Crash - Reset - Damaged/destroyed partition

Nemesis6 · 06-18-2005, 04:26 PM

EDIT: Posted in the wrong section. If someone would move this to the Hard Drive section, I would appriciate it.

Alright, here goes: The situation is dead simple. As I was entering a game, and my computer just totally froze. I gave it over at least half an hour to comply with both the automatic shutdown button on my PC, so anyway, some time later, I got back to it, and it was still frozen. So, with no other option, I pressed the RESET button. Now, My hard-disk is divided into 5 partitions. All NTFS. Now, I have all my games on one one them: E:. After booting up I tried accessing this drive and I was met with the following message - "The disk in drive E is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?". Naturally I haven't touched anything as I know there might still be hope of walking out of this disaster. Anyway, could the partition have been corrupted or damaged in some way? Any help appriciated. I have already looked for solutions, but I figured I'd present my case before even going for any solutions. I'm working on WINXP, by the way. Also, I ran TestDisk 5.8, and I can see all the stuff on my E: drive in in. Everything seems to be intact, could it be possible to somehow copy what's on it in some way and put it on one of my other partitions, after which I could make a new partition on E: and paste it all back?

FYI, the drive in question contains games and Misc. stuff, so it is not a complete knockdown. But still, I have lots of stuff that I would really hate to loose. Stuff I have worked on over some time, ETC.

In advance, thanks!

~~Johnny Faster~~ · 06-18-2005, 04:40 PM

Don't worry about the thread location. Eventually someone will come along and move it, should that be deemed necessary. ALso I don't think Hardware is the right one. This sounds extra, extra wierd. Like something only a trojan could do, or even a remote user. I can't imagine a hard drive spontaneously dividing itself into 5 partitions without some help from someone, somewhere.

Security is where I would send you, if I had the magic wand. And I would ask you about your using habits. What's your AV scanner, your ad & spyware protection, your firewall and how recently updated are they ?

Also, who else uses your computer. Do you do P2P downloading. Do you download warez and other risky software.

AND, (while I am on a roll here...) are you SURE there are FIVE partitions ??? Named like "C:\, F:\, G:\, etc.." ???

Any partition-making software on your computer ? Have you run it recently ? Have an urchin that likes to play with things on the computer ?

This is just too weird.

I'd give up the gaming for a couple of weeks, if I were you, and start taking a crash-course on computer and internet security. You would do well to download and run just about everything on my Sig, if you do not have adequate Security already.

Nemesis6 · 06-18-2005, 05:01 PM

I think you misunderstood it... That's the way they are, I was just taking things one thing at a time, not like "Now this happened", but more like "Now, take a left turn.". Anyway, the problem is just accessing the E: one. The others were already there.

~~whodat~~ · 06-18-2005, 06:27 PM

greetings nemisis
so you cant access your E partition.
for the hell of it, as johnny mentioned, will you scan it with one of the provided programs below.
hopefully its not corrupted
best of luck

TheKolkster · 06-18-2005, 07:00 PM

This is usually caused by the drive isnt formatted (in this case it is) or there is data on there that Windows can't read. (i.e Onther OS, Linux, for example)

Nemesis6 · 06-18-2005, 07:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheKolkster

This is usually caused by the drive isnt formatted (in this case it is) or there is data on there that Windows can't read. (i.e Onther OS, Linux, for example)

Yeah, but what prevents it from reading it? Something clearly happened with the partition, cause Windows can't access it... but what tool would then be able to? As I mentioned, TestDisk 5.8 could see the information. When I try to access it in DOS and cmdprompt I get the equivalent of the Windows message. So no matter how strange it may seem, DOS is no help.

By the way, I'm just wondering here, but maybe putting the hard-drive in another PC and accessing it via it would work...?

~~Johnny Faster~~ · 06-18-2005, 08:54 PM

Quote:

Alright, here goes: The situation is dead simple. As I was entering a game, and my computer just totally froze. I gave it over at least half an hour to comply with both the automatic shutdown button on my PC, so anyway, some time later, I got back to it, and it was still frozen. So, with no other option, I pressed the RESET button. Now, My hard-disk is divided into 5 partitions. All NTFS.

I apologise for my poor communication skills. How I could have possibly read the text above and think that 5 partitions just magically appeared is just another example of my poor reading skills.

Right now I am researching Community Colleges in the area. Maybe they offer courses in Remedial Reading.

**Terrister** · 06-19-2005, 11:33 AM

Take a look at this tool. It may do the trick. http://www.ptdd.com/

**linderman** · 06-19-2005, 11:58 AM

Its not going to be an easy one to get this bull by the horns so be patient

My guess would be your power supply has erratic voltages (unstable juice)
or extreme heat (over heating CPU) any way while you were in a game in the "E" drive the computer crashed ?????? is that accurate????

because when you are accessing data (running a prog) and you get weird out of control shutdown then the drive partition gets corrupted and probally some other critical files too! Terrister has the only idea that comes to my mind for recovery without a repartioning effort.

sorry

regards

joe

Nemesis6 · 06-19-2005, 01:11 PM

Well, the crash occured when I was accessing, or, rather, when the game was starting up. I tried the program you talked about; PTDD. Didn't find any errors, and since it requires money to activate the "fixboot" command which I'm not even sure will work, I tried GetDataBack for FAT, as I found out my E: drive was actually FAT16... looks like it's finding stuff so far! I'm remaining hopeful. I've initiated an "excessive search" so it'll take about 48 minutes, but it looks like it's finding what it should find. Then I'll have to see what, if any, damage has occured.

Nemesis6 · 06-19-2005, 05:00 PM

*sigh*

Does anyone here know any good, solid recovery programs that don't rely on extortion to get the user to buy it? GetDataBack requires me to buy it, too.

**linderman** · 06-19-2005, 05:32 PM

Just outta curosity cuz I havent had the chance to throughly check them out how much are they to purchase ????

PTTD ???

Getdataback?????

Nemesis6 · 06-20-2005, 01:13 PM

GetDataBack for FAT is 69 dollars. Don't know about PTDD.

Nemesis6 · 06-21-2005, 02:27 PM

O-kaaaaaaaaaaay, so, with that out of the way, I got a question:

Are there any ways to format or somehow "convert" a partition without causing damage to the data already on it?

Jeroenintrouble · 06-21-2005, 02:56 PM

It doesn't apply to your problem... but yes... you can!
You can convert from FAT to NTFS without causing damage to your files.
Have you tried Partition Magic?

Nemesis6 · 06-21-2005, 07:24 PM

Yep, tried it. Initial tests, etc, didn't find any errors on the partition. I did, however, have the oppertunity to "fixboot" it, but that feature was locked.
By the way, the partition in question is actually a FAT drive, so...... Do you get where I'm going with this...? I mean, diagnostic tools indicate that it actually was a FAT partition(surprising to me, too!), so would it be possible in this scenario? By the way, it does show a little red dot next to the E: drive in Partition Magic, so I guess it must know that something is wrong with it, hence the availability the(locked) "fixboot" feature, but that sounds more like something one would use on a damaged main-partition holding, you know... the start-up stuff.

Other than that, I'm considering falling pray to GetDataBack's extortion - IF it can get the files back with their original names(what I see in the program is directories with temp-file-like names, and that just doesnt cut it!)...

If all these recovery software programs could do what they advertise, I would gladly pay them with no hesitation, but I just can't give them anything unless they can assure me that their software is actually gonna be of any help.

06-18-2005, 04:26 PM	#1 (permalink)
Nemesis6 Registered User Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Denmark Posts: 9 OS: XP	Crash - Reset - Damaged/destroyed partition EDIT: Posted in the wrong section. If someone would move this to the Hard Drive section, I would appriciate it. Alright, here goes: The situation is dead simple. As I was entering a game, and my computer just totally froze. I gave it over at least half an hour to comply with both the automatic shutdown button on my PC, so anyway, some time later, I got back to it, and it was still frozen. So, with no other option, I pressed the RESET button. Now, My hard-disk is divided into 5 partitions. All NTFS. Now, I have all my games on one one them: E:. After booting up I tried accessing this drive and I was met with the following message - "The disk in drive E is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?". Naturally I haven't touched anything as I know there might still be hope of walking out of this disaster. Anyway, could the partition have been corrupted or damaged in some way? Any help appriciated. I have already looked for solutions, but I figured I'd present my case before even going for any solutions. I'm working on WINXP, by the way. Also, I ran TestDisk 5.8, and I can see all the stuff on my E: drive in in. Everything seems to be intact, could it be possible to somehow copy what's on it in some way and put it on one of my other partitions, after which I could make a new partition on E: and paste it all back? FYI, the drive in question contains games and Misc. stuff, so it is not a complete knockdown. But still, I have lots of stuff that I would really hate to loose. Stuff I have worked on over some time, ETC. In advance, thanks! Last edited by Nemesis6; 06-18-2005 at 04:31 PM. Reason: Notice for relocation

06-18-2005, 04:40 PM	#2 (permalink)
~~Johnny Faster~~ Register user Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 517 OS: WinXP	Extra Extra Extra WEIRD !!! Don't worry about the thread location. Eventually someone will come along and move it, should that be deemed necessary. ALso I don't think Hardware is the right one. This sounds extra, extra wierd. Like something only a trojan could do, or even a remote user. I can't imagine a hard drive spontaneously dividing itself into 5 partitions without some help from someone, somewhere. Security is where I would send you, if I had the magic wand. And I would ask you about your using habits. What's your AV scanner, your ad & spyware protection, your firewall and how recently updated are they ? Also, who else uses your computer. Do you do P2P downloading. Do you download warez and other risky software. AND, (while I am on a roll here...) are you SURE there are FIVE partitions ??? Named like "C:\, F:\, G:\, etc.." ??? Any partition-making software on your computer ? Have you run it recently ? Have an urchin that likes to play with things on the computer ? This is just too weird. I'd give up the gaming for a couple of weeks, if I were you, and start taking a crash-course on computer and internet security. You would do well to download and run just about everything on my Sig, if you do not have adequate Security already.

06-18-2005, 05:01 PM	#3 (permalink)
Nemesis6 Registered User Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Denmark Posts: 9 OS: XP	I think you misunderstood it... That's the way they are, I was just taking things one thing at a time, not like "Now this happened", but more like "Now, take a left turn.". Anyway, the problem is just accessing the E: one. The others were already there. Last edited by Nemesis6; 06-18-2005 at 05:04 PM.

06-19-2005, 11:33 AM	#8 (permalink)
Terrister Moderator Hardware Forum Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: West Georgia, USA Posts: 7,098 OS: Xp	Take a look at this tool. It may do the trick. http://www.ptdd.com/ __________________

06-19-2005, 11:58 AM	#9 (permalink)
linderman Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 20,437 OS: win 2000 pro / Win XP pro My System	Its not going to be an easy one to get this bull by the horns so be patient My guess would be your power supply has erratic voltages (unstable juice) or extreme heat (over heating CPU) any way while you were in a game in the "E" drive the computer crashed ?????? is that accurate???? because when you are accessing data (running a prog) and you get weird out of control shutdown then the drive partition gets corrupted and probally some other critical files too! Terrister has the only idea that comes to my mind for recovery without a repartioning effort. sorry regards joe __________________ I still know nothing and I respect that fact, striving to improve and, along the way, help anyone that comes from the place that I used to be! Power Supply Selection LEARN TO BACK-UP YOUR DATA FREE & EASY YouTube - Runtime Software DriveImage XML tutorial

06-18-2005, 06:27 PM	#4 (permalink)
~~whodat~~ Register user Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 5,931 OS: XP	greetings nemisis so you cant access your E partition. for the hell of it, as johnny mentioned, will you scan it with one of the provided programs below. hopefully its not corrupted best of luck

06-18-2005, 07:00 PM	#5 (permalink)
TheKolkster Registered User Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Sumner, WA Posts: 161 OS: Windows XP Pro	This is usually caused by the drive isnt formatted (in this case it is) or there is data on there that Windows can't read. (i.e Onther OS, Linux, for example)

06-19-2005, 01:11 PM	#10 (permalink)
Nemesis6 Registered User Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Denmark Posts: 9 OS: XP	Well, the crash occured when I was accessing, or, rather, when the game was starting up. I tried the program you talked about; PTDD. Didn't find any errors, and since it requires money to activate the "fixboot" command which I'm not even sure will work, I tried GetDataBack for FAT, as I found out my E: drive was actually FAT16... looks like it's finding stuff so far! I'm remaining hopeful. I've initiated an "excessive search" so it'll take about 48 minutes, but it looks like it's finding what it should find. Then I'll have to see what, if any, damage has occured. Last edited by Nemesis6; 06-19-2005 at 01:13 PM.

06-19-2005, 05:00 PM	#11 (permalink)
Nemesis6 Registered User Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Denmark Posts: 9 OS: XP	sigh Does anyone here know any good, solid recovery programs that don't rely on extortion to get the user to buy it? GetDataBack requires me to buy it, too. Last edited by Nemesis6; 06-19-2005 at 05:03 PM.

06-19-2005, 05:32 PM	#12 (permalink)
linderman Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 20,437 OS: win 2000 pro / Win XP pro My System	Just outta curosity cuz I havent had the chance to throughly check them out how much are they to purchase ???? PTTD ??? Getdataback????? __________________ I still know nothing and I respect that fact, striving to improve and, along the way, help anyone that comes from the place that I used to be! Power Supply Selection LEARN TO BACK-UP YOUR DATA FREE & EASY YouTube - Runtime Software DriveImage XML tutorial

06-20-2005, 01:13 PM	#13 (permalink)
Nemesis6 Registered User Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Denmark Posts: 9 OS: XP	GetDataBack for FAT is 69 dollars. Don't know about PTDD.

06-21-2005, 02:27 PM	#14 (permalink)
Nemesis6 Registered User Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Denmark Posts: 9 OS: XP	O-kaaaaaaaaaaay, so, with that out of the way, I got a question: Are there any ways to format or somehow "convert" a partition without causing damage to the data already on it?

06-21-2005, 02:56 PM	#15 (permalink)
Jeroenintrouble Registered User Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Holland Posts: 24 OS: WinXP (home)	It doesn't apply to your problem... but yes... you can! You can convert from FAT to NTFS without causing damage to your files. Have you tried Partition Magic?

06-21-2005, 07:24 PM	#16 (permalink)
Nemesis6 Registered User Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Denmark Posts: 9 OS: XP	Yep, tried it. Initial tests, etc, didn't find any errors on the partition. I did, however, have the oppertunity to "fixboot" it, but that feature was locked. By the way, the partition in question is actually a FAT drive, so...... Do you get where I'm going with this...? I mean, diagnostic tools indicate that it actually was a FAT partition(surprising to me, too!), so would it be possible in this scenario? By the way, it does show a little red dot next to the E: drive in Partition Magic, so I guess it must know that something is wrong with it, hence the availability the(locked) "fixboot" feature, but that sounds more like something one would use on a damaged main-partition holding, you know... the start-up stuff. Other than that, I'm considering falling pray to GetDataBack's extortion - IF it can get the files back with their original names(what I see in the program is directories with temp-file-like names, and that just doesnt cut it!)... If all these recovery software programs could do what they advertise, I would gladly pay them with no hesitation, but I just can't give them anything unless they can assure me that their software is actually gonna be of any help.