Lost FAT32 Partition

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ben
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Ben

The other night I was copying data (about 60gb) from an 80gb external
USB drive onto my relatively new 200gb hard drive. About a third of
the way through the transfer stalled, so I cancelled it and attempted
to restart it from where it stalled at. The file transfer window
popped up but no data started trasnferring, so I attempted to cancel
again which brought my computer to its knees, I tried closing
applications and such, but my computer just became completely frozen.
Not knowing what else to do, I restarted. When windows loaded up the
main data partion on the 200gb drive (190 of the 200gb) was no longer
recognized by windows. The next time I restarted windows told me the
other partition on the drive needed to be scanned and then proceeded
to spent the next few hours spitting out the message "Bad link in
cluster xxxxxx. corrected." It was at 340,000 after five hours, at
which point I turned off my monitor and went to sleep. The small
parition is now mostly filled with a FOUND.000 folder.

Also, partition magic sees two unallocated blocks where the one giant
partition used to be.

Upon a friends suggestion I downloaded findpart and ran that with the
following results:

Findpart, version 4.53 - for Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP.
Copyright Svend Olaf Mikkelsen, 1999-2004.

OS: Windows 5.0.2195 Service Pack 4

Disk: 2 Cylinders: 16709 Heads: 255 Sectors: 63 MB: 131069

--PCyl N ID -----Rel -----Num ---MB --Start CHS- ---End CHS-- BS CHS
0+- 0C 0 19551042 9546 0 1 1 1216 254 63 B OK
1217+- 0B 0468840896228926 1217 1 1 30400 254 62 B OK?

------FAT CHS -Size Cl --Root -Good -Rep. Maybe --Bad YY-MM-DD DataMB
0 1 33 9538 8 2* 9538 0 0 0 1
1217 1 33 Second FAT not found.

Partitions according to partition tables on second harddisk:

--PCyl N ID -----Rel -----Num ---MB --Start CHS- ---End CHS-- BS CHS
0 1 0C 63 19551042 9546 0 1 1 1216*254 63 NB OK
0 2 0F 19551105468840960228926 1217# 0 1 30400*254 63 OK?

No signature CHS: 1217 0 1


I have been informed that letting windows fix the other partition on
the disk might have been a bad idea, but hopefully Svend or someone
else with knowledge on the subject here will be able to help me.

Thanks,
Ben
 
Findpart, version 4.53 - for Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP.
Copyright Svend Olaf Mikkelsen, 1999-2004.

OS: Windows 5.0.2195 Service Pack 4

Disk: 2 Cylinders: 16709 Heads: 255 Sectors: 63 MB: 131069

--PCyl N ID -----Rel -----Num ---MB --Start CHS- ---End CHS-- BS CHS
0+- 0C 0 19551042 9546 0 1 1 1216 254 63 B OK
1217+- 0B 0468840896228926 1217 1 1 30400 254 62 B OK?

------FAT CHS -Size Cl --Root -Good -Rep. Maybe --Bad YY-MM-DD DataMB
0 1 33 9538 8 2* 9538 0 0 0 1
1217 1 33 Second FAT not found.

Partitions according to partition tables on second harddisk:

--PCyl N ID -----Rel -----Num ---MB --Start CHS- ---End CHS-- BS CHS
0 1 0C 63 19551042 9546 0 1 1 1216*254 63 NB OK
0 2 0F 19551105468840960228926 1217# 0 1 30400*254 63 OK?

No signature CHS: 1217 0 1
Click to expand...

This is damage due to the Microsoft Windows 2000 128 GB problem. You
have to enable large disks in the registry. When done, and Findpart
shows the disk as correct size, you can do this for further
examination:

findpart findfat 2 1217 1230 fp-a.txt

If the output file is not too large, you can insert it here.


You also can do:

findpart finddir 2 1217 1400 fp-b.txt

and mail me the file fp-b.txt.


My evaluation is that you will have to work by copying files to
another disk using recovery programs. The result will depend on the
condition of the FAT, and if files were fragmented. A number of files
may be lost, since they may have been overwritten by the 128 GB
problem.

It would be an alternative to wait correcting the 128 GB problem,
which may help if you want to recover files most recently written to
the disk. That way recovery programs may read at the same wrong
locations as data were written.
 
This is damage due to the Microsoft Windows 2000 128 GB problem. You
have to enable large disks in the registry. When done, and Findpart
shows the disk as correct size, you can do this for further
examination:

findpart findfat 2 1217 1230 fp-a.txt
Click to expand...

Though it sounds like you are referring to a problem that is specific to
Win2000, I've been told about a general FAT32 problem that supposedly
occurs on ANY large partition.

If you call Maxtor about problems with, for example, their 250gb external
USB 2 drives, they will usually claim that any lost files, access problems
etc are due to deterioration of FAT32 partitions! Their claim is that
FAT32 simply is not stable over a certain size (I think they say 80gb).

This may be an attempt to evade tech support problems, but I'm curious
about whether you've heard of this or if it relates to the problem you
refer to above.
 
Though it sounds like you are referring to a problem that is specific to
Win2000, I've been told about a general FAT32 problem that supposedly
occurs on ANY large partition.

If you call Maxtor about problems with, for example, their 250gb external
USB 2 drives, they will usually claim that any lost files, access problems
etc are due to deterioration of FAT32 partitions! Their claim is that
FAT32 simply is not stable over a certain size (I think they say 80gb).

This may be an attempt to evade tech support problems, but I'm curious
about whether you've heard of this or if it relates to the problem you
refer to above.
Click to expand...

From mail I have:
Finddir, version FP 4.53.
Copyright Svend Olaf Mikkelsen, 2004.

Searches for subdirectories and calculates cluster two
location. 'Cluster' is cluster number or cluster 2 CHS.
'KB' is cluster KB. May also say something about FAT location.

OS: Windows 5.0.2195 Service Pack 4

Disk: 2 Cylinders: 30401 Heads: 255 Sectors: 63 MB: 238473

Start cylinder: 1217 End cylinder: 1400

--------- CHS ----- LBA -- Cluster (2) ----- LBA -KB YYMMDD
1224 32 62 19665637 possible root
1258 113 44 20216932 4202920 041122
1300 0 1 20884500 searched
1347 183 25 21651108 4225329 041122
1348 201 42 21668324 4225598 041122
1349 248 24 21687332 4225895 041122
1355 234 4 21782820 4227387 041122
1355 235 5 21782884 4227388 041122
1364 228 53 21927076 4229641 041122
1371 119 1 22032612 4231290 041122
1378 119 58 22145124 4233048 041122
1386 101 32 22272484 4235038 041122
1394 192 51 22406756 4237136 041122
1399 101 19 22481316 4238301 041122
1400 0 1 22491000 searched

------FAT CHS ------LBA Confidence Distance Type Sig
1217 1 33 19551200 1469 32 OK
1220 144 47 19608418 1469 57218 32 OK
Click to expand...

Findpart found the same number of used FAT sectors in each of the two
FAT copies, meaning that the FAT copies may be equal and define data
for 1469/57218 of the total partition size. This seems less than
expected if about 128 GB of data should be in the partition.

Findpart did not calculate the cluster size for the directories, which
is suspicious. At LBA address 20216932 we have directory cluster
4202920. I have calculated that cluster 4202920 belongs in LBA
288652388. The result of 288652388 minus 20216932 is 268435456, which
is 2^28, the number of sectors in 128 GB.

Meaning that the directories located in the beginning of the partition
really belongs at the end of the partition.

It may be possible to just run a recovery program, and then copy some
files, but if I should help, I would take it from the beginning, and
run this search, which will take some time:

findpart finddir 2 fp-c.txt

The purpose of this is to locate directories, which are at the correct
location. The entire disk is searched. By second thought is may be
enough to search the part of the partition within 128 GB:

findpart finddir 2 1217 16709 fp-d.txt

You can mail me output files.

I did not hear about any problems related to FAT32 partitions.
 
I've seen that you've helped a lot of people save their partitions and
was wondering if you could help me. I'm having an issue with the
second drive listed below. Here is the the findpart file. I
aapreciate any help you can provide me


Findpart, version 4.53 - for Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP.
Copyright Svend Olaf Mikkelsen, 1999-2004.

OS: Windows 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2

Disk: 2 Cylinders: 15881 Heads: 240 Sectors: 63 MB: 117246

--PCyl N ID -----Rel -----Num ---MB --Start CHS- ---End CHS-- BS CHS
0 - 07 63240119617117245 0 1 1 15880 223 31 B OK

No FATs found.

Partitions according to partition tables on second harddisk:

--PCyl N ID -----Rel -----Num ---MB --Start CHS- ---End CHS-- BS CHS
0 1 42 63240120657117246 0 1 1 15880*239 63 OK
 
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