Lost logical drive. Answer?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bob T
  • Start date Start date
B

Bob T

Original message: Refer to "Lost a logical drive,
recovery." of Aug 5, 2003.

.... >> Any ideas on how to recover?

Reply:
It looks like the partition type-marker is wrong,
or one that W2K can't understand (W2K seems rather
stupid about partition types and file systems,
actually - it reports OS/2 HPFS partitions as NTFS,
but of course cannot read them.) Also, the directory
structure on F: seems corrupted. The fact that PM
can recognise the capacity and file system of F, but
apparently misreports its usage, indicates that the
partition table may also be corrupted. In any
case, a number of crucial bytes stored in various places
on the HD are not what they should be.
Click to expand...

----------------------------------------
Additional information: I found that DOS can see
the drive just fine, so I think the partition table
is ok?

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

A follow up:

I think I've found the problem? Now the question is, how
do I get at it to see if this is true?

I used the PowerQuest tool to look at the Partiotion
Tables.

It gave me complete info on all the partition tables, both
in the Hex form and in aN easy to read "English" version.

The Partition Table analysis for each drive came up with
"no errors detected."

Careful searching turned up one anomaly in what PM calls,
the "Boot Record."

There, it shows the "number" that is reserved for NT.

I'm not sure what that is, but am guessing that it is the
info of what number NT5 is using to access the particular
drive, at it's location, Serial number/registration.

The log shows the following: (for all good drives)

"Number Reserved for NT: 0x00"

(for the drive NT can no longer read)

"Number Reserved for NT: 0x03."

Could this be it?

I'd like to change that value to "0x00," so it matches all
the other drives, and see if that corrects the problem.

I'm supposing it's a registry entry somewhere?

Can someone tell me how to get at it so I can make the
change? Or once I know where the entry is, I can "zero"
it out, reboot and maybe the registry will self-correct?

Ideas?

Bob


What follows is a small portion of the "Boot Record."

I have "****" the anomoly:

Readable Drives:
======================================================
Boot Record for drive E: (Drive: 1, Starting sector:
61,448,688, Type: FAT32)
======================================================
1. Jump: EB 5A 90
2. OEM Name: MSWIN4.1
3. Bytes per Sector: 512
4. Sectors per Cluster: 8
5. Reserved Sectors: 32
6. Number of FAT's: 2
7. Reserved: 0x0000
8. Reserved: 0x0000
9. Media Descriptor: 0xF8
10. Sectors per FAT: 0
11. Sectors per Track: 63 (0x3F)
12. Number of Heads: 255 (0xFF)
13. Hidden Sectors: 61448688 (0x3A9A1F0)
14. Big Total Sectors: 24579387 (0x1770D3B)
15. Big Sectors per FAT: 23958
16. Extended Flags: 0x0000
17. FS Version: 0
18. First Cluster of Root: 68 (0x44)
19. FS Info Sector: 1
20. Backup Boot Sector: 6
21. Reserved: 000000000000000000000000
22. Drive ID: 0x80
******* 23. Reserved for NT: 0x00 *******
24. Extended Boot Sig: 0x29
25. Serial Number: 0xBAA3F96B
26. Volume Name:
27. File System Type: FAT32
28. Boot Signature: 0xAA55

Unreadable Drive:
======================================================

Boot Record for drive F: (Drive: 1, Starting sector:
86,028,138, Type: FAT32)
======================================================
1. Jump: EB 5A 90
2. OEM Name: MSWIN4.1
3. Bytes per Sector: 512
4. Sectors per Cluster: 8
5. Reserved Sectors: 32
6. Number of FAT's: 2
7. Reserved: 0x0000
8. Reserved: 0x0000
9. Media Descriptor: 0xF8
10. Sectors per FAT: 0
11. Sectors per Track: 63 (0x3F)
12. Number of Heads: 255 (0xFF)
13. Hidden Sectors: 86028138 (0x520AF6A)
14. Big Total Sectors: 24579387 (0x1770D3B)
15. Big Sectors per FAT: 23958
16. Extended Flags: 0x0000
17. FS Version: 0
18. First Cluster of Root: 24546 (0x5FE2)
19. FS Info Sector: 1
20. Backup Boot Sector: 6
21. Reserved: 000000000000000000000000
22. Drive ID: 0x80
****** 23. Reserved for NT: 0x03 *******
24. Extended Boot Sig: 0x29
25. Serial Number: 0xF8DAA4CC
26. Volume Name:
27. File System Type: FAT32
28. Boot Signature: 0xAA55
 
-----Original Message-----

Original message: Refer to "Lost a logical drive,
recovery." of Aug 5, 2003.


.... >> Any ideas on how to recover?

Reply:


----------------------------------------
Additional information: I found that DOS can see
the drive just fine, so I think the partition table
is ok?

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

A follow up:

I think I've found the problem? Now the question is, how
do I get at it to see if this is true?

I used the PowerQuest tool to look at the Partiotion
Tables.

It gave me complete info on all the partition tables, both
in the Hex form and in aN easy to read "English" version.

The Partition Table analysis for each drive came up with
"no errors detected."

Careful searching turned up one anomaly in what PM calls,
the "Boot Record."

There, it shows the "number" that is reserved for NT.

I'm not sure what that is, but am guessing that it is the
info of what number NT5 is using to access the particular
drive, at it's location, Serial number/registration.

The log shows the following: (for all good drives)

"Number Reserved for NT: 0x00"

(for the drive NT can no longer read)

"Number Reserved for NT: 0x03."

Could this be it?

I'd like to change that value to "0x00," so it matches all
the other drives, and see if that corrects the problem.

I'm supposing it's a registry entry somewhere?

Can someone tell me how to get at it so I can make the
change? Or once I know where the entry is, I can "zero"
it out, reboot and maybe the registry will self-correct?

Ideas?

Bob


What follows is a small portion of the "Boot Record."

I have "****" the anomoly:

Readable Drives:
======================================================
Boot Record for drive E: (Drive: 1, Starting sector:
61,448,688, Type: FAT32)
======================================================
1. Jump: EB 5A 90
2. OEM Name: MSWIN4.1
3. Bytes per Sector: 512
4. Sectors per Cluster: 8
5. Reserved Sectors: 32
6. Number of FAT's: 2
7. Reserved: 0x0000
8. Reserved: 0x0000
9. Media Descriptor: 0xF8
10. Sectors per FAT: 0
11. Sectors per Track: 63 (0x3F)
12. Number of Heads: 255 (0xFF)
13. Hidden Sectors: 61448688 (0x3A9A1F0)
14. Big Total Sectors: 24579387 (0x1770D3B)
15. Big Sectors per FAT: 23958
16. Extended Flags: 0x0000
17. FS Version: 0
18. First Cluster of Root: 68 (0x44)
19. FS Info Sector: 1
20. Backup Boot Sector: 6
21. Reserved: 000000000000000000000000
22. Drive ID: 0x80
******* 23. Reserved for NT: 0x00 *******
24. Extended Boot Sig: 0x29
25. Serial Number: 0xBAA3F96B
26. Volume Name:
27. File System Type: FAT32
28. Boot Signature: 0xAA55

Unreadable Drive:
======================================================

Boot Record for drive F: (Drive: 1, Starting sector:
86,028,138, Type: FAT32)
======================================================
1. Jump: EB 5A 90
2. OEM Name: MSWIN4.1
3. Bytes per Sector: 512
4. Sectors per Cluster: 8
5. Reserved Sectors: 32
6. Number of FAT's: 2
7. Reserved: 0x0000
8. Reserved: 0x0000
9. Media Descriptor: 0xF8
10. Sectors per FAT: 0
11. Sectors per Track: 63 (0x3F)
12. Number of Heads: 255 (0xFF)
13. Hidden Sectors: 86028138 (0x520AF6A)
14. Big Total Sectors: 24579387 (0x1770D3B)
15. Big Sectors per FAT: 23958
16. Extended Flags: 0x0000
17. FS Version: 0
18. First Cluster of Root: 24546 (0x5FE2)
19. FS Info Sector: 1
20. Backup Boot Sector: 6
21. Reserved: 000000000000000000000000
22. Drive ID: 0x80
****** 23. Reserved for NT: 0x03 *******
24. Extended Boot Sig: 0x29
25. Serial Number: 0xF8DAA4CC
26. Volume Name:
27. File System Type: FAT32
28. Boot Signature: 0xAA55
Click to expand...

More follow up:

I went ahead & reset the "Reserved for NT: 0x03" to "0x00."
It had no effect on anything, as far as I could tell. So,
I suppose all I was changing was a log?

Changed it back. Everything went back to the
normal "broken" state.

When I run a SCANDISK from DOS, it fails, says it cannot
read the FAT. Yet, DOS can see and read all the
directories/files, unless they are longfilenames and then
it can't get at them.

What we know:

We know the drive is readable. "Real" DOS can do it but
Win2k or anything under the W2k shell cannot.

We know that W2k | Properties, reporting it as
unformatted and with nothing on it. This is incorrect.

Dos under w2k can see it but can't read it, says there a
CRC error. Partition Magic under W2K says the drive is
formatted as FAT32, no space remaining, and has a CRC
error.

We know that PM is right in reading it as FAT32, wrong in
saying it is full, since real DOS can read/write to it.
(If there were a CRC error would DOS still be able to
read/write?_.

But DOS's SCANDISK fails when trying to read the FAT. If
there is something wrong with the FAT, would DOS still be
able to read/write to it?

Obviously, there are either errors on the drive, PM's
progrma that looks at the partition table says it is fine,
or there are errors in what W2k is doing to try and read
the drive, or both.

I need to reset whatever I can on the drive if it is bad
or reset the W2k registry table for the drives, so it can
find it again.

Does anyone have more suggestions. I need concert things
to try. Such as delete ".." registry Key and reboot.,
change this value in the PT. If it's the FAT, I have no
clue how to fix that. --I have no clue how to fix any of
this.--

Is there someway to do some type of file editing in DOS
that will let me use XCOPY to take off the information
when it runs into longfilenames?

Of course, the best answer would be to get W2k to no
longer think it is unformatted and be able to see what's
on the disk.

Help Please?

--a working nearly 25 hrs/day to try & fix this, Bob
 
Help Please?

--a working nearly 25 hrs/day to try & fix this
Click to expand...

Try a couple other W2K groups, since few if any people monitor them all.


HTH&GL


--
Best Wishes,
Wolf Kirchmeir, Blind River ON
"Not that brains are everything --
you'll also need a skull to put them in." (Nancy Franklin, 1997)
<just one w and plain ca for correct address>
 
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