well...it worked (burning the disc, that is) 7.2 lbs of shit on a 7 lb disc

http://is7.itookthisonmyphone.com/m/..._568x426r0.jpg

http://is7.itookthisonmyphone.com/m/..._568x426r0.jpg

Hard drive controllers disappeared when MFM disk drives were replaced with IDE drives. When the ISA bus was replaced with a PCI bus.

Each disk drive is a computer. Between the motherboard computer (PCI bus) and disk drive computer is a transceiver, bidirectonal data gate, or an interface between two asynchronous buses. The motherboard CPU literally sends and receives messages from the disk drive computer.

One of the disk drives must be a master. Something must control / arbitrate the IDE or SATA bus. That is the master drive. On IDE busses, that master drive always has an address of 80h. Therefore the motherboard CPU can send commands to both disk drives. Both drives can be doing tasks. But only one drive responds when it is ready.

The Recovery Console is (is supposed to exist) on the Windows install CD. It does not exist on a computer manufacturer's fast restore CD that only wipes the disk drive completely clean and loads only a new OS image. That OS image is Windows after the computer manufacturer has reconfigured it unique to their machine.

Some manufacturers wanted you to burn a windows install CD when you got the machine. Too many users do not or forget to burn that CD. If you did not did not burn that windows install CD, then no Recovery Console exists on a CD. Windows install software is both on the provided or burned CD, and often on a separate partition on the hard drive. Only better systems provide the Windows install CD.

Only the best computer manufacturers also provide comprehensive hardware diagnostics on a CD, on another partition on the hard drive, and on their web site. Had Sony provided same, then most of yesterdays labors would have been completely unnecessary. From what I could see, Sony does not provide that comprehensive hardware diagnostic that Sony and all other computer manufacturer have, could, and should provide for free.

A benchmark for better computer systems. If that manufacture does not provide comprehensive hardware diagnostics, then done buy the machine. This thread demonstrates how complex problems become without it. Hard drive integrity (including SATA or IDE bidriectional interface) could have been established in minutes is Sony provided the comprehensive hardware diagnostic.

Jim,

Did that work. Does it boot now?

Jim,

You see that 290GB unallocated drive?

Right-click and assign it a drive letter, then run CHKDSK on it.

didnt try to boot it yet

right click unallocated drive gets me: properties, create new partition, and help

tried to boot....

got "operating system not found"

re loading ubcd

going to take a quick shower and wait to see if i should 'create a new partition'

Lumberjim,

Don't create a new partition. See if you can use one of the partition repair tools to recover yours!

Creating a new partition = BAD. You probably need to fix the partition entry.

partition tool choices:

bootbuild

easus partition manager
mbr fix
mbr wizard
photo rec
test disk

Let's try Easeus PM and see what it finds.

it shows the c recovery drive ands that unallocated drive...i hit properties and get this
http://is7.itookthisonmyphone.com/m/..._568x426r0.jpg

no obvious way to rename the partition....i cannot select the button that says label

http://is7.itookthisonmyphone.com/m/..._568x426r0.jpg

test disk says:

http://is7.itookthisonmyphone.com/m/..._568x426r0.jpg

Let's try MBRFix and Fix/Update a Vista Type MBR Code.

drive 0?
drive 1?
drive 2?
drive 3?

after running that on all of those drives. I re ran the easeus partition manager....

now i only see the unallocated drive. the c: recovery no longer appears

http://is7.itookthisonmyphone.com/m/..._568x426r0.jpg

http://is7.itookthisonmyphone.com/m/..._568x426r0.jpg

running test disk

hrrrm.... now the boot disc won't load all the way. it gets stuck on a the loading widows XP screen

oops....it finally went.. just took a really long time

Jim,

If this doesn't work, get your hands on SpinRite 6.0. That WILL be able to recover the partitions, and costs $89.

Yes, I have used it to repair a seriously damaged HD before and get Windows XP bootable when there was no other choice.

if what doesn't work?

using the partition utilities on the boot CD to get you back to normal with a CHKDSK'ed HD.

mitch,

I don't know what the fuck I'm doing! :)

I'm scared to run anything on this boot disc without being told to. I don't want to just run these utlities willy nilly.

the mbr thing made the recovery drive disappear, and the test disk just inspected, but changed nothing.

what next?

Apparently you guys did some things that do not appear here. Spinrite from Gibson Research is one of the tools suggested earlier.

However, anything your do to fix or change a partition (disk software) without first confirming disk hardware integrity can make things even worse. It appears you have an intermittent failure (unless you did something elsewhere to delete that partition).

That Ultimate Boot CD web site has numerous disk hardware diagnostics for each disk manufacturer. You want to confirm hardware is not causing problems (ie deleting a partition) before trying to restore that partition. Some hardware problems, if identified by the manufacturer diagnostic, can be fixed before the intermittent failure causes worse software damage.

Anything more you do to change the drive will make more data impossible to recover. Best is to confirm disk hardware really is working. Right now, your hardware may be intermittent which is why the partition is (temporarily) deleted. Try that diagnostic from the UBCD web site (for your drive). Because that only reports what you have and does not change anything - does not put data at further risk.

how do I run SpinRite 6.0 if I can't boot up? is it bootable? or do I just put it in the drive after i boot with ubcd?

First get the manufacturer's diagnostic. It boots from a CD-Rom (or memory stick). If it says the drive is OK, then consider SpinRite. If it says the drive is not OK, then (based upon errors) we change things until it says the drive is OK.

Once the diagnostic says the drive is OK, then spend the $90. The disk diagnostic is free and does not change anything. If the drive hardware never gets OK, then no reason to waste money on Spinrite (unless you have enough curiosity to learn more or the error is something that SpinRite can fix).

The idea is to establish what you have before changing anything and before spending the $90.

I did not see everything you guys did. Don't understand why the data partition disappeared long before the backup partition disappeared. Don't know if you did that intentionally. So I can only suggest the free manufacturer's disk drive program (the one for your drive) that is probably available in that Ultimate Boot CD website (or from the disk manufacturer's web site). See what you have before changing anything.

I never change disk software (ie partition) if I first don't know disk hardware is stable. Unless you guys did something else, I don't see anything that says hardware is stable.

I pretty much posted everything that I did. with pics mostly.

I got spinrite last night and it's running now. i set it to run at 11:30, and went to bed.... at 3 am, i woke up and realized that the damn thing was unplugged and had shut off.

so i plugged in and reran. got up at 7 and it was at 5%. Looks like it's going to take some time.

Post 182 reported the data (Windows) partition had bee deleted. That partition had to exist previously to boot from the Windows installation CD. Sometime previous to that, the partition was deleted by something.

You have courage. I would never fix something without first executing the diagnostic - without first learning what exists. Otherwise problems can get exponentially more complex. I worry about preserving data.

Spinrite will probably take something like 36 hours – probably will not be done until AM Tuesday.. When done, you should have at least two partitions on the hard drive. One about 8 Gb and a second something like 290 Gb.

Still completely unknown (another reason for executing diagnostics long before fixing anything) is why that problem existed. So that it can be averted. My bet is it will happen again because we are probably only curing symptoms - not identifying and then solving the original problem.

I've only been able to boot from the Ultimate Boot CD. The part where we were talking about the XP install disc was just one of the things I needed to create newer version of the Ultimate Boot CD.

The partition disappeared after i ran MBRFix.

it takes a LOT longer to boot to the UBCD since that changed, but it does still boot to it.

It might be a moot issue (moot boot issue?) but I wonder if your hard drive is ahead of your cdrom drive in the boot sequence. That would explain the additional time needed to boot UBCD now. If it does get to be an issue, you could mess with the boot sequence in the bios settings.

oh, yeah....i never changed the default.... that makes sense....

does that mean it sees the drive, but not the drive name?

Which is why good diagnostic procedure says fix nothing. First collect all facts. That is what diagnostic are for. And that was the caution I strongly posted in an earliest post.

Fixmbr should not destroy any partition. Fact that the partition was harmed implies other problems exist. Hopefully Spinrite will identify what that problem is without trashing temporarily lost data.

Why do we fix things? #1 is always to learn. I am sure this has been a wonderful (and roller coaster) learning experience. But that is the #1 reason for fixing things - to learn what they mean in CSI by 'follow the evidence'.

If you do get it up, then go to the system (event) logs to discover any problem that Windows has seen long ago – and worked around. That is what those system logs are for. To record temporary problems yesterday so that you can fix them today – long before they become major failures tomorrow.

TestDisk
 

LJ,

I need for you to run TestDisk again.

Select No Log, then select your drive (the 320GB one), and select Proceed.

Select Intel/PC Partition and hit enter.

Select Analyse.

Select Quick Search.

When asked if TestDisk should search for a partition created under vista, select Y.

Post what you find.

Thanks

I'm at work, computer is at home.

should I interrupt spinrite?

Let it finish. Then first do what mbpark has recommended.

no offense, but I'd like to hear that answer from mbpark.

It's not there. Only drive X - 725MB

sorry.... i had accidentally left the old (v3.22) boot disc out, and hid the new one under a sweatshirt.

the new one (v 3.50) sees the drive.....

http://images2e.snapfish.com/2323232...3C%3B345nu0mrj

oh.....spinrite had apparently frozen at 5%..... so we shut it down.

OK Jim,

Hit enter, and then write the partition table to disk.

This is from: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step

OMG - I hope my computer never breaks - I've been following all this and its way over my head. I need to back up a zillion images and stuff somehow. I think its time for me to learn how to burn a disk.

That's a good reminder classic.

I don't know anyone who is great about backing up their computer. But if you've got a decent DVD drive, it's not that hard and doesn't take that long.

Remember that you don't need to save the entire contents of the hard drive. You can always reinstall the programs from the original disks. You only need to save the files that you created or downloaded (and can't just download again). Normally these will be documents of some sort:

Pictures
Text documents
Emails (if you download your emails)
etc.

I never thought about e-mails. I only back up pictures. And I do it religiously in a couple different ways.

I've got an external hard drive. How would I do a back-up of e-mail stuff to a folder on the external hard drive? Where would I find those data files? I have Thunderbird, if that means anything

This page says

C:\Documents and Settings\[Your user name]\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\[ID].default\Mail\Local Folders

Better option: switch to Gmail and let Google manage it from now on.

Thanks! I have gmail, but the thunderbird is the family mail account at out verizon address, used mostly by my wife.

Yeh - I have gmail too, so I'm fine there - its all the images that are really irreplaceable that concern me. Well that and NOT wanting vista :p

I know less than nothing about computers. I think my technical rating is at -22 below nothing.

I've got two external HD's that I backup every photo, song, file to once each month. the first one is here in a safe, the second I keep at my dad's in his safe. In theory it should be fairly hard to lose all my music and pictures... but Murphy's Law is ready to strike me down at any moment.

is it still too soon to make a joke about pics of Labrat's 'puss' being on that drive?

LOL. not for me. and for those wondering - NO I do not possess any such pics.

So. Is it fixed?

I'm still at work.....

jinx went to her sister's today....if she hasn't done, I'll do it when I get home and report back.

ok.... booted.....


the first attempt hung after the microsoft corporation progress bar, so i rebooted (holding down the power button) and it came up to the vaio recovery center

choices are restore drive C or restore complete system

will this lose my data?


edit: one step further tells me that both choices will delete all files on drive c.

any suggestions?

closed that window, and after a pause, this came up:

http://is7.itookthisonmyphone.com/m/..._568x426r0.jpg

Wait for mb to chime in, but I think you're close enough that you might be able to get windows to repair the os - if you've got a Windows XP install CD. If you don't, I'd borrow one, to give this a shot.

If you do get it working, do you have a thumb drive large enough to back up what you need off of there? I wouldn't count on being able to burn a cd.

In order to boot Windows, it must first load some critical drivers unique to HAL. HAL is a software layer that interfaces standard Windows to unique hardware. The error message says your system is Intel based; not AMD based. Correct?

IASTOR.sys is software written by Intel to setup and then talk to their disk drive hardware interface (transistors inside the south bridge). If that driver does not load or execute properly, then the error (...00221) is an undefined hardware error.

Not understood is whether this is a southbridge problem or a problem in the disk drive's computer. But this much you do know. Windows did not boot. Windows failed apparently when configuring for your hardware.

Execute the disk drive diagnostic unique for your disk drive manufacturer (as probably found in Ultimate Boot CD web page). A worst case alternative is continued destruction of data on the disk. Diagnostics do not and will not destroy data - only test, collect fact, and report hardware status.

That error message might be from defective hardware - or many other problems. Best is always to determine if hardware is good before trying to fix anything. Nothing done previously ever said or even implied hardware is good. This error message implies what was suspected; an intermittent hardware problem exists.

Lumberjim,

Run the boot CD again and run chkdsk <drive letter>: /f on all drives.

That should repair any drive issues.

Thanks,

Mitch

You might be able to install Windows on a new hard drive, and mount the old one to get data off of it.

http://is7.itookthisonmyphone.com/m/..._568x426r0.jpg

http://is7.itookthisonmyphone.com/m/..._568x426r0.jpg

http://is7.itookthisonmyphone.com/m/..._568x426r0.jpg

i tried to reboot at this point, but got the same error as post 234

so i ran it again:
http://is7.itookthisonmyphone.com/m/..._568x426r0.jpg

then i ran easeus again to see what the partition looked like...

you said Run the boot CD again and run chkdsk <drive letter>: /f on all drives.

I think I only have a C drive....the recovery partition is just a piece of that? or should I give it a drive letter? ( looks like the Label button is live in this: )
http://is7.itookthisonmyphone.com/m/..._568x426r0.jpg

damn it.. i should have gotten naked for those pics!