HELP! Master Boot, Partition problems

[Monkeytool]

I am having major problems with my computer and I seem unable to do anything with it at this point, please help.
It started last night as I was trying to install the new nvidia drivers. I uninstalled the previous drivers, loaded xp in safe mode to use driver cleaner, then tried to restart to install the new drivers. The computer wouldnt load windows even in safe mode and the restore previous configuration didnt work either. So I tried to fix with the windows disk, which possibly made things worse. Windows won't load at this point (says ntldr missing) and I seem to be iunable to run a boot disk (says disk I/O error although I have tried 4 different floppys with 2 different boot types (the one off windows and something I downloaded)

I am not sure what to do at this point somehow the boot record is flawed, my raid setup shows my raid 0 working properly but doing a chkdsk in repair mode shows 10mbs of total space and only 3 mbs available (even though my raid shows 156gb)

I am willing to format and reinstall if thats what it takes, but I had a lot of files on there for work and play that I would like to keep so is it possible to somehow fix my mbr and restore my computer? Anyone mind walking me through it?

Thanks
Monk

 

[ZoomStop]

First things I would do (from a guy with sketchy knowledge of RAID setups at best) would be to boot off the XP CD to the recovery console.
Run the FIXMBR and FIXBOOT commands and see if that puts things in order.

If you do have to re-install you could always use a BartPE or Knoppix Live CD to boot up and burn CD/DVD backups of your files you need to save.

 

[Monkeytool]

well that was one of the first things i did (running fixboot, fixmbr) and I have a sense that it made things worse, I think that is why when I go to do a fresh install of xp it says my first drive has 3 mb available and the second is unformatted (they are both used to make the raid 0 disk) so I think somehow windows is incorrectly identifying the boot record or something to that effect. But maybe if I could use a program that could do a boot into dos off a cd and then copy files that would work, maybe one of those you mentioned has that. Thanx for the help.

 

[Monkeytool]

when i try and load from a boot cd it states ntldr is missing.... now im confused

 

[bovinda]

Monkeytool, what boot CD are you trying to load from?

Another thought, might be a long shot, and be unrealilistic b/c my knowledge of RAID is shaky as well...but when you load the set-up screen with the XP cd, there's a little thing at the bottom that says something like "Press F6 to load SCSI [or something] drivers". Recently, I couldn't correctly access my SATA drives through either recovery console or the XP set-up screen b/c I had to load SATA RAID drivers. Once I did that I could correctly read and access my drives. Do you have a disk with RAID drivers or something like that? It might let you access your drives to try a repair install or something.

Incidentally, I've never had any luck using FIXMBR or FIXBOOT either. I have no idea what kind of problems you're having exactly, but in the recent past, a clean format and reinstall of XP is all that's worked for me. Still, you might be able to find a way to at least get your files off there.

 

[montag451]

Could try a repair reinstallation, with the advice that Bovinda gives, using the F6 and RAID floppy drivers. Make sure you do that, otherwise you will lose the RAID and definitely lose all your data.

 

[Monkeytool]

OK so heres my pickle, I am unable to boot into windows or dos using a boot disk while loading my raid drivers, so while I can boot with BART PE and access my hard drive the partitions are incorrect and I cant fix the MBR or Boot.ini file (which I believe to be at the root). At the same time I can load the xp cd with the raid drivers and get to the reinstall page but since it incorrectly identifys the available space as 3mb I am unable to do anything but reinstall windows after reformating. What can I do to properly load my raid drivers while getting BARTs PE or any other boot disk to work? HELP pleeeaseee!

 

[bovinda]

The last thing I can think of (and there's lots I don't know, so I'm sure there will be other things to try) is--are you using a regular ole' BartPE disk to load up or are you using something like the Ultimate Boot CD? The UBCD worked for me to read my drives when XP couldn't b/c it already had the drivers installed I needed to read my drives. Try booting in with that to access your files b/c it may already have your RAID drivers installed and allow you to properly read your hard drives, or alternatively try to bundle your drivers as a plug-in for BartPE along with the UBCD and see if you can then access your files.

Let us know if you've already tried all that, and if you haven't, give it a shot.

 

[Monkeytool]

OK ive made progress im now im at another road block. I have booted into windows using the Ultimate boot disk, I think I found the crux of the problem. Analyzing my disk using several utilities I get 1 of 2 responses, either the disk utility correctly identifies my hard disk as a 153.38 gig NTFS primary boot drive in good health or instead a 10mb fat12 drive of 10mb which 3 mb are free. In the case of testdisk it first identifys it as a 153gb ntfs then upon analyzing it it identifys it as a fat12. So I am still unable to retreive any data off my hard drive and the mbr and whatever other boot sectors are still fubar. Whatever can I do to correct them, anyone know what I might be doing wrong or how to fix the current problem?

 

[Monkeytool]

ttt

 

[bovinda]

So when you boot in with the UBCD, are you not able to use any of the windows explorer-type programs to access the drives still? Do the drives show up at all with the explorer-type programs, just so you can read the data on them and get them off? Are you sure your proper RAID drivers are bundled with the UBCD? If not, try bundling them in as a plug-in (I believe directions for that are on either BartPE's site or could be found from the helpful people at the CD Forum), that may allow you to at least properly read the data off there if you can't.

I'm not sure why it would first see your RAID set-up correctly and then as a tiny FAT32 drive. I wish I could help more, but I'm hindered by my poor knowledge about RAID 0 set-ups--I'm assuming you need the RAID driver to read the data correctly, and bundling your drivers properly with the UBCD might allow you to do that, hopefully. Maybe someone else will be able to also chime in with some other suggestions. Good luck!

 

[Monkeytool]

Basically using UBCD I can load through using the raid drivers, and get into the ubcd windows, while in there I can read my hard drive using the explorer programs but in comes off as giberish and it is obviously in the wrong format. I was finally able to correctly wipe the mbr and set it up so that test disk correctly saw that I had a 153gig raid ntfs hard disk. Next I tried to go back using the xp cd and reinstall windows on the correctly configured drive now I get a blue screen saying " A thread tried to release a resource it did not own"
the stop is 0x000000E3 (0x866097a8, 0x867c8da8, 0x00000000, 0x00000002) if that helps...

 

[Monkeytool]

ok whatever caused the intitial problems has permeated everything, I can't load with the ubcd, i cant do a repair console, nor an xp install, all say the same error message as noted above
damn what did i do now?

 

[Monkeytool]

bump?

 

[Monkeytool]

second bump, anyone know of a good place to get some support on this, I've already wasted a good 5 hours of my time with microsoft and I dont want a data recovery company to rip apart my hard drive or charge me $300 because frankly the data isn't worth it. I'm beggining to succumb to the idea of just reformatting.
-Monk

 

[NJLOAD]

I have used this program Active Partition Recovery and it has worked well for me. Not sure about your setup.
Just a thought.

NJLOAD

 

[bovinda]

Sorry Monk, wish I could help more, but it is beyond the realm of my knowledge now. The last place I could think of would be the forums at Virtual Dr. The guys over there are very knowledgable and patient, they've helped me a bunch in the recent past. They might have some other suggestions. Good luck, and let us know if anything works out.

 

[montag451]

Definitely try Spinrite6, but it isn't shareware.
If there is data on that sucker, this sucker will suck it off (came out a bit wrong)

 

[Monkeytool]

well just a final note, I finally got something, after using a dos boot disk to wipe the mbr, and then the ubcd to repair/fix/create a new mbr and boot.ini as well as do some data recovery, i then went into windows to see if I could fix my previous installation, no go (problems with page file) so I opted to install over my old installation. I could then retreive all my data. I tried to finish out the installation but windows installer routinely had failure issues about the third restart after installing sp2. So I got my data, but its a no go on the fix, I have to do a reformat/reinstall of everything. No time atm. Thanks for the help everyone.
Monk