| Author | Message | ||
     Young Lee |
My hard drive looks ok and the data seems to be in the drive but the partition is gone. I don't know where MBR is and i don't know how to bring this back to life. Help me to fix this. Thank you | ||
| Stefan Fleischmann (Admin) |
The master boot record with the partition table is in the first sector (sector 0) of a physical hard disk. You could read here about hard disk partitioning and use a template in WinHex to edit your MBR. You would need to know the start sector of the partition ("sectors preceding partition 1", usually 63) and the size of the partition ("length of partition 1 in sectors"), also the partition type (e.g. 0x0B for a primary FAT32 partition). | ||
| Young Lee |
I only had one partition on this disk. how do i find the size of partition? | ||
| Young Lee |
I know it's hard but can you please walk me through this because i am a very newbie.. I really appreciate your fast reply | ||
| Stefan Fleischmann (Admin) |
1) Run WinHex. 2) Open the physical hard disk with Tools | Disk Editor. 3) View | Template Manager | Master Boot Record. 4) Edit the section "Partition Table Entry #1". Sorry, I cannot completely guide you from remote because it is impossible to tell what values are correct or wrong in your current partition table and what else might be corrupt. As the size of the partition, you could try the size of your hard disk divided by 512 (sector size). I don't think it will be necessary to hit the correct value exactly. It is only necessary that the partition is defined in the partition table at all. All the details are defined in the boot sector. | ||
| Paul Mullen (Pcguru) |
First you will have to restore the Master Boot Record code either by copying it from another drive or using either of the following methods: a) boot from a Windows 98 Startup floppy disk and running the command Fdisk /mbr or b) boot from a Windows XP CD and entering recovery console where you can use the command FIXMBR. After that you can use Winhex editor to put the correct values for your partition. To see the exact size of your partition go to sector 63 then press Ctrl-F12 and use the appropriate boot sector template (either NTFS or FAT32). That will show the total number of sectors on that disk. Then return to sector 0, use Ctrl-F12 to view as a Master partition Record and enter the active indicator (80h) the "operating system indicator" which will be 07 if NTFS, 0B if FAT32 larger than 8 Gb. The start head, sector and cylinder will be 1,1,0 respectively. End head,sector and cyclinder are never used on partitions larger than 8 Gb but by convention are usually filled with 254, 63 and 1023. The important part is the sectors preceding partion (63) and the length in sectors, which is the value you have just taken from the boot sector. | ||
| Mike Wong (Spot6789) |
I think I'm in the same situtation as Young. My computer won't boot up and after running windows recovery console, I get an error saying path c:\ is no longer valid, or no disk is present. But when I run a utility called active@ uneraser, it sees my partitions (i've got 2 of them, c:\ and f:\) and files, just the drive letter has been replaced by a question mark (?) After reading this possible solution I would like to have a couple of questions answered before I try this solution out. 1) once I run FIXMBR and assuming all goes well, I should be able to boot into my computer right? And will the files in both of my partitions still be accessible after runing FIXMBR? 2) Do I need to run FIXBOOT as well? 3) Since I have 2 partitions (c:\ and F:\) can I use WinHex to remake the partition table for drive F? 4) Also in the tip posted by Paul, assuming that I do copy and existing MBR from another computer (my brother has the same kind and size of drive) how do I get that information into my own MBR if I can't boot into windows to run WINHEX. And finally (not really related to winhex) if my problems were caused by a virus, will running FIXMBR erase the thing? or will I have to persue another way of getting rid of the virus? Thanks for any help you guys can give, I'm ready to put a boot through my computer!! :0) | ||
| Stefan Fleischmann (Admin) |
3) Yes, you would need to define an extended partition in the partition table of sector 0 and fill the partition table in the first sector of that extended partition. (But maybe that partition and partition still exists, only the pointer from the main partition table is missing?) 4) You could temporarily attach the damaged hard disk to the other computer that is running Windows and WinHex. | ||
| Paul Mullen (Pcguru) |
Mike, you can either use a DOS based disk editor (such as Norton Diskedit) or put the drive as slave in another computer to run Winhex. FIXMBR only writes the boot code portion of the Master Boot Record, not the partition table. So you would still have to recreate the partition entries. I would guess that the boot sector is still OK and the partition table is corrupt but it could be the other way round. Either way you need the starting sector and length for each partition. Look at the first boot sector in sector 63 to see the length of the first partition. | ||
| Mike Wong (Spot6789) |
Thanks for the replies and help, I'll read them through carefully and go from there! This is a great forum! | ||
| Mike Wong (Spot6789) |
hi guys, i read and re-read your instructions but when i went to sector 63, hit ctrl+f12 i got an error saying it did not meet template requirements for both master boot and boot sector. did i do that correctly? upon further searching through my drive i did find another sector that allowed me to use the templates, but this was at sector 9100000 (or something similar) comparing this record to my brothers hard drive it was essentially the same. should i use the info given in this sector? also does a boot record apply to my second partition? if so, how do i know if i've found my second partition in winhex? | ||
| Stefan Fleischmann (Admin) |
The boot sectors of FAT12/16, FAT32, and NTFS differ. Did you apply the correct boot sector template to the sector? Does the sector end with the hex values 55AA? If you like, select this sector, copy it into a new file, and e-mail it to my address. Sector 9100000 is 4.3 GB away from the beginning of the hard disk, so it might be the boot sector of the 2nd partition, depending on the size of the first partition. You probably don't need it. Chances are if this sector is not corrupted, the partition table 63 sectors before is not corrupted either. | ||
| Mike Wong (Spot6789) |
actually, after i sifted through almost the entire first partition, i found the back-up boot sector near the end of the partition. so all good.. Thanks for the help though. | ||
| emilio_gonzaga |
Hello guyz & girlz, I've purchased a second hand Quantum Fireball lct 15Gb(16,383c, 16h, 63s) but the bios thinks it's only 9mb big. I've tried to edit the partition table, but when I enter the values copied from another 15 Gb disk, it reverts them to a 18 C instead of keeping the conventional 1023...any idea?? Please, many thanks | ||
| Anonymous |
hi emilio_gonzaga that's a prob of your motherboard bios look for an update hope it's not to old :-) | ||
| makis stefano |
hallo.i just lost the 3 partition of my 40Gb maxtor.it is(was)FAT 32.WITH ANOTHER PROGRAM I HAVE THE SECTORS OF EACH PARTITION. THERE ARE 63 22523193 AND 67585518 COVERING 10.7 22 AND 5 GB APROX. PLEASE HOW CAN I RETRIBE THE TABLE? I MOST WANT THE 3 PARTITIO. THANK YOU | ||
| Stefan Fleischmann (Admin) |
You could use the partition table template in WinHex to edit the partition table in the master boot record and possibly extended master boot records. You need to enter at least "Sectors preceding partition x" and "Length of partition x in sectors" for all partitions. For more information on hard disk partitioning, master boot records, and partition tables you could ask Google. | ||
| makis stefano |
Mr Stefan.thank you for the reply.i have to tell you that your answer is seems very deficalt for me because my nolege in pc is little(like my english).i have istall the drive with enother drive and again i install the.... GOBACK. well just to inform the others.the goback report that it descaver a sighature of a previuse istalation on the h.disk 2 and that will try to find a spasific file (gobacio.bin)in order to make the disk acceseble!!!!.Well it fails.Goback save my ass in a lot of ocaisons but olso it seems that creating problem.i have read another user having a similar problem. any way we are not interesting here for other software exept WINHEX.PLEASE with the data that i gave you previusly and sorry that i ask yuo(i beleve you are byssy enough) can you E_mail me a picture with the data that i have to put? at least fot the firt partition.if you canot please be more spesific here. thank you a lot. Makis . a user with small pc backround | ||
| Stefan Fleischmann (Admin) |
I cannot tell the correct parameters for your partitions from remote, sorry. They depend on the hard disk's and the partitions' size. Except "Sectors preceding partition x" is usually 63. | ||
| Mike Montgomery (Mikem22) |
Makis, What were the partition types? FAT32 or NTFS? If you are not sure look at Sector 63, 22523193 and 67585518 and near the top it will say NTFS or FAT32 Also, could you look at the boot sector for partition 3 in WInHex editor using the appropriate boot sector template and tell me how many sectors are used in that partition. Mike Mike | ||
| Csaba Nagy (Csaba911) |
Hi As of my bad habit, replaced the second HD will the OS was running, until today every time worked. No I stuck with the previous drive fat table. The properties of the HD is correct, but if I open the explorer I got unreadable 300Gb large files, the drive is 20Gb. Just tried Partition Recovery 2.1.1 and according the report now I have a 12.7GB fat32 and 5.9Gb unallocated. Let me explain step by step what I have done. -windows XP running; -explorer open, exploring drive D; -unplugged the 13Gb drive; -plugged in the 20Gb drive; -hit F5 to refresh; -and got only junk on the screen; -rebooted the pc; -same result; Is there any way to fix this ? I have over 2000 personal photos and many home video on this drive! Please help me if you can. Thanks for reading. STEVE |