Help! My Hd Is Screwed!!!


D

Drag

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Ok, please help me! We had a power surge, and my computer booted up with a blue screen. It kept booting up with a blue screen. It'd go into the "windows XP is loading" screen thingy, and then bsod.

So I went into the recovery console, and typed fixboot.

Now my computer isn't booting up at all. It says my filesystem is FAT, and I KNOW that it's NTFS.

How do I fix my partition so it's the correct file system? And more importantly, how do I do this without losing my files?

Please, I am super desperate for help!
 
Do you have your XP cd ?.

If so try booting with that, Go through the menu`s as if to install windows.
I should detect the presence of a previous installation of windows and ask you if you wish to repair it, Say yes.

See how that goes.

Trooper
 
thats what happened to me!!! twice and i fixed it twice by my little self!!!

the blue screen of death is annoying it says so much cock 'n' bull. the way i fixed it is by putting your HD into anothers persons computer(put it as second so it doesnt boot with your HD) then you may, just may be able to get your stuff back, unless one of the drives is corrupt you wont be able to get anything from that part of the HD eg. D may be corrupt or C. then after youve got your stuff of the com, then format it, i done this in NFS or something like that.

hope this helps!
 
But my problem is that my partition is really NTFS, but fixboot changed it to FAT. I don't think it altered any files, it only changed the partition settings to make it think it's FAT.

So if I hooked up the HD to a different computer, more than likely it'd show up that it's a FAT file system, and the files would be read incorrectly and show up as garbage.

Whatever I do, I need to make absolute sure that NO FILES get damaged. I need my files. All of my source code is on there, which means all of my projects would be dead if I can't get the code back.

So because of this, the CD is unable to detect any windows installations. I need to somehow change the settings of the partition to remind it that it's really an NTFS partition instead of a FAT partition, while not losing any files in the process.

There has GOT to be a way to fix it.
 
Linux is pretty good at filesystems if I remember right, get knoppix and see if you can recover any files using that.
 
"fixboot" writes a new partition sector to the drive, assuming the current one is corupt. So what you'll need to do now is to boot linux (like others have said, Knoppix is good), and then run "fdisk" and change the file system back to NTFS and write back the changes, then you should be able to "mount" the drive somewhere, and copy all the files to another hd before formatting and reinstalling your favourite os.

You do backup your sourcecode don't you? If not, then i'd recommend what I use, which is a 512mb compact flash card + usb reader, along with a copy of second copy. Works brilliantly.
 
Does fixboot change the bootstrap code at all?

I might have to just locate where the backup boot sector is and copy that into the original. I may not be able to boot windows from that drive again, but at least I'll have access to my files.

I don't have knoppix or anything, and I'm very afraid to try anything on my own, so I'm going to see if someone else who has experience with this stuff can do this for me.

The main objective here now is to regain access to my files, so I can copy them onto a new hd.
 
Ok, here's a news update.

I have a brand new computer now, which really rocks, it has a built in card reader. ^_^

Well anyway, it has a DVD-RW drive, so I can now burn whatever I want to whatever burnable CD I want.

Knoppix is free? Ok, I'll give it a shot at some point.

So, I want to locate the backup bootsector that XP supposedly creates, and copy the backup to the original so it restores the partition's settings. How would I go about doing this with knoppix?
 
The backup boot sector in XP is stored at the end of the partition (very last sector), so use the 'dd' command to go and fetch it, verify that it's correct, and then overwrite the original.
 
So all I need to type is dd?

just dd?

Only dd? I go to the commandline (if there is one), push the D key twice, and then hit enter?

That is amazingly simple!

Now, I have to be 100% sure about this... using the 'dd' command will ONLY fetch my backup bootsector, and then replace my current bootsector with it? It doesn't overwrite any files, right?

And how does that backup boot sector get created? Does XP create it when it boots up, or did XP create it when it got installed?
 
No, 'dd' is the command you need, that's all. You use it to copy disk sectors. So what you need to do is type 'fdisk', find the drive and partition that is corrupt, note down the number of blocks, and then ask the 'dd' command to retrieve the last sector into a file, then ask it to write that file over the old boot sector.

Documentation for 'dd' and 'fdisk' can be found here:
http://maconlinux.net/linux-man-pages/en/dd.1.html
http://www.maconlinux.net/linux-man-pages/en/fdisk.8.html

The backup boot sector gets created when the NTFS partition is created. I'm not sure whether or not its kept updated, but it should certainly be better than a completely wrong boot sector.
 
Well, I was referred to this:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=153973

And that'd probably require me hook up my bad HD to my new computer, alongside my new HD.

I don't know if XP will recognize it if the boot sector (which containts the settings which declare whether the partition is NTFS or FAT or whatever, the sector size, the cluster size, and that stuff) contains the wrong settings. I just don't want XP to automatically format my drive when I put it in, that's a main concern of mine.

So step one, I *MUST* restore the bootsector. That's a top priority, because that way I *KNOW* that it has a larger chance for the files to show up in Windows XP if the bootsector is correct.

Oh guys, I'm just so nervous to do anything! :S If I do something wrong, I could blow all chances to recover my files. I'm incredibly hesitant to do anything, but the sooner I do this, the sooner I can have my files back. But also, the sooner I do this, the sooner I could totally blow that opportunity away.

I WILL do something eventually though. And at least I know my files aren't going anywhere.

I should practice with my card reader. :) (I don't have a floppy disk drive for some bizarre reason.)

Thanks for the help everyone, I don't know when I'm going to do anything, but when I do, I'll let you know what happens.
 
Ok, I need some info before I start.

If I were to hook my bad HD into my new computer as a slave, what would Windows XP do?

Would XP see the messed up filesystem and try to format it or something?

Or would XP do nothing at all, and when I look at a list of connected devices in DiskProbe the bad HD would show up?

It is of top importance that my files are not damaged in any way, because, unless I'm mistaken, all I need to do is fix my bootsector (because that's what fixboot messed up), and poof, the partition's settings would once again be correct, and I could see my files again.
 
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