disk structure damaged

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  1. davexnet
    Posts : 214
    Windows10
       New #1

    (solved) disk structure damaged


    This is not really a Windows problem, but I'm posting this in case somebody
    can recommend a way to proceed. The system is legacy bios/mbr

    I experienced a "glitch", the computer froze with a strange diagonal pattern on the screen.

    Trying to reboot gave a black screen, no post. After using "clear cmos" jumper and battery removal
    I was eventually able to access the bios setup, save it and it now posts OK. (But no OS boot up)

    I booted from a Windows DVD and entered troubleshooting. Used diskpart/ list volume to see what I could.
    The D: drive, sata, is where all the OS partitions were, now shows RAW. C: and E: is just data and is intact
    on an IDE pata drive.

    This D drive contained primary partition (Boot/Windows XP)
    A logical partition with another three or four drives containing a couple of very small data partitions and
    a Windows 8.1 partition.
    Right at the end of the drive is a Linux partition (ext2 or ext3) and a small Linux swap partition.

    Whether this drive has lost it's MBR or worse I have not tried anything yet. It occurred to me that
    It might be a worthwhile risk to unplug the data IDE drive containing C: and E: and attempt
    FIXMBR on the raw drive. But I wanted to get some feedback first in case there is something else
    I should do first.

    Thanks for any input
    disk structure damaged-20180915_155108-diskpart.jpg
    Last edited by davexnet; 23 Sep 2018 at 13:38.
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  3. Samuria
    Posts : 8,114
    windows 10
       New #2

    Can you post a screenshot from disk manager or simlar if its showing raw its lost the partition table not mbr you will need parition recovery software
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  4. davexnet
    Posts : 214
    Windows10
    Thread Starter
       New #3

    OK I'll see what I can do. I have a "Live" XP cd somewhere... let me look for it.

    Here it what it says in XP's Disk Management. (BartPE rescue disk)
    If you click it in "my computer" it says "the disk is not formatted
    would you like to format it now?"

    Any specific programs to try? I believe Easeus has a free partition manager. I'm probably going to
    have to get the drive out and attach it to a second PC.
    disk structure damaged-20180915_173401-diskmgmt.jpg
    Last edited by davexnet; 15 Sep 2018 at 19:47. Reason: image
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  6. davexnet
    Posts : 214
    Windows10
    Thread Starter
       New #4

    I took a copy of the damaged MBR and compared it to a good MBR I found on the 'net.

    You can see the first few lines are the same, then you can see in the damaged mbr (HxD screen cap)
    it is overwritten with garbage extending (by the look of it) into the partition table at offset x"01be".

    Also in the sample the verbiage in the purple color at offset x'0163". In the damaged MBR
    you can see portions of the text are still there.

    So the code part and the table of the MBR is damaged. The last two bytes (the signature) are intact
    x"55aa"

    I've had various power cuts and other glitches before but this is the first time I've lost a disk this way.
    I guess I was just unlucky. The code part can surely be fixed with FIXMBR, but it looks as if I'm going to need
    a partition tool to recover the table. A backup of the MBR would have been handy about now!
    disk structure damaged-damaged_mbr_partition_table.jpgdisk structure damaged-sample_mbr.jpg
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  7. Samuria
    Posts : 8,114
    windows 10
       New #5

    Ideally it would be good to create an image of the disk first. I would then run chkdsk first the run fixmbr
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  8. davexnet
    Posts : 214
    Windows10
    Thread Starter
       New #6

    Samuria said:
    Ideally it would be good to create an image of the disk first. I would then run chkdsk first the run fixmbr
    Yes I can do the backup, I have a portable (usb) drive with enough space and a Macrium bootable
    disk.

    I have a feeling chkdsk will not work; to Disk management in Windows XP the drive looks like
    232GB of unformatted space.

    Come to think of it will Macrium work without any recognized partiitons on the drive?
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  9. Samuria
    Posts : 8,114
    windows 10
       New #7

    You should be able to create an image if you use sector by sector copy
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  10. davexnet
    Posts : 214
    Windows10
    Thread Starter
       New #8

    Samuria said:
    You should be able to create an image if you use sector by sector copy
    Unfortunately I've had no luck creating a backup. Both Acronis TrueImage
    and macrium rescue disk both say the disk is empty, it's not not selectable
    as the source at all.
    I've installed Easeus Partition Master to see if it can find the partitions.
    I looked at Testdisk earlier. For some reason it did not identify the windows 8 partition -
    so I quit without writing anything to the disk


    I found an image of this disk that I had posted to a forum some time ago.
    This is how it should be.
    disk structure damaged-diskmgmt.jpg
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  12. Samuria
    Posts : 8,114
    windows 10
       New #9

    A lot of logical ones which is bad as if the main one goes so do all the others with primary if one dies it doesnttake the others out the same
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  13. davexnet
    Posts : 214
    Windows10
    Thread Starter
       New #10

    Samuria said:
    A lot of logical ones which is bad as if the main one goes so do all the others with primary if one dies it doesnttake the others out the same
    Some good news. I added the drive to a second PC running Windows 7 and installed Easeus Partition Master.
    It successfully recovered every thing except the Linux partitions at the end, they'e still marked as unallocated.
    One curious thing, the drive marked "d-drive" in the jpg it made it primary, where before it
    was part of the logical drive. I don't think this is a big deal
    No overlapping problems, everything the right size.
    The Linux data must still be there, so I haven't given up on it yet.
    But now this drive can go back where it belongs, and probably a Windows 8 startup repair
    will do it.
    Thanks for you comments
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