Trashed a boot partition?? Dynamic Disk - wrong drive letter

[Ed Cayce]

I have a friend who got a little over his head in trying to repair his
PC.

He had a PC that was virus-infected, and figured the best way to scan
the drive was to take it out, put it in another PC as secondary drive
and scan it from that PC.

So he connected it to another PC - but this was a 160 GB drive and
Windows XP only saw it as 137 GB. I think the BIOS in that 2nd PC is
outdated. He thought, "HMM whats this dynamic/basic disk stuff" and in
Disk Manager he converted it to a dynamic disk. Of course this did not
fix the 137 GB limit problem, and when he put the drive back into his
original PC, it would not boot.

I said I'd help him out, and I booted to the Recovery Console from the
XP disk, and ran a chkdsk which repaired some problems. BUT the drive
is now coming us as D: instead of C: - and so, Windows fails pretty
early in the boot process, with a "cannot find autochk.exe" and then
blue screen. Also, XP CD will not allow a repair installation.

Is there a simple way in the Recovery Console to set the drive letter
back to C:? If Windows still wont boot, at least the repair
installation should get him back up & running.

Any help would be appreciated

 

[Juan]

Try the MAP command in the Recovery Console, to reorganize the drive
letters.. If that doesn't work use the FIXMBR command in the Recovery
Console.... or make a Boot disk to logon and make the necessary repairs to
the boot.ini file in the boot sector. Tools\Folder Options\View\Show hidden
files and folders and uncheck "Hide protected system files (recommended)"
and edit the boot.ini file in C:\ Also once logged on you can change
back the drive letters in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices but be
advised that changing the system drive letter can render the system
unbootable, it can be changed back if it was changed but it's not without
risk.

To make the Boot Disk copy the necessary files to a formatted diskette from
another computer with Windows XP... files are : Boot.ini, NTLDR and
NTDETECT.com... Or download the files from
http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm or directly from
http://1gighost.net/jerseyboy/xpquick.zip

Read the following KB articles to know the possible risks.
How to change drive letter assignments in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307844/en-us

How to restore the system/boot drive letter in Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223188/en-us

Overview of PNP enumeration and hard disk drive letter assignments in
Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/825668/en-us

 

[Ed Cayce]

Thanks Juan!

I will check those options out.

 

[Steve N.]

I have a friend who got a little over his head in trying to repair his
PC.

He had a PC that was virus-infected, and figured the best way to scan
the drive was to take it out, put it in another PC as secondary drive
and scan it from that PC.

So he connected it to another PC - but this was a 160 GB drive and
Windows XP only saw it as 137 GB. I think the BIOS in that 2nd PC is
outdated. He thought, "HMM whats this dynamic/basic disk stuff" and in
Disk Manager he converted it to a dynamic disk. Of course this did not
fix the 137 GB limit problem, and when he put the drive back into his
original PC, it would not boot.

I said I'd help him out, and I booted to the Recovery Console from the
XP disk, and ran a chkdsk which repaired some problems. BUT the drive
is now coming us as D: instead of C: - and so, Windows fails pretty
early in the boot process, with a "cannot find autochk.exe" and then
blue screen. Also, XP CD will not allow a repair installation.

Is there a simple way in the Recovery Console to set the drive letter
back to C:? If Windows still wont boot, at least the repair
installation should get him back up & running.

Any help would be appreciated

Dynamic Disk information for a volume is stored on the boot/system disk
that was active when the disk was converted to a Dynamic Disk. In other
words, the drive that was converted is now useless in any system other
than the one it was slaved to when the coversion took place. There is no
way to covert a Dynamic Disk back to Basic without losing all data on
the volume. I'm afraid your only recourse is to slave the drive back
into your friend's working machine and backup data from it then return
the drive to the other PC and do a clean install of the OS.

Steve N.

 

[Steve N.]

Try the MAP command in the Recovery Console, to reorganize the drive
letters.. If that doesn't work use the FIXMBR command in the Recovery
Console.... or make a Boot disk to logon and make the necessary repairs to
the boot.ini file in the boot sector. Tools\Folder Options\View\Show hidden
files and folders and uncheck "Hide protected system files (recommended)"
and edit the boot.ini file in C:\ Also once logged on you can change
back the drive letters in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices but be
advised that changing the system drive letter can render the system
unbootable, it can be changed back if it was changed but it's not without
risk.

To make the Boot Disk copy the necessary files to a formatted diskette from
another computer with Windows XP... files are : Boot.ini, NTLDR and
NTDETECT.com... Or download the files from
http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm or directly from
http://1gighost.net/jerseyboy/xpquick.zip

Read the following KB articles to know the possible risks.
How to change drive letter assignments in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307844/en-us

How to restore the system/boot drive letter in Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223188/en-us

Overview of PNP enumeration and hard disk drive letter assignments in
Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/825668/en-us

Sadly it won't work, Jaun. Dynamic Disks are only useable in the system
that converted them. See my reply to the OP.

Steve N.

 

[Steve N.]

Dynamic Disk information for a volume is stored on the boot/system disk
that was active when the disk was converted to a Dynamic Disk. In other
words, the drive that was converted is now useless in any system other
than the one it was slaved to when the coversion took place. There is no
way to covert a Dynamic Disk back to Basic without losing all data on
the volume. I'm afraid your only recourse is to slave the drive back
into your friend's working machine and backup data from it then return
the drive to the other PC and do a clean install of the OS.

Steve N.

Ok, I think I may need be self-corrected here. Just did a little more
research and there appears to be the possibility of converting a Dynamic
Disk back to Basic Disk without data loss.

Check out this link, I have not tried it so can't confirm or deny
success, but since you're faced with not much of an alternative it's
worth a try:

http://faq.arstechnica.com/link.php?i=1806

It applies to Win2K but it just might work for XP, too. I think you'll
need to run dskprobe.exe against the drive while it's in the other PC
that did the conversion, though.

Steve N.

 

[Steve N.]

Ok, I think I may need be self-corrected here. Just did a little more
research and there appears to be the possibility of converting a Dynamic
Disk back to Basic Disk without data loss.

Check out this link, I have not tried it so can't confirm or deny
success, but since you're faced with not much of an alternative it's
worth a try:

http://faq.arstechnica.com/link.php?i=1806

It applies to Win2K but it just might work for XP, too. I think you'll
need to run dskprobe.exe against the drive while it's in the other PC
that did the conversion, though.

Steve N.

Dskprobe.exe is also include on the Win XP CD, in Support\Tools\Support.cab.

Steve N.

 

[Steve N.]

Ok, I think I may need be self-corrected here. Just did a little more
research and there appears to be the possibility of converting a Dynamic
Disk back to Basic Disk without data loss.

Check out this link, I have not tried it so can't confirm or deny
success, but since you're faced with not much of an alternative it's
worth a try:

http://faq.arstechnica.com/link.php?i=1806

It applies to Win2K but it just might work for XP, too. I think you'll
need to run dskprobe.exe against the drive while it's in the other PC
that did the conversion, though.

Steve N.

I've just tested it and it works on my XP box. The dskprobe.exe in Win2K
and WinXP are exactly the same. Nice simple disk sector editor BTW, I
had no idea it shipped witn Windows. Go for it and good luck.

Please report back to this thread with your findings.

Steve N.

 

[Joep]

Ok, I think I may need be self-corrected here. Just did a little more
research and there appears to be the possibility of converting a Dynamic
Disk back to Basic Disk without data loss.

Check out this link, I have not tried it so can't confirm or deny
success, but since you're faced with not much of an alternative it's
worth a try:

http://faq.arstechnica.com/link.php?i=1806

It applies to Win2K but it just might work for XP, too. I think you'll
need to run dskprobe.exe against the drive while it's in the other PC
that did the conversion, though.

Steve N.

It will work as long as there was only one primary partition present
originally. If more partitions were present and you want to avoid creating a
bigger mess while fiddling with a disk editor, you are prolly better of with
something like DiskPatch Partition Repair
(www.diydatarecovery.nl/DiskPatch.htm).

 

[Ed Cayce]

Well Yikes...

Thanks Steve & Joep, I definitely appreciate the help.

I tried a couple of things and then came back and read this thread.
Wish I read it first!

I figured if I could get the drive mapped to C (instead of D I coupld
probably get XP to let me do a "refresh" install. SO I used DISKPART
to remove the drive mapping and then assign drive C:. Then I tried to
boot Safe Mode XP. No luck - it starts booting and then craps out
(Blue screens but, immediatley reboots so I am not sure what it says).


So, I tried to get XP to do a refresh install. It shows me the C:
partition, but when I select it, it tells me that "Windows XP cannot
recognize the partition that you selected..." So I assume this means,
I can't install on that dynamic disk you moron.

SO its late... tomorrow, I will go over to his place, hook up the drive
to the other PC, and try this dskprobe.exe. If that doesn;t work then
I will try the DiskPatch demo and if it tells me it can help me,
probably buy it.

Question - when you say, "as long as there was only one primary
partition present originally" you mean, only one partition on that
disk, or on all the disks?

Thans for your help guys - I will definitely post my results here.

 

[Steve N.]

It will work as long as there was only one primary partition present
originally.

I believe this is the OP's case. It also will not work if there was a
Dynamic Volume spanned accross disks, but that is addressed in the link
I gave.

If more partitions were present and you want to avoid creating a
bigger mess while fiddling with a disk editor, you are prolly better of with
something like DiskPatch Partition Repair
(www.diydatarecovery.nl/DiskPatch.htm).

It worked for me with a slaved drive, converted to DD, copied files to
it, followed the instructions in the link to the letter, no data loss
afterwards at all.

Steve N.

 

[Steve N.]

Well Yikes...

Thanks Steve & Joep, I definitely appreciate the help.

I tried a couple of things and then came back and read this thread.
Wish I read it first!

I figured if I could get the drive mapped to C (instead of D I coupld
probably get XP to let me do a "refresh" install. SO I used DISKPART
to remove the drive mapping and then assign drive C:. Then I tried to
boot Safe Mode XP. No luck - it starts booting and then craps out
(Blue screens but, immediatley reboots so I am not sure what it says).


So, I tried to get XP to do a refresh install. It shows me the C:
partition, but when I select it, it tells me that "Windows XP cannot
recognize the partition that you selected..." So I assume this means,
I can't install on that dynamic disk you moron.

SO its late... tomorrow, I will go over to his place, hook up the drive
to the other PC, and try this dskprobe.exe. If that doesn;t work then
I will try the DiskPatch demo and if it tells me it can help me,
probably buy it.

Question - when you say, "as long as there was only one primary
partition present originally" you mean, only one partition on that
disk, or on all the disks?

Thans for your help guys - I will definitely post my results here.

He means one primary partition on the disk, you're ok there.

Another tool that would probably work is MBRWork:

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/utilities.html

But you have to know what you're doing.

Good luck.

Steve N.

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

Well Yikes...

Thanks Steve & Joep, I definitely appreciate the help.

I tried a couple of things and then came back and read this thread.
Wish I read it first!

I figured if I could get the drive mapped to C (instead of D I coupld
probably get XP to let me do a "refresh" install. SO I used DISKPART
to remove the drive mapping and then assign drive C:. Then I tried to
boot Safe Mode XP. No luck - it starts booting and then craps out
(Blue screens but, immediatley reboots so I am not sure what it says).


So, I tried to get XP to do a refresh install. It shows me the C:
partition, but when I select it, it tells me that "Windows XP cannot
recognize the partition that you selected..." So I assume this means,
I can't install on that dynamic disk you moron.

SO its late... tomorrow, I will go over to his place, hook up the drive
to the other PC, and try this dskprobe.exe. If that doesn;t work then
I will try the DiskPatch demo and if it tells me it can help me,
probably buy it.

You should learn to ignore the commercial spammers like Joep and
Wemaole who's only reason to be here is to sell their own stuff.

 

[Joep]

> SO its late... tomorrow, I will >> go over to his
place, hook up the drive

You should learn to ignore the commercial spammers like Joep and
Wemaole who's only reason to be here is to sell their own stuff.

Nope, you're wrong Folkert. I visit these groups since years already, long
before I even wrote DiskPatch. If I, after reading a post feel DiskPatch can
be of help then I suggest that. People turn here for help, a commerial app
that can help maybe what some are looking for. Not for your sarcastic of
point remarks and lectures on configuring a newsreader client.

 

[Ed Cayce]

Hi Steve, Joep, Folkert,

I really appreciate all the help, whether commercially motivated or
not. You guys really seem to know your stuff. I'm at work now; when I
get home this evening I will try these suggestions and post my results.


Ed

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

Hi Steve, Joep, Folkert,

I really appreciate all the help, whether commercially motivated or
not.

The commercials won't help you, they are here to sell, not help.

If they were here to help they would tell you that Dynamic
vs Basic is not what is causing your problem. They don't.
There's no money in that for them.

Instead they will put more effort in attacking those that
expose them than they will invest in helping you out.

You guys really seem to know your stuff.

You think?
The 'Steven' guy with the most posts in here posing as expert had to cor-
rect himself, twice. *After* Eric (who you fail to mention) had exposed him.
He even thinks that a MBRs contents differs depending on what system it is
connected to.

 

[Steve N.]

The commercials won't help you, they are here to sell, not help.

If they were here to help they would tell you that Dynamic
vs Basic is not what is causing your problem. They don't.
There's no money in that for them.

Instead they will put more effort in attacking those that
expose them than they will invest in helping you out.




You think?
The 'Steven' guy with the most posts in here posing as expert had to cor-
rect himself, twice.

No, I corrected myself ONCE, and at least I admit when I'm wrong and
take corrective action. The rest was followup on actual testing I had
done in an effort to help the OP and additional information. I had no
interest in doing this for myself, only to help him, so I fail to see
why you're slamming me over this.

And for your information, it's "Steve N." not "Steven" and I don't pose
as anything. If you have better or more "expert" advice to offer, by all
means don't hold back, chime right in buddy. So far all you've done is
insult people in this thread. At least the rest of us are trying to help
him, which is a hell of a lot more than you're doing.

*After* Eric (who you fail to mention) had exposed him.

I see no "Eric" posting in this thread, and exposed me as what? Looks
like you're either confused or just making stuff up.

He even thinks that a MBRs contents differs depending on what system it is
connected to.

That's just plain horsesh!t, I never said anything of the sort. I said
that the Dynamic Disk infromation is stored on the system disk for the
particular OS that created it, which is true and is exactly why a
Dynamic Disk cannot be accessed by another system, it can be seen that
it is a Dynamic Disk but that's it. Look it up for yourself and do some
research on your own, don't take my word for it.

Steve N.

 

[Steve N.]

Folkert Rienstra wrote:

The 'Steven' guy with the most posts in here posing as expert had to cor-
rect himself, twice. *After* Eric (who you fail to mention) had exposed him.

<Crossposting to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage removed>

Out of curiosity and a bit of disdain at your post, I did a Google
groups search (I don't subscribe to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage)
and found this Eric person's post, which does not appear here in
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general at all, BTW. He wasn't even replying
to me. In fact, _I_ hadn't even replied to this thread until much later.
So how the hell could he have been "exposing" me? Don't accuse without
proof.

People like you just piss me off. Here we are trying to help people and
then some pompous-ass like you comes along and has to toss a bunch of
non-related crap into the mix, calling this post a "commercial" and that
a post from a "poser". I don't know about
comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage but microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
is a tech support group for XP users. If you have nothing to offer in
that light then do us all a favor and STF out.

God, I hate cross-posting!

Steve N.

 

[Steve N.]

The commercials won't help you, they are here to sell, not help.

If they were here to help they would tell you that Dynamic
vs Basic is not what is causing your problem. They don't.
There's no money in that for them.

Instead they will put more effort in attacking those that
expose them than they will invest in helping you out.




You think?
The 'Steven' guy with the most posts in here posing as expert had to cor-
rect himself, twice. *After* Eric (who you fail to mention) had exposed him.

I finally found this Eric person's post using Google groups search. I
don't subscribe to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage. He posted there
(and not here in microsoft.public.windowsxp.general) _before_ I even
entered this thread. Now how does that "expose" me? Don't accuse without
proof.

At least I learn as I go. What do you do, toss this kind of
false-accusation crap around for no apparent purpose?

Steve N.

 

[Ed Cayce]

Um, Folkert, maybe I am missing something but, if you know the solution
to the problem maybe you could tell us?