Help! "Partition table error" in NTFS. Won't boot or recognize drive.

[DrJeff]

I think I have a corrupted partition table on my NTFS boot drive and can't get XPhome or Pro to even recognize the drive as a second drive. Running Partition Magic 8 on the drive yields a "Partition table error" message. How do I fix this? I really can't lose the data on this drive.(Wife's machine; she'll kill me.)

Help please. I currently have it in my work machine here with me as drive D: so I can play with it.

Jeff

 

[Washoe]

maybe Partition Table Doctor would help.

http://www.ptdd.com/index.htm

 

[DrJeff]

NEW INFO:

Running Western Digital's own Datalifeguard 2.6 on the drive, I get a more specific error message as follows:
"Device error reading drive 2, absolute sector 0, count 1."
Anyone know what this indicates is wrong? What lives at that address? Is it MBR or partition table, or ntldr?

Suggestions please.

 

[fw3308]

If the drive is under warranty with WD, call there tech support and give them the error code and they might be able to shed some more light. On another note, you could boot with your XP Pro cd and go into the recovery console and try the fixboot command and see if that will restore your boot record.

 

[NogginBoink]

Boot to the recovery console and run fixmbr.

 

[DrJeff]

I can't get any of this to work. In fact, I now cannot get the BIOS to recognize that the HD is installed in the D: position. In other words, if I have a good boot drive as C: and the bad drive as D: on the same ribbon, jumpered right and in the correct ribbon order, the BIOS shows only one drive present; nothing listed as Primary slave. I've gotten the same result on two dissimilar machines. The BIOS also takes a while to decide that no drive is there, I guess timing out. As a result, I can't run fixmbr or fixboot on a drive that is not recognized as being there.

Any ideas on what to do next? What about data recovery companies? This drive came in an eMachines Athlon system, so will WD support it? Replace it? Help me recover data through tech support? I am fairly desperate since it looks like a 4 month old WD 80mb drive has just died, not just corrupted.:|

 

[Sianath]

Search on the support.microsoft.com site for mpsreports. Download and run the setupperf.exe version when booted into the machine with your bad disk attached.

Either post the results of the sector inspector output, or PM it to me.

 

[TrentSteel]

Have you tried using a different IDE cable? Something similar happened to me once (although the errors would sometimes vary), and it turned out to be a problem with the slave connector on the cable, not the drive itself.

 

[DrJeff]

Originally posted by: TrentSteel
Have you tried using a different IDE cable? Something similar happened to me once (although the errors would sometimes vary), and it turned out to be a problem with the slave connector on the cable, not the drive itself.

I thought about that, but the slave connector works fine when hooked back up to the usual Drive D: for this machine.

 

[DrJeff]

I'm sorry, Sianath. That was the sector inspector output I sent, not setupperf.
Thanks, in advance.

 

[Sianath]

Is the problem with physical disk 1? Our disk is formatted 63 sectors per track (normal if it's not an old Compaq server), but the hidden sectors value on the first partition is 32. This means we aren't looking in the right location for the boot sector (well, we are looking at the right location for the boot sector, but then we are jumping backwards on disk to find the rest of the information and getting data that it's not expecting)

If that's the only problem, that's easy to fix. I'll PM you with details.

 

[DrJeff]

Yes, physical disk 1. But most of the rest of what you said was over my head. Can you break it down? I like your idea of this being easy to fix. PM me.

 

[DrJeff]

Originally posted by: Sianath
Is the problem with physical disk 1? Our disk is formatted 63 sectors per track (normal if it's not an old Compaq server), but the hidden sectors value on the first partition is 32. This means we aren't looking in the right location for the boot sector (well, we are looking at the right location for the boot sector, but then we are jumping backwards on disk to find the rest of the information and getting data that it's not expecting)

Nick,
You out there anywhere? Still broken here.

 

[Zugzwang152]

have wd take a look at your error message first. no sense messing around with a dead drive. also , might want to try clearing your CMOS to give it a fresh start completely.

 

[DrJeff]

Originally posted by: Zugzwang152
have wd take a look at your error message first. no sense messing around with a dead drive. also , might want to try clearing your CMOS to give it a fresh start completely.

Thanks for keeping the thread alive. I will try the CMOS reset when I have a minute to reinstall the drive in that machine this evening. Already tried the WD techies without much result. Maybe I need to rephrase to them.

Jeff

 

[DrJeff]

I reset the CMOS with the bad drive installed as D (primary slave), but after getting the whole machine configured after the reset, the end result was no good.

Interesting thing, though. On the first bootup after CMOS reset (cold drive), the bios recognized both HDs, a new good C: and the problematic one in D:. Then, when XPhome came up, it popped up a box "Found new hardware. WD 80gb HD" and paused as if installing some software for the new hardware. However, it did not show it as a valid formatted drive in explorer and continued to not see D: after a full restart. In fact, after a few restarts, the BIOS began to fail to see the primary slave at all.

This last thing makes me think bad HD embedded controller, correct? And all utilities in order to recover files, have to have a BIOS recognized drive to work on, correct? I am just interested in getting some of the files off it now; I already have a new bigger boot drive loaded up.

I am stumped. Ideas from anyone would be appreciated. There is some hard to rebuild data on that HD but it is not worth the $500+ that DriveSavers and the like would charge.

 

[Sianath]

Check your email.

 

[Laputa]

Before she kills you, you can at least do these things:B

You need to get a new larger hard drive for sure.
See of you can get a hold of a CSC Disk Duplicator and duplicate the hard drive first. It'll fix the partition errors alone. Run bootcfg steps below to fix the boot issue if still not boot.
If not, get a copy of Ghost.
Clone the bad drive to the new drive with Ghost on separate cables.
Remove the bad drive and boot the new drive with the OS CD to the recovery console.
Do a bootcft /list to see if you have any OS that is bootable. If not, rebuilt it with bootcfg /rebuilt and select the right one with proper descriptions like Windows XP Home/Pro.
You may have to redo fixboot.

 

[Sianath]

The bootcfg command will not fix the boot issues he is having. The tool was designed to repair your boot.ini.

A Discussion About the Bootcfg Command and Its Uses
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;291980

 

[Laputa]

Shoot! Hate to say that you are not helping out here and give us the "go read the manual" crap. Don't live by what it was design for, but go beyond the limitations to be a Pro.! Anyway, just trying to help him out and make it as clear as possible. I might be wrong, but I've done so many PC repairs daily and data recoveries every week for what I know, bootcfg can be wisely used for other means.

Anyway, data recovery to another HDD is part I of the repair. The goal is to successfully recover the data and/or possibly fixing the partition table as well alone the way. The old drive's partition table is bad and the HDD may possibly be going base on the information given. Since the data on it is a must have situation, just need to be careful before screwing up the original partition table. Once the PT is screw up, there's no easy solution to turn back except for a clean OS install. I believe the drive is failing and it's getting worst base on the information given. I don't see the reason to do the repair on the same drive if it is going to fail anway; why redo this. If getting a new hard drive is an issue, then we have a real problem as limited resource will only delay the process of the repair

Part II - The fix at the recovery console after recover the partion to a good HDD:
Bootcfg will definitely regenerate/repair the boot.ini file; and for your to verify if everything is good. Bootcfg will at least tell you that there's a good OS there that's bootable and perhaps repairable after the data recovery/transfer is done. Just use good common sense ans a little of judgement here. If no booting information is available, the OS is not bootable anyway and no point to do anything except file/data recovery with a clean install of an OS on the new drive, or maybe try different approach of recoverying the data to the new drive again. Run fixboot if there's a good bootable OS. Need to do this first before copy the ntldr and the ntdetect.com to the root folder after repairing the partition table. You will get a boot error if any of these two files are missing. Then you can use partition magic to verify that the final fixed partion table is good or still bad. If everything works well, you should be able to boot back to Windows. Afterward, you can clone the new drive back to the old hard drive and it will fix the partion table on the old HDD, if the drive is good If the old HDD is going bad, you'll get the same problem sooner if you want to spend the extra time to fine out. This may take weeks. Hope this fix it. If all that fails or you don't feel comfortable doing it, you can PM me and send the drive and I try to recover it as long as the HDD cylinder is still good. I don't charge you 500+ of course ...hehe;B

 

[DrJeff]

I can't find a CSC Disk Duplicator to use. I have another location or two to check today during business hours, but do you think Ghost is the other way? I might not have given enough detail, but the OS can't identify the bad drive and show it as available. I've never used Ghost, but does it work at the windows level or at DOS? Diskprobe has seen and read sectors from the drive, sectors 32 and 63, at least, but sector zero gives and error. Sianath was looking at some diskprobe and disksaver output.

No, more drives to use is not the issue at all. I already have put her a new160 GB WD jumbo into service with a clean install including apps. Should I use that one or another almost new 120 GB Maxtor that I can wipe?

It seems to me that if the low level programs like those can read sectors, the HD circuit board must still be okay, correct? To my understanding, the MBR looks like it could have been written over with some FAT32 crap by some program that doesn't play nice.

What was happening just before this catastrophe? A Leadtech Winfast TV2000XP Expert card tried to wake up the machine from HIBERNATE to record a TV show. I know, should have been from standby, but that is what happened. Does anyone have experience with these programs doing mischieve of this level? There was no power blip that screwed things during this PVR attempt because the whole setup is on a pretty new UPS and isolated except for the TV cable.

I really appreciate everyone's input. I think we are making some progress; I just need expertise to keep doing the right things instead of getting hopeless and trying things that trash the data.

 

[Laputa]

Ghost 2002/2003/2004 or Corporate 7.5 can possibly repair this issue if a CSC duplicator can not be located. If obtaining the software is an issue, I can order and send that to you and e-mail you a self extract floppy image if needed. That is what I use most of the time and the CSC device is really handy if all of the other method fails. You can get a copy of Ghost from a local computer store. You'll still need a spare drive to clone the data to regardless. It will work in DOS environment so you'll need to create a ghost floppy disk after installing the program to an Windows OS. Should not be that hard to do. I recommend attaching the drives to separate IDE cables, just for the speed and less confusion at the human and hardware level. After booting up to ghost, go to options, enable force clone under the misc tab and enable ignore crc errors and save the settings and accept the changes. Then you can start cloning from drive to drive. If it doesn't detect both drives, you may need to wait for the circuit board to cool down and restart again after a while. If successful, you get everything back with a good partition table. But still do the Part II stuff to make sure. If not successful, you'll get the data back at least on a good drive.

 

[DrJeff]

Ghost could not see the bad drive although the BIOS saw it. I took it to some techs a local computer shop. We'll see what they find out. Wife's tired of waiting. I'll report the results.

 

[Sianath]

For those of you that don't believe I know what I'm talking about....


From his sector inspector output:


/* This disk is fine, it's what he was booting with. What we are interested in is the second physical disk */

Target - \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE0
4865 Cylinders
255 Heads
63 Sectors Per Track /* Notice the 63 sectors per track... that's normal and good */
512 BytesPerSector
12 MediaType

===========================================================================
Master Boot Record
===========================================================================
| B | FS TYPE | START | END | | |
| F | (hex) | C H S| C H S| RELATIVE | TOTAL |
===========================================================================
| * | 07 | 0 1 1|1023 254 63| 63| 78156162|
| | 00 | 0 0 0| 0 0 0| 0| 0|
| | 00 | 0 0 0| 0 0 0| 0| 0|
| | 00 | 0 0 0| 0 0 0| 0| 0|
===========================================================================
Disk Signature 0x37183718

Partition #1 NTFS backup boot sector at LBN 78156224.


LBN 0 [C 0, H 0, S 1]

0x0000 33 c0 8e d0 bc 00 7c fb-50 07 50 1f fc be 1b 7c 3À?м.|ûP.Pü¾|
0x0010 bf 1b 06 50 57 b9 e5 01-f3 a4 cb bd be 07 b1 04 ¿.PW¹å.ó¤Ë½¾.±.
0x0020 38 6e 00 7c 09 75 13 83-c5 10 e2 f4 cd 18 8b f5 8n.|.u?ÅâôÍ?õ
0x0030 83 c6 10 49 74 19 38 2c-74 f6 a0 b5 07 b4 07 8b ?ÆIt8,tö µ.´.?
0x0040 f0 ac 3c 00 74 fc bb 07-00 b4 0e cd 10 eb f2 88 &eth;¬<.t&uuml;»..´.&Iacute;&euml;&ograve;?
0x0050 4e 10 e8 46 00 73 2a fe-46 10 80 7e 04 0b 74 0b N&egrave;F.s*&thorn;F?~..t.
0x0060 80 7e 04 0c 74 05 a0 b6-07 75 d2 80 46 02 06 83 ?~..t. ¶.u&Ograve;?F..?
0x0070 46 08 06 83 56 0a 00 e8-21 00 73 05 a0 b6 07 eb F..?V..&egrave;!.s. ¶.&euml;
0x0080 bc 81 3e fe 7d 55 aa 74-0b 80 7e 10 00 74 c8 a0 ¼?>&thorn;}Uªt.?~.t&Egrave;
0x0090 b7 07 eb a9 8b fc 1e 57-8b f5 cb bf 05 00 8a 56 ·.&euml;©?&uuml;W?&otilde;&Euml;¿..?V
0x00a0 00 b4 08 cd 13 72 23 8a-c1 24 3f 98 8a de 8a fc .´.&Iacute;r#?&Aacute;$???&THORN;?&uuml;
0x00b0 43 f7 e3 8b d1 86 d6 b1-06 d2 ee 42 f7 e2 39 56 C÷&atilde;?&Ntilde;?&Ouml;±.&Ograve;&icirc;B÷&acirc;9V
0x00c0 0a 77 23 72 05 39 46 08-73 1c b8 01 02 bb 00 7c .w#r.9F.s¸..».|
0x00d0 8b 4e 02 8b 56 00 cd 13-73 51 4f 74 4e 32 e4 8a ?N.?V.&Iacute;sQOtN2&auml;?
0x00e0 56 00 cd 13 eb e4 8a 56-00 60 bb aa 55 b4 41 cd V.&Iacute;&euml;&auml;?V.`»ªU´A&Iacute;
0x00f0 13 72 36 81 fb 55 aa 75-30 f6 c1 01 74 2b 61 60 r6?&ucirc;Uªu0&ouml;&Aacute;.t+a`
0x0100 6a 00 6a 00 ff 76 0a ff-76 08 6a 00 68 00 7c 6a j.j.&yuml;v.&yuml;v.j.h.|j
0x0110 01 6a 10 b4 42 8b f4 cd-13 61 61 73 0e 4f 74 0b .j´B?&ocirc;&Iacute;aas.Ot.
0x0120 32 e4 8a 56 00 cd 13 eb-d6 61 f9 c3 49 6e 76 61 2&auml;?V.&Iacute;&euml;&Ouml;a&ugrave;&Atilde;Inva
0x0130 6c 69 64 20 70 61 72 74-69 74 69 6f 6e 20 74 61 lid partition ta
0x0140 62 6c 65 00 45 72 72 6f-72 20 6c 6f 61 64 69 6e ble.Error loadin
0x0150 67 20 6f 70 65 72 61 74-69 6e 67 20 73 79 73 74 g operating syst
0x0160 65 6d 00 4d 69 73 73 69-6e 67 20 6f 70 65 72 61 em.Missing opera
0x0170 74 69 6e 67 20 73 79 73-74 65 6d 00 00 00 00 00 ting system.....
0x0180 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x0190 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x01a0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x01b0 00 00 00 00 00 2c 44 63-18 37 18 37 00 00 80 01 .....,Dc77..?.
0x01c0 01 00 07 fe ff ff 3f 00-00 00 82 91 a8 04 00 00 ...&thorn;&yuml;&yuml;?...??¨...
0x01d0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x01e0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x01f0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa ..............Uª

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Partition 1
NTFS BIOS Parameter Block Information

BytesPerSector : 512
Sectors Per Cluster : 8
ReservedSectors : 0
Fats : 0
RootEntries : 0
Small Sectors : 0 ( 0 MB )
Media Type : 248 ( 0xf8 )
SectorsPerFat : 0
SectorsPerTrack : 63
Heads : 255
Hidden Sectors : 63
Large Sectors : 0 ( 0 MB )

ClustersPerFRS : 246
Clust/IndxAllocBuf : 1
NumberSectors : 78156161 ( 38162.2 MB )
MftStartLcn : 16
Mft2StartLcn : 1219700
SerialNumber : 349081081291428714
Checksum : 0 (0x0)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

LBN 63 [C 0, H 1, S 1]

0x0000 eb 52 90 4e 54 46 53 20-20 20 20 00 02 08 00 00 &euml;R?NTFS .....
0x0010 00 00 00 00 00 f8 00 00-3f 00 ff 00 3f 00 00 00 .....&oslash;..?.&yuml;.?...
0x0020 00 00 00 00 80 00 80 00-81 91 a8 04 00 00 00 00 ....?.?.??¨.....
0x0030 10 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-74 9c 12 00 00 00 00 00 .......t?.....
0x0040 f6 00 00 00 01 00 00 00-6a 53 2f d8 64 2f d8 04 &ouml;.......jS/&Oslash;d/&Oslash;.
0x0050 00 00 00 00 fa 33 c0 8e-d0 bc 00 7c fb b8 c0 07 ....&uacute;3&Agrave;?м.|&ucirc;¸&Agrave;.
0x0060 8e d8 e8 16 00 b8 00 0d-8e c0 33 db c6 06 0e 00 ?&Oslash;&egrave;.¸..?&Agrave;3&Ucirc;&AElig;...
0x0070 10 e8 53 00 68 00 0d 68-6a 02 cb 8a 16 24 00 b4 &egrave;S.h..hj.&Euml;?$.´
0x0080 08 cd 13 73 05 b9 ff ff-8a f1 66 0f b6 c6 40 66 .&Iacute;s.¹&yuml;&yuml;?&ntilde;f.¶&AElig;@f
0x0090 0f b6 d1 80 e2 3f f7 e2-86 cd c0 ed 06 41 66 0f .¶&Ntilde;?&acirc;?÷&acirc;?&Iacute;&Agrave;&iacute;.Af.
0x00a0 b7 c9 66 f7 e1 66 a3 20-00 c3 b4 41 bb aa 55 8a ·&Eacute;f÷&aacute;f£ .&Atilde;´A»ªU?
0x00b0 16 24 00 cd 13 72 0f 81-fb 55 aa 75 09 f6 c1 01 $.&Iacute;r.?&ucirc;Uªu.&ouml;&Aacute;.
0x00c0 74 04 fe 06 14 00 c3 66-60 1e 06 66 a1 10 00 66 t.&thorn;..&Atilde;f`.f¡.f
0x00d0 03 06 1c 00 66 3b 06 20-00 0f 82 3a 00 1e 66 6a ...f;. ..?:.fj
0x00e0 00 66 50 06 53 66 68 10-00 01 00 80 3e 14 00 00 .fP.Sfh...?>..
0x00f0 0f 85 0c 00 e8 b3 ff 80-3e 14 00 00 0f 84 61 00 .?..&egrave;³&yuml;?>...?a.
0x0100 b4 42 8a 16 24 00 16 1f-8b f4 cd 13 66 58 5b 07 ´B?$.?&ocirc;&Iacute;fX[.
0x0110 66 58 66 58 1f eb 2d 66-33 d2 66 0f b7 0e 18 00 fXfX&euml;-f3&Ograve;f.·..
0x0120 66 f7 f1 fe c2 8a ca 66-8b d0 66 c1 ea 10 f7 36 f÷&ntilde;&thorn;&Acirc;?&Ecirc;f?Ðf&Aacute;&ecirc;÷6
0x0130 1a 00 86 d6 8a 16 24 00-8a e8 c0 e4 06 0a cc b8 .?&Ouml;?$.?&egrave;&Agrave;&auml;..&Igrave;¸
0x0140 01 02 cd 13 0f 82 19 00-8c c0 05 20 00 8e c0 66 ..&Iacute;.?.?&Agrave;. .?&Agrave;f
0x0150 ff 06 10 00 ff 0e 0e 00-0f 85 6f ff 07 1f 66 61 &yuml;..&yuml;....?o&yuml;.fa
0x0160 c3 a0 f8 01 e8 09 00 a0-fb 01 e8 03 00 fb eb fe &Atilde; &oslash;.&egrave;.. &ucirc;.&egrave;..&ucirc;&euml;&thorn;
0x0170 b4 01 8b f0 ac 3c 00 74-09 b4 0e bb 07 00 cd 10 ´.?&eth;¬<.t.´.»..&Iacute;
0x0180 eb f2 c3 0d 0a 41 20 64-69 73 6b 20 72 65 61 64 &euml;&ograve;&Atilde;..A disk read
0x0190 20 65 72 72 6f 72 20 6f-63 63 75 72 72 65 64 00 error occurred.
0x01a0 0d 0a 4e 54 4c 44 52 20-69 73 20 6d 69 73 73 69 ..NTLDR is missi
0x01b0 6e 67 00 0d 0a 4e 54 4c-44 52 20 69 73 20 63 6f ng...NTLDR is co
0x01c0 6d 70 72 65 73 73 65 64-00 0d 0a 50 72 65 73 73 mpressed...Press
0x01d0 20 43 74 72 6c 2b 41 6c-74 2b 44 65 6c 20 74 6f Ctrl+Alt+Del to
0x01e0 20 72 65 73 74 61 72 74-0d 0a 00 00 00 00 00 00 restart........
0x01f0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-83 a0 b3 c9 00 00 55 aa ........? ³&Eacute;..Uª



/* Here is our problem disk. Comments in-line */

===========================================================================
Target - \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1
31 Cylinders
255 Heads
63 Sectors Per Track /* This is normal, 63 sectors per track is standard stuff */
512 BytesPerSector
11 MediaType

===========================================================================
Master Boot Record
===========================================================================
| B | FS TYPE | START | END | | |
| F | (hex) | C H S| C H S| RELATIVE | TOTAL |
===========================================================================
| * | 06 | 0 1 1| 254 31 33| 32| 511968| /* Only one partition, type FAT (06). Total size is 511968. This is according to the MBR */
| | 00 | 0 0 0| 0 0 0| 0| 0|
| | 00 | 0 0 0| 0 0 0| 0| 0|
| | 00 | 0 0 0| 0 0 0| 0| 0|
===========================================================================
Disk Signature 0x00000000 /* This is fine since we aren't booting from this disk */


LBN 0 [C 0, H 0, S 1]

0x0000 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ /* Emtpy BPB code is also fine, since we only read that when we boot */
0x0010 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x0020 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x0030 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x0040 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x0050 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x0060 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x0070 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x0080 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x0090 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x00a0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x00b0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x00c0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x00d0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x00e0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x00f0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x0100 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x0110 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x0120 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x0130 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x0140 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x0150 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x0160 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x0170 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x0180 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x0190 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x01a0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x01b0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 80 01 ..............?.
0x01c0 01 00 06 1f 21 fe 20 00-00 00 e0 cf 07 00 00 00 ...!&thorn; ...&agrave;&Iuml;....
0x01d0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x01e0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x01f0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa ..............Uª

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Partition 1
FAT BIOS Parameter Block Information

BytesPerSector : 512
Sectors Per Cluster : 8
ReservedSectors : 1
Fats : 2
RootEntries : 512
Small Sectors : 0 ( 0 MB )
Media Type : 248 ( 0xf8 )
SectorsPerFat : 250
SectorsPerTrack : 32 /* Notice how this is different from the MBR? That's a VERY BAD THING */
Heads : 64
Hidden Sectors : 32 /* Again, for the first partition this should ALWAYS match the sectors/track value */
Large Sectors : 511968 ( 249 MB )

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

LBN 32 [C 0, H 0, S 33]

0x0000 eb 3c 90 2b 30 6b 27 74-49 48 43 00 02 08 01 00 &euml;<?+0k'tIHC.....
0x0010 02 00 02 00 00 f8 fa 00-20 00 40 00 20 00 00 00 .....&oslash;&uacute;. .@. ...
0x0020 e0 cf 07 00 80 00 29 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 &agrave;&Iuml;..?.).........
0x0030 00 00 00 00 00 00 46 41-54 31 36 20 20 20 00 00 ......FAT16 ..
0x0040 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x0050 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x0060 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x0070 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x0080 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x0090 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x00a0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x00b0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x00c0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x00d0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x00e0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x00f0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x0100 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x0110 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x0120 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x0130 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x0140 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x0150 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x0160 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x0170 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x0180 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x0190 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x01a0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x01b0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x01c0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x01d0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0x01e0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................


In addition to that, I had him use disk probe to save the sector 0, sector 32, and sector 64 information. This gives us the MBR and boot sector (at sector 32 or 63, based on which is correct)

Disk Probe was unable to read the data from the MBR. DiskSave (another utility I sent him that runs from a DOS 6.0 boot disk) was also unable to read it. The only time I've seen that is with physical damage and/or controller issues.

We were able to save sectors 32 and 63. Sector 32 was blank (expected because the disk is designed at 63 sectors per track, despite what the FAT boot sector said), but sector 63 contained an NTFS boot sector (if you look above, our first look at sector 63 showed us a FAT sector). The size didn't match what it was supposed to, and it didn't match what was in the MBR. He didn't just grab the sector from the wrong disk, because the size information for the partition didn't match what we have listed for physical disk 0 above either.

That in itself wouldn't be a huge deal if we could edit the MBR to match what our boot sector has, but we can't. We can open a handle to the disk, but not read the first sector. Disk Save can't either.

We have one more thing we can try, but I never walk customer's through it unless I know they have a backup of the data or they have absolutely no other option. If you know you have a good boot sector, you can save that boot sector (as we've already done), delete the partition in disk management, then recreate it. Do NOT choose to format the partition or you will lose everything.

Once that is done, you use Disk Probe to restore the boot sector we had saved to sector 63.

There are many potential reasons this doesn't work based on physical disk geometry, physical corruption, and partition sizing.... that's why I don't do it unless there is no other option and/or there is a good backup of the data.

I don't mean to sound rude Laputa, and that wasn't my intent with my comment, but I have more than a passing knowledge of disk, and I had information you didn't. The bootcfg command will replace and/or rebuild the boot.ini, which is great if our problem is not finding the boot partition during startup. He is not trying to boot from this disk, he is trying to access the data on it.

 

[DrJeff]

UPDATE: The techs at the computer shop could not get anything off the drive. They are referring me to a local data recovery specialist. They tried every utility they have on it. They said from the looks of it, the drive sustained damage to "the most important track on the disk", pretty much affirming only what we have said all along. Luckily, they are not charging me anything for that wisdom...

Jeff