Dynamic hard drive problem.

hello everyone.
I am in a need to reinstall windows (windows 7 beta) on my hard drive. The reason is because my other 40 GB SATA hard drive has failed yesterday. It was bought a while ago from ebay so maybe that explains it... Anyway, I remembered that my last good windows setup was windows 7 on my WDC hard drive. It is 320 gig. So I decided to install windows on it again. I want to seperate it and create a separate partition for 40 GB like it was before I used the 40 gb sata. Although when I go to the windows setup, on the hard drive screen for some reason I see 3 of the hard drive in the list, all of which are dynamic partitions. I've tried to do some search on this but didn't find anything self explanatory or effective enough. At this point I'm stuck, and not sure what to do.
For your information, I personally do not mind buying a brand new hard drive that's about 40 gb. I would gladly replace that broken SATA with a new one (although theres 2 small files I need to recover from it, I hope I can get to it, although I can't boot from it). In that case, I want to make sure I buy a good hard drive as well, and I sure hope it will not be classified as Dynamic.
So what should I do at this point? This is sort of urgent. I am traveling to another country next tuesday for 2 weeks and I very much want to fix my computer before this.

Events leading up to this failure (read):
-I have done several windows reinstalls recently. First that I can remember was back in october. I got infected - I had windows xp at the time. I then upgraded to windows vista. The next reinstall was when vista got slow and I became frustrated. I installed windows 7 beta, all on the good 320 gig hard drive on a 25 gb partition (I was stupid to make it so low). After experiencing compatibility problems (which were fixable, although at the time I wasn't aware of how to fix them) I went back to Vista. Although at that time I've recently upgraded my computer with new parts including the 40 gb sata. So I installed vista on this sata.
-Shortly after I began experiencing freezing problems. 40% of the time after startup my computer would freeze and require a restart. At the same time I began getting disk read errors. I assumed it was a vista problem with the freezing. So I once again installed windows 7, on the sata hard drive.
The problems continued. I went to device manager and installed many drivers. This ended the freezing. Although, a day or two later the disk read errors came back. They didn't happen often, although yesterday, my hard drive has officially comitted suicide. First I went AFK and had a disk read error when I came back. I restarted, and it got stuck on starting windows. Restarted again and it got stuck on starting windows with the windows logo flying in and glowing. Then it stopped glowing and froze. I restarted again and I cant get past the little _ underscore thing blinking. I dont even get a disk read error anymore, it's just blinking there forever.

System specs:
Processor: Intel core 2 duo e6550 2.33 ghz
Motherboard: MSI P7N Sli Plantium (NEW)
Graphics card: geforce 8600 GT
Power supply: Rosewill RP550V2-S-SL 500W (NEW)
case: NZXT Tempest (NEW)
Ram: 4 gb ddr2 ram. Dont know the exact model, but it isnt new.


Alright. Sorry for a long post, I want to provide as much information as I can.
Please help.
Thank you very much.
-Ed

 

TestDisk has gained a good reputation for repairing bad sectors and partitions and will convert your dynamic partitions. Download the correct version from here After downloading, unzip it, double-click testdisk_win.exe to run it and follow the prompts to repair the disk. It doesn’t need installing.

Before running it, make sure you read the guides here and here

As it’s your main system disk that has failed, you will either have to install it as a slave/external drive in another computer or create a boot floppy/CD from the TestDisk website. Alternatively, go for a larger download of The Ultimate Boot CD, which contains TestDisk along with a lot of other excellent utilities, here . TestDisk can be found under File System > Partition Tools.

 

Alright thanks... I'll check this out after I use my other friend's suggestion - I downloaded gparted and I will try to create a new partition there and format it. I have learned that formatting the drive will fix the dynamic drive problem, but since I can't do this because I have important files on it, I want to create a partition off it and format only that.

 

I suggest you not only format the problem drive, but remove the partition/s and remake it. Make the partition with Windows or the HDD manufacturer's setup utilities, not other third party programs.

 

I was fiddling around with Parted Magic yesterday. It's a good little piece of work, but for some reason the only thing I could access is actually the hard drive that wont boot (which has 738 sector errors).
In order for me to try to do more with that hard drive, such as try to fix it, I need to run a disk check with it. After trying to check it with parted magic, I got an error. When I checked the logs at the end it told me to run chkdsk /f on it. Is it possible in any way? I'm not sure what to put windows on.
I could try just shrinking my 320 gig one but for some reason it says I have 24 gb free. I dont get that, because I know I have around 199 gigs free on that drive.
I am buying a new external hard drive very soon, so that I can dump those 100 gigs from there and some other stuff from another hard drive, and then shamelessly format them all to hell.
But in order to do that I need to put windows somewhere, or get the failed hard drive to boot (which seems to work ok in parted magic). Any ideas?

 

I wondered if you were making the partitions with Partition Magic (I expect that is the program you mean). That's why I said

I only delete or resize partitions with PM. I have experienced similar experiences to you when using PM to build partitions and I think you are going to have quite a deal of trouble retrieving your data.

The free space is probably wrong and you are getting sector errors because the MBR is corrupt.

Do you still have the 40GB HDD? If it is a major brand, get the manufacturer's setup utilities. Remake the partition with those. If the utilities have a facility to Zero (low-level) format it or remake/upgrade the MBR, do so.

In Win XP, you can boot to the CD, press R at the first screen and go to the recovery console. There you can run CHKDSK.

As I said, don't use Partition Magic or any other third party program to make a partition, you will just keep having more problems.

Matt

 

Oh ok, good this gives me more options. Yes the 40 GB is a western digital hard drive.
Yesterday I bought a new HD with an external case enclosure and once I receive it I will move my files there and then format all 3 drives. The drives, besides the 40 GB hadn't been formatted for years so it would be useful anyway.
Before I get my new HD, I will try to get to my files. I'm thinking of trying to format the 40 GB drive either through PM or a windows setup.
Then I'll try to install windows there.
I'll report my progress once I do so.

 

You seem to be missing my point. Partition Magic I have found is good to resize partitions or leave unpartitioned space on a HDD (plus I don't give any partition resizing program a long list of instructions at once, I run one instruction, go back again and run the next, it is too easy for it to crash and all data is lost). I don't use it to make a partition or format that partition, because of my own, and reading about, bad experiences.

If you make unpartitioned space on a HDD, when you boot to the Windows CD/DVD, it will list that space and you can make a partition in it. Also you can select a partition and choose to remove (delete) that partition. That is what I suggest you do when you want to "build the system" again (not just format).

If I have any, recurring, problems with partitions, I get the HDD manufacturer's utilities, check if they can completely "wipe" the disks or they may say "format the first 32 sectors ", and make a new Boot Sector. Get the Data Lifeguard utilities
http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?lang=en
I would use that in your situation.

Matt

 

Thank you, it worked but there's 1 problem.
Big problem.
Now, being in windows 7, the hard drives are installed but they are not basic. They're still dynamic.
In disk manager when I right click on any of them it says "Convert to basic disk ". I am thinking this is the option but I CANNOT afford to lose any of that data. This is why this whole fuss is up.
I have done a little google research and people mention some free utilities to do this without loss of data. I've also read that if the disk had been basic before, which it had, for years, then its possible to do this without loss of data.
But I want confirmation from one of you guys, directly to me, with direct tips on how to do this right.
Thanks.

 

Sorry, but I don't have any experience with recovering dynamic disks. I am ultra-conservative with my own HDDs, because of having to try and recover data off other people's.

Maybe try www.technet.com, lots of Windows administrator people there that may have experience.

Matt

 

Have you acted on my post of 3 days ago referring to TestDisk being able to convert dynamic disks?

 

Ok... I just tried it.
After doing a quick search on my 160 GB hard drive, when it was done I pressed P to list files.
It said couldn't read file system, file system seems to be damaged (or something along those lines).
What do I do? I'm starting to get pretty worried.
I found this though: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/913964. It's the same guide as on the lazy admin site guide. Except it's the official microsoft guide. It looks pretty convincing... what do you think?

Edit: Oh, also, in disk manager it says they're dynamic and then it says "Foreign ". What does that mean?
I really need all of the options that are possible. Reading the disk somehow to copy it's data, converting it safely... I did more research on the hex editor thing and they say it's also risky and should be done as a last resort... I think it IS my last resort... I'm just waiting for a confirmation from you again and what you think of this method.
As you probably know I hadn't converted it to dynamic myself, I don't know how it happened. Also, I have not used any of the features of the dynamic drive yet, I think, because obviously I'm trying to fix it (some sources state that if you used it's features you may not be able to use the hex method to restore it). I'm surprised testdisk can't read it's files, makes me a bit more worried.

 

It talks about foreign disks here:
http://mypkb.wordpress.com/2007/03/28/how-to-non-destructively-convert-dynamic-disks-to-basic-disks/

 

Ahh... import to foreign disk. Makes sense, I'll do it tomorrow (got a few reasons not to do it today).
By the way, if it doesnt work... can you tell me more about testdisk? I've mentioned the error I got, but I wonder if that's it for it? I know there's this whole "write" thing and etc, I'm not sure what it all means and how it all works. If I was to fiddle with test disk again, what would I have to do? (since list files didnt work...)

edit: I found a program R-Drive image that claims to be able to backup dynamic disks. Ive installed it and it lists my drives for gods sake. Im going to wait till monday when I get my external hard drive and then attempt to back it up. But what happens when you backup data from a dynamic disk? Will it get the data out..? And how will restoring it work... Eh. I guess it's too many questions to ask. I guess I gotta wait and see.

 

TestDisk will convert from ‘dynamic’ to basic as I’ve tested it fairly recently. I cannot recreate the conversion without actually having a dynamic disk, so I cannot tell you the exact steps. You will have to read through the guides.

Have you made concerted efforts to copy the dynamic data to another medium? Google should come up with something.

It seems that you’ve tried many things, I just hope the partition is not irreparably damaged.

 

What do you mean copy the dynamic data to another medium? You mean like back up the drive to another disk? Yes that's what I'm trying to do. Tomorrow I'll get my new hard drive, and I'll try to back it up using that R-Drive program.
I read through the guides you linked me to about test disk but I didn't find anything about Dynamic drives...

 

Look through that last link I gave you. It uses Testdisk to convert Dynamic to Basic and back up the data.

Matt

 

I got some news for you guys.
Use Stellar Phoenix data recovery software. It's godly.
Long time ago I was paid 300 dollars for recovering lost data from a broken external hard drive. I made the customer buy stellar phoenix because I found it and it was 100 dollars, so he bought it. With that I recovered the files.
Today, while fixing up my dads computer, I accidentally found a version of it on one of my software CDs. Its some kind of a mini demo version, all you can do is search for files, as for the rest you need to get the full version.
Ironically, after I got bored of scanning my drive and stopped the process, suddenly a rain of files and folders just flushed down my tree window of the program.
In the full version all I gotta do is click the recover all button and select my destination I guess.
Wow, it couldn't be simpler... I'll tell you what happens tomorrow.

Edit: My hard drive didnt come, thanks to UPS who took it back because noone was home.
Scanning the 2nd drive now. I suspect I will receive the same results as the other drive, its just that it takes longer. Thank god I can save the data. Once I get my drive tomorrow I think I might be able to back them up safely.
Also with this program I was able to check and I found the "42" thing on both 10C0 and 10D0 lines. Cool. Once I get my data out maybe I'll experiment with it.
Whatever happens I'll post all reports here and on my blog, so that anyone who's experiencing the same problem can check this out.

 

Importing foreign disks worked like a charm.
Thanks a lot guys, you're the best.