got new HD, made oldc: d: now no partition

I bought a new hard drive and moved the old C drive to be the D drive. I wanted to be able to copy favorites, my documents... to the new, clean install on the brand new C.

When I boot, the bios sees both c and d fine, but when XP loads, no D: in My Computer. So, I changed jumpers, made D into C again, and it wouldn't boot. Says a file is missing. So I put in the WinXP instalation disk and it looks to me like the partition is gone!

Is there a way to put the partition info back with out wiping out all the files on this drive? It doesn't need to be a bootable disk, but I just need to get some of the data off it. Did the new installation of XP do this?

THanks!

 

You also have to move the hard drive to the correct plug on the ribbon cable, and the correct IDE channel, before it will be the boot hard drive.

If you did install with the correct configuration, then try putting the drives back to new drive as the boot drive (C) and the old one as the second again (D). If you can boot into the new install of XP and the old drive is still not showing, then open up Disk Management and assign the old drive a letter.
http://www.theeldergeek.com/disk_management.htm
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;307844

 

Update, using diskmgmt.msc

Ok, I added the old C back in (as slave via jumper), checked that all cables are snug (which I also did before), and used run->diskmgmt.msc. The drive shows up as D: (this is the drive that used to be the C: drive, and is the one I want data off), it says it's healthy (active), but no format. I tried My Computer again, and it shows up. If I double click it windows tells me that it isn't formated, do I want to format it. I chose no. Why in the world would it think it isn't formated, it used to be the boot drive? Any ideas how to get at the data on it?

 

Your problem seems to me to happen quite often with XP.
Would try TESTDISK first, be sure to read the how to use first.
http://www.cgsecurity.org/index.html?testdisk.html

Do you have Norton GoBack on the old hdd ? if so that is the problem and do not run testdisk.

 

Excellent point TopFarmer about Norton GoBack. The way it modifies the partitions is one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen. What were Norton thinking?

If you did have GoBack installed Steve then you will need to repair it and then remove it in the recommend way for the hard drive to be come recognisable again in normal systems. Connect the drive back as the sole hard drive and then use the forum here to work through the error messages you are getting.

If it’s not GoBack then your best option is to try and recover the partition, because if successful will probably give you 100% of your data. The next thing would be file recovery software that could try and retrieve your data off the drive, but it often has a success rate of perhaps only 50 to 80%. If your data is important you need to be careful as one wrong move could make it irretrievable, don’t try anything further with the drive until you are sure you know what you are doing.

 

GoBack

If you did have GoBack installed Steve then you will need to repair it and then remove it in the recommend way for the hard drive to be come recognisable again in normal systems. Connect the drive back as the sole hard drive and then use the forum here to work through the error messages you are getting.



I did have Norton System Works 2004 installed, and that does include GoBack! TopFarmer, your a genius!!! I also did some reading on System Works 2004, reviews are less than postitive, I don't want to install it again!

Ok, I made the problem drive the only/primary drive and fired up the computer. The drive does show up in the post listing when you first power up as being there. I got the message:
Error Loading Operating System

What's next?
Thanks
Steve

 

Is GoBack installed now or did you remove it ?
Will likely need to take a look at the partition table- I do not use XP much so not sure- use OS CD and boot into recovery console and run DISKPART , hope it shows partition table if not there are many other programs. Do you have Power Magic ? Do you have a floppy drive ?

Testdisk will display the partition table.

I'm thinking you did remove GOBACK and now its partition is messing up the boot.

 

Don’t know guys if any normal tool can see a partition changed by GoBack. That error message comes from the MBR, so it must be loading ok but not finding a bootable partition, this could be for several reasons.

I would suggest trying the GoBack removal tool as I don’t think it will do any harm even if GoBack is not the problem.

Floppy version
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPOR...view=docid&prod=Norton GoBack&ver=4.0&seg=hho

CD version
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPOR...id=2001101713193807&nsf=goback.nsf&view=docid

 

I didn't remove GoBack per se, I took the physical drive that was C: and made it D: and took a brand new drive and made it C:. Then I did a fresh install of XP, but I did not re-install Norton Works (which of course includes GoBack).

Also, please see reply to McTavish.

What if I install Works on the new C:? I don't really want to (because of how hard it is to really remove it), but if that fixes the problem, then I will.

 

Ok, I followed the directions on the Symantec link for floppy below and tried a few things:

First, I made the origional C back to C, booted from the floppy and ran the gb_prog.exe /u as noted on the Symantec page. It read from the floppy for about 30 seconds or a little more, then went straight to the A:> prompt. I changed the bios back to boot from HDD 0, but still got the Error Loading Operating System message.

Second, just for grins, I put the new hard drive back as C, the old as D, let it boot from C and checked it "My Computer ". Still sees the drive, but if you double click it says it is not formatted.

Then I did run->gb_Prog.exe /u (also tried without /u), and windows tells me it can't run in 32 bit mode.

So, I rebooted from the floppy, and tried just gb_prog.exe (no /u). This time it read for a bit, and brought up a screen that was like a intro page for Norton GoBack, and then cleared the screen and went to the A prompt. Once again, changed bios and tried to boot from old C: but no luck (Error loading OS message again).

I just remembered there was more info on the Symantic page, I will try that and edit this message with further details...

Ok, per Symantec instructions, if gb_prog.exe /u doesn't fix the problem, use gb_prog.exe /r. I did this and it ran a scan of the hard drive, took several hours to do, but the result was that it says that GOBACKIO.BIN was not found on the drive, and therefore GoBack is not installed.

So, I suppose it's time to try TestDisk, or some other partition software. Which programs have you guys had the best luck with, what do you like? I will go buy what ever will work, suggestions?

 

I don’t understand why you say that after both times you ran the floppy you then "˜changed the bios’ and tried booting from the old drive. Are you just meaning you were changing it from the floppy to HDD0? and not that you had the new hard drive also connected at the time?

Have only the old drive connected and set the bios to floppy first and HDD0 as second, then once you have run the floppy then just eject it and reboot and it will go straight to HDD0 by itself. If you then still get the "˜Error Loading OS’ message and the XP Disk Management utility still does not show it as formatted and healthy, and XP still wants to format it, then you have some other problem. Time for TestDisk to see what it makes of the partition and if it can recover things. I haven’t used TestDisk myself so can’t help.

With the partition recovery tool I use you have to first delete an invalid partition before you can recover a partition. What ever you do don’t actually just try creating a new partition, as this will overwrite the details of any old partitions.

 

Maybe I have been doing it the hard way, but in order to try various solutions on the problem disk and bounce back to the new, usable disk (so I have access to this forum), I set both jumpers on the hard drives to cable select (cs), and physically switch cables to make one or the other the primary. If I have the problem disk as primary, it is the only disk on the cable. Then, just to force things to boot the way I want, I go into the bios setup and just change the first boot from HDD0 to floppy. Yea, I suppose I could make floppy first, HDD0 second, and just take out the floppy when I want to try to boot from the HDD, but I thought I would be more in control and not fight variables by forceing the boot location. Can you say OCD

So, yes, I am saying that I am just changing the "boot first" and the hard drive is connected. But in order to get back up and running so I can get to the web, I have to put in the new hard drive, with it's fresh install (which by the way is running quite a bit faster than the former, stale install), back as the primary and I boot from it (the new one that is). But when I test and try, I make old HDD primary for testing and when I tried the Norton gb_prog. When I use windows disk management (discmgmt.msc), i also have to boot from new HDD and make old HDD the secondary drive. Clear as mud?

 

Need to see the partition table , to help see if it has a problem or not.

If you have Power Magic , use Partition Info (PartIn.exe). Other wise use TestDisk (free) , go to the link in my other post and go to the download page. I have not tried the XP version so suggest useing the Dos/Winx version. Download the file and extract to a floppy , next go to www.bootdisk.com (or some other) and download and run the file to make a bootable Win98 floppy (perhaps XP will make a bootable dos floppy that will work).

1) Once comp is booted with dos floppy , at the prompt A: type in testdisk .
2) select the hdd (if 2 are present) useing the arrow keys.
3) Near bottom of display use arrow keys to hilight analyse
4) Press enter ,copy (old way with pen and paper) for posting the partition info.
5)To exit program you will need to press enter a cople more times till you see bottom menu with -top line(analyse,.....) bottom line (exit) , select exit and press enter. Note Do Not select Save from any menu, at this time (it will rewrite the partition table)

 

If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all...

A hose broke in the back yard, creating a minor flood in the computer room. Had to be moved out so carpet could be dried and cleaned. Good news is that no damage was done to computer (I had it up off the floor for this very reason). Anyway, will be another day or two before I can get that machine back up and running to try TestDisk. Will post results asap.

 

Back at it...

Ok, I fired up PartIn.exe and here's what I got (notes: 1) this is the data that the program provided using the "Copy to Clipboard" function, 2) the new working HDD is currently the C: drive, and the HDD formerly known as the C: drive is now the secondary drive, shown below as Drive 2):

PowerQuest PartitionInfo 8.0 -- Windows NT/2000 Version
Date Generated: 08/03/06 21:15:00
Copyright (c)1994-2002, PowerQuest Corporation
Permission is granted for this utility to be freely copied so long
as it is not modified in any way. All other rights are reserved.

PowerQuest, makers of PartitionMagic(r), Drive Image(tm), and DriveCopy(tm), can be reached at:
Voice: 801-437-8900
Fax: 801-226-8941
Web site: http://www.powerquest.com/support/
E-mail: magic@powerquest.com

General System Information:
Total Physical Memory (bytes): 536,330,240
Used Physical Memory: (bytes): 323,026,944
Maximum Page File Size: (bytes): 1,310,900,224
Current Page File Size: (bytes): 336,154,624



===========================================================================================================
Disk Geometry Information for Disk 1: 12188 Cylinders, 255 Heads, 63 Sectors/Track
System PartSect # Boot BCyl Head Sect FS ECyl Head Sect StartSect NumSects
===========================================================================================================
0 0 80 0 1 1 07 1023 254 63 63 195,784,092
Info: End C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Actual values are:
0 0 80 0 1 1 07 12186 254 63 63 195784092

===========================================================================================================
Disk Geometry Information for Disk 2: 9729 Cylinders, 255 Heads, 63 Sectors/Track
System PartSect # Boot BCyl Head Sect FS ECyl Head Sect StartSect NumSects
===========================================================================================================
0 0 80 0 1 1 07 1023 254 63 63 156,280,257
Info: End C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Actual values are:
0 0 80 0 1 1 07 9727 254 63 63 156280257



===========================================================================================================
Partition Information for Disk 1: 95,605.6 Megabytes
Volume PartType Status Size MB PartSect # StartSect TotalSects
===========================================================================================================
C: NTFS Pri,Boot 95,597.7 0 0 63 195,784,092
Unallocated Pri 7.8 None -- 195,784,155 16,065


===========================================================================================================
Partition Information for Disk 2: 76,316.6 Megabytes
Volume PartType Status Size MB PartSect # StartSect TotalSects
===========================================================================================================
D: QNX, UN*X Pri,Boot 76,308.7 0 0 63 156,280,257
Unallocated Pri 7.8 None -- 156,280,320 16,065


===========================================================================================================
Boot Record for drive C: (Drive: 1, Starting sector: 63, Type: NTFS)
===========================================================================================================
1. Jump: EB 52 90
2. OEM Name: NTFS
3. Bytes per Sector: 512
4. Sectors per Cluster: 8
5. Reserved Sectors: 0
6. Number of FATs: 0
7. Root Dir Entries: 0
8. Total Sectors: 0
9. Media Descriptor: 0xF8
10. Sectors per FAT: 0
11. Sectors per Track: 63 (0x3F)
12. Number of Heads: 255 (0xFF)
13. Hidden Sectors: 63 (0x3F)
14. Total Sectors (>32MB): 0 (0x0)
15. Unused: 0x80008000
16. Total NTFS Sectors: 195784091
17. MFT Start Cluster: 786432
18. MFT Mirror Start Clust: 12236505
19. Clusters per FRS: 246
20. Clusters per Index Blk: 1
21. Serial Number: 0x08C40724C407139A
22. Checksum: 0 (0x0)
23. Boot Signature: 0xAA55


Does this tell you anything, or should I make D back into C and boot from a bootable floppy/CD?

Steve

 

selecting just parts of your post:

:

the 07 in data above says the partition is NTFS but if I look at

:

it lists the partition type as UN*X ( unknowen to me what it is), with a partition name of QNX. (likely both are GoBacks)

Rerun Partin and at the top select Disk #2 - hilight a partition- and at bootom of window select BOOT RECORD. in the new display- at #27 FILE SYSTEM ID what is dispalyed ? #26 Volume Name should be QNX

I think you will need to run TESTDISK but can wait for now.

Try to run Partition Magic where you can make/merge partitions. In its window hilight the partition on D: and on left panal select Browse Partition- can you see the files and folders for XP, or what happens ? (do not want to jump to the wrong conclusing of problem)

 

results

When I clicked "Boot Record" for the #2 disk, the following error window poped up:

Cannot display a boot record for this partition type.

Only FAT, FAT32, NTFS, Ext2 or Ext3 partition boot recored can be displayed (at present).

Also, FYI, In the top right area of the PartIn.exe window, it says "No Partition errors "

Ok, I closed PartIn and ran the main Partition Magic program. In the main drive window on the right 2/3 of the screen, it shows both drives, but it shows D: as unformatted. If I click on merge partition in the left side of the screen, a wizard comes up, I don't think that's what I want so I cancelled. I finally figure out that right clicking on the drive brings up a window that offers (among other things) browse. Right clicking on D:, browse is gray, (just to test) right clicking on C: has browse black, and clicking on it brings up a window showing folders...

Also, both drives show a second partition "[*] ", both are 7.8 mb used =0.0, left = 0.0, status = none and Pri/Log = Primary. I don't know if it means anything, but the clickable offerings change on the left pane when you click on a primary partition (on both C and D) vs. clicking on either of the [*] partitons, and an option to Undelete Partition becomes available. This happens on both the C and D disk [*] partition.

 

I installed GoBack from SystemWorks 2002 on one of my systems and it only chaged the Master Partition Table file type from 0C (Fat32) to 44 (??) on the primary partition. When I changed it back with a hdd editor program , the hdd could be seen by dos with no problems.

I still do not understand why Partin shows 2 different file types on the bad hdd. Not sure where it is reading the info from.

Try running TESTDISK and see what it says.

 

TESTDISK results

TestDisk 6.4, Data Recovery Utility, June 2006
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org

Disk /dev/sdb - 80 GB / 74 GiB - CHS 9729 255 63
Current partition structure:
Partition Start End Size in sectors
Invalid NTFS boot
1 * HPFS - NTFS 0 1 1 9727 254 63 156280257
1 * HPFS - NTFS 0 1 1 9727 254 63 156280257

*=Primary bootable P=Primary L=Logical E=Extended D=Deleted

[Proceed ] [ Save ]
Try to locate partition

I did "Proceed" and, after it ran a test, this is what I got:

TestDisk 6.4, Data Recovery Utility, June 2006
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org

Disk /dev/sdb - 80 GB / 74 GiB - CHS 9729 255 63
Partition Start End Size in sectors

Structure: Ok.


Keys A: add partition, L: load backup, Enter: to continue

And that's where I left it. I figured if I did add partition, that might delete my data, and I'm not sure where the back up would come from or what it would do. What's next?

Thanks,
Steve

 

On the first testdisk page you posted where you pressed "Proceed ", if you seleted "SAVE" that command will save a copy of the Partition Table to a file "backup.log" where in the next page you can select 'L:Load" and it will write the saved Partition Table back.

On the first page where it shows current partitions, it lists the same partition twice (not good at all). If the one entrie could be deleated and it might then work (?).

If the data on hdd is very important your best bet would be find a good repair shop. Or try Winhex "http://www.x-ways.net/" and see if it will see the data you need, if so buy it.

I am willing to help if that is you want but not sure if we will have success.

A DOS program (boot useing a 98 boot floppy) that will save the current MBR/Partition table (if a error is made , it can be put back) and can manuely deleat the extra partition enterie is MBRWORK "http://www.x-ways.net/ ".