Name: ptahotep Date: February 17, 2000 at 01:50:13 Pacific Subject: NTFS partition can't be reformatted!
Comment:
I have a PC with an NTFS 2MB partition and a 1MB DOS partition, C & D respectively. It has had FDISK run on it (at least) before the 1st partition was converted to FAT16. The Master Boot Record appears to be cactus, and on power-up the message "missing operating system" is displayed. Ghost.exe will not overwrite the sorry mess, as it is picking up that the boot sectors are missing. Any helpful suggestions out there for restoring the MBR so the NTFS partition can be accessed? Thanks in advance for any help..
I don't know if this would help by running fdisk /mbr restores the master boot records to the defaults. Perhaps this would force the system to boot the first OS. you could also try booting from the windows NT CDROM and do a rescue install with only the elemnts that are corrupted. Hope this helps.
no no no. go get delpart WARNING: this program is very nasty - it doesn't care what's on a drive, it just deletes partitions, so you will lose all data. but if you want to use fdisk on an formerly NTFS drive, it's the way to go.
Another thing I do is plug the drive into another NT machine as a second drive, go into NT's disk-administrator and delete the partitions (make sure you double-check which ones).
Both of those work well, but some people don't have access to another NT box
you can get delpart by going to lycos search (fast ftp) doing an ftp search for "delpart" it's approx. 130k - there are many versions, but you'll know when you get the right one.
Perhaps it does delete the partitions but does it restore the master boot record? What good would it do for you to have an empty disk when the systems bootstrap tries to access windows NT partition? Unless this "delpart" program also updates/restores the mbr. Where can one find this program?
Thanks for the suggestions! Since yesterday and before reading the above I tried fixing the HD with Partition Magic's qtmagic.exe... it can only see the 3GB HD and not the 2 partitions that FDISK sees, and won't update the MBR because there is none! Also have tried deleting non-dos partition in FDSK and also FDISK/MBR, but get an error each time.. one other suggestion I've received is that the hex code HD identifier is banjaxed and might be able to be reset with a heap big voodoo bit of software (available on Monday) providing the exact HD identifier code can be retrieved from an identical model HD.. fortunately the PC is one of a pair that are only 2 serial nbrs apart...
I'll look at delpart though, if the above HD start sector comparison is inconclusive.. maybe if I can blow the NTFS partition away (which DOS can't see), restoring the MBR may become possible with SYS C: or FDISK/MBR..
Fortunately, there is no critical data to be saved and if I can just rebuild this PC all will be sweet..
BTW, the NTFS partition is 2GB and is hte 1st partition; the 2nd (which DOS sees as the "C:" drive) is DOS FAT16.
I have been known to use a couple of Disk accessing tools. 1, DM, Disk manager and the other, 2, EZ, Easydisk. Both of these tools are capable of reformating the boot strap for the boot sector of a harddrive in either 16-fat or 32-fat and 32-Vfat. There is something else that makes me question is that if the proper boot disk is used upon start up: EX: FLOPPY,with the files: COMMAND.COM SYS.COM EDIT.COM EDIT.HLP DEBUG.EXE CONFIG.SYS if available AUTOEXEC.BAT if available FORMAT.COM FDISK.EXE When the cold boot up preforms, having the floppy in the drive, it should prompt you the drive A:> At this prompt typing FDISK will help you access the data of the harddrive, via: FAT if there is any NON-DOS Partitions, delete them, then delete the Logical or Extended DOS Partitions, which would leave you with the Primary DOS partitions, these Partitions, depending on the FAT version should be available. ALWAYS USE THE LARGEDISKACCESS for the entire drive.
NOTE: Upon start up You also may want to enter the Bios System Setup, making sure you have the proper TYPE of drive: EX: Landing Zones, Landing Comp., Sec., Cyl., Heads., ETC... If over 2GIG you may want to use LBA. Sometimes doing a Autodetect on harddrive may be a good start comparing criteria with the physical drive.
FURTHERMORE From A:> Typing FDISK you maybe able to convert the Bootstrap to 32-FAT or 32-VFAT from the git go. Then rebooting the compute with boot disk still in drive and restructuring the the drive bootstrap. VIA: At the A:> Type SYS C: You should get message System Transfer If this happens, remove diskette from drive A:> Then restart the computer. If all else fails, and data is NOT important, Blow out all Partitions in FDISK and create new ones, then you will have to reformat the harddriveby doing a Low Level Format, being sure to transfer the COMMAND.COM in the process of Formating. One method in the past I have used is, At A:> Typing FORMAT C: /S/U
Meaning: /S system files /U unconditional
Remove the Boot disk afterwards and restarting the compute.
