Utils to Fix Hard Drive Partition Table Errors?

  • Thread starter Thread starter kenitholson
  • Start date Start date
Mister2u said:
http://mirror.href.com/thestarman/asm/mbr/BootToolsRefs.htm
http://www.cgsecurity.org/testdisk.html
TestDisk is a powerful data recovery utility! It was primarily designed
to help recover lost partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable
again when these symptoms are caused by faulty software, certain types
of viruses or human error (such as accidentally erasing your Partition
Table
Click to expand...

Mister2u

Thanks much for the tip!!! I have mentioned it to a number of friends.

It is one of the few Utils to return meaningful information!

Should mention that the documentation is Excellent!!
http://cabmec1.cnea.gov.ar/linux/soft/testdisk/doc/testdisk.html#Novice

The CHS information given by TestDisk was different from Western
Digital's so had a friend run TestDisk both ways but the test result
was the same "structure OK"

Update, After running a number of Utils I "Gave Up" and loaned this
"Problem Hard Drive to a friend who is now testing this WD Caviar 21200
on an 266MH PC. On this PC TestDisk takes >10 hours to complete!
Since it is only 1.2GB HD would advise using a much faster PC for
testing any large HDs. Also the BIOS of this old PC does "correctly
identify" this WD HD.

Ken
 
(e-mail address removed) wrote:
On this PC TestDisk takes >10 hours to complete!
Since it is only 1.2GB HD would advise using a much faster PC for
testing any large HDs.

It still may take a similar time Ken, the restriction being the speed
of the HD, the old drives are very slow.
 
Recently posted that was given a HD that capacity listed by DOS
was very different from what it should be.
Click to expand...

-- snip --

Wot a thread! :-)

I've been away but I would guess all that is needed (taking into
account the OP's level of experience) is a bootable floppy which
has got utils to do this:

(a) wipe the whole MBR including the MPT.

(b) prefereably also wipe all the rest of track 0

(c) If desired ... carry on wiping the whole of the rest of the
hard drive to map out any bad clusters OR run a surface test tool
to address worries that the hard drive is physically corrupt.

Then ...

Prepare floppy (format it and copy chosen utils to it)
Switch off machine fully.
Remove original HDD.
Set jumpers on duff HDD.
Install duff HDD where orignal HDD was.
Insert prepared bootable floppy with utils.
Make power available to machine once more.
Power up and boot.
See if BIOS picks up duff HDD hardware info correctly.
Arrive in floppy's DOS
Run utils to clear HDD as above.

------------

Saw that IBM's WIPE and ZAP don't work. May be hitting the
addressing limit as those are two nice but old utils. Or more
likely to be hitting BIOS incompatibility as 01h indicates this.
So try another utility.

For now I would use Terbyteunlimited's MBRWORK (freeware) from
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/utilities.html to remove the MBR
 
John,

Tried to send you some emails but they bounce said permanent spam block
for Yahoo.

Just tried to post a message I worked on for ~~min and got Server
Error! Tried to backup but Nothing. Not Happy!!!

Will sign off

Ken
 
Thanks much for the tip!!! I have mentioned it to a number of friends.

It is one of the few Utils to return meaningful information!

Should mention that the documentation is Excellent!!
http://cabmec1.cnea.gov.ar/linux/soft/testdisk/doc/testdisk.html#Novice

The CHS information given by TestDisk was different from Western
Digital's so had a friend run TestDisk both ways but the test result
was the same "structure OK"

Update, After running a number of Utils I "Gave Up" and loaned this
"Problem Hard Drive to a friend who is now testing this WD Caviar 21200
on an 266MH PC. On this PC TestDisk takes >10 hours to complete!
Since it is only 1.2GB HD would advise using a much faster PC for
testing any large HDs. Also the BIOS of this old PC does "correctly
identify" this WD HD.
Click to expand...
So Test Disk actually worked?But you had to run it on another computer?
 
So Test Disk actually worked?But you had to run it on another computer?
Click to expand...

To my knowledge is has run on every PC tried. Older PC runs slow but
if its results are correct, is worth the extra time.

Ken
 
Once Upon A Time (on 5 Apr 2006 14:36:56 -0700), in alt.comp.freeware,
(e-mail address removed), by way of Message-id
To my knowledge is has run on every PC tried. Older PC runs slow but
if its results are correct, is worth the extra time.

Ken
Click to expand...

Seems (in variance with several other pages/sites I tried) there is a newer
version than v1.52 available. Info and downloads @
http://www.geocities.com/mbrwizard/
 
John,

Have given up on the "Problem Hard Drive" for now put in a known good
WD 1.0 GB HD and started testing the various Utils.

WipeOut
3: At the A:\> type > wipeout c: /nq /np ( must be exact, with the
spaces )
Click to expand...

For the Good HD it did everything you mentioned.

Have still not found a Partition Table Editor that I find easy to use.
Appreciate any suggestions.

Ken

PS John tried to send you an email but bounced so still must have a
block.
 
For the Good HD it did everything you mentioned.
Click to expand...
Very good Ken.
Have still not found a Partition Table Editor that I find easy to use.
Click to expand...
Never had to use one Ken, have a look at these.

Multiple Boot Manager (MBM)
http://elm-chan.org/fsw/mbm/mbm_e.html
Partition table editor: MBM can edit partition tables with the built-in
partition table editor.
It will support multiple OS installation, creating some primaly
partitions into a drive, and it can mask any partition to avoid any
error or unintentional installation.

MBRWiz
http://drn.digitalriver.com/category.php[id]79[SiteID]driverguide
MBRWiz is a command line tool designed to directly modify the MBR, with
the capability to set partitions active for booting, delete or hide
partitions, back up and restore copies of the MBR to file or hidden
sectors, as well as sort the partition entries. Included in the
download is a 32 bit version (MBRWiz.exe) for Windows XP/2K/PE, a 16
bit executable (MBRWizD.exe) for DOS and Win9x, as well as a version
for Linux.

AEFDISK
http://www.aefdisk.com/

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/utilities.html
 
(e-mail address removed) wrote in
The CHS information given by TestDisk was different from Western
Digital's so had a friend run TestDisk both ways but the test result
was the same "structure OK"
Click to expand...

It drives me nuts that different Fdisk like, and disk recovery tools tend
to report, for the identical same disk, different partition tables!
Some say a partition is primary, others it is extended or a logical
drive, others it is hidden. I have even found disagreements on the
number of partitions, and t he disk geometry.
 
(e-mail address removed) wrote in
To my knowledge is has run on every PC tried. Older PC runs slow but
if its results are correct, is worth the extra time.
Click to expand...

It love testdisk and it has saved me many times. But I wish it incorporated
a save partition table option, so you can figit with the combinations of
partitions it shows you, and restore a previous table, if neeeded.
 
It drives me nuts that different Fdisk like, and disk recovery tools tend
to report, for the identical same disk, different partition tables!
Some say a partition is primary, others it is extended or a logical
drive, others it is hidden. I have even found disagreements on the
number of partitions, and t he disk geometry.
Click to expand...

Which is why, if you're going to play with partition tables, you
should learn to read them. So you can see what's in them, rather
depend on someone else to interpret them for you. Someone posted a
link to a very good explanation just a few days ago.
 
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