Recover crashed partitions

[Innocent Lady]

Hi,
(Do me a favour, If this is not the right group for this question, please
tell me where to post it.)

I have a "Seagate" 40GB hard drive, which had one primary and one extended
partition, which further had five logical volumes, all of those were "FAT32",
with primary partition windows XP sp2 installed. The drive was running fine
until last week, when during a shutdown process there was a power outage, and
after restart, the system brought up a disk error message and became
inaccessible.
I thought the drive may be too hot at the moment, so Ieft the system alone
for one day.

Next day booting off system brought up same error, I thought there may be
developing bad sectors in core OS files areas, so I booted off from "win98"
disk and applied a DIR command on all partitions, and every thing seemed fine
except C: which was giving error in reading directory structure. So I ran a
"SCANDISC C:" which after 15% OR 20% aborted with a disk error message and
could not fix the error.

As I had to backup some data so after two or three days I moved the drive to
another system. The drive was detected in "BIOS" but was not present in
"win98 device manager" (Albeit Fdisk was detecting two NON DOS partitions).
Though it was detected by "winXP device manager" and "disk management", but
only two primary partitions with "RAW file system" were visible and
inaccessible. (The extended partition appeared as a primary partition with no
logical volumes). When realizing that I had connected the master drive with
middle IDE connector and slave with the END connector, I thought this might
be causing the problem, I reset that but nothing changed.(Except drive was
detected by win98)

Then I ran Partition Magic which showed it as BAD drive and no further
information was available.
while Partition Magic for DOS displayed error 106.

Symantec doesn’t seem so please to provide a bit of help.
Now, Can anyone provide any help in this regard?

Will booting off from win98 disk and run “Fdisk /mbr†be effective?
Should “fixmbr†or “fixboot†from recovery console do the job?

Should I manually edit partition table with software like “Power Quest®
PTedit� OR there are other alternatives like “Active@ Partition Recovery�

Does incorrect settings of Master/Slave effects in any way on MBR, Partition
Tables or Partitions itself, especially when there are problems like this?

Does the time factor effects the drive in any ways in cases like this?

I know that, this could potentially be a virus problem, but in this case the
hardware seems to be primary culprit.


If any one has prior experience using PTedit.exe OR recovering from
situations like this please guide me.

Thanks in advance for any kind of help OR advice in this regard.

Best regards.

 

[smlunatick]

Hi,
(Do me a favour, If this is not the right group for this question, please
tell me where to post it.)

I have a "Seagate" 40GB hard drive, which had one primary and one extended
partition, which further had five logical volumes, all of those were "FAT32",
with primary partition windows XP sp2 installed. The drive was running fine
until last week, when during a shutdown process there was a power outage,and
after restart, the system brought up a disk error message and became
inaccessible.
I thought the drive may be too hot at the moment, so Ieft the system alone
for one day.

Next day booting off system brought up same error, I thought there may be
developing bad sectors in core OS files areas, so I booted off from "win98"
disk and applied a DIR command on all partitions, and every thing seemed fine
except C: which was giving error in reading directory structure. So I rana
"SCANDISC C:" which after 15% OR 20% aborted with a disk error message and
could not fix the error.

As I had to backup some data so after two or three days I moved the driveto
another system. The drive was detected in "BIOS" but was not present in
"win98 device manager" (Albeit Fdisk was detecting two NON DOS partitions).
Though it was detected by "winXP device manager" and "disk management", but
only two primary partitions with "RAW file system" were visible and
inaccessible. (The extended partition appeared as a primary partition with no
logical volumes).  When realizing that I had connected the master drivewith
middle IDE connector and slave with the END connector, I  thought this might
be causing the problem, I reset that but nothing changed.(Except drive was
detected by win98)

Then I ran Partition Magic which showed it as BAD drive and no further
information was available.
while Partition Magic for DOS displayed error 106.

Symantec doesn’t seem so please to provide a bit of help.
Now, Can anyone provide any help in this regard?

Will booting off from win98 disk and run “Fdisk /mbr” be effective?
Should “fixmbr” or “fixboot” from recovery console do the job?

Should I manually edit partition table with software like “Power Quest®
PTedit”? OR there are other alternatives like “Active@ Partition Recovery”?

Does incorrect settings of Master/Slave effects in any way on MBR, Partition
Tables or Partitions itself, especially when there are problems like this?

Does the time factor effects the drive in any ways in cases like this?

I know that, this could potentially be a virus problem, but in this case the
hardware seems to be primary culprit.

If any one has prior experience using PTedit.exe OR recovering from
situations like this please guide me.

Thanks in advance for any kind of help OR advice in this regard.

Best regards.

Check with the following:

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

 

[Dragomir Kollaric]

Hi,
(Do me a favour, If this is not the right group for this question, please
tell me where to post it.)

You mention win98 there is a group for it too, but I'm sure your
question could be helped here just as well. You mention also that
you used another System with Win-XP maybe there is a tool for this
version that could help solve your problem...

I have a "Seagate" 40GB hard drive, which had one primary and one extended
partition, which further had five logical volumes, all of those were "FAT32",
with primary partition windows XP sp2 installed. The drive was running fine
until last week, when during a shutdown process there was a power outage, and
after restart, the system brought up a disk error message and became
inaccessible.
I thought the drive may be too hot at the moment, so Ieft the system alone
for one day.

Next day booting off system brought up same error, I thought there may be
developing bad sectors in core OS files areas, so I booted off from "win98"
disk and applied a DIR command on all partitions, and every thing seemed fine
except C: which was giving error in reading directory structure. So I ran a
"SCANDISC C:" which after 15% OR 20% aborted with a disk error message and
could not fix the error.

I'm not sure if a win98 CD-ROM could be of any help with a Win-XP
installation. If the drive is indeed Win-XP then you should use
tools for it....

As I had to backup some data so after two or three days I moved the drive to
another system. The drive was detected in "BIOS" but was not present in
"win98 device manager" (Albeit Fdisk was detecting two NON DOS partitions).
Though it was detected by "winXP device manager" and "disk management", but
only two primary partitions with "RAW file system" were visible and
inaccessible. (The extended partition appeared as a primary partition with no
logical volumes). When realizing that I had connected the master drive with
middle IDE connector and slave with the END connector, I thought this might
be causing the problem, I reset that but nothing changed.(Except drive was
detected by win98)

Then I ran Partition Magic which showed it as BAD drive and no further
information was available.
while Partition Magic for DOS displayed error 106.

Symantec doesn’t seem so please to provide a bit of help.
Now, Can anyone provide any help in this regard?

Will booting off from win98 disk and run “Fdisk /mbr†be effective?
Should “fixmbr†or “fixboot†from recovery console do the job?

You could try it. I don't think that you'll erase any data
on the drive. What you just restore is the "master boot
record" and this has (unless I'm very mistaken) nothing to
do with the partition table.

I don't know which tools are available for this, but maybe
you could try to fix the partition table. I'm not sure if
you need to know the lay-out for the disk. How big each part
was and so on.

Now I don't want to add insult to injury here, but I'm sure
you found out that the practice to *back-up* your Data/OS
might be a good idea if such disaster happens.

Should I manually edit partition table with software like “Power Quest®
PTedit� OR there are other alternatives like “Active@ Partition Recovery�

Does incorrect settings of Master/Slave effects in any way on MBR, Partition
Tables or Partitions itself, especially when there are problems like this?

No not really this doesn't have any effect on the
partition-table or Data on the drive.

Does the time factor effects the drive in any ways in cases like this?

Old drives can die if you mean that?

I know that, this could potentially be a virus problem, but in this case the
hardware seems to be primary culprit.


If any one has prior experience using PTedit.exe OR recovering from
situations like this please guide me.

Wouldn't help you as my experience in this regard was/is with
another OS.

Thanks in advance for any kind of help OR advice in this regard.

Best regards.

Dragomir Kollaric[/QUOTE]

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

Hi,
(Do me a favour, If this is not the right group for this question, please
tell me where to post it.)

I have a "Seagate" 40GB hard drive, which had one primary and one extended
partition, which further had five logical volumes, all of those were
"FAT32",
with primary partition windows XP sp2 installed. The drive was running
fine
until last week, when during a shutdown process there was a power outage,
and
after restart, the system brought up a disk error message and became
inaccessible.
I thought the drive may be too hot at the moment, so Ieft the system alone
for one day.

Next day booting off system brought up same error, I thought there may be
developing bad sectors in core OS files areas, so I booted off from
"win98"
disk and applied a DIR command on all partitions, and every thing seemed
fine
except C: which was giving error in reading directory structure. So I ran
a
"SCANDISC C:" which after 15% OR 20% aborted with a disk error message and
could not fix the error.

As I had to backup some data so after two or three days I moved the drive
to
another system. The drive was detected in "BIOS" but was not present in
"win98 device manager" (Albeit Fdisk was detecting two NON DOS
partitions).
Though it was detected by "winXP device manager" and "disk management",
but
only two primary partitions with "RAW file system" were visible and
inaccessible. (The extended partition appeared as a primary partition with
no
logical volumes). When realizing that I had connected the master drive
with
middle IDE connector and slave with the END connector, I thought this
might
be causing the problem, I reset that but nothing changed.(Except drive was
detected by win98)

Then I ran Partition Magic which showed it as BAD drive and no further
information was available.
while Partition Magic for DOS displayed error 106.

Symantec doesn’t seem so please to provide a bit of help.
Now, Can anyone provide any help in this regard?

Will booting off from win98 disk and run “Fdisk /mbr†be effective?
Should “fixmbr†or “fixboot†from recovery console do the job?

Should I manually edit partition table with software like “Power Quest®
PTedit� OR there are other alternatives like “Active@ Partition Recovery�

Does incorrect settings of Master/Slave effects in any way on MBR,
Partition
Tables or Partitions itself, especially when there are problems like this?

Does the time factor effects the drive in any ways in cases like this?

I know that, this could potentially be a virus problem, but in this case
the
hardware seems to be primary culprit.


If any one has prior experience using PTedit.exe OR recovering from
situations like this please guide me.

Thanks in advance for any kind of help OR advice in this regard.

Best regards.

You can't fix a Win XP installation with a Win 98 boot up diskette.

Windows 98 will be unable to recognize NTFS partitions, so placing it in a
Win 98 computer with a view to seeing what is on the drive is less than
futile.

Use the Windows XP CD to run a repair on the computer.

--
Mike Hall - MVP
How to construct a good post..
http://dts-l.com/goodpost.htm
How to use the Microsoft Product Support Newsgroups..
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=newswhelp&style=toc
Mike's Window - My Blog..
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/default.aspx

 

[Innocent Lady]

:

Check with the following:

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

Hi, smlunatick
thanks for reply, I have yet to test the software, but checked out the
website,
it sounds good there.
thanks again.

 

[Innocent Lady]

You mention win98 there is a group for it too, but I'm sure your
question could be helped here just as well. You mention also that
you used another System with Win-XP maybe there is a tool for this
version that could help solve your problem...

I know there is a group for win98 too. But as my poblem is harddisk based,
and this is a subgroup under winXP. I meant to know, if there is any group
which deals specially in hardware, drives or partitions.

I'm not sure if a win98 CD-ROM could be of any help with a Win-XP
installation. If the drive is indeed Win-XP then you should use
tools for it....

As I have mentioned earlier that there were only fat32 partitions, and I
don't think that win98 or it's scandisk has any thing to do with winXP but
with the file system
( if I am wrong please correct me.)

You could try it. I don't think that you'll erase any data
on the drive. What you just restore is the "master boot
record" and this has (unless I'm very mistaken) nothing to
do with the partition table.

So think I.

I don't know which tools are available for this, but maybe
you could try to fix the partition table. I'm not sure if
you need to know the lay-out for the disk. How big each part
was and so on.

well with the "PTedit" I need to know the layout, but with some others I
don't.
I just wanted to know how well these tools work, and if any one has any
priror experience it could certainly help.

Now I don't want to add insult to injury here, but I'm sure
you found out that the practice to *back-up* your Data/OS
might be a good idea if such disaster happens.

I know backups are important, but some times it happens to any one.

No not really this doesn't have any effect on the
partition-table or Data on the drive.


Old drives can die if you mean that?

I meant to say that, if I put the drive in the closet and leave it for a
period of time, and do not do any thing with that, could it be harmful to the
drive.

 

[Dragomir Kollaric]

As I have mentioned earlier that there were only fat32 partitions, and I
don't think that win98 or it's scandisk has any thing to do with winXP but
with the file system
( if I am wrong please correct me.)

I'm also not sure, but since these were created with winXP tool,
its better to stick with it.

So think I.

well with the "PTedit" I need to know the layout, but with some others I
don't.
I just wanted to know how well these tools work, and if any one has any
priror experience it could certainly help.

As I wrote. I don't know, I used once a tool to *save* the
partition-table and it was great.

One could imagine this scenario:

You have a shelf full with books, and now the shelf
collapses, all the book fall to the ground. One knows how
each and every book was situated on the shelf, so when the
shelf is fixed/repaired/replaced then one could put the
books back in the exact same order as it was.

So with your partition-table if you know that drive "D" was
4GB and so on then you should use a tool that will use these
Information.

I meant to say that, if I put the drive in the closet and leave it for a
period of time, and do not do any thing with that, could it be harmful to the
drive.

No Problem in fact this would be the best situation, the
drive remains as it is, you could first learn to use the
tools to see how they work, and then tray to salvage the
Data from the drive.



Dragomir Kollaric[/QUOTE]

 

[Innocent Lady]

You can't fix a Win XP installation with a Win 98 boot up diskette.

Windows 98 will be unable to recognize NTFS partitions, so placing it in a
Win 98 computer with a view to seeing what is on the drive is less than
futile.

Use the Windows XP CD to run a repair on the computer.

Hi Mike,
I don't have to fix the XP installation, rather *Fat32 partitions *, not
*NTFS*.
thanks for your comments. any more comments are always welcome.

 

[Innocent Lady]

<cut>

I'm also not sure, but since these were created with winXP tool,
its better to stick with it.

This is my approach, stick with one perticular tool. But I don't know with
which tool these were created, I got it prepartitioned. Two things are more
likely, "winXP setup" or "Fdisk". As I remember, all partitons were of almost
same size, and in my area people usually don't know any thing other than
Fdisk,( seems they are stuck with it) I assume it more probable, surely not
eleminating other possibilities.

As I wrote. I don't know, I used once a tool to *save* the
partition-table and it was great.

One could imagine this scenario:

You have a shelf full with books, and now the shelf
collapses, all the book fall to the ground. One knows how
each and every book was situated on the shelf, so when the
shelf is fixed/repaired/replaced then one could put the
books back in the exact same order as it was.

So with your partition-table if you know that drive "D" was
4GB and so on then you should use a tool that will use these
Information.

I understand that, most tools provide functionalities to *save and restore*
mbr/partiton table. even demo versions can save that too,they just usually
don't *restore*. I didn't *save* that, so here I am. I just wanted to know
end user experience about automatic partition recovery softwares, because if
the software has a bug, you are no where near to success. No problem if you
don't have experience may be some other person have. It is still quit helpful
discussing with you to clear some suspetions in my mind.

No Problem in fact this would be the best situation, the
drive remains as it is, you could first learn to use the
tools to see how they work, and then tray to salvage the
Data from the drive.

This is my opinion. slow approach, but better than destroying the remanants.
Thank you for discussing it, and any more comments are always welcome.

 

[Dragomir Kollaric]

This is my approach, stick with one perticular tool. But I don't know with
which tool these were created, I got it prepartitioned. Two things are more
likely, "winXP setup" or "Fdisk". As I remember, all partitons were of almost
same size, and in my area people usually don't know any thing other than
Fdisk,( seems they are stuck with it) I assume it more probable, surely not
eleminating other possibilities.

I would gather that winXP setup will call Fdisk to do the
job. I think it does so in the background, if the drive is
not formatted. So I'd rather be very cautious here.

I understand that, most tools provide functionalities to *save and restore*
mbr/partiton table. even demo versions can save that too,they just usually
don't *restore*. I didn't *save* that, so here I am. I just wanted to know
end user experience about automatic partition recovery softwares, because if
the software has a bug, you are no where near to success. No problem if you
don't have experience may be some other person have. It is still quit helpful
discussing with you to clear some suspetions in my mind.

In the past I had once the need to recover a partition-table
under Gnu/Linux but never in Windows. So I'm not sure if
there are tools in the Gnu/Linux OS that could save the
fat32 partition you have. I know this would mean that most
likely you'd need some OS with which you're not so familiar.

Do you have a fast Internet? You could try to get "gparted*
to *scan* the drive, if you have a old drive to experiment
with this would be best. "gparted" is on a Knoppix CD, but
it can be had separately from:

"http://gparted.sourceforge.net/"


For your OS I've found this one:

"http://www.easeus.com/download.htm" "Partition Doctor" and you'd
need to hook up the damaged disc to another PC and there you need
plenty of room for the data to be saved.

This is my opinion. slow approach, but better than destroying the remanants.
Thank you for discussing it, and any more comments are always welcome.

I must confess I'm coming to the end of *my* rope here, as
WinXP is not really the OS I use and know a lot about. But
since the HDD you're worried about contains fat32 I'm sure
if I was in your place I could salvage the data using
gparted.

Good luck



Dragomir Kollaric[/QUOTE]

 

[smlunatick]

FDISK is no longer used since it was limited.

I would  gather that winXP setup  will call Fdisk to  do the
job. I think  it does so in the background,  if the drive is
not formatted. So I'd rather be very cautious here.

<cut>




In the past I had once the need to recover a partition-table
under Gnu/Linux  but never  in Windows. So  I'm not  sure if
there  are tools  in the  Gnu/Linux OS  that could  save the
fat32 partition you  have. I know this would  mean that most
likely you'd need some OS with which you're not so familiar.

Do you have a fast Internet?  You could try to get "gparted*
to *scan* the  drive, if you have a old  drive to experiment
with this would  be best. "gparted" is on a  Knoppix CD, but
it can be had separately from:

"http://gparted.sourceforge.net/"

For your OS I've found this one:

"http://www.easeus.com/download.htm" "Partition Doctor" and you'd
need to hook up the damaged disc to another PC and there you need
plenty of room for the data to be saved.





I must confess  I'm coming to the end of  *my* rope here, as
WinXP is not really  the OS I use and know  a lot about. But
since the HDD  you're worried about contains  fat32 I'm sure
if  I was  in  your place  I could  salvage  the data  using
gparted.

Good luck

Dragomir Kollaric  

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

Hi Mike,
I don't have to fix the XP installation, rather *Fat32 partitions *, not
*NTFS*.
thanks for your comments. any more comments are always welcome.

It seems to me that they are ex-FAT32 partitions now.

What did you have stored on them? Do you have backups or copies of what was
stored?

Software which will recover from RAW partitions is not cheap. How valuable
is the data which was originally on the FAT partitions?

Any 40gb HDD is getting old.. yours did not stand a crash, and the rest of
it could disappear as quickly..

You should get a new drive, re-install Windows onto it, and then slave the
old drive such that you can work on it without pressuring it too much..

--
Mike Hall - MVP
How to construct a good post..
http://dts-l.com/goodpost.htm
How to use the Microsoft Product Support Newsgroups..
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=newswhelp&style=toc
Mike's Window - My Blog..
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/default.aspx

 

[Dragomir Kollaric]

FDISK is no longer used since it was limited.

Thanks for this info.

<cut>




Dragomir Kollaric[/QUOTE]

 

[Innocent Lady]

Hi Dragnomir,

Strange..! would you explain it? "winxp setup using Fdisk" and not "diskpart".
Can't we create more than one primary partition with winxp setup?

Hi Smlunatic,

I think one primary partition is only limitation with Fdisk.
Other one not displaying correct information about drives more than 64GB,
now has been patched. If it has any other limitations, please tell me.

 

[Innocent Lady]

:

I would gather that winXP setup will call Fdisk to do the
job. I think it does so in the background, if the drive is
not formatted. So I'd rather be very cautious here.

This is strange.! would u please explain? why would Xp setup use Fdisk and
not DiskPart.

In the past I had once the need to recover a partition-table
under Gnu/Linux but never in Windows. So I'm not sure if
there are tools in the Gnu/Linux OS that could save the
fat32 partition you have. I know this would mean that most
likely you'd need some OS with which you're not so familiar.

You are right. I am not so familiar with linux, even I have an istallation
available.
but using it needs like a programming back ground. I have read some
documentation
about recovering data from a linux partition, but it was way over my head.

Do you have a fast Internet? You could try to get "gparted*
to *scan* the drive, if you have a old drive to experiment
with this would be best. "gparted" is on a Knoppix CD, but
it can be had separately from:

"http://gparted.sourceforge.net/"


For your OS I've found this one:

"http://www.easeus.com/download.htm" "Partition Doctor" and you'd
need to hook up the damaged disc to another PC and there you need
plenty of room for the data to be saved.

I have not checked any link yet, but I must give it a try.

 

[Innocent Lady]

It seems to me that they are ex-FAT32 partitions now.

You are right. If damaging *partition table* or *mbr* means damaging
*partitions*.

What did you have stored on them? Do you have backups or copies of what was
stored?

I have most of my backups except those are not up to date.

Software which will recover from RAW partitions is not cheap. How valuable
is the data which was originally on the FAT partitions?

I know software are not cheap, this is why I am thinking about *trialware*
or *freeware*, if they are avaiable, may be hard drive makers could provid
some free utilities. :->)

Any 40gb HDD is getting old.. yours did not stand a crash, and the rest of
it could disappear as quickly..

You should get a new drive, re-install Windows onto it, and then slave the
old drive such that you can work on it without pressuring it too much..

I am on the way, but this one was newer than the others 8GB and 3GB, you can
guess there age with there capacity.

 

[Dragomir Kollaric]

Hi Dragnomir,

Strange..! would you explain it? "winxp setup using Fdisk" and not "diskpart".
Can't we create more than one primary partition with winxp setup?

Sorry I was wrong about that :-(




<cut>


Dragomir Kollaric[/QUOTE]

 

[Innocent Lady]

<cut>
Sorry I was wrong about that :-(

No problem..! some times we all are.

as a linux user can u tell me, why different linux installation programms
use thier own disk tools at setup, but afterwards they all use linux's
"Fdisk"?
besides, can u name the correct group where I could post linux quetions?

Thanx and Regards

 

[Bob I]

Hi,

Microsoft doesn't support "linux" so there isn't a group on these
microsoft news servers. There are however, linux groups to be found in
Google Groups. Look up linux at link below.

http://groups.google.com/grphp?hl=en&tab=wg

 

[Dragomir Kollaric]

No problem..! some times we all are.

as a linux user can u tell me, why different linux installation programms
use thier own disk tools at setup, but afterwards they all use linux's
"Fdisk"?
besides, can u name the correct group where I could post linux quetions?

If you use a newsreader you can try to locate groups like
alt.os.linux.ubuntu for example (Ubuntu is the one I'm
using, and this is the group I'm reading)

more general questions were posted to
alt.os.linux.misc

it used to be carried by my ISP but no longer

Some people use google-groups to read news-post. Since a lot
of spam is coming from "google-groupers" some readers filter
these messages from google-groupers.

Thanx and Regards

Dragomir Kollaric[/QUOTE]