Hitachi T721010SLA360, Sectors 0-62 Missing / Corrupt?

[OperatorX]

Hello,

What would be the correct way to repair an issue where the first sixty-two sectors are missing or corrupt?

I would try to post the contents of what is there, but I do not think the board software would be pleased if I did so.

So... Sector one is completely zero except for 1B0:

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 1F 05 20 05 00 00 00 00

Then, all sectors are empty until 63, where I can see the NTFS marker and NTLDR and also various files past the 64..65 sector.

Obviously, the disk is showing up in the Disk Manager as "Not Initialized."

Any suggestions?

[pepe]

initialize and rebuild partition table manually in hexeditor.
U might find TestDisk helpful....

pepe

[OperatorX]

Okay, TestDisk looks promising.

I can see all of the partitions using this tool. However, if I allow XP to initialize the disk, will this be a destructive operation on the filesystem?

Please forgive my newbish questions. I have Googled, but did not find any concrete opinions regarding this procedure.

TIA

[pepe]

XP initialisation will only init the MBR. Do not create any partitions through XP, that will do more damage.

pepe

[OperatorX]

Thank you pepe.

I believe that I may have lost some data during this process. I say so because I believe that there were files in sectors 64,65 and now it appears to be filled with mft data.

But, considering that this disk was ~40% full, I will call this a major success.

Thanks for all of your help!

[drc]

On a typical windows boot drive 1-62 are empty, 63 is going to be the NTFS boot sector, and 64+ is going to be BOOTMGR / NTLDR

[OperatorX]

On a typical windows boot drive 1-62 are empty, 63 is going to be the NTFS boot sector, and 64+ is going to be BOOTMGR / NTLDR

Well, that's the interesting part.

This drive was not supposed to ever boot. Until a week ago it was a data drive in my 2003 Server. After getting some kind of virus on my LAN, I began to pull all of the drives to one machine that was segregated from the network and merge/backup.

Got up this morning and found that this drive (in a temporary USB enclosure) had gone away and didn't want to cough up the goods. Guess it's time to flatten this machine too.

But, I will put that bit of data in my file of useful knowledge.

"How do you get to Carnegie Hall? ...Practice"