Please someone help me!! Partition table messed up! Must fix! Data important! AHH!

[soundfx4]

Please someone help me!! Partition table messed up! Must fix! Data important! AHH!

Ok, well I have this problem with my hard drive. My NTFS partition table is totally screwed up. I mean the data is still there, but the table is messed up so bad that it doesn't know what it is, where it starts, where it ends, what sector its on. It just knows there is 29 gigs there but unaccessable. Anyway to go into a bit more detail, I was using Parition magic (the emergency floppy part of it) to convert a Fat32 partition to an NTFS, and to resize another partition to take up some unallocated space, and right in the middle it frooze. My hard drive stoped scratching and the total percent didn't go up. It just stoped. At that moment I knew it was screwed. At least for a while. Anyway, my hunt for information to save my HD has begun. I really don't know what to do. I read somewhere something about deleting the partition, and then creating an unformatted partition on that would work. Or something to that effect. but I don't want to risk messing it up any more because I know my data is still on there, I can even see it will some recovery programs I tried (that didn't work btw). Anyway, here are some pictures of my hard drive setup. After all a picture's worth a thousand words.

 

[foshdawg]

try using partition magic

 

[Xaotic]

This might help, but it does state that only early NTFS support is available(which I would read as NTFS 4 for NT). Worth a shot in any event.

http://home.arcor.de/christian_grau/rescue/

It will be able to deal with FAT16/32 information and hopefully the conversion was not far along and it'll be able to recover most or all of the data.

 

[h2k]

Ok, the same thing happened to me. I was converting a partition and my computer froze part way through. You have to reboot and let the conversion process start again. When mine finished, it was still inacessible. However, after doing a little searching on the cd, I found something called PTEDIT32.EXE. It allowed me to manually change the partition type from FF (Xenix Bad Block Table) to Fat32. I would have to imagine that the same procedure may work for you.

 

[Maximus Nickus]

Boot with a Boot-disk, (go Here for one) and then type at the C: prompt:

mbr /r
or
repair/ mbr

This will repair your Master Boot Record. It should solve your problems.
If you cannot access the disk, then try booting from another HDD and then running scandisk.


Good Luck,
M_N

 

[soundfx4]

Ok, the same thing happened to me. I was converting a partition and my computer froze part way through. You have to reboot and let the conversion process start again. When mine finished, it was still inacessible. However, after doing a little searching on the cd, I found something called PTEDIT32.EXE. It allowed me to manually change the partition type from FF (Xenix Bad Block Table) to Fat32. I would have to imagine that the same procedure may work for you.

THAT IS ITT!!! I have to edit it manually!!! Ok, I found the edit program, but I don't have a clue how to change it. Can someone send a link with instructions or something. Or maybe explain it in the post? Thanks!!

 

[h2k]

Basically you need to double click in the type column. You can just select the right file system from the list.
Make sure you make a note of the original. It will take some trial and error. My other partition was located in the EPBR, and I had to specify the type in there.

 

[DS]

Since you have PM buy another HDD and make a copy of it using PM. Believe me this will save you headaches (like the one you just encountered) down the road. The copy it makes is bootable.

 

[Wonko The Sane]

I also had the same thing happen to me (PM froze during resize). I used linux fdisk (DOS fdisk won't do this) to change the partition type. I don't remember the exact comands, but there should be a help option (either m or ? i think) and that will list the comand for changing the partitoin type. once you're in the comand and it asks what type you want, you can press l to get a list of the different types. you may want to try both NTFS and fat 32 to get as much as possible back (you probably won't be able to get everything, but you should get most of your data).

 

[soundfx4]

Since you have PM buy another HDD and make a copy of it using PM. Believe me this will save you headaches (like the one you just encountered) down the road. The copy it makes is bootable.

I have another HDD, but the only options I have for that partition are delete, format, info, and set active. I can't copy it

 

[soundfx4]

Oopps, I forgot to inculde a very important detail. Ok, The conversion completed sucsessfully. In fact that is the partition I am using right now to write this. It is the one that I was resizing that is screwed up. I thought I put that in there. Oh well.


Thanks!

 

[DS]

Were you trying to resize a compressed partition?Problems can occur trying to resize a compressed partition. Decompress partitions before resizing. I don't know if that is what you were doing,just thought I would give this tip.

 

[DS]

I got this from the PM help file:
PqRP Partitions

If your computer fails during a PartitionMagic operation, you may see a partition that displays as PqRP or PQFLEX in the partition list in the main screen. PartitionMagic flags a partition with a PqRP file system and a PQFLEX label, so you know that the partition has been modified. You should assume that a PqRP partition is not stable. Contact PowerQuest technical support for help in recovering data from a PqRP partition.

 

[soundfx4]

I got this from the PM help file:
PqRP Partitions

If your computer fails during a PartitionMagic operation, you may see a partition that displays as PqRP or PQFLEX in the partition list in the main screen. PartitionMagic flags a partition with a PqRP file system and a PQFLEX label, so you know that the partition has been modified. You should assume that a PqRP partition is not stable. Contact PowerQuest technical support for help in recovering data from a PqRP partition.

Naw, it was decompressed, I don't use the NTFS File compress option. I was just reading on the Partition edit thing, and PqRP stands for Power Quest Recoverable Partition! I hope powerquest has an 800 number. Thanks!