Hard Drive MBR Corrupt

It may be a hardware issue, It may also be a problem with the partitions ( volume drivers ) attempting to share resources.

If the latter is the case, it should be possible to fix by booting GParted livecd - deleting the C partition , recreating it ( slightly smaller than the original).

Exit Gparted, boot 7 dvd and install on that new partition.

If the other partitions were recognised - they should be fine.

If, when booting Gparted, the drive is shown as Raw:

Again click New at the top of the Gparted UI and create a new ntfs partition - again smaller than the original C ( do not overlap where the previous partitions, if any, were).

To avoid the 100mb partition - mark it Active (rt click it select Flag On , Apply).

Install 7 to that new partition - d/l the free Partition Wizard - select partition undelete - do a Quick search of Unallocated space.

Tick the Partitions to keep ( include the one you just created.)


Download GParted from SourceForge.net


BEST FREE Partition Manager for Windows supports all 32-bit & 64 bit Windows No-server OS.

Hi SIW2,

He has important data on that drive that needs to be saved first.

Any ideas?

By the way, "Grand Torino" was great.

socav said:

When I run Parted Magic, it reads the HDD just fine. Worst case scenario, I transfer all of my music, pictures, and movies to a new drive, then reformat and reinstall.

Click to expand...

Original post OP says he can access data with partition magic.

No worries, mates.

iseeuu said:

Original post OP says he can access data with partition magic.

No worries, mates.

Click to expand...

I sure hope so.

Seeing the consolidated block of data in partition magic is not the same as reading it.

Edit: copying it with partition magic to another disk will be quite an ordeal. NO Diskcaching.

If the data is on that same C partition - could be tricky.

He might try booting something like Paragon Drive Backup Express (free) - he would need to install it somewhere and run off the boot cd - then image the partition off somewhere safe.

OR, the free Paragon Rescue disk Express - boot that and use the File Transfer Wizard.

I have a feeling if Windows doesn't like the drive - then windows apps. like Paragon, won't like it either.

Even if they do see the HD - I think the free ones will only pick up mounted, lettered drives as target backup locations.

He might try Easeus Disk Copy (free) - and clone it somewhere - don't know if that will recognize the drive - worth a try.

Seems a bit more likely the Midnight File Manager on the free drweb live cd would let him transfer stuff off.

Dr.Web LiveCD is a software product that features a standard, Dr.Web scanner

EDIT : Just looked back at the posts - seems to be using Parted Magic ( similar to GParted , I believe) ? - very different from Partition Magic - stay away from Partition Magic if using Vista/7.

iseeuu said:

I hope your right Chuck for the sake of the OP. Hope your suggestions work.

Click to expand...

Me too... That's why I took the time to type it up and post it.

You would expect a new drive to be good, but from what I have read of Steve Gibson's writings, it is just the opposite. My fear is that there are defects showing up in the area of the boot sector, not allowing that area to be written to. I hope I am wrong and Chuck is right.

Click to expand...

My fear is that the Master Boot Record -is- bad. One sector, 512 bytes worth... Specifically, the first 'Partition table' entry.

The 'booting area' (Boot sector) is roughly 16 contiguous sectors (or more), usually starting at:

Partition Table entry 1 (01be)
=============================
Active partition: '0x80' <===< Boots here
(Cyl,Sect bytes): '0x01 0x00'
Start Cylinder: '0x0001' (1 dec)
Start Head: '0x01' (1 dec)
Start Sector: '0x00' (0 dec)
Partition type = '0x07' NTFS Volume
(Cyl,Sect bytes): '0xFE 0xFF'
Ending Cylinder: '0x03FE' (1022 dec)
Ending Head: '0xFF' (255 dec)
Ending Sector: '0x3F' (63 dec)
Start in LBA: '0x0000003F' (63 dec)
Size in sectors: '0x0B1FB3E2' (186627042 dec)

Click to expand...

But the error msges seem to point elsewhere.

Smart Disk (in non technical terms) has unused sectors of the drive set aside so when sectors go bad, they get blocked off and the data moved to other sectors using the ones set aside so as not to change the partition table, or something like that. Bottom line, disk failure is built-in. It is cheaper to replace 4 of 10 drives than to produce a quality drive with minimal defects, just my opinion.

Click to expand...

If he were that smart, he probably would have substituted good sectors for the theoretical bad 'booting sectors', wouldn't he?

Hope for the best.

Robert

Click to expand...

I am...

I do know of one superb program to repair a drive at extreme low factory level.

It can repair damaged sectors (not surface), realign data tracks, recreate damaged files from bad sectors etcetera.

It runs from a floppy or usb stick in an advanced dos mode with NTFS support.

Rescuing the mbr and the disk might take two days, but I managed to rescue disk that seemed a total loss.

It's called Spinrite 6.0

It's very rudimentary and I wouldn't recommend it to noobs.

If anyone is interested, PM me.


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

How does SpinRite compare to ScanDisk?

SpinRite and ScanDisk are entirely different types of products. ScanDisk replaces the original DOS CHKDSK command, which verified the logical file system structure of the hard drive (the newer CHKDSK command no longer performs that function). Microsoft created ScanDisk because people were switching off their computers without first exiting Windows. This resulted in corruption of the file system.

ScanDisk can also perform a read-only "scan" of a drive's surface to check for any unreadable sectors which it will then remove from use by the file system. However, ScanDisk does not perform data recovery, maintenance, or surface analysis of any kind. Unlike SpinRite, it does no data pattern testing, defect scrubbing, data relocation or unreadable sector repair and recovery. ScanDisk was never designed to perform those functions.

If your hard drives are acting up, the best thing to do is to run SpinRite first (a quick scan at level 2 is fine) to check for and repair any obvious read-trouble on the drive. Then, knowing that the "lower-levels" of the drive are okay, run ScanDisk to check and verify the "higher-levels" of the drive's file system. SpinRite is the best and only tool for long-term low-level data integrity maintenance, and ScanDisk is a useful free tool for checking the operating system's file system at a higher level.

.

squonksc said:

I do know of one superb program to repair a drive at extreme low factory level.

It can repair damaged sectors (not surface), realign data tracks, recreate damaged files from bad sectors etcetera.

It runs from a floppy or usb stick in an advanced dos mode with NTFS support.

Rescuing the mbr and the disk might take two days, but I managed to rescue disk that seemed a total loss.

It's called Spinrite 6.0

Click to expand...

Excellent software, have owned a copy for many years. I run it on any new or used drive before I install it. You are right, takes a while, but It can save me from trusting my data to a faulty drive. Also a Steve Gibson program: GRC.com.

Cheers!

Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone. I haven't had a chance to read through and try everything yet - probably won't be until tomorrow evening. I'll report on what happens.

Thanks again. I really appreciate it.

Well, I think I solved the problem. Once I backed up the data, I used a disk erasing program that was on the Parted Magic linux cd. Created a new partition, and now I'm trying to install Windows 7 RC on it again. However I'm having a problem with that now.. I'm encountering a 'missing or corrupt file' error when installing, and I think I need to burn a new disc. Unfortunately, I did not save the ISO when I wiped the drive, and it can't be downloaded anymore. Anyone here know where I can still get a copy? Or maybe someone can send me the ISO?