
purpose it uses boot sector data.

Regards, Zvi
 

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