Looks like Partition Magic screwed my hard disk

[AndrewR]

I started it creating a new partition last night so I could reformat my old one (Windows is giving me fits). I went this morning to look at it -- "Non-system disk, please replace..."

<sigh> I was tired and didn't want to wait for it, but I guess there was nothing too entirely critical on there. Any chance that if I install PM5 on my other computer and create the rescue disks that I can revive my partition (only one main one on the other system, I was creating a smaller secondary one)? Fatigue made me careless.

 

[progiciel]

Hi,

It's hard to tell what you did wrong without knowing all the details; one possibility might be that you created a second partition, didn't install any kind of operating system in it but made it active or primary. The computer will try to boot from it and fail. If you can boot from a floppy, fdisk (if you don't have PM5 handy) should allow you to activate a different partition. But if you have another running system, and can copy the DOS directory (the pqmagic DOS directory, not the operating system!!!) to a floppy, try to activate another partition with pqmagic. I much prefer it to fdisk. Your original partition should still be there, unless you deleted it.

I hope this helps!

 

[Mears]

Sorry to hear about that. I had a similar problem with Boot Magic. What I would do is boot up with your Windows boot disk and then run FDISK and see what is going on in there and then delete partitions or switch active drives.

 

[dennilfloss]

I had a similar thing happen when I tried to use Partition Magic to subdivide the partition on which my OS was. It actually erased the partition. I had to recreate and format it, then restore it with my Drive Image image stored on my other partition (I also have it on disk, along with the DI program). With great power comes great danger.

I booted with the Windows 98 boot disk and found out that the OS partition was completely gone. I used fdisk to feel the now available space with a partition and reformatted. Then from DOS I ran Drive Image and all was back to normal in ~10 minutes.

 

[Slacker]

Hi Andrew

I Fubar'd my hdd while tinkering with Partition magic and their tech support was able to guide me through fixing it, try it!

Hmmm... Non system disk, you dont have a floppy in the drive do you? you probably checked that already.

If it is telling you that your hdd is a non system disk then that means the system files are not present, try doing a &quot;sys c:&quot; from a boot floppy made from the same o/s as is installed on the problem drive

If you end up having to do a full format you can try putting that drive in a working system as a slave drive first so you can try to save some data.

post back and let us know what happens

 

[stockjock]

I can't help you with your problem because I have one of my own with Partition Commander. It totally wiped out my second HD when it locked during a re-partitioning...I fixed that problem but I just noticed it added a third CD ...and I don't know how to delete it...it doesn't show up in the device manager..but does show up in the My Computer and in the control panel sections....if I click on the phantom drive nothing happens..I can't even right click on it...Whats a guy to do here???

 

[AndrewR]

I am going to try the boot floppy when I get home, but I didn't have time this morning (no, there are no floppies in the drives -- been there, done that, felt like an idiot!; I also removed CDs in case it decided to look there for a bootable CD).

I am hoping that it just made the second partition active even though I didn't choose that option. It can't find BootMagic so it may be looking at that second partition during boot. I have a couple other hard drives in the system (which are also screwed up in their own ways -- 38GB of space just sitting idle ) or the other system I can use to boot off of to check this disk.

I'll post my findings tonight. Ain't computers fun???

 

[randypj]

Slacker--at one time, I figured out why, sometimes, my drive imaged hidden boot images needed to be sys c: 'd, and why sometimes they didn't. I've slept since then. Any idea? No biggie.

As with your instance, only once out of 50-100 times using PM, have I had a problem. Powerquest tech support was able to walk me through pqrp (?) and Norton Disk Editor (?) and &quot;fix&quot; the non-recognized partition. I sure can't remember the specifics. Heck, that must've been 4 or 5 years ago. PM 3.01 or before.

AndrewR--If you've gotta have the data back, I've heard that Lost and Found works wonders.

DI and PM.....they'll have to rip 'em from my cold, dead hard drive.
--Randy

 

[AndrewR]

The data is still there, but I cannot access it yet. I tried Partition Magic rescue disks as well as Norton Disk Doctor, but they cannot fix it (Partition Magic said it was a &quot;Critical&quot; error).

I deleted the second partition (empty), and the partition is accessible though it's completely screwed up. Scandisk said that it found 5.5GB of data that's &quot;probably just taking up space -- Do you want to delete?&quot; NOPE!

I'm installing Windows on another drive and will hook up the messed up one as secondary and see what I can do with it.

randypj: Lost and Found sounds interesting -- who makes it?

 

[randypj]

AndrewR--Lost and Found is by Powerquest. I believe it is a free download (or as a utility on MaximumPC cd, etc.), and is crippled to only SHOW you what files can be retrieved. A buddy of mine used it and got almost everything back.
--Randy

 

[medic]

AndrewR

Lost &amp; Found is free to try the demo to see what can be recovered, then you need to buy it to actually recover the data.

Directory Snoop is a very powerfull tool that is shareware but fully functional.

 

[stockjock]

Just wanted to tell you...Thanks CRV that Lost and Found worked great..I had a Partition Commander disaster where I lost all my files on my secondary drive and the Lost &amp; Found worked great...

Thanks again..