dynamic disk is not accessible after replacing a motherboard
tsahi...@gmail.com
a few days ago my comp started to spontaneously restart. the
technician replaced the motherboard and the power supply, and had to
reinstall windows because of the new board.
i have two hard drives in the box, both hitachi IDE 80GB, one as the
system disk (C: drive) and one for data files (D: drive). according to
what he said, he disconnected the D: drive before doing anything. the
D: drive was dynamic. now, after connecting it, i cannot access it. it
is not showing in My Computer, and in Disk Management i see it as
Unknown and Not Initialized.
he tried to run Initialize Disk on it, but it didn't help. i believe
he also checked the disk in the "disks to convert" step in the
Initialize and Convert Disk Wizard, i hope he didn't destroy it with
that. when i try to run Initialize Disk from it's context menu, the
hourglass shows for a second and nothing happens.
so now the disk is in Unknown, Not Initialized state, and i cannot
access it. interestingly, SpeedFan reports all the S.M.A.R.T
parameters of the disk are ok. is there a way to gain access again to
the disk?
tsahi
GHalleck
tsahi...@gmail.com wrote:
Was this truly a dynamic disc setup? Or is this a RAID configuration?
The risk of setting up dynamic disc(s) is that the contents stored in
it are dependent on the file tables maintained in the primary drive.
When Windows XP was re-installed, this information changed, resulting
in the non-recognition of the drive.
As a last recourse, remove the drive, put it into an external drive
enclosure of dock and try to access it via USB or Firewire. However,
the result may be the same. No backups for important files? There
should have been a backup for the contents going into Drive D if
this is a non-RAID design.
tsahi...@gmail.com
it wan't RAID, just a simple drive.
> As a last recourse, remove the drive, put it into an external drive
> enclosure of dock and try to access it via USB or Firewire. However,
> the result may be the same. No backups for important files? There
> should have been a backup for the contents going into Drive D if
> this is a non-RAID design.
as you know, there are two types of people, those who do backup and
those who never lost a disk.
so you are saying this is a problem with the records on the system
(C:) disk? isn't there a way to tell it that there's another disk in
the system?
Ghostrider
tsahi...@gmail.com wrote:
If Drive D is removed from the computer, put into another computer
as a Slave or into an USB HD enclosure or dock and if it cannot be
seen or is not initialized, then it's game over.
When not used in a RAID configuration, all dynamic disk does is to
increase the size of the drive volume, viz., making 2 HD's function
as a single one. When the motherboard was changed and Windows XP was
re-installed, the action did away with the file table for the dynamic
disk. There is no probable way of reconstructing the file table unless
an image file of the system exists.
There was no evident advantage to using dynamic disk here. It would
have been better to have Drive D as a basic drive configured as an
extended partition. It would have served the same purpose.
Bill Blanton
<tsahi...@gmail.com> wrote in message news:2841a411-831e-4b1b...@c65g2000hsa.googlegroups.com...
On Jul 4, 11:05 pm, GHalleck <ghall...@arrakian.mining.com> wrote:
>> tsahias...@gmail.com wrote:
>> > hi,
>> > a few days ago my comp started to spontaneously restart. the
>> > technician replaced the motherboard and the power supply, and had to
>> > reinstall windows because of the new board.
>>
>> > i have two hard drives in the box, both hitachi IDE 80GB, one as the
>> > system disk (C: drive) and one for data files (D: drive). according to
>> > what he said, he disconnected the D: drive before doing anything. the
>> > D: drive was dynamic. now, after connecting it, i cannot access it. it
>> > is not showing in My Computer, and in Disk Management i see it as
>> > Unknown and Not Initialized.
Actually, D: was not a dynamic disk. Disk 0 and or Disk 1 were dynamic and
D: was a volume on one, or spanned both. That's an important distinction.
There's not much good reason to set up a disk of one as dynamic. Are you
sure the disk containing the Windows volume was not also part of that dynamic
set?
>> > he tried to run Initialize Disk on it, but it didn't help. i believe
>> > he also checked the disk in the "disks to convert" step in the
>> > Initialize and Convert Disk Wizard, i hope he didn't destroy it with
>> > that. when i try to run Initialize Disk from it's context menu, the
>> > hourglass shows for a second and nothing happens.
>>
>> > so now the disk is in Unknown, Not Initialized state, and i cannot
>> > access it. interestingly, SpeedFan reports all the S.M.A.R.T
>> > parameters of the disk are ok. is there a way to gain access again to
>> > the disk?
>> Was this truly a dynamic disc setup? Or is this a RAID configuration?
>> The risk of setting up dynamic disc(s) is that the contents stored in
>> it are dependent on the file tables maintained in the primary drive.
>> When Windows XP was re-installed, this information changed, resulting
>> in the non-recognition of the drive.
>>
>
>it wan't RAID, just a simple drive.
If it were simply one volume on a lone dynamic disk, Windows should see
it. If D: were part of a "set" (disk0 and disk1) of dynamic disks, then
it is probably now broken, as the other disk has been cleared, and the
necessary information to construct the whole dynamic disk is missing.
The tech's fiddling to get it recognized may have compounded the problem.
>> As a last recourse, remove the drive, put it into an external drive
>> enclosure of dock and try to access it via USB or Firewire. However,
>> the result may be the same. No backups for important files? There
>> should have been a backup for the contents going into Drive D if
>> this is a non-RAID design.
>
>as you know, there are two types of people, those who do backup and
>those who never lost a disk.
>
>so you are saying this is a problem with the records on the system
>(C:) disk? isn't there a way to tell it that there's another disk in
>the system?
If it were recognized as "Dynamic / Foreign", possibly,, by importing the
foreign disks. "Unknown / Not initialized" strongly suggests the dynamic
disk structure is incomplete. (or more likely missing entirely)
Your only recourse now may be data recovery software.
FWIW, dynamic disks are much more fragile than basic disks. Unless you
have a very strong reason to use a dynamic disk, stick to the basic disk
structure.
tsahi...@gmail.com
> <tsahias...@gmail.com> wrote in messagenews:2841a411-831e-4b1b...@c65g2000hsa.googlegroups.com...
>
> On Jul 4, 11:05 pm, GHalleck <ghall...@arrakian.mining.com> wrote:
>
> >> tsahias...@gmail.com wrote:
> >> > hi,
> >> > a few days ago my comp started to spontaneously restart. the
> >> > technician replaced the motherboard and the power supply, and had to
> >> > reinstall windows because of the new board.
>
> >> > i have two hard drives in the box, both hitachi IDE 80GB, one as the
> >> > system disk (C: drive) and one for data files (D: drive). according to
> >> > what he said, he disconnected the D: drive before doing anything. the
> >> > D: drive was dynamic. now, after connecting it, i cannot access it. it
> >> > is not showing in My Computer, and in Disk Management i see it as
> >> > Unknown and Not Initialized.
>
> Actually, D: was not a dynamic disk. Disk 0 and or Disk 1 were dynamic and
> D: was a volume on one, or spanned both. That's an important distinction.
> There's not much good reason to set up a disk of one as dynamic. Are you
> sure the disk containing the Windows volume was not also part of that dynamic
> set?
>
Disk 0 (which contains C: and an extended partition with two logical
drives, that serve a linux install) is reported as Basic in disk
management.
>
> >> > he tried to run Initialize Disk on it, but it didn't help. i believe
> >> > he also checked the disk in the "disks to convert" step in the
> >> > Initialize and Convert Disk Wizard, i hope he didn't destroy it with
> >> > that. when i try to run Initialize Disk from it's context menu, the
> >> > hourglass shows for a second and nothing happens.
>
> >> > so now the disk is in Unknown, Not Initialized state, and i cannot
> >> > access it. interestingly, SpeedFan reports all the S.M.A.R.T
> >> > parameters of the disk are ok. is there a way to gain access again to
> >> > the disk?
> >> Was this truly a dynamic disc setup? Or is this a RAID configuration?
> >> The risk of setting up dynamic disc(s) is that the contents stored in
> >> it are dependent on the file tables maintained in the primary drive.
> >> When Windows XP was re-installed, this information changed, resulting
> >> in the non-recognition of the drive.
>
> >it wan't RAID, just a simple drive.
>
> If it were simply one volume on a lone dynamic disk, Windows should see
> it. If D: were part of a "set" (disk0 and disk1) of dynamic disks, then
> it is probably now broken, as the other disk has been cleared, and the
> necessary information to construct the whole dynamic disk is missing.
>
it was a single volume on one disk. yet, windows can't see it.
> >so you are saying this is a problem with the records on the system
> >(C:) disk? isn't there a way to tell it that there's another disk in
> >the system?
>
> If it were recognized as "Dynamic / Foreign", possibly,, by importing the
> foreign disks. "Unknown / Not initialized" strongly suggests the dynamic
> disk structure is incomplete. (or more likely missing entirely)
>
just to make it clear, the C: drive wasn't formatted. windows was
installed on top of the existing installation, as a "repair"
installation. it got me IE6 and WMP9 back, that i have to upgrade
again, but all the programs i had installed are still there (the
problem drive is D)
> Your only recourse now may be data recovery software.
>
> FWIW, dynamic disks are much more fragile than basic disks. Unless you
> have a very strong reason to use a dynamic disk, stick to the basic disk
> structure.
i hope i'm not confusing anyone here. if i am, i'll clear things up.
suppose i lost access to the disk, but it's physically working. how
can i format it for reuse? as it is, i can't create a new partition on
it either (the option is disabled in the context menu).
GHalleck
tsahi...@gmail.com wrote:
We are thoroughly confused here. Kindly detail, in sequential order,
just what was done. So far, it would seem that (1) Drive D was set
up as a dynamic (vs. basic) disk. (2) The dynamic disk spanning Drive
C and Drive D was broken. (3) The motherboard was replaced. (4) Drive C
re-installed and the Windows XP installation was repaired. Correct?
And what else is on Disk(0) --- Windows XP and Linux? Windows would see
itself as Drive C and not recognize the non-Windows partitions. But is
it the Windows XP boot manager being used or the Linux one?
Also, note that Drive C on Disk(0) can be "a single volume on one disk"
but Drive C on Disk(0) plus [Windows] Drive D on Disk(1) is a single
volume spanned across 2 disks.
I'd follow Ghostrider's advice and test Drive D (or Disk(1)) by removing
it and running it from an USB/Firewire HD enclosure in order to verify
its true state. This might also be the only clean way of re-initializing
this hard drive for future use.
GOod luck.
tsahi...@gmail.com
ok, here's the whole thing, in orderly fasion:
before the trouble began, i had two physical disks.
disk 0: basic disk, with a primary partition and an extended
partition. the primary partition is drive C:, and used as the windwos
system disk (where windows is installed and all the programs under
Program Files and other system files). the extended partition is used
by linux, and while it is visible in the Disk Manager, you can't see
it in My Computer. it is split to two logical drives, one for the
linux installation and a ~800MB swap drive for linux.
disk 1: dynamic disk, with one simple volume spanning this whole disk,
and it alone, serving as drive D:. i.e. drive D: was occupying the
whole of disk 1, and it alone. i use the term "simple volume" as it
appears in the Computer Management help file - Disk Managememt/
Concepts/Understanding Disk Management/Dynamic disks and volumes.
both the disks are on an IDE/ATA interface, if it matters.
then, the computer started acting up. the technician replaced the
motherboard, but with the new hardware, windows wouldn't load. he
disconnected disk 1, and installed windows on top of the existing
installation, without formatting. then he connected disk 1 again, and
i ended up where i am - drive D, which was on disk 1, is not visible
in My Computer, and DM shows it as Unknown, Not Initialized. in the
Initialize and Convert Disk Wizard that pops when you select DM in
computer management, he checked disk 1 in both the steps of the wizard
(disks to initialize and disks to convert) and clicked "finish", or
whatever it is there. i was by his side when i connected the disk, so
i saw what he was doing. i believe that it showed "Initializing" on
the disk 1 bar, on the left side of it, but that's the last time
anything happened there. it didn't change the situation, and any
future attempt to initialize it did nothing, except for displaying the
hourglass for a second.
the boot manager is the GRUB one used by Ubuntu. it still works,
although Linux doesn't complete loading if i select it (but i'll leave
that for a linux news group).
i hope things are clearer now.
Bill Blanton
If it were me, I'd first look at the partition table in the MBR to
see if there is a partition defined, and if so what type. Then I'd
look for the volume boot sector. Then go from there.
To check the partition structure you can download and run PartInNT
ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/PartInNT.zip
Select the correct "Physical disk" in the drop down box. The partition type
for a dynamic disk will be type 42. (You can also do a "Copy to clipboard"
to save all the information in text format.)
As for checking the volume boot sector, all I can do is give you a
hint; the first boot sector usually starts at sector 63.
If the partition table is missing or corrupt, but the boot sector is
intact (and hopefully the rest of the volume),it may be possible
to rebuild the tables as a basic NTFS volume and regain access..
>> >so you are saying this is a problem with the records on the system
>> >(C:) disk? isn't there a way to tell it that there's another disk in
>> >the system?
>>
>> If it were recognized as "Dynamic / Foreign", possibly,, by importing the
>> foreign disks. "Unknown / Not initialized" strongly suggests the dynamic
>> disk structure is incomplete. (or more likely missing entirely)
>>
>
>just to make it clear, the C: drive wasn't formatted. windows was
>installed on top of the existing installation, as a "repair"
>installation. it got me IE6 and WMP9 back, that i have to upgrade
>again, but all the programs i had installed are still there (the
>problem drive is D)
Still, you should have at least seen "Dynamic / Foreign".
>> Your only recourse now may be data recovery software.
>>
>> FWIW, dynamic disks are much more fragile than basic disks. Unless you
>> have a very strong reason to use a dynamic disk, stick to the basic disk
>> structure.
>
>i hope i'm not confusing anyone here. if i am, i'll clear things up.
>
>suppose i lost access to the disk, but it's physically working. how
>can i format it for reuse? as it is, i can't create a new partition on
>it either (the option is disabled in the context menu).
At a cmd prompt
diskpart
list disk
select disk X (X being the disk number)
clean
Be very very careful with that. You won't get any "are you sure?..." prompts.
tsahi...@gmail.com
>
> If it were me, I'd first look at the partition table in the MBR to
> see if there is a partition defined, and if so what type. Then I'd
> look for the volume boot sector. Then go from there.
>
> Select the correct "Physical disk" in the drop down box. The partition type
> for a dynamic disk will be type 42. (You can also do a "Copy to clipboard"
> to save all the information in text format.)
>
> As for checking the volume boot sector, all I can do is give you a
> hint; the first boot sector usually starts at sector 63.
>
> If the partition table is missing or corrupt, but the boot sector is
> intact (and hopefully the rest of the volume),it may be possible
> to rebuild the tables as a basic NTFS volume and regain access..
>
report:
===========================================================================================================
Disk Geometry Information for Disk 1: 10011 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 63 102,398,247
Info: End C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Actual values are:
0 0 80 0 1 1 07 6373 254 63 63
102398247
0 1 00 1023 254 63 05 1023 254
63 102,398,310 58,428,405
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 6374 0 1 05 10010 254 63 102398310
58428405
102,398,310 0 00 1023 254 63 83 1023 254
63 102,398,373 56,645,127
Info: Begin C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Info: End C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Actual values are:
102398310 0 00 6374 1 1 83 9899 254 63 102398373
56645127
102,398,310 1 00 1023 254 63 05 1023 254
63 159,043,500 1,783,215
Info: Begin C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Info: End C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Actual values are:
102398310 1 00 9900 0 1 05 10010 254 63 159043500
1783215
SWAPSPACE2 159,043,500 0 00 1023 254 63 82 1023 254
63 159,043,563 1,783,152
Info: Begin C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Info: End C,H,S values were large drive placeholders.
Actual values are:
159043500 0 00 9900 1 1 82 10010 254 63 159043563
1783152
===========================================================================================================
Disk Geometry Information for Disk 2: 10011 Cylinders, 255 Heads,
63 Sectors/Track
Info: No partition table present on this drive.
System PartSect # Boot BCyl Head Sect FS ECyl Head
Sect StartSect NumSects
===========================================================================================================
===========================================================================================================
Partition Information for Disk 1: 78,528.7 Megabytes
Volume PartType Status Size MB PartSect #
StartSect TotalSects
===========================================================================================================
C: NTFS Pri,Boot 49,999.1 0 0
63 102,398,247
Extended Pri 28,529.5 0 1
102,398,310 58,428,405
EPBR Log 27,658.8 None --
102,398,310 56,645,190
Linux Ext3 Log 27,658.8 102,398,310 0
102,398,373 56,645,127
EPBR Log 870.7 102,398,310 1
159,043,500 1,783,215
*:SWAPSPACE2 Linux Swap Log 870.7 159,043,500 0
159,043,563 1,783,152
===========================================================================================================
Partition Information for Disk 2: 78,528.7 Megabytes
Volume PartType Status Size MB PartSect #
StartSect TotalSects
===========================================================================================================
Unallocated Pri 78,528.7 None --
0 160,826,715
===========================================================================================================
Boot Record for drive C: (Drive: 1, 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: 102398246
17. MFT Start Cluster: 786432
18. MFT Mirror Start Clust: 6399890
19. Clusters per FRS: 246
20. Clusters per Index Blk: 1
21. Serial Number: 0x14F45156F4513B66
22. Checksum: 0 (0x0)
23. Boot Signature: 0xAA55
===========================================================================================================
Boot Record for drive *: (Drive: 1, Starting sector: 102,398,373,
Type: Ext3)
===========================================================================================================
Ext3 file system super block:
1. Inodes count: 3541440
2. Blocks count: 7080640
3. Reserved blocks count: 354032
4. Free blocks count: 6357138
5. First data block: 0
6. Logical block size: 2
7. Logical fragment size: 2
8. Blocks/group: 32768
9. Fragments/group: 32768
10. Inodes/group: 16320
11. Mount time: 0x47C31C57
12. Last write time: 0x47C31C92
13. Mount count: 3
14. Max. mount count: 30
15. Magic number: EF53
16. State: 0x0001
17. Error behavior: 0x0001
18. Minor revision level: 0
19. Last check time: 0x471CF834
20. Max. time bet. checks: 15552000
21. Creator oper. system: 0
22. Major revision level: 1
23. Reserved block def. UID:0x0000
24. Reserved block def. GID:0x0000
HTH
Paul
There is mention here, of converting a dynamic disk to basic. Maybe the reason this
works, is because only a single independent disk is involved.
http://mypkb.wordpress.com/2007/03/28/how-to-non-destructively-convert-dynamic-disks-to-basic-disks/
You can give testdisk a try, and see what it finds.
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step
My approach, would be to backup the data first, if it is visible.
Which means having room for the data somewhere, like on an
additional drive.
Paul
Bill Blanton
> On Jul 6, 5:17 pm, "Bill Blanton" <bblan...@REMOVEmagicnet.net> wrote:
>>
>> If it were me, I'd first look at the partition table in the MBR to
>> see if there is a partition defined, and if so what type. Then I'd
>> look for the volume boot sector. Then go from there.
>>
>> To check the partition structure you can download and run
>> PartInNTftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/Pa...
>> If the partition table is missing or corrupt, but the boot sector is
>> intact (and hopefully the rest of the volume),it may be possible
>> to rebuild the tables as a basic NTFS volume and regain access..
>>
>
> PartitionInfo reports that there is no partition on it. here's the
> report:
===========================================================================================================
> Disk Geometry Information for Disk 2: 10011 Cylinders, 255 Heads,
> 63 Sectors/Track
> Info: No partition table present on this drive.
> System PartSect # Boot BCyl Head Sect FS ECyl Head
> Sect StartSect NumSects
> ===========================================================================================================
In addition to Paul's suggestion of running testdisk, you could run a
findpart on the drive. It will search the disk for any valid volume boot
sectors.
http://www.partitionsupport.com/utilities.htm
If found, it would be possible to build a partition table entry that points
to that boot sector, and then plug the values in using PTEdit. (There are
no gaurantees, but it's worth a shot.) If, OTOH, no boot sector is found,
at least you have that information.
The cmd-line syntax for the second drive would be;
findpart 2
tsahi...@gmail.com
> <tsahias...@gmail.com> wrote in messagenews:06223976-8510-4bd6...@i76g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
this doesn't look very cheering. here's the log from Findpart:
Findpart, version 4.95 - for Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP.
Copyright Svend Olaf Mikkelsen, 1999-2008.
OS: Windows 5.1.2600 Service Pack 3
Disk: 2 Cylinders: 10011 Heads: 255 Sectors: 63 MB: 78528
None found.
------FAT CHS ------LBA Confidence Distance Type Sig
0 41 61 2643 16 32 NB
0 136 2 8569 15 5926 32 NB
0 241 5 15187 15 6618 32 NB
Partitions according to partition tables on second harddisk:
No signature CHS: 0 0 1
=================================================
and the log from TestDisk:
Wed Jul 9 23:04:02 2008
Command line: TestDisk
TestDisk 6.9, Data Recovery Utility, February 2008
Christophe GRENIER <gre...@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org
Windows version (ext2fs lib: 1.40.2, ntfs lib: 10:0:0, reiserfs lib:
0.3.1-rc8, ewf lib: 20070512)
filewin32_getfilesize(\\.\F:) GetFileSize err Incorrect function.
filewin32_setfilepointer(\\.\F:) SetFilePointer err Incorrect
function.
Warning: can't get size for \\.\F:
file_read(4,1,buffer,160842779(10011/254/63)) lseek err Invalid
argument
file_read(5,1,buffer,160842779(10011/254/63)) lseek err Invalid
argument
Hard disk list
Disk /dev/sda - 82 GB / 76 GiB - CHS 10011 255 63, sector size=512
Disk /dev/sdb - 82 GB / 76 GiB - CHS 10011 255 63, sector size=512
Disk /dev/sdb - 82 GB / 76 GiB
Partition table type: Intel
Analyse Disk /dev/sdb - 82 GB / 76 GiB - CHS 10011 255 63
Current partition structure:
Partition sector doesn't have the endmark 0xAA55
Ask the user for vista mode
Allow partial last cylinder : No
search_vista_part: 0
search_part()
Disk /dev/sdb - 82 GB / 76 GiB - CHS 10011 255 63
Results
interface_write()
No partition found or selected for recovery
search_part()
Disk /dev/sdb - 82 GB / 76 GiB - CHS 10011 255 63
Results
interface_write()
No partition found or selected for recovery
simulate write!
write_mbr_i386: starting...
Store new MBR code
write_all_log_i386: starting...
No extended partition
TestDisk exited normally.
==========================================
does this mean i lost all hope?
Paul
Perhaps you could send the Testdisk log information to gre...@cgsecurity.org
And look for some other data recovery software or services.
Paul
Bill Blanton
Agree,, just because the there are no defined partitions, and apparently no boot
sector does not necessarily mean the file system and data are missing.
R-Studio is highly recommended. (there are many others) They offer a demo version
that will try to locate your files, but you will have to pay to do the actual recovery.
Just don't do anything that writes to the drive until after you retrieve your files,
or decide that there is nothing else to do.
mynameismart
Not game over.
Run a data recovery program like Get Data Back or Active Partition
recovery.
--
mynameismart
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