Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed!
Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 22:12:02 + From: "Matt Hanson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed! Hmmm... I posted this last night and it didn't show up on the list. Here's a 2nd try: From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> I would take the disk out and put in a desktop and ghost/PM/DI it. Then I would do it again, partition by partition. And once more just to be sure... :-) Heh... If you gop back and read my original posts, you'll see that errors encountered in the process of writing a ghost image to a newly created partition was what caused these problems. Then I tried ghosting the 3 partitions over to a desktop via a parallel cable (took forever), and each process failed reporting various errors. So Ghost has been nothing put problems this go around. I have recovered the data on the 1st 2 partitions now. If I can figure out how to get the data from the last drive backed up... then I can start 'serious' play. Then start playing with mbrwork, make copies of the mbrs. Make copies again :-) Does anyone know just how many copies of the MBR can exist on a HDD? And if various partitioning software, EZ-Drive, PM and FDISK being the one's I've used, manage somehow to write copies to different places on the drive. That, and where the info resides that recovery software manages to find in order to scan sector by sector to find lost data. I just recovered a bunch of data for the fun of it that existed on the drive before I last reformatted, repartitioned, and set up the drive with Windows 98SE. And I'm still not fully grokking the various kinds of formatting processes. I've reformatted FDs, then checked them with recovery software to find everything zeroed out. But data on the 20GB HDD has survived reformatting. When I last deleted partitions on this problem 20GB HDD, and created new ones, I guess I did the 1st 8GB with FDISK and DOS Format.exe, then probably the last ~12GB with PM. But I'm guessing that both PM and Format.exe did a fast format, and not an in-depth (terminology?) one, leaving the data I found the other day from the previous setup. Look at the partition/cylinder numbers, and draw the disk geometry out on paper. Find out where the mbrs are, where EZ is, how many sectors they use, where the booting takes place, what is active and what not, etc. Walk these areas with a disk util that can show you the contents. The idea is to know your disk, get a feel for it. Sort of Zen like in a way... :-) You're talking about all of the factors I have yet to get a good understanding of here. Start surfing around for EZ info on the net, and on Google groups. Supposedly someone has done it before. Maybe there's more there now. I hunted around a couple years back without coming up with much on EZ-Drive. But maybe I was just not using the right search terms. Use mbrwork's automatic detection and see if it works. Restore if it doesn't. Try installing EZ again, restore if it doesn't work. That has basically been my modus operandi. It has always worked in the end. Okay One just has to get over the feeling of destroying everything. Trust your backup. Yeah... after I figure out how to back up the E: drive I won't have to worry about messing anything up. Heck... the data there isn't really a big deal. This is all a game of learning really. Oh, and I always use the DOS-based diskettes of Ghost or PM or whatever. Never any Windows stuff then. I have had partition numbers change from fdisk to Ghost/PM, so be carefull. I've been using PM both in Windows and DOS, Ghost from within Windows (which I was doing when things went haywire) and DOS, and then of course EZ-Drive in DOS. I think somewhere in the dance between them all, some feet are getting stepped on. Last year I never found out why I wasn't about to Ghost my 1st <8GB partition error free without 1st removing EZ-BIOS Ideas: Get Spinrite, http://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm, it was the best disk rescue software around. Quiet nowadays. Doesn't work on NTFS though, USD 89. Ask Steve if it will work around EZ, he seems to be an OK guy and I doubt he would try and sell it to you if it wouldn't work. Steve Steve >Gibson Easy Recovery has some free tools I think, I tried them on some CF cards a few months ago. Corrupt unfortunately. A good program from Ontrack Get the fdisk from DR-DOS, it is supposed to be better at dealing with partitions. DR-DOS... Isn't that what John M. has been playing with? Ghost the partition and then see if Ghost Explorer can see anything. Again, Ghost has been nothing but problems this time around for some reason. Dl all the *nix live rescue cds you can find and read the docs. Try them out. Maybe something will give you an idea or direction to proceed in. Linux based eh? New stuff to me. Walking the disk con
Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed!
Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 1:25:09 +0100 From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed! > From: "Matt Hanson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Then there's always MBRWORK to play with, but it looks like that may require > a better handle on how partition tables and FATs are written to a HDD than > I'm capable of. If Franklin, or anyone else can fill me in on just what it > may entail, it's be fun to play with. I just started up the program for a > moment, but didn't explore the MBR editing tool. Well... I am not an expert, but I did once buy a book about harddisks that I plan to read one day. I seem to have been lucky, or maybe I have "green fingers" when it comes to computers... :-) I would take the disk out and put in a desktop and ghost/PM/DI it. Then I would do it again, partition by partition. And once more just to be sure... :-) Then start playing with mbrwork, make copies of the mbrs. Make copies again :-) Look at the partition/cylinder numbers, and draw the disk geometry out on paper. Find out where the mbrs are, where EZ is, how many sectors they use, where the booting takes place, what is active and what not, etc. Walk these areas with a disk util that can show you the contents. The idea is to know your disk, get a feel for it. Sort of Zen like in a way... :-) Start surfing around for EZ info on the net, and on Google groups. Supposedly someone has done it before. Use mbrwork's automatic detection and see if it works. Restore if it doesn't. Try installing EZ again, restore if it doesn't work. That has basically been my modus operandi. It has always worked in the end. One just has to get over the feeling of destroying everything. Trust your backup. Oh, and I always use the DOS-based diskettes of Ghost or PM or whatever. Never any Windows stuff then. I have had partition numbers change from fdisk to Ghost/PM, so be carefull. Ideas: Get Spinrite, http://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm, it was the best disk rescue software around. Quiet nowadays. Doesn't work on NTFS though, USD 89. Ask Steve if it will work around EZ, he seems to be an OK guy and I doubt he would try and sell it to you if it wouldn't work. Easy Recovery has some free tools I think, I tried them on some CF cards a few months ago. Corrupt unfortunately. Get the fdisk from DR-DOS, it is supposed to be better at dealing with partitions. Ghost the partition and then see if Ghost Explorer can see anything. Dl all the *nix live rescue cds you can find and read the docs. Try them out. Maybe something will give you an idea or direction to proceed in. Walking the disk contents is feasible with mbrs and boot sectors and so forth, but walking an entire disk is not really doable in my opinion, it's just too big. I did that on a 20 MB disk once, and that was tough. If you are looking for your mail then find out what it looks like. The mailbox(s) have a a name, search for that, then follow the sectors to create a file. I have seen someone do that once with debug I think. Or was it a disk util? It was a long time ago, in the 20-40 MB disk era. One can work out the complete file following the sector references, this is basically what defrag tools do, collecting sectors and putting them together. If the crunch really comes down, then working everything out by hand and a disk walker might be your last resort. It is doable. I'm not much help I feel, what you are getting is my experience, and that has been different each time I had a problem disk. Mbrwork did it's job last time I had a wiped disk, where PM failed because of errors and not starting. PM seems a little too fickle about everything being ok, else it won't allow you to do anything. I have always prevailed and got the data out. Often enough I haven't got the OS to boot again, and had to reinstall, but I always got the data. Except the one time I did something stupid with an Outlook .pst file, I copied it on it self I think, after working 15 hours straight, still not sure what happened. That really mangled stuff up... :-) Luckily the customer had a synced Psion. br Franklin ** http://libretto.basiclink.com - Libretto mailing list http://www.silverace.com/libretto/ - Archives ---TO UNSUBSCRIBE--- Reply to any of the list messages. The reply mail should be addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Then replace any text on the message's subject line: cmd:unsubscribe TO UNSUBSCRIBE DIGEST-- Do above but with this on subject line: cmd:unsubscribe digest **
Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed!
Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 20:44:01 + From: "Matt Hanson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed! From: john <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> It sound like your disk is trashed. I had those problems and after recoving the data chucked the disk. Using mechanical media for storage on a computer is silly. I've never understood why such archaic means are being used. Hmmm... maybe becuase it's a bit more cost effective? Anyway--I've never used the others always ndd and it always fixed my partitioning problems soes I could recover my data even when my disk was so corrupted it was reporting files left behind after a deep format. Well, I wonder if NDD is capable of accessing a drive that MS-DOS or Windows isn't capable of seeing. I had a heck of a time trying to set the 20GB HDD up on one of the 2 IDE cables. BIOS would see the drive, but when I either booted the system to a DOS prompt or Windows, the drive was so corrupted that it wasn't recognized. However recovery software was able to find it, and retrieve data from it. I'll have to set up NDD just to see what it's capabilites are. But I really prefer using recovery software 1st that doesn't write anything to the target drive. Matt _ Click, drag and drop. My MSN is the simple way to design your homepage. http://click.atdmt.com/AVE/go/onm00200364ave/direct/01/ ** http://libretto.basiclink.com - Libretto mailing list http://www.silverace.com/libretto/ - Archives ---TO UNSUBSCRIBE--- Reply to any of the list messages. The reply mail should be addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Then replace any text on the message's subject line: cmd:unsubscribe TO UNSUBSCRIBE DIGEST-- Do above but with this on subject line: cmd:unsubscribe digest **
Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed!
Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 10:42:02 -0600 From: john <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed! hello matt It sound like your disk is trashed. I had those problems and after recoving the data chucked the disk. Using mechanical media for storage on a computer is silly. I've never understood why such archaic means are being used. Anyway--I've never used the others always ndd and it always fixed my partitioning problems soes I could recover my data even when my disk was so corrupted it was reporting files left behind after a deep format. At 08:38 PM 2/21/2004, you wrote: Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 02:36:47 + From: "Matt Hanson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed! Hey John, From: john <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> The acual recovery is very simple. Install the dos version of Norton Disk Doctor on your windows boot floppy. Boot using the floppy. Do a fdisk /mbr on the c drive. Sys the c drive. Copy NDD to c. Remove floppy. Reboot. Run NDD. It'll fix your fat structure and anything else wrong. Hmmm... that entails writing data to the drive that I want to recover data from :-/ And it looks like just doing an FDISK /MBR might be a bit problematic. Stellar Phoenix has found FATs for 33 logical drives on the HDD. No doubt residuals from past wiping, repartitioning and installing OSs on the drive. Who knows which FAT FDISK might decide to use... I have to admit, I'm pretty clueless about how the FAT32 file system and partitioning works to begin with. I started using WinHex to learn a little more about it, but I've got light years to go before I'll get a reasonable grasp of it all. I was able to recover my C: and D: drive data, leaving an E: drive left to deal with. But it looks like that E: drive is blown to pieces. Phoenix doesn't report any logical drives the size of the lost E: drive, so I'm trying the most likely of the 33 logical drives it reports. Then, a better way to go with Disk Doctor may be to run it from an installation on the desktop I have the 20GB HDD from the L100 set up in. I'd think I could just run it right on the 20GB HDD without running FDISK on it 1st, couldn't I? Or are partition problems beyond DD? Then there's always MBRWORK to play with, but it looks like that may require a better handle on how partition tables and FATs are written to a HDD than I'm capable of. If Franklin, or anyone else can fill me in on just what it may entail, it's be fun to play with. I just started up the program for a moment, but didn't explore the MBR editing tool. Matt _ Click, drag and drop. My MSN is the simple way to design your homepage. http://click.atdmt.com/AVE/go/onm00200364ave/direct/01/ ** http://libretto.basiclink.com - Libretto mailing list http://www.silverace.com/libretto/ - Archives ---TO UNSUBSCRIBE--- Reply to any of the list messages. The reply mail should be addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Then replace any text on the message's subject line: cmd:unsubscribe TO UNSUBSCRIBE DIGEST-- Do above but with this on subject line: cmd:unsubscribe digest ** -- Incoming mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 7.0.211 / Virus Database: 261.9.6 - Release Date: 2/18/2004 -- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 7.0.211 / Virus Database: 261.9.6 - Release Date: 2/18/2004 ** http://libretto.basiclink.com - Libretto mailing list http://www.silverace.com/libretto/ - Archives ---TO UNSUBSCRIBE--- Reply to any of the list messages. The reply mail should be addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Then replace any text on the message's subject line: cmd:unsubscribe TO UNSUBSCRIBE DIGEST-- Do above but with this on subject line: cmd:unsubscribe digest **
Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed!
Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 02:36:47 + From: "Matt Hanson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed! Hey John, From: john <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> The acual recovery is very simple. Install the dos version of Norton Disk Doctor on your windows boot floppy. Boot using the floppy. Do a fdisk /mbr on the c drive. Sys the c drive. Copy NDD to c. Remove floppy. Reboot. Run NDD. It'll fix your fat structure and anything else wrong. Hmmm... that entails writing data to the drive that I want to recover data from :-/ And it looks like just doing an FDISK /MBR might be a bit problematic. Stellar Phoenix has found FATs for 33 logical drives on the HDD. No doubt residuals from past wiping, repartitioning and installing OSs on the drive. Who knows which FAT FDISK might decide to use... I have to admit, I'm pretty clueless about how the FAT32 file system and partitioning works to begin with. I started using WinHex to learn a little more about it, but I've got light years to go before I'll get a reasonable grasp of it all. I was able to recover my C: and D: drive data, leaving an E: drive left to deal with. But it looks like that E: drive is blown to pieces. Phoenix doesn't report any logical drives the size of the lost E: drive, so I'm trying the most likely of the 33 logical drives it reports. Then, a better way to go with Disk Doctor may be to run it from an installation on the desktop I have the 20GB HDD from the L100 set up in. I'd think I could just run it right on the 20GB HDD without running FDISK on it 1st, couldn't I? Or are partition problems beyond DD? Then there's always MBRWORK to play with, but it looks like that may require a better handle on how partition tables and FATs are written to a HDD than I'm capable of. If Franklin, or anyone else can fill me in on just what it may entail, it's be fun to play with. I just started up the program for a moment, but didn't explore the MBR editing tool. Matt _ Click, drag and drop. My MSN is the simple way to design your homepage. http://click.atdmt.com/AVE/go/onm00200364ave/direct/01/ ** http://libretto.basiclink.com - Libretto mailing list http://www.silverace.com/libretto/ - Archives ---TO UNSUBSCRIBE--- Reply to any of the list messages. The reply mail should be addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Then replace any text on the message's subject line: cmd:unsubscribe TO UNSUBSCRIBE DIGEST-- Do above but with this on subject line: cmd:unsubscribe digest **
Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed!
Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2004 09:12:04 -0600 From: john <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed! Hi Matt The acual recovery is very simple. Install the dos version of Norton Disk Doctor on your windows boot floppy. Boot using the floppy. Do a fdisk /mbr on the c drive. Sys the c drive. Copy NDD to c. Remove floppy. Reboot. Run NDD. It'll fix your fat structure and anything else wrong. john At 01:46 PM 2/20/2004, you wrote: Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 19:44:41 + From: "Matt Hanson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed! L70 froze again during my last attempt to reply John. I guess it's not the mouse.. :-/ From: john <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Why not just boot with a floppy, do a fdisk /mbr then reboot to the 'C' drive? You don't need ezdrive with any version of windows past 95. You should be able to boot just fine with a rebuilt master boot record and then you can fix what you need. Well, disk partition is such an esoteric field. I have gone the FDISK /MBR route for various problems in the past, some successful and some not. Along the way I've also gotten conflicting ideas on how to go about these sorts of things. Up to this point I haven't done anything intrusive to the drive while waiting to see if Symantec is actually going to provide support. They were always about the only support staff I've ever found that really knows how to troubleshoot and fix these kinds of problems well. If it comes to it, I might try backing up the MBR with PM's Wrprog.exe utility, or the freeware utility that Franklin Eekhout suggested. Then I might be able to restore the present MBR needs be. As I've written, this is really just another exercise in learning, as there really isn't anything on this drive that is crucial to recover. Norton Ghost aborted the process of imaging both the C: primary and D: logical partitions on the bad HDD (I haven't tried E: yet). Partition Magic had reported file sizes not matching FATs, and FATs not being identical on the C: drive that Ghost later reported bad blocks and read sector errors on. But PM reported no errors on the D: where Ghost later aborted imaging with an error message on the target slave drive saying it couldn't open GHOST.ERR, and that an internal inconsistency had been detected. While I'm waiting for Symantec, I think I'll put the drive in the desktop and see what disk recovery software might be able to retrieve. I'll try fixing things after I get as much data back as I can. Matt _ Get a FREE online computer virus scan from McAfee when you click here. http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963 ** http://libretto.basiclink.com - Libretto mailing list http://www.silverace.com/libretto/ - Archives ---TO UNSUBSCRIBE--- Reply to any of the list messages. The reply mail should be addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Then replace any text on the message's subject line: cmd:unsubscribe TO UNSUBSCRIBE DIGEST-- Do above but with this on subject line: cmd:unsubscribe digest ** -- Incoming mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 7.0.211 / Virus Database: 261.9.6 - Release Date: 2/18/2004 -- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 7.0.211 / Virus Database: 261.9.6 - Release Date: 2/18/2004 ** http://libretto.basiclink.com - Libretto mailing list http://www.silverace.com/libretto/ - Archives ---TO UNSUBSCRIBE--- Reply to any of the list messages. The reply mail should be addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Then replace any text on the message's subject line: cmd:unsubscribe TO UNSUBSCRIBE DIGEST-- Do above but with this on subject line: cmd:unsubscribe digest **
Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed!
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 21:56:21 -0800 (PST) From: David Chien <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed! 1) for a basic setup, MBRWork http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/utilities.html free, and it'll backup MBRs 2) Got a multi-boot loader that moves original MBRs everywhere? WinHex or any good disk hex/binary editor. Simply specify which sectors to copy to a file, and voila! backup of MBR + offset MBRs made. (Offset MBRs are usually stored near the beginning of the HD near the MBR; check with boot loader to see where it's moved everything to) __ Video Attachment David Chien has sent you a video. Please go to http://mediaframe.yahoo.com/mf/spotlife/o?.auth=45Uk4IwXjCWLkNiljDSoXg--&id=Check your message's spelling before sending to view the video. __ = adorable toshiba libretto The latest news and information for the Toshiba Libretto owner. http://www.silverace.com/libretto/ __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail SpamGuard - Read only the mail you want. http://antispam.yahoo.com/tools ** http://libretto.basiclink.com - Libretto mailing list http://www.silverace.com/libretto/ - Archives ---TO UNSUBSCRIBE--- Reply to any of the list messages. The reply mail should be addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Then replace any text on the message's subject line: cmd:unsubscribe TO UNSUBSCRIBE DIGEST-- Do above but with this on subject line: cmd:unsubscribe digest **
Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed!
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 19:44:41 + From: "Matt Hanson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed! L70 froze again during my last attempt to reply John. I guess its not the mouse.. :-/ From: john <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Why not just boot with a floppy, do a fdisk /mbr then reboot to the 'C' drive? You don't need ezdrive with any version of windows past 95. You should be able to boot just fine with a rebuilt master boot record and then you can fix what you need. Well, disk partition is such an esoteric field. I have gone the FDISK /MBR route for various problems in the past, some successful and some not. Along the way Ive also gotten conflicting ideas on how to go about these sorts of things. Up to this point I havent done anything intrusive to the drive while waiting to see if Symantec is actually going to provide support. They were always about the only support staff Ive ever found that really knows how to troubleshoot and fix these kinds of problems well. If it comes to it, I might try backing up the MBR with PMs Wrprog.exe utility, or the freeware utility that Franklin Eekhout suggested. Then I might be able to restore the present MBR needs be. As Ive written, this is really just another exercise in learning, as there really isnt anything on this drive that is crucial to recover. Norton Ghost aborted the process of imaging both the C: primary and D: logical partitions on the bad HDD (I havent tried E: yet). Partition Magic had reported file sizes not matching FATs, and FATs not being identical on the C: drive that Ghost later reported bad blocks and read sector errors on. But PM reported no errors on the D: where Ghost later aborted imaging with an error message on the target slave drive saying it couldnt open GHOST.ERR, and that an internal inconsistency had been detected. While Im waiting for Symantec, I think Ill put the drive in the desktop and see what disk recovery software might be able to retrieve. Ill try fixing things after I get as much data back as I can. Matt _ Get a FREE online computer virus scan from McAfee when you click here. http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963 ** http://libretto.basiclink.com - Libretto mailing list http://www.silverace.com/libretto/ - Archives ---TO UNSUBSCRIBE--- Reply to any of the list messages. The reply mail should be addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Then replace any text on the message's subject line: cmd:unsubscribe TO UNSUBSCRIBE DIGEST-- Do above but with this on subject line: cmd:unsubscribe digest **
Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed!
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 11:46:28 -0600 From: john <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed! Why not just boot with a floppy, do a fdisk /mbr then reboot to the 'C' drive? You don't need ezdrive with any version of windows past 95. You should be able to boot just fine with a rebuilt master boot record and then you can fix what you need. At 01:46 AM 2/20/2004, you wrote: Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 07:43:48 + From: "Matt Hanson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed! Thanks for all of the input folks. I'll write out what's been going on when I get a bit more time. The current project was to try to get Ghost to image the partitions in the corrupted drive over to another system via a parallel cable. Way slow... After 6-7 hours the process aborted complaining about bad blocks and read sector failures. Symantec is offering support on this issue which is nice. It takes them 4-5 busniess days to reply, bad when in a hurry, but good for me as there's not a lot of importance on the drive. Again, it's a learning experience. More later, Matt _ Stay informed on Election 2004 and the race to Super Tuesday. http://special.msn.com/msn/election2004.armx ** http://libretto.basiclink.com - Libretto mailing list http://www.silverace.com/libretto/ - Archives ---TO UNSUBSCRIBE--- Reply to any of the list messages. The reply mail should be addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Then replace any text on the message's subject line: cmd:unsubscribe TO UNSUBSCRIBE DIGEST-- Do above but with this on subject line: cmd:unsubscribe digest ** -- Incoming mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 7.0.211 / Virus Database: 261.9.6 - Release Date: 2/18/2004 -- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 7.0.211 / Virus Database: 261.9.6 - Release Date: 2/18/2004 ** http://libretto.basiclink.com - Libretto mailing list http://www.silverace.com/libretto/ - Archives ---TO UNSUBSCRIBE--- Reply to any of the list messages. The reply mail should be addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Then replace any text on the message's subject line: cmd:unsubscribe TO UNSUBSCRIBE DIGEST-- Do above but with this on subject line: cmd:unsubscribe digest **
Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed!
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 07:43:48 + From: "Matt Hanson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed! Thanks for all of the input folks. I'll write out what's been going on when I get a bit more time. The current project was to try to get Ghost to image the partitions in the corrupted drive over to another system via a parallel cable. Way slow... After 6-7 hours the process aborted complaining about bad blocks and read sector failures. Symantec is offering support on this issue which is nice. It takes them 4-5 busniess days to reply, bad when in a hurry, but good for me as there's not a lot of importance on the drive. Again, it's a learning experience. More later, Matt _ Stay informed on Election 2004 and the race to Super Tuesday. http://special.msn.com/msn/election2004.armx ** http://libretto.basiclink.com - Libretto mailing list http://www.silverace.com/libretto/ - Archives ---TO UNSUBSCRIBE--- Reply to any of the list messages. The reply mail should be addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Then replace any text on the message's subject line: cmd:unsubscribe TO UNSUBSCRIBE DIGEST-- Do above but with this on subject line: cmd:unsubscribe digest **
RE: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed!
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 07:34:57 + From: "Matt Hanson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: RE: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed! From: "Fisher, Dave (IBM)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> In regards to preventing this kind of thing in future, is anyone aware of a utility to back up things like MBRs and partition tables alone? I've had problems with my Libretto recently, I think due to a buggy FS driver on Linux, and I've lost a number of partitions when the machine shuts down unexpectedly (aka crashes)... Just in from Symantec support: Instructions for Using the WRPROG.EXE Utility http://www.powerquest.com/support/primus/id4350.cfm But the freeware 'MBRWork' that Franklin suggested looks really nice. _ Store more e-mails with MSN Hotmail Extra Storage 4 plans to choose from! http://click.atdmt.com/AVE/go/onm00200362ave/direct/01/ ** http://libretto.basiclink.com - Libretto mailing list http://www.silverace.com/libretto/ - Archives ---TO UNSUBSCRIBE--- Reply to any of the list messages. The reply mail should be addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Then replace any text on the message's subject line: cmd:unsubscribe TO UNSUBSCRIBE DIGEST-- Do above but with this on subject line: cmd:unsubscribe digest **
Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed!
Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2004 10:32:21 +0100 From: Franklin Eekhout <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed! Something interesting I didn't know, from the Terabytes site: Taken from the README: EMBRLock EMBRLock protects individual sectors within the EMBR yet allows existing programs to continue to work. Problem Programs Here is a list of known programs which may try to write sectors within the EMBR: * Mechwarrior 4 Mech Pak (several). * TurboTax. * Novell's Zen For Desktops 4 imaging component. * In general programs using the C_DILLA (SafeDisk/SafeCast) copy protection. There are quite a few games which use it. --- br Franklin ** http://libretto.basiclink.com - Libretto mailing list http://www.silverace.com/libretto/ - Archives ---TO UNSUBSCRIBE--- Reply to any of the list messages. The reply mail should be addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Then replace any text on the message's subject line: cmd:unsubscribe TO UNSUBSCRIBE DIGEST-- Do above but with this on subject line: cmd:unsubscribe digest **
Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed!
Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2004 10:16:44 +0100 From: Franklin Eekhout <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed! Hi all, Re MBR etc look at MBRWORK, I have often messed up stuff with PM & DI, and MBR is a nice utility to have. http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/utilities.html The complete README: MBRWork - Freeware utility to perform some common and uncommon MBR and disk functions. Provided As-Is. It can perform the following: 1 - Backup the first track on a hard drive. 2 - Restore the backup file. 3 - Reset the EMBR area to all zeros. 4 - Reset the MBR are to all zeros. 5 - Install standard MBR Code 6 - Set a partition active (avail on the command line too) 7 - Work with multiple hard drives. 8 - Remove EZ-Drive (You must boot directly to a diskette (by passing ez-drive) for this option to show) 9 - Edit MBR partition entry values. A - If no partitions exist in the MBR and no EMBR exists then this option will allow you to recover lost FAT, HPFS, NTFS, and Extened partitions. C - Capture up to 64 disk sectors to a file. R - Restore up to 64 disk sectors from a file. This feature should only be used by those who completely understand what they are doing! T - Transfer/Copy sectors from disk to disk. This feature should only be used by those who completely understand what they are doing! P - Compare sectors. Be sure to visit www.terabyteunlimited.com for more great software! --- I have used 9 and A a few times when being unsure of using PM... They also have some other disk tools. Another idea is to use a Linux Live CD, like Knoppix or whatever, and see what shows up. A live cd will not touch your disk, so it should not mess up things even more. Or a rescue floppy like http://www.toms.net/rb/ might be better on a Libby as one cannot boot from a cd-rom from BIOS. You would have to move the disk to a big iron to use Knoppix or similar live cd I guess. Another idea is to get a similar harddisk, install EZ with the same info if you can remember it, and then copy/replace mbrs across harddisks. Also, pen, paper and a calculator is nice to have nearby, I usually calculated stuff manually twice to be sure, and always made mbr-backups and disk/partition images to a large harddisk before doing anything. I prefer Ghost to PM or DI, as it could burn to cd-r directly, or move them over USB, parallell, or network. Lovely program. :-) YMMV... br Franklin ** http://libretto.basiclink.com - Libretto mailing list http://www.silverace.com/libretto/ - Archives ---TO UNSUBSCRIBE--- Reply to any of the list messages. The reply mail should be addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Then replace any text on the message's subject line: cmd:unsubscribe TO UNSUBSCRIBE DIGEST-- Do above but with this on subject line: cmd:unsubscribe digest **
Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed!
Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 12:13:09 +0100 From: Philip Nienhuis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed! "Fisher, Dave (IBM)" wrote: : : > In regards to preventing this kind of thing in future, is anyone aware of a > utility to back up things like MBRs and partition tables alone? An MBR _is_ the (primary) partition table. But read on. > I've had problems with my Libretto recently, I think due to a buggy FS > driver on Linux, and I've lost a number of partitions when the machine shuts > down unexpectedly (aka crashes)... I'd say a good partition manager should be able to do so. I once use a tiny boot manager called Boot Control, which offered this option. http://www.xs4all.nl/~gklein/bcpage.html (I used this so often on so many hard disks that I now have tens of MBRs lying around, and I wouldn't know which ones belong to which hard disk and what hard disk partition stage. Oh well) But! this will just save the "primary" MBR, which contains info on the primary partitions only (the extended partition is a primary partition too). I wouldn't know of any tool to save the chain of MBRs which define(s) the logical partitions, which chain is scattered around the extended partition. I usually make a dump of Linux fdisk output; often just restoring the cylinder numbers will do, provided boot sectors, FATs and other vital stuff have not been fubarred. Nor do I know of any tool to backup other vital but obscure info following the MBR on the first cylinder. E.g., - Disk manager code & info (EZ-drive) - Win2K volume information - Linux boot manager code - OS/2 or ECS volume information (LVM) - third party boot manager code - copy protection scheme code and counters - ...(viruses) - etc (Unlike many people seem to think, the first 7.8 MB cylinder is not just entirely wasted on one 512-byte MBR. Indeed it is teeming with wildlife, mostly undocumented, by no means standardized, sometimes overwriting each other) So, Dave, to expand upon you original question: anyone got suggestions for tools which can completely backup this stuff too (logical partition chain, volume info, )? Philip ** http://libretto.basiclink.com - Libretto mailing list http://www.silverace.com/libretto/ - Archives ---TO UNSUBSCRIBE--- Reply to any of the list messages. The reply mail should be addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Then replace any text on the message's subject line: cmd:unsubscribe TO UNSUBSCRIBE DIGEST-- Do above but with this on subject line: cmd:unsubscribe digest **
RE: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed!
Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 08:20:46 - From: "Fisher, Dave (IBM)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: RE: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed! > -Original Message- > From: David Chien > Sent: 18 February 2004 03:53 > Subject: Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed! > > 8) Yes, life sucks! Make backups often! > In regards to preventing this kind of thing in future, is anyone aware of a utility to back up things like MBRs and partition tables alone? I've had problems with my Libretto recently, I think due to a buggy FS driver on Linux, and I've lost a number of partitions when the machine shuts down unexpectedly (aka crashes)... ** http://libretto.basiclink.com - Libretto mailing list http://www.silverace.com/libretto/ - Archives ---TO UNSUBSCRIBE--- Reply to any of the list messages. The reply mail should be addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Then replace any text on the message's subject line: cmd:unsubscribe TO UNSUBSCRIBE DIGEST-- Do above but with this on subject line: cmd:unsubscribe digest **
Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed!
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 19:49:07 -0800 (PST) From: David Chien <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed! Problem here is that the FAT tables are messed up. Okay, you've got two FAT tables, one primary, the other as backup. They're supposed to be updated the same at all times, but if something goes wrong, they can get out of sync. Here, the problem is you have no idea which FAT table is okay, or if both are damaged. In this case, it's best to restore from a working backup, if you have one, after pulling off all important files. However, if you really want to attempt recovery, there's a few ways. 1) always start by backing up your computer. 2) You can simply run scandisk on the drive to let DOS auto-fix itself, but I can't say which fat table entry it'll pick for each file. you may just wind up with a mess. 3) you can try something like Norton Utilities to see if you can fix the drive entires (you'll have to setup another small windows partition and run the check on the damaged partition, and this may take time). No guarantees here either 4) you can use a file recovery program like ontrack easy recovery to try and recover lost files, but this won't necessary fix the fat tables - just get the important stuff off. 5) you can try a manual winhex/hex editor fix of the whole thing. you'll have to follow each fat file entry along both fat tables to see which, if any, will create a working file, then copy that fat entry over to the second one. This will take =forever= to do, and you will have to understand how fat tables, file links, etc. work, but it is the only boringly, real way to recover a messed up windows fat system w/o damaging whatever else is there. think only if life depends on it you'll try it. 6) ontrack recovery service can help you recover anything important you can't recovery yourself. $300+, but they can usually pull out everything. 7) Have fun! (make backups often!) 8) Yes, life sucks! Make backups often! = adorable toshiba libretto The latest news and information for the Toshiba Libretto owner. http://www.silverace.com/libretto/ __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail SpamGuard - Read only the mail you want. http://antispam.yahoo.com/tools ** http://libretto.basiclink.com - Libretto mailing list http://www.silverace.com/libretto/ - Archives ---TO UNSUBSCRIBE--- Reply to any of the list messages. The reply mail should be addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Then replace any text on the message's subject line: cmd:unsubscribe TO UNSUBSCRIBE DIGEST-- Do above but with this on subject line: cmd:unsubscribe digest **
Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed!
Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 08:57:39 +0800 From: Raymond <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed! At 05:04 AM 17/02/2004 -0800, you wrote: Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 14:03:22 +0100 From: Philip Nienhuis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed! Matt Hanson wrote: : : > >lose everything on the HD at this point if you do anything with it. > > I got 'smart' a while back, and now keep all my data on d: e:... etc. > drives. So I could put the drive in another system with a 2.5" > 3.5" > adapter, and just copy the data over to another drive expect for one > problem... EZ-BIOS. The only desktop around here is a 1999 Gateway PII > 450MHz system running straight W98, no Win98SE. So I've never gotten the > Gateway to see anything over 8GB on this 20GB Hitachi. That has nothing to do with straight Win98 or whatever runs on your desktop. Your desktop (and for that matter, any other PC where you put in your Libretto hard disk) can only see the MBR on the first cylinder where EZ-drive resides. After "pre"-booting from this MBR EZ-drive takes over and fools the operating systems on your harddisk by presenting them with _another_ MBR which shows all of the disk space. That MBR may be on the second cylinder or on the first but another track. The big problem here is EZ-drive. I know this might not be a tremendous help in Matt's situation but I know Red Hat Linux 6.x and above and Win2k (and I think even NT4) will detect the presence of EZ-Drive on a secondary HDD and read the drive correctly (as if EZ-Drive was already loaded, even if you don't boot off the drive with EZ-Drive). Linux is a little funny in that it only does this if the FIRST partition on the disk is OK (that's how it detects EZ-Drive). I'm pretty sure they have specific code to do this though. Likewise, many newer disk management programs such as Partition Magic have code to tiptoe around EZ-Drive (later versions of PowerQuest software even scream and moan if they detect EZ-Drive on the HDD but no EZ-Drive loaded in memory). I've not read the rest of the posts in this thread (I've been on holiday in New Zealand and won't get a chance to clear my backlog of list emails for a day or so yet!) so this advice might well be completely useless but my first impression is, if you have access to a Win2k or a Linux box it might be worth giving that a try at reading the disk. Even using Linux DD might be enough to 'image' the partition off to another drive. *shrug*, just a suggestion ... - Raymond --- /~\ | | "Does fuzzy logic tickle?"| | ___ | "My HDD has no reverse. How do I backup?" | | /__/ +---| | / \ a y b o t | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | | | Need help? Visit #Windows98 on DALNet! | | ICQ: 31756092 | Libretto IRC channel #Libretto on DALNet! | \~/ ** http://libretto.basiclink.com - Libretto mailing list http://www.silverace.com/libretto/ - Archives ---TO UNSUBSCRIBE--- Reply to any of the list messages. The reply mail should be addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Then replace any text on the message's subject line: cmd:unsubscribe TO UNSUBSCRIBE DIGEST-- Do above but with this on subject line: cmd:unsubscribe digest **
Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed!
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 14:03:22 +0100 From: Philip Nienhuis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed! Matt Hanson wrote: : : > >lose everything on the HD at this point if you do anything with it. > > I got 'smart' a while back, and now keep all my data on d: e:... etc. > drives. So I could put the drive in another system with a 2.5" > 3.5" > adapter, and just copy the data over to another drive expect for one > problem... EZ-BIOS. The only desktop around here is a 1999 Gateway PII > 450MHz system running straight W98, no Win98SE. So I've never gotten the > Gateway to see anything over 8GB on this 20GB Hitachi. That has nothing to do with straight Win98 or whatever runs on your desktop. Your desktop (and for that matter, any other PC where you put in your Libretto hard disk) can only see the MBR on the first cylinder where EZ-drive resides. After "pre"-booting from this MBR EZ-drive takes over and fools the operating systems on your harddisk by presenting them with _another_ MBR which shows all of the disk space. That MBR may be on the second cylinder or on the first but another track. The big problem here is EZ-drive. > I'm still wondering if there's a way to repair the MBR if in fact that's > where the problem lies. If the system doesn't boot, I guess that may be > obvious. The actual 'real" MBR is probably OK, the MBR presented by EZ-drive after it has gained control is at fault. To be able to fix that you must first fix EZ-drive. Probably David's advices on how to do that are the best you can get: > > 2) you can boot from HD, get to the EZ-Drive screen, then startup from a > >floppy disk for full EZ-Drive support. > > Yeah... I can get EZ-Drive to boot from the FD. I never looked at whether > or not I could recover data that way though, or how to get the data to > another drive if that's possible. I see LPT on the menu, so I guess I can > upload an image to another system via a parallel cable somehow. > > > I messed up my Libretto on a restore from a Ghost image and had to > >boot to > >a floppy disk to unhide the restored partition under DOS w/PM. > > I can also boot from the PM FDs. But I don't see anything there that can > help. It checked C: and reported: > > Error #2001 - FAT copies are not identical. > > Error #2003 - File size does not match FAT allocation for file > > ^That last error reported 15 - 20 times or more. Again, that is because PM runs inside an environment created by EZ-drive. > > 3) fdisk/mbr won't do anything except erase EZ-Drive, which is now > >installed > >in the MBR. > > But with EZ-BIOS installed, won't FDISK be able to see all partitions, and > create a proper new MBR? Um.. but without the EZ-Drive MBR, I guess nothing > is going to work right. :-/ Right. Let's hope you get EZ-drive to live again. If you don't, and the only option left is to repartition your entire drive, just do not use EZ-drive but run PM only. In the unlikely case that PM can't see the entire 20 GB have a look at LDS110CT (search the archives for that) to make it visible. LDS100CT is not a disk manager but just a temporary Libretto BIOS fix (only needed during partitioning itself). You see, fixing a faulty MBR is one problem, but that gets very complicated if EZ-drive or any other disk manager is also in the game. (David probably won't agree, but I perceive this case as another good reason to avoid disk managers.) Good luck, Philip ** http://libretto.basiclink.com - Libretto mailing list http://www.silverace.com/libretto/ - Archives ---TO UNSUBSCRIBE--- Reply to any of the list messages. The reply mail should be addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Then replace any text on the message's subject line: cmd:unsubscribe TO UNSUBSCRIBE DIGEST-- Do above but with this on subject line: cmd:unsubscribe digest **
Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed!
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 07:03:53 + From: "Matt Hanson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed! From: David Chien <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 1) backup the entire HD with Ghost once again (or Drive Image). You may well lose everything on the HD at this point if you do anything with it. I got 'smart' a while back, and now keep all my data on d: e:... etc. drives. So I could put the drive in another system with a 2.5" > 3.5" adapter, and just copy the data over to another drive expect for one problem... EZ-BIOS. The only desktop around here is a 1999 Gateway PII 450MHz system running straight W98, no Win98SE. So I've never gotten the Gateway to see anything over 8GB on this 20GB Hitachi. I'm still wondering if there's a way to repair the MBR if in fact that's where the problem lies. If the system doesn't boot, I guess that may be obvious. 2) you can boot from HD, get to the EZ-Drive screen, then startup from a floppy disk for full EZ-Drive support. Yeah... I can get EZ-Drive to boot from the FD. I never looked at whether or not I could recover data that way though, or how to get the data to another drive if that's possible. I see LPT on the menu, so I guess I can upload an image to another system via a parallel cable somehow. I messed up my Libretto on a restore from a Ghost image and had to boot to a floppy disk to unhide the restored partition under DOS w/PM. I can also boot from the PM FDs. But I don't see anything there that can help. It checked C: and reported: Error #2001 - FAT copies are not identical. Error #2003 - File size does not match FAT allocation for file ^That last error reported 15 - 20 times or more. 3) fdisk/mbr won't do anything except erase EZ-Drive, which is now installed in the MBR. But with EZ-BIOS installed, won't FDISK be able to see all partitions, and create a proper new MBR? Um.. but without the EZ-Drive MBR, I guess nothing is going to work right. :-/ I've had MBR problems in the past. And it was because of some problem related with using PM to manage partitions, and it interacting with EZ-BIOS. Remember back to when I couldn't get Ghost to restore any images to the 1st partition on the drive, but had success restoriung to any other drive. Something happend regulary where PM reports things out of sequence, and then the fun begins. 4) once you've got PM running, you can see if making one of the primary bootable partitions both ACTIVE and VISIBLE will help. Reboot and see if it'll get you back in. 5) You may try deleting the partition you were messing with and making another one active, bootable and visible. Then try rebooting. I did delete the partition and rebooted, but it didn't help C: to boot. I have no other partitions with an OS. I'm a bit hesitant to do any partition processing with PM at this point. After deleting the new partition, I tried sizing the exteneded drive and the last E: logical partition down a bit. But that process failed midway through. Now the copy of Ghost.ese E: won't run, but the one on D: does. 6) Whatever, it can get complex restoring whatever may be wrong... If I can backup the data on D: and E:, then I'll have a lot of options if I can't get C: to boot. I did find out that PowerQuest was bought by Symantec last December. I also found that I could submit my problems for support without having to supply a valid registration number for a current version of PM. So I went ahead and sent them a message, but the email acknowledgement of the post said can take 4-5 business days to receive a reply. No worries... there's nothing on the drive I >have< to access right now. Matt _ Say good-bye to spam, viruses and pop-ups with MSN Premium -- free trial offer! http://click.atdmt.com/AVE/go/onm00200359ave/direct/01/ ** http://libretto.basiclink.com - Libretto mailing list http://www.silverace.com/libretto/ - Archives ---TO UNSUBSCRIBE--- Reply to any of the list messages. The reply mail should be addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Then replace any text on the message's subject line: cmd:unsubscribe TO UNSUBSCRIBE DIGEST-- Do above but with this on subject line: cmd:unsubscribe digest **
Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed!
Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2004 22:08:45 -0800 (PST) From: David Chien <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed! > I have 1 primary partition C:, and 2 logical partitions D: and E: on a > single extended partition. I had shrunk the E: partition with Partition > Magic, then shrunk the extended partition to match it, then created a 1GB > primary partition at the end of the drive to install an Win98SE Ghost image > to do some testing. But in the middle of copying the image, Ghost burped, > and quit the process with some error message I didn't make a note of. 1) backup the entire HD with Ghost once again (or Drive Image). You may well lose everything on the HD at this point if you do anything with it. 2) you can boot from HD, get to the EZ-Drive screen, then startup from a floppy disk for full EZ-Drive support. I messed up my Libretto on a restore from a Ghost image and had to boot to a floppy disk to unhide the restored partition under DOS w/PM. 3) fdisk/mbr won't do anything except erase EZ-Drive, which is now installed in the MBR. 4) once you've got PM running, you can see if making one of the primary bootable partitions both ACTIVE and VISIBLE will help. Reboot and see if it'll get you back in. 5) You may try deleting the partition you were messing with and making another one active, bootable and visible. Then try rebooting. 6) Whatever, it can get complex restoring whatever may be wrong... = adorable toshiba libretto The latest news and information for the Toshiba Libretto owner. http://www.silverace.com/libretto/ __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Finance: Get your refund fast by filing online. http://taxes.yahoo.com/filing.html ** http://libretto.basiclink.com - Libretto mailing list http://www.silverace.com/libretto/ - Archives ---TO UNSUBSCRIBE--- Reply to any of the list messages. The reply mail should be addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Then replace any text on the message's subject line: cmd:unsubscribe TO UNSUBSCRIBE DIGEST-- Do above but with this on subject line: cmd:unsubscribe digest **
[LIB] Serious boot problem - Help needed!
Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2004 04:33:46 + From: "Matt Hanson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Serious boot problem - Help needed! The 20GB Hitachi HDD in my L100 refuses to boot, hanging after the EZ-BIOS DOS message with a blinking underscore. I have 1 primary partition C:, and 2 logical partitions D: and E: on a single extended partition. I had shrunk the E: partition with Partition Magic, then shrunk the extended partition to match it, then created a 1GB primary partition at the end of the drive to install an Win98SE Ghost image to do some testing. But in the middle of copying the image, Ghost burped, and quit the process with some error message I didn't make a note of. Now the system doesn't get past the DOS EZ-BIOS messages. PM reports errors on C:, but none for D: or E:, saying that copies of FAT's don't match, and several errors for file sizes not matching FAT allocation for the file. I'm wondering if the MBR has become corrupted as well, though PM's 'Check' makes not mention of it. But with EZ-BIOS installed, I'm not sure if I can, or want to run FDISK /MBR successfully, or if there are better approaches for fixing things. I don't know if it's wise to run Scandisk at this point. My copy of PM is past qualifying for support from Powerquest. It seems they were always the only people I could ever find who understood the arcane world of partitiioning and file systems well enough to address these problems. Any suggestions on where to go from here would be greatly appreciated. I'll paste the output from PM's Partinfo.exe below if if makes sense to anyone. Thanks, Matt Partinfo output. Interesting it reports no errors. Partition Information Program Sep 16 2002 - DOS32 Version Copyright (c) 1994-2002, PowerQuest Corporation Permission is granted for this utility to be freely copied so long as it is not modified in any way. All other rights are reserved. PowerQuest, makers of PartitionMagic(r), Drive Image(tm) and DriveCopy(tm), can be reached at Voice: 801-226-6834 Web site: http://www.powerquest.com/support/ Fax: 801-226-8941 Email:[EMAIL PROTECTED] BiosExtensions: 0x2000 Subsets (0x0005): Access EDD EGeo 0x0002 2432 255 63 39054015 0 512 Disk 0: 2431 Cylinders, 255 Heads, 63 Sectors/Track. BiosExtensions: 0x2000 Subsets (0x0005): Access EDD The BIOS supports INT 13h extensions for this drive. EZ-Drive is installed on this drive. Partition Tables == Partition -Begin --End- Start Num Sector # Boot Cyl Head Sect FS Cyl Head Sect Sect Sects -- - -- -- -- 0 0 80 011 0B 324 254 63 635221062 0 1 00 [ 32501] 0F [1023 254 63]5221125 24884685 [Large Drive Placeholders] 32501 1873 254 63 Actual Values 5221125 0 00 32511 0B 1015 254 63 5221188 11100852 5221125 1 00101601 05 [1023 254 63] 16322040 208845 [Large Drive Placeholders] 101601 1028 254 63 Actual Values 16322040 0 00101611 1B [1023 254 63] 16322103 208782 [Large Drive Placeholders] 101611 1028 254 63 Actual Values 16322040 1 00 [102301] 05 [1023 254 63] 16530885 13574925 [Large Drive Placeholders] 102901 1873 254 63 Actual Values 16530885 0 00 [102311] 0B [1023 254 63] 16530948 13574862 [Large Drive Placeholders] 102911 1873 254 63 Actual Values == Disk 0: 19069.3 Megabytes = Partition Information == VolumePartition PartitionStart Total Letter:Label TypeStatus Size MB Sector # Sector Sectors - --- -- - -- -- C:FAT32 Pri,Boot 2549.3 0 0 63 5221062 ExtendedX Pri 12150.7 0 15221125 24884685 EPBRLog5420.4 None -5221125 11100915 D:FAT32 Log5420.35221125 05221188 11100852 EPBRLog 102.05221125 1 16322040 208845 Hidden FAT32Log 101.9 16322040 0 16322103 208782
