One partition on HD goes "unformatted"?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Marc Erickson
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Marc Erickson

I shut down my box and restarted - when I did, the Windows XP installation
on the G: partition (FAT32) had disappeared (I have a multiboot box with
WinNT4, Win98SE, and Win2K as the other OSes). I checked it with a DOS boot
disk and DOS can still see all the files - so can Win98 - but Win2K sees the
partition as unformatted. I've run ScanDisk both from DOS and Win98 on the
partition and they corrected a reported free space error and a couple of
reported file length errors only. I then ran Norton DiskDoctor on the
partition and again got a reported free space error which was corrected.
I've run Western Digital's disk checking utility's Quick Check test and it
reported no problems. Win2K still sees the partition as unformatted while
Win98 and DOS see it normally. VoptXP (a disk defragmentation utility from
http://www.goldenbow.com) also sees the partition as unformatted. I'm also
having other wierdness with this drive - I'm getting an
Inaccessible_Boot_Disk stop error in NT so can't boot the machine at all to
NT.

I'd prefer not to reinstall WinXP as I just did it - any suggestions? If I
do have to reinstall what can I do to check the partition before I install
so that all errors are repaired and this doesn't happen again?
 
Marc Erickson said:
I shut down my box and restarted - when I did, the Windows XP installation
on the G: partition (FAT32) had disappeared (I have a multiboot box with
WinNT4, Win98SE, and Win2K as the other OSes). I checked it with a DOS boot
disk and DOS can still see all the files - so can Win98 - but Win2K sees the
partition as unformatted. I've run ScanDisk both from DOS and Win98 on the
partition and they corrected a reported free space error and a couple of
reported file length errors only. I then ran Norton DiskDoctor on the
partition and again got a reported free space error which was corrected.
I've run Western Digital's disk checking utility's Quick Check test and it
reported no problems. Win2K still sees the partition as unformatted while
Win98 and DOS see it normally. VoptXP (a disk defragmentation utility from
http://www.goldenbow.com) also sees the partition as unformatted. I'm also
having other wierdness with this drive - I'm getting an
Inaccessible_Boot_Disk stop error in NT so can't boot the machine at all to
NT.

I'd prefer not to reinstall WinXP as I just did it - any suggestions? If I
do have to reinstall what can I do to check the partition before I install
so that all errors are repaired and this doesn't happen again?
Click to expand...

do you have S.M.A.R.T enabled in the bios?
if not...enable it and see if it detects an error

also run the mfg's *full* test rather than the quick test

it does look like a drive problem of some type
 
I shut down my box and restarted - when I did, the Windows XP installation
on the G: partition (FAT32) had disappeared (I have a multiboot box with
WinNT4, Win98SE, and Win2K as the other OSes). I checked it with a DOS boot
disk and DOS can still see all the files - so can Win98 - but Win2K sees the
partition as unformatted. I've run ScanDisk both from DOS and Win98 on the
partition and they corrected a reported free space error and a couple of
reported file length errors only. I then ran Norton DiskDoctor on the
partition and again got a reported free space error which was corrected.
I've run Western Digital's disk checking utility's Quick Check test and it
reported no problems. Win2K still sees the partition as unformatted while
Win98 and DOS see it normally. VoptXP (a disk defragmentation utility from
http://www.goldenbow.com) also sees the partition as unformatted. I'm also
having other wierdness with this drive - I'm getting an
Inaccessible_Boot_Disk stop error in NT so can't boot the machine at all to
NT.

I'd prefer not to reinstall WinXP as I just did it - any suggestions? If I
do have to reinstall what can I do to check the partition before I install
so that all errors are repaired and this doesn't happen again?
Click to expand...

It's not clear exactly what's going on. Are you saying that when you boot W2K
you can't see the XP partition? If so, that's OK -- you shouldn't see it. The
boot manager should be hiding every system partition except the one it's
booting.

Are you saying that you can't boot XP? If so, what are the symptoms?

You say you can't boot NT - I presume that this happens when you are
selecting it from the boot manager's list. If so, I don't know what's wrong.
I hope someone else can help you. AFAIK, it will involve the master boot
record as well as the partition table.

HTH
 
When I boot Win2K - it reports the G: partition as being formatted with an
unknown file system. I can't boot NT - but that doesn't matter as NT
doesn't recognize FAT32 drives. I can't boot WinXP - I get the error
<Systemroot>\system32\hal.dll is missing or corrupt - Please reinstall a
copy of the above file. When I boot Win98 (in Safe Mode only - this
computer is having other issues), Win98 reads the G: partiton just fine - I
copied a whack of files that I had on my Desktop to another partition and it
preserved the long file names etc. and Win2k can read the copied files (on
the different partition - its the M: partition) just fine.


Marc
 
When I boot Win2K - it reports the G: partition as being formatted with an
unknown file system. I can't boot NT - but that doesn't matter as NT
doesn't recognize FAT32 drives. I can't boot WinXP - I get the error
<Systemroot>\system32\hal.dll is missing or corrupt - Please reinstall a
copy of the above file. When I boot Win98 (in Safe Mode only - this
computer is having other issues), Win98 reads the G: partiton just fine - I
copied a whack of files that I had on my Desktop to another partition and it
preserved the long file names etc. and Win2k can read the copied files (on
the different partition - its the M: partition) just fine.


Marc
Click to expand...

I think you've got more issues than I can help you with. I can suggest where
some of the problems might lie.

The fact that XP won't boot means its installation is corrupt or incomplete.
The error message is a clue: hal.dll is the hardware list - something's wrong
with it is my guess. Did you add or remove any hardware after installing XP
without first uninstalling the HW from within XP? That's one thing that can
cause this problem - both W2K and XP dislike surprises when it comes to
hardware (I think this feature is designed to prevent you from ghosting a
system partition to another drive, and then moving the 2nd drive to another
machine.)

The fact that W2K doesn't recognise the file system on the XP partition I
don't understand, since AFAIK both W2K and XP use NTFS - but I'm not
knowledgeable about XP, so maybe MS has changed the NTFS for XP. Also I was
under the impression that the boot manager would hide the XP system partition
when you boot W2K and vice versa; but maybe I'm wrong about that. :-(

Do you get the option to boot into Safe Mode when you try booting XP? If so,
do a Repair in Safe Mode.

Can Win98 copy files from the messed up partition? If so, you can save data.
So I would just go over that partition again, save whatever files I think I
might need, then destroy (delete) the partition, and reinstall XP. Boot from
the XP CD, and make it install itself in the free space - it will create a
partition and format it when directed to do so. You didn't say how large this
partition is, but it should be at least 5GB.

BTW, there are add-ons that will enable NT to read FAT32 and FAT 16. I don't
know anything about them except that they exist. Google on "NT4 FAT32 FAT16",
and you should find several of them.

And that pretty well exhausts my knowledge. HTH
 
No.

The only OSes that do not see the partition as RAW are Win98 - installed on
the hard drive - and MS-DOS 6.22 - on a boot floppy.

The Partition was FAT32 - NTFS doesn't come into it (I'm scared of Alternate
Data Streams).

Marc
 
Wolf, thanks for the help. To answer your questions:
Did you add or remove any hardware after installing XP
without first uninstalling the HW from within XP?
No.

Also I was
under the impression that the boot manager would hide the XP system partition
when you boot W2K and vice versa; but maybe I'm wrong about that. :-(
Click to expand...

It does not hide any partitions from you.
Do you get the option to boot into Safe Mode when you try booting XP? If so,
do a Repair in Safe Mode.
Click to expand...

I haven't tried - the Recovery Console (a selection when you boot off of the
WinXP CD) can't find a WinXP installation to log on to - so I assume Safe
Mode would be pointless - since Win2K can't see a valid partition there.
Can Win98 copy files from the messed up partition? If so, you can save
Click to expand...
data.

Yes - and I've done so.
BTW, there are add-ons that will enable NT to read FAT32 and FAT 16. I don't
know anything about them except that they exist. Google on "NT4 FAT32 FAT16",
and you should find several of them.
Click to expand...

I will try that - thanks very much for that suggestion.


Marc
 
DOS 6.22 cannot recognize FAT32.
While in XP RecoveryConsole, run 'map' and post the results.
 
Map in Recovery console showed the partition as not formatted. I ran
fixboot and it didn't recover the partition, so I backed up my data, wrote
zeros to the drive, and repartitioned and reinstalled. Nothing that 20
hours of work couldn't fix! ;-)

Thanks to all for the help.


Marc Erickson
 
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