Lost partition - damaged boot sector

  • Thread starter Thread starter Margaret Coffin
  • Start date Start date
M

Margaret Coffin

I suddently lost my partition table. My hard disk (40 GB) has three
partitions (mixed FAT32 and NTFS). The first one is bootable. I want
to recover the last one. My disk is viewable from BIOS so it seems
mainly a software problem. Which is the best software to use to try
and recover data? It would be better to recover the whole folder tree
but even a good single file recovery software will be useful.
Somewhere I read that a copy of the boot sector lies half way through
the disk but none of the softwares i've tried seems to rely on this to
try to recover the partition table structure.

I know that my disk (40 GB) was so divided:

C: 7,32 Gbytes
D: 5.50 Gbytes
E: the rest

Although I don't know if actually C is partition one, D is two and so
on

Up to now the best results I obtained are the following:

1)
Using OnTrack Easy Recovery I was able in raw mode to actually view
some files (couldn't save..only demo version) but the amount of these
was so little that it wasn't really worth buying. This probably was
due to not contiguous files (which raw mode doesnt't recognize).

2)
Using Stellar Phoenix I was able to find the start of three Logical
Partitions. Either there are errors or one partition is "inside" the
other because sizes don't match. My disk is 40 GB and this is what I
get:

Logical 1 Starting at 7679063 Size is 34.694 Gbytes
Logical 2 Starting at 15358203 Size is 5.512 Gbytes
Logical 3 Starting at 24266179 Size is 26.787 Gbytes

TIA for any help

Ciao,

Marcello
(Rome, Italy)
 
I suddently lost my partition table. My hard disk (40 GB) has three
partitions (mixed FAT32 and NTFS). The first one is bootable. I want
to recover the last one. My disk is viewable from BIOS so it seems
mainly a software problem. Which is the best software to use to try
and recover data? It would be better to recover the whole folder tree
but even a good single file recovery software will be useful.
Somewhere I read that a copy of the boot sector lies half way through
the disk but none of the softwares i've tried seems to rely on this to
try to recover the partition table structure.

I know that my disk (40 GB) was so divided:

C: 7,32 Gbytes
D: 5.50 Gbytes
E: the rest

Although I don't know if actually C is partition one, D is two and so
on

Up to now the best results I obtained are the following:

1)
Using OnTrack Easy Recovery I was able in raw mode to actually view
some files (couldn't save..only demo version) but the amount of these
was so little that it wasn't really worth buying. This probably was
due to not contiguous files (which raw mode doesnt't recognize).

2)
Using Stellar Phoenix I was able to find the start of three Logical
Partitions. Either there are errors or one partition is "inside" the
other because sizes don't match. My disk is 40 GB and this is what I
get:

Logical 1 Starting at 7679063 Size is 34.694 Gbytes
Logical 2 Starting at 15358203 Size is 5.512 Gbytes
Logical 3 Starting at 24266179 Size is 26.787 Gbytes
Click to expand...

I've been using BootIt NG recently. Free use for 30 days. It may help you
out. You won't even have to actually install it, just cancel the install
and use the Maintenance option. Select Partition work and give it a go.
Documents come in pdf format.

Google BootIt NG.
 
On Wed, 07 Jan 2004 20:06:29 GMT In this world we created
I suddently lost my partition table. My hard disk (40 GB) has three
partitions (mixed FAT32 and NTFS). The first one is bootable. I want
to recover the last one. My disk is viewable from BIOS so it seems
mainly a software problem. Which is the best software to use to try
and recover data? It would be better to recover the whole folder tree
but even a good single file recovery software will be useful.
Somewhere I read that a copy of the boot sector lies half way through
the disk but none of the softwares i've tried seems to rely on this to
try to recover the partition table structure.

I know that my disk (40 GB) was so divided:

C: 7,32 Gbytes
D: 5.50 Gbytes
E: the rest

Although I don't know if actually C is partition one, D is two and so
on

Up to now the best results I obtained are the following:

1)
Using OnTrack Easy Recovery I was able in raw mode to actually view
some files (couldn't save..only demo version) but the amount of these
was so little that it wasn't really worth buying. This probably was
due to not contiguous files (which raw mode doesnt't recognize).

2)
Using Stellar Phoenix I was able to find the start of three Logical
Partitions. Either there are errors or one partition is "inside" the
other because sizes don't match. My disk is 40 GB and this is what I
get:

Logical 1 Starting at 7679063 Size is 34.694 Gbytes
Logical 2 Starting at 15358203 Size is 5.512 Gbytes
Logical 3 Starting at 24266179 Size is 26.787 Gbytes

TIA for any help

Ciao,

Marcello
(Rome, Italy)
Click to expand...


What operating system?



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I suddently lost my partition table. My hard disk (40 GB) has three
partitions (mixed FAT32 and NTFS). The first one is bootable. I want
to recover the last one. My disk is viewable from BIOS so it seems
mainly a software problem. Which is the best software to use to try
and recover data? It would be better to recover the whole folder tree
but even a good single file recovery software will be useful.
Somewhere I read that a copy of the boot sector lies half way through
the disk but none of the softwares i've tried seems to rely on this to
try to recover the partition table structure.

I know that my disk (40 GB) was so divided:

C: 7,32 Gbytes
D: 5.50 Gbytes
E: the rest

Although I don't know if actually C is partition one, D is two and so
on

Up to now the best results I obtained are the following:

1)
Using OnTrack Easy Recovery I was able in raw mode to actually view
some files (couldn't save..only demo version) but the amount of these
was so little that it wasn't really worth buying. This probably was
due to not contiguous files (which raw mode doesnt't recognize).

2)
Using Stellar Phoenix I was able to find the start of three Logical
Partitions. Either there are errors or one partition is "inside" the
other because sizes don't match. My disk is 40 GB and this is what I
get:

Logical 1 Starting at 7679063 Size is 34.694 Gbytes
Logical 2 Starting at 15358203 Size is 5.512 Gbytes
Logical 3 Starting at 24266179 Size is 26.787 Gbytes

TIA for any help

Ciao,

Marcello
(Rome, Italy)
Click to expand...

Hi,

Download the BootMaster FreeDOS rescue disk from the site in my signature.
From within BootMaster create a diagnostic file (F12) from the damaged drive
and email it to (e-mail address removed). From the report I will be able to
see exactly what problems exist on the drive and can suggest a solution for
you.

Bob

Robert Green
BootMaster Partition Recovery
http://bootmaster.filerecovery.biz
 
Margaret said:
I suddently lost my partition table. My hard disk (40 GB) has three
partitions (mixed FAT32 and NTFS). The first one is bootable. I want
to recover the last one. My disk is viewable from BIOS so it seems
mainly a software problem. Which is the best software to use to try
and recover data? It would be better to recover the whole folder tree
but even a good single file recovery software will be useful.
Somewhere I read that a copy of the boot sector lies half way through
the disk but none of the softwares i've tried seems to rely on this to
try to recover the partition table structure.

I know that my disk (40 GB) was so divided:

C: 7,32 Gbytes
D: 5.50 Gbytes
E: the rest
.... snip ...

Using Stellar Phoenix I was able to find the start of three Logical
Partitions. Either there are errors or one partition is "inside" the
other because sizes don't match. My disk is 40 GB and this is what I
get:

Logical 1 Starting at 7679063 Size is 34.694 Gbytes
Logical 2 Starting at 15358203 Size is 5.512 Gbytes
Logical 3 Starting at 24266179 Size is 26.787 Gbytes
Click to expand...

This looks to me as if "Logical 1" has dropped some bits in its
definition. It should start at some fairly low number. Sectors
are normally 512 bytes, and the "Logical 2" starting point X 512
is approximately the 7 G you expect. After that the sizes would
add up more or less correctly.

What you want to do is avoid writing to that disk until you have
found something to correct the partition table for you. It may
well be too late.
 
That's happened to me before - commiserations.

Well I would recommend you hook up a second drive and then install and use
the brilliant and free (no demos, just utterly free) PC Inspector File
Recovery tool on it to read the other drive. That way you don't overwrite
anything and you can recover to another disk and (consider that your drive
might have a mechanical problem, but in my case I ssem to remember it was
probably a power fluctuation that erased something as I was partitioning).

Good luck : )
 
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