A tricky Partition recovery job ..help me

[jsingh]

hello

im facing a problem with my hard disk please help me out of that

i have a hard disk... Seagate Barracuda 7200, 80GB with 3 partitions all are NTFS format.

c: 10GB , d: 20GB , e: 50GB

c: drive have xp OS
d: was empty
g: was 40% empty

now the problem is this:
i waz trying to increase the size of c: drive. so i use a software Paragon Hard Disk Manager 2009 Professional for shifting the 5GB free space from e: to c: drive. when i start this software and the work started and that software restart the system and start its working in dos mode. only 10 min left in completion of the work and suddenly electricity gone and my system shutdown without completing the task/work.

Then i start it again and it start normally and starts the windows. but my c drive size was same not increased. but the size of the e: drive is reduced upto 5GB and then i start the Paragon Hard Disk Manager software and it shows a new partition of 5GB unallocated drive

Then i set all the 5 GB unallocated space to c: drive and paragon software started again to set the space to c: drive. and restarted the pc. now the c: drive is 10 + 5= 15GB but my e: drive shows only 32MB. then i started the paragon again to check is every thing fine or where is the problem. now this time Paragon hard disk manager show me that some old tasks are pending and need to process them too. i clicked on do it and it start doing some work. but it hangs for long time. i try to cancel it but it was not canceling then i restart it from cpu's cabinet button

and then i start partition magic 7. in beginning it says some error like your disk space allocation is corrupted show i fix it. then i say OK do it. partition magic also gone hang same like paragon hard disk manager software. i wait for 12 hr for completion but no result

only partition magic log on my desktop and my cpu cabinet red light was looks like hanged.

Then i switch off the pc. then again i start it .
BUT now this time it not started. it show the log of windows xp loading screen and after some min restart and this process was going on again and again.

today i tryed to start my pc with a bootable cd but it hangs in the beginning. i tryed xp/vista/2000/98/dos bootable cds but now it is not giving me permission to enter in the hard disk. like as dos mode or command prompt, and not able to run any cd.

But it show a screen like
Start in safe mode
start in command prompt
start in networking mode
last know good configuration
start windows normal

BUT if i select any of them option it restarts and again come to these options location
my pc's BIOS shows hard disk connected and shows the size of the disk. my pc is detecting hard disk.

please help me how i ll mange it or how can i get my e: drive, my all IMPORTANT DATA IS IN E: DRIVE. NEAR ABOUT 30GB DATA IS THERE.

PLEASE HELP ME HOW CAN I GET MY DATA BACK AND NOW I WILL GET MY HARD DISK WORK WELL

I NEED MY DATA BACK. THEN I WILL REMOVE ALL DRIVES AND CREATE NEW PARTITIONS.

SO PLEASE GIVE ME HOW ALL THIS WILL BE DONE.
IF U NEED MORE INFORMATION ABOUT HARD DISK, ASK ME I WILL BE HAPPY TO GIVE U MORE INFORMATION

regards
js

[xsoliman]

The data in the place where the old E: partition used to be is probably ok
and you can either locate and rebuild its partition table entry and ntfsboot sector
or can run a scanning tool like Restorer2000 or similar to scan that disk area and locate and extract files

The easiest way to do this is to put the drive in another system as the second drive
Else you will have to get your c: winxp partition working again, or reinstalled, both of which are risky

[jsingh]

Thank you for replying xsoliman

i tried with other computer , i attached my hard disk as secondary and start that system but that system xp hangs on boot screen and the left to right graph moving and moving.

when i try to boot it from cd it hangs .. i am uploading a snap . in this snap i try to boot it with 98 bootable cd
but it stop there and my cpu red light is on and keyboard is working.

please take a look

Attachments

[xsoliman]

The only times I have seen that behaviour is when the booting OS is trying to mount the ntfs partition on the problem drive, and is hanging due to ntfs logfile corruption.
That might explian why XP wont boot
But shouldnt affect Win98
and would normally suggest booting Win98 or similar and use a disk editor to tempoarily zap the filesystem-type entries in the partition table on the problem drive
But you cant do that

[jsingh]

see the snap
when i insert the cd of win 2000 that move few steps and show my hard disk size but also shows:
<setup cannot access this disk>


but please xsoliman tel me how i can go in ... mens i can't do any thing until i got the control of the hard disk...

you are saying "run a scanning tool like Restorer2000" and "rebuild its partition table entry and ntfsboot sector"
how can i do these.

my cd is not booting, my bootable pendrive also not booting, win 2000 run but also says cannot access disk, if i attach other computer then that computer freeze on booting screen in processing.

so give me a way from where i start??

Attachments

[jsingh]

so please xsoliman give me a way to recover partition table entry and ntfsboot sector

[jsingh]

I would grab a copy of Testdisk for DOS and i would kill the partition table and boot sector of the damaged drive first

thank you Spildit for replying

can u explain me how you ll do that.. or is there any way, that i ll do it my own.

and the main point is that no media is able to boot. as i shown in snaps ... Testdisk for DOS will not work until it get the control of the disk.. or in other words if a cd not boot and not gives us DOS prompt till how we kill or repair the partition table and boot sector..... suppose if we put that hard disk with other computer as secondary and start the pc .... and if that windows hangs or stop working on boot screen and dnt provide us desktop then how we ll kill the boot sector of damage disk.

please give me full detail about solving the matter.....
and please take a look to snaps which i uploaded ....

regards
js

[netmouse98]

boot to OS then connect your drive with an USB adapter.

[xsoliman]

Its starting to sound like the disk has a physical problem and is hanging or taking a very long time to respond when anything tries to access or query it

Will the system boot from an MS-DOS floppy disk ok, or dies it still hang then?

If you can get MS-DOS up, you can try to access the problem disk with Norton Utilities or similar, or with MHDD

Edit: looks like you did try to boot from a testdisk for dos and it still wouldnt boot
Edit2: The boot from CD to XP setup shows it sees a drive 76309MB, but cant read the first sector
The drive is either damaged or has locked itself with an ATA password

Try booting from a MHDD bootable floppy and see what it shows and if F4, F4 can scan the disk ok

Last edited by xsoliman on July 23rd, 2009, 18:28, edited 1 time in total.

[derp]

hey clickermen, I suggest the following,

a. diagnose drive using MHDD

b. try to clone drive to another good working drive.

c. click whatever you like after successful completion of a. and b.
know what, maybe even make copy of master copy, in case you guys
click the good working copy to a logical death as well.

The above is just a simple COMPULSORY procedure in any basic DR situation.
and, jsingh, please don't shout at us, we can see you clearly

[jsingh]

first of all i want to say sorry if derp you feel, im shout... but i was not shouting like angry man. again and again i am saying that im not able to boot with cd, give me a way to boot from cd and get command prompt so i can try all your techniques.

....now i tried these methods
Norton Ghost:
now please take a look.. i use Norton ghost 14 recovery disk that provide me some functions. i try them but still not able to rebuild/repair the partition table. there are some snaps please take a look.
it shows attached devices like.. cd rom, pen drive and it show x:\ drive of 28mb free of 30.8mb. In x:\drive it show dir and files like windows have. i think these all are virtual loaded from cd or temp loaded in RAM from cd.

...I try to use command prompt and try to run MHDD from command prompt but it show error ( as shown in snap). it shows same error on running of any file.. but it run internal dos commands.

...In partition table options i try to delete the current partition table, it show:
Device 0
***Select the finish button to delete all partitions table data from to the device noted above
When i press finish it show "operation was not successfull"

MHDD:
and then i create a MHDD bootable cd. and try to boot it. but it stop in the bigging like bootable 98 cd stop(as i shows 98 bootable cd snap same MHDD stops at same point) cursor is blinking and red light is ON and keyboard is working.

Active@ Partition Recovery cd:
When i start booting form this cd. it shows me 4 options . i select normal start option (0). Then it shows
Welcome to Active@ Partition Recovery
Loading......
then it shows a error.... Error reading sector # 0 Press any key.....

after pressing the key it again after few sec show the same error...

kindly take again a deep look in all these problems... and give me suggestions what i ll do next...

and i apologizes if any one feel that im speaking like mad person...

regards
js

Attachments

[derp]

Hi jsingh,

You should get a computer that can run MHDD, first.
Thus should run off bootable CD, or preferably new working drive
as primary master with MS-DOS as BOOT OS and MHDD installed.

Then get MHDD to run and then connect any other working drive to secondary
jumpered as master or single. Then get used to MHDD using scan command.

Then connect you faulty drive, jumpered as master to the secondary cable
and report here.

Until the above has been done please stop TRYING anything else, and chill bud.

[BlackST]

The problem is elsewhere :

- The power outage during partiton resize / moving data has left the partition data in unknown state, maybe half good and the other half unknown...
- the OP is searching for a one-click solution that DOES NOT EXIST
- at this point, after having run a lot of programs including so-called partition fixers, there is a terrible mess.
- it's more a data reconstruction than logical recovery if the partition data is inconsistent or lost.

Had similar case , after a long struggle the data has been recovered totally, but it was a time consuming and terrible work. And the bill was very high (happy customer, anyway).

I would reject such work if I knew that so many attempts have been done, otherwise, if data was important at every cost, I would FIRST image the drive then analyze the image for NTFS fragments , and then decide. Maybe raw recovery can give more joy, assuming you know what you want to recover.
If I was the OP and data was really important I would go to a serious and skilled system engineer that knows how to deal with NTFS / FAT32 structure and tell exactly what is the problem, then analyze and make a decision.

[xsoliman]

In fact it sounds worse than that, as nothing can read physical sector 0
and strongly suggests a physical problem with the drive
(or somehow ata password protected)

Strange the bootable MHDD wont start

One test would be to start the MHDD CD with the drive ide cable disconnected, then hot plug the cable after MHDD is up
[and ensuring drive set as master and that cdrom wasnt master on the came cable]

Shift-F3 to see if it sees the drive (it should)
select it
EID to see info about it
CX to see it it can read sectors for seek speed test
F4, F4 to see if it can read the sectors, especially the first one

Warning - hot plugging is not recommended, but in this case is worth a try

[BlackST]

When did the block 0 problem came out ?

[xsoliman]

The description indicates that nothing can read physical sector 0
but its not 100% confirmed

The boot from CD to XP setup shows it sees a drive 76309MB, but cant read the first sector "<setup cannot access this disk>" where it would be reading the partition table

[jsingh]

yes xsoliman i did as you say and now i feel it ll work

Shift-F3 detect the drive
with F4 it start scan and after a long process it ends
EID shows info
CX shows.. seek speed test result

i update all the snaps please take a look and advice me what is next step to do...

and BlackST i believe in hard work... not in shortcuts... but i want a point from where i ll able to start and that start point is MHDD.

the OP is searching for a one-click solution that DOES NOT EXIST

and i do not understand please explain it ....

When did the block 0 problem came out ?

regards
js

Attachments

starting scanning with F4

ending scanning with F4

EID result

CX result

[xsoliman]

Thats good as it shows the sectors, including block 0 can be read ok
Strange the XP setup couldnt read it

Now need to exit from MHDD, back to DOS, and find and ude some disk sector editor (eg NU7) to read the first sector and 63rd sector (usually) of the drive
Plus the experience to know how to interpret them

Or could hot-plug the drive into a working XP system and rescan for hardware changes, which might pick up the added disk
and run restorer2000 or R-Studio on it

[jsingh]

i done that with bootable cd of MHDD.... and as you say plug in HARD DISK after MHDD loaded i did like that and it work

now what i need... to edit the disk sector

[Steve]

As has been suggested.You should make a sector by sector
clone of the drive to another, before attempting any repair.
Your problem can most likely be fixed and all data recovered,
but randomly running fixit programs and editing sectors
can make things worse if you make the wrong move.
So my advice is whatever you do, work with a copy
and not the original drive.