HELP! "Error Trying To Load Operating System" after defrag

[nails00]

Hi

last night i decided to defragment my F: partition (WinXP NTFS - multimedia content only) cause i had been moving around 60GB of data and went to bed. This morning i wake up to find my pc in a black screen with a message "error trying to load operating system"...

Here's what I've tried so far:

Hooked up a 10GB Maxtor HDD already with WinXP installed, WinXP detects my Seagate 160GB HDD in My Computer BUT when i click on it it asks if i want to format it. it won't even display the two partitions i have on it either [C: OS Partition (10GB size) + F: Multimedia Partition (139GB size)]

I've thought about formatting the C: partition and re-installing WinXP but will my mp3's and photos still be there and fully accessable? i know that my programs won't work since the C: partition holds their registry entries.

I've also thought of using the WinXP install CD to "repair" the C: partition. Will this work? Is it possible to use System Restore to revert things to a previous state and still retain all my mp3's + photos to date?

Some experienced advice is greatly appreciated before i take any action. Formatting the F: partition is out of the question. I must recover it's data.

Thank you for the replies i'm stressed out here!!! :(

[wiltrot]

Try rebooting or turning on (whichever comes first) the computer. Tap on the F8 key until you see the startup menu. Select "last known good configuration".

[nails00]

what about the mp3's and photos? will they still be there after system restore? i havent created a restore point in ages... long before any of the data which i am trying to access and immediatly backup to dvd-r's.

i have a cousin who had to do the same and ended up losing all her music...
however she had everything in one partition...

i must be 100% sure otherwise i'm not going to attempt it. :confused:

EDIT: i tapped F8 it took me to a blue menu asking which device to boot from, i selected my Seagate HDD, then the dreaded "error loading operating system appears".... it seems system restore is beyond reach at this point. what should i do now?

[wiltrot]

First of all you will not lose anything in the F partition when you reformat the C partition. But when you defragged the F partition (without doing a scandisk) it is possible that you will lose something. When you defrag a drive it is always good to run scandisk (especially if the drive is old) first, so the defrag program will not rewrite data on a bad sector.
Go ahead and do what I suggest and see if that helps. If not reformat the primary partition which should be your C: drive and the data (mp3s) in the F: drive will not be touched. Reinstall the OS on the C: partition and then you will see your F: drive and able to access those mp3s.
Farewell.

[nails00]

I have been doing a lot of reading around the net trying to pinpoint the cause and according to Microsoft.com the error message "error loading operating system" may be due to the fact that the Master Boot Record (MBR) may be corrupted or changed. The partition table might have been altered making the C: partition unaccesable.

I noticed something strange while i stuck in the WinXP install cd and selected to install and then seen in the list of partitions that only 1 MB was used from each and that the rest of it was free.... yes it won't detect any data on them? i have like 80GB of data on the F: partition and it shows up as 1MB used? why is that?

if i format & re-install WinXP on C: partition... assuming the Master Boot Record will be replaced will it then detect the F: partition and run like it should or will i end up with an unreadable F: partition?

please, i need to know this in advance. thank you for the help so far guys.

------------------
152626 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on atapi [MBR]
C: Partition1 [Unknown] 9539 MB (9538 MB free)
D: Partition2 [Unknown] 143087 MB (143086 MB free)
------------------
why is it labeled as "D:" when it always showed as "F:" in my computer :confused:

[Paul Komski]

WinXP detects my Seagate 160GB HDD in My Computer BUT when i click on it it asks if i want to format it. it won't even display the two partitions i have on it either [C: OS Partition (10GB size) + F: Multimedia Partition (139GB size)]

This doesnt sound right. My Computer would only see partitions; not the hard drive. Are you sure you are not talking about Disk Management??? (enter diskmgmt.msc in the run box to get there in one move).

Do you have at least SP1 on the Maxtor installation and with 48bit LBA enabled - else you wont be able to see all of the large hard drive (though you should be able to see the first 10 GB partition).

Does the big drive show as "bad" or "raw" or unallocated or anything else. Unless you can get to visualise the two original partitions then I'm afraid we may be into data recovery. Post back with what Disk Management sees and I suggest you dont attempt to write or reintall anything to the old drive until the situation becomes clearer.

[Paul Komski]

Suggest download PartInNT.zip and Ptedit32.zip from ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/

Run PartInNT from the Maxtor installation and click on the SaveAs button. Then upload the txt file that it creates here. You can look at the partition tables with Ptedit32 but don't edit anything unless you are 110% sure about what you are doing.

[Paul Komski]

why is it labeled as "D:" when it always showed as "F:" in my computerUnless the installation CD can read the registry of the old installation it will, temporarily at least, assign drive letters from scratch; its normal and not something to worry about. It does sound like there is somethng astray with the partiton tables so post the results of PartInNT before the next move.

[nails00]

PowerQuest PartitionInfo 8.0 -- Windows NT/2000 Version
Date Generated: 08/02/05 16:02:06
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: 801-437-8900
Fax: 801-226-8941
Web site: http://www.powerquest.com/support/
E-mail: magic@powerquest.com

General System Information:
Total Physical Memory (bytes): 1,072,934,912
Used Physical Memory: (bytes): 248,930,304
Maximum Page File Size: (bytes): 2,582,052,864
Current Page File Size: (bytes): 143,822,848



================================================== ================================================== =======
Disk Geometry Information for Disk 1: 16709 Cylinders, 255 Heads, 63 Sectors/Track
System PartSect # Boot BCyl Head Sect FS ECyl Head Sect StartSect NumSects
================================================== ================================================== =======
0 0 80 0 1 1 07 1023 254 63 63 19,534,977
Info: End C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Actual values are:
0 0 80 0 1 1 07 1215 254 63 63 19534977
0 1 00 1023 0 1 07 1023 254 63 19,535,040 293,041,665
Info: Begin C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Info: End C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Actual values are:
0 1 00 1216 0 1 07 19456 254 63 19535040 293041665
Error #109: Partition ends after end of disk.
ucEndCylinder (19456) must be less than 16709.

================================================== ================================================== =======
Disk Geometry Information for Disk 2: 1245 Cylinders, 255 Heads, 63 Sectors/Track
System PartSect # Boot BCyl Head Sect FS ECyl Head Sect StartSect NumSects
================================================== ================================================== =======
0 0 80 0 1 1 07 1023 254 63 63 19,984,797
Info: End C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Actual values are:
0 0 80 0 1 1 07 1243 254 63 63 19984797



================================================== ================================================== =======
Partition Information for Disk 1: 131,069.4 Megabytes
Volume PartType Status Size MB PartSect # StartSect TotalSects
================================================== ================================================== =======
D: QNX, UN*X Pri,Boot 9,538.6 0 0 63 19,534,977
E: QNX, UN*X Pri 143,086.8 0 1 19,535,040 293,041,665


================================================== ================================================== =======
Partition Information for Disk 2: 9,766.1 Megabytes
Volume PartType Status Size MB PartSect # StartSect TotalSects
================================================== ================================================== =======
C: NTFS Pri,Boot 9,758.2 0 0 63 19,984,797
Unallocated Pri 7.8 None -- 19,984,860 16,065


================================================== ================================================== =======
Boot Record for drive C: (Drive: 2, Starting sector: 63, Type: NTFS)
================================================== ================================================== =======
1. Jump: EB 52 90
2. OEM Name: NTFS
3. Bytes per Sector: 512
4. Sectors per Cluster: 8
5. Reserved Sectors: 0
6. Number of FATs: 0
7. Root Dir Entries: 0
8. Total Sectors: 0
9. Media Descriptor: 0xF8
10. Sectors per FAT: 0
11. Sectors per Track: 63 (0x3F)
12. Number of Heads: 255 (0xFF)
13. Hidden Sectors: 63 (0x3F)
14. Total Sectors (>32MB): 0 (0x0)
15. Unused: 0x80008000
16. Total NTFS Sectors: 19984796
17. MFT Start Cluster: 786432
18. MFT Mirror Start Clust: 1249049
19. Clusters per FRS: 246
20. Clusters per Index Blk: 1
21. Serial Number: 0x44280DAF280DA152
22. Checksum: 0 (0x0)
23. Boot Signature: 0xAA55

[nails00]

Note: The WinXP on the Maxtor reads the Maxtor as C:, the Seagate 10GB OS Partition is labeled as D:, and the 139GB Seagate Multimedia Partition as E:

[Paul Komski]

The drive letters don't really matter as long as one can identify the correct partitions for the time being.

There is an entry "Error #109: Partition ends after end of disk.
ucEndCylinder (19456) must be less than 16709" which I think we can ignore. 16709 is the maximum "seeable" without 48bit LBA and represents the 137GB ATA barrier. 19456 is the value for a 160 GB HDD and was recorded by the original installation. It looks as if the Maxtor can only see 137 GB max out of the 160's total at the moment.

Of greater relevance are the QNX, UN*X partition types for (D and E on the Seagate). This happens with NTFS partitions that have corrupt boot sectors; boot sectors not corrupt mbrs that is.

Now what to do next depends on how valuable your data is. If extremely valuable I would get another HDD and clone the bad drive to the new one either as a total clone or as a literal image file. Then attempt recovery from the new copy.

Alternatively use GetDataBack for NTFS from www.runtime.org, scan your bad drive and just attempt recovery of your important (or most important) files - this needs to be done one file at a time unless you pay for the utility.

The partition tables themselves dont seem abnormal. There is another recovery program you might like to try (download the demo and see what it comes up with if you want) called diskpatch from http://www.diydatarecovery.nl/DiskPatch.htm which works by patching corrupt sectors and the like. I would personally try this or just try repairing the boot sector using the WinXP installation CD.

You would remove the Maxtor and boot to the CD and go to the Recovery Console and then run fixboot from there. If that works enough to boot up XP you could rerun it and run fixboot C: fixboot D: etc etc to fix all the boot sectors.

As I said only you know how valuable your data is. Backup the bad drive or recover your important files first because any diy recovery and partition work can go wrong. I think fixboot or diskpatch should work but there are no guarantees in this area.

PS I note that PartInfo didnt report on the boot sectors for D and E. Is that because it didnt find them or because you truncated the file?

[nails00]

it just didn't find them, and neither has DiskPatch. After a scan it couldnt find any for the C:, it found a backup for F: and there was a strange FAT32 partition with a weird file size which gave me errors when i selected it for repairs since it was overlapping the other two partitions.

DiskPatch rated C: as a poor possibilty for recovery and rated F: as fair.

so i repaired, but was urged by DiskPatch website to d/l NTFSDOS and run it from a floppy which can't figure out since i can't get to the a: command prompt :(

So i re-attached the Maxtor and bypassed WinXP scandisk (i was told so by DiskPatch) at startup then tried accessing from My Computer with no luck. Same thing, i double click and it asks to format, the other says it's corrupted.

Now i'm thinking of going into DiskPatch and assigning C: as an active partition and cross my fingers hoping WinXP will boot up and i can get to my files. If I do i cannot undo the repairs made by DiskPatch and if the partition won't boot i'm basically stuck...

any advice :confused:

[Paul Komski]

I would first try fixboot and if that doesnt work try re-installng WinXP.

You could attempt a repair installation or a 2nd parallel installation.

A second installation directly onto your old C drive would require enough free space to succeed but should not overwrite anything. A repair installation does have its own inherent problems http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm but shouldn't normally overwrite any data on C. A parallel installation, if successful, would repair the boot processes for the C drive as part of the procedure.

GetDataBack has been very successful round here for recovering data but doesnt set out to repair anything.

PS
You never did report back what Disk Management shows.

[nails00]

i gave GetDataBack a try but i didnt like its results. for some reason it only managed to read 137GB of the 160GB and after the scan it was chaos. files all over the place, so i searched for .mp3 and it found only 1,300 of 10,000 some of which had file sizes of 0 bytes.

so i then decided to repair C: only problem is that option wasn't available in the WinXP install screen. So i did a clean install on C: then when it booted up i let scandisk do it's thing on the F: partition it detected and, well.. it began deleting everything :eek:

right now in My Computer it says 139GB total capacity 124GB free but when i double click to check out its remaining contents i find nothing inside. perhaps they're hidden.

well is there anything else i can do? is it still possible to recover my files using GetDataBack or am i doomed? :rolleyes:

[Paul Komski]

GetDataBack is probably your best hope for DIY. Professional data recovery is the other option but is expensive. I'm just sorry you didn't backup first and work on the backup copy/clone.

The following was stated for a reason though it gives me no pleasure whatsoever to say so.
Backup the bad drive or recover your important files first because any diy recovery and partition work can go wrong.
So I suspect you have just learned a valuable but horrible lesson. Scandisk is, perhaps paradoxically, well known for making a corrupt system worse. ANYTHING that writes to a corrupt partition can do so.

[nails00]

The F: Partition was corrupt beyond comprehension. even if i had bypassed scandisk i doubt i would've been able to access F:'s contents. right now im in the process of recovering whatever i can from the 1,500 mp3's GetDataBack managed to recover (it found more this time round) and transfering them to a 1GB USB flash mp3 player. Nearly all of my albums and singles are missing tracks, and some that were recovered won't play back in winamp. corrupted i guess.

The only question that remains is what do i do with the 160GB Seagate HDD? Delete all it's partitions and start from scratch or toss it and buy a new HDD? i herd one time that HDD with bad sectors only lead to more trouble in the near future.

thank you for all your help Paul :)

[Fruss Tray Ted]

I used GetDataBack on an 128 meg xD picture card recently after accidentally deleting about 60+ pictures and taking another 20 or so layered on top of the deletions.

I managed to get about 27 of the deleted ones back with GDB so I tried a couple other softs and managed to get a few more. GDB was by far the best of the 3 but it wouldn't hurt to use more than one soft as well as more than one attempt with each.

Easy Recovery Pro (trial) by Ontrack and R-Undelete were the other 2 softs used. I think it was ERP that found some more pics (~3 or 4) for me.

GDB found about 14 more files that were about 400kb in size as compared to 600kb for the pics average size. But the 400kb files would only open in text in some kind of code characters+text and such of pages after pages of text. I saved them to HDD, but I do not know if i'll ever be able to convert the code back into a viewable jpeg as they should be.

However the recovered pics I did manage to save were an enormous help and I'm happy that I could get those.

If anyone has any other softwares they want to recommend or suggest, I'll try them as the xD card has not been used since and still contains the same files. I am using another xD card in the camera until I exhaust my efforts in recovery attempts.

Good luck to you Nails00. :)
_________________
Edit:
I forgot to suggest using Seagate's tools to diagnose and/or repair, partition and format the 160 gig drive. If it passes the test, go ahead and use it. If it fails, use it as a paperweight... ;)

[Paul Komski]

Agree - Diagnostics first

http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/