The drive in question (an IBM 40GB) has been unused and disconnected since last May, because my pc wouldn't boot with the disk connected. At the time the troubles started, it was a slave drive with 3 logical partitions, each roughly 13 GB. I dl'ed Diskpatch v.1 and used it in demo mode with only the faulty drive connected. The BIOS recognized it at boot-time, and Diskpatch said that the partition table was invalid. Still it was able to see there were 3 partitions present in the drive, so I thought that recovering the data was possible.

Today I bought Diskpatch 2 Pro with the intention to clone the drive first and work on the clone. I connected the drive to the pc together with a WD 120GB that has never been used (it is unpartitioned, unformated). Just to be on the safe side I disconnected every other drive. The IBM was master on IDE0 and the WD was slave.

The BIOS recognized both drives at boot-time, the boot diskette started, but Diskpatch didn't load. I tried all four options (Start DP, Command prompt, Start DP in safe mode, Command prompt in safe mode) but the result was always the same: a blinking cursor and nothing else. I then tried switching the two drives, but still no luck. The drives would be seen by the BIOS, FreeDos would start, but DP wouldn't load.

Then I used the DP v.1 boot diskette and sure enough it booted and recognized both drives, together with the partitions on the faulty IBM.

Next, I connected all my drives and put the IBM as a slave to IDE1 to see if the system would boot (since the problem started it wouldn't). This time the BIOS didn't recognize the drives connected to IDE1, but booted to the OS normally.

By the way, the DP v.2 diskette works, when the faulty drive is not connected.

So my questions are: what am I doing wrong here?
Should I exchange my DP v.2 Pro license with a v.1?

Thanks for any suggestions,
Gregory

Product you are using: Diskpatch v. 1 & 2

Operating system / Service Pack: WinME

Size of subject harddisk: 40 GB IBM

Hello,

Let me see if i understand correctly: when you start DiskPatch 2 from it's bootdisk, you boot from the diskette, select an option from the menu, and after that nothing? No prompt, no possibility to enter commands?
If this is the case the problem lies with the included version of freedos. You could try to use the DiskPatch 1 bootdisk to start dos, then put in the DiskPatch 2 diskette and type DP to start DiskPatch 2.
If that doesn't work, try to create a "real" dos bootdisk, use win98 dos or msdos if you can get your hands on it. Also, windows XP includes a lite dos version, check our DiskPatch documentation to see how to create a dos bootdisk.

Regards,
Tom

This happened only when the problem disk was hooked up. I was able to use the DP2 disk without any problem, when the problem disk was not connected to the pc.

In any case I will try your suggestion with the DP1 and DP2 disks, and let you know how it goes.

Thanks,
Gregory

Hi again.

I tried both your suggestions, but I didn't have any success.
- I booted with the DP1 (demo version) floppy and then put the DP2 floppy in the drive. I entered the command DP at the command line and I got the error message
"error 7 at pgm-ctr 616" (or something similar; the error number is correct and the pgm part too).

- I then used a WinME startup diskette where I had also copied DP.EXE, DP.KEY and DP_FILES. I chose the "boot without CD-ROM support" option, but the system didn't boot at all. It hang when it tried to create a RAMDrive.
When I did that, I had all my disks hooked up with the problem disk set as slave on the IDE1 channel. It looks like the OS recognized that the disk had 3 FAT32 partitions on it, because the RAMDrive letter was M (my configuration is 4 FAT32 partitions on disk0/ide0, a linux disk on disk1/ide0, 3 FAT32 partitions on disk0/ide1, and the problem disk as disk1/ide1).

I also tried booting to Windows as usual (with every startup program disabled). The system was very slow (it took about 2 minutes to get to the logon screen), but it finally brought up the desktop.
However, it was completely unresponsive. I could move the mouse freely, but whatever I clicked didn't respond. The same happened when I tried the Ctrl-Alt-Del route.

This is all I tried. I hope I described it clearly enough. I'd be grateful if you have any further suggestions.

Regards,
Gregory

Product you are using: Diskpatch v. 1 & 2

Operating system / Service Pack: WinME

Size of subject harddisk: 40 GB IBM

Hello,

"error 7 at pgm-ctr 616" (or something similar; the error number is correct and the pgm part too)."

Error 7 would indicate we don't have enough memory available to load DiskPatch 2.

If on the DiskPatch 2 diskette the folder DPFILES is available, delete all files in that folder.

Then again do this:

"- I booted with the DP1 (demo version) floppy and then put the DP2 floppy in the drive. I entered the command DP at the command line and I got the error message".

Now check if DiskPatch recreated the file DP.LOG in the DPFILES directory, and if so, can you post the contents of that file please.

Alternatively you can try booting the FreeDOS bootdisk that is available from our download page (bottom right column) and see if that helps.

I you want me to sent a DiskPatch 1 unlock code, please mail me (support@diydatarecovery.nl). You can also scan the disk with DiskPatch 1 and post that logfile.

--
Kind regards,
Joep

=====================================================
Hello,

"error 7 at pgm-ctr 616" (or something similar; the error number is correct and the pgm part too)."

Error 7 would indicate we don't have enough memory available to load DiskPatch 2.

If on the DiskPatch 2 diskette the folder DPFILES is available, delete all files in that folder.
=====================================================

I'll try that and let you know. In any case though, the folder contains 4 files:

- DP_STATE.129 (3kb): after I finished the cloning I describe below, I backed up the partition table.

- DP.lo1 (22 kb): this corresponds to the one time I used DP2 successfully to clone my main disk (the disk didn't have any problems- I just transfered to a bigger one).

- DP.lo2 (4 kb): this is the first time I used the program right after I purchased the license. I didn't do anything at that time. Just made sure that the program worked.

- DP.log (2 kb): this corresponds to what I described in my previous message. The contents are as follows. I can post the other files too if you want me.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Contents of DP.log BEGIN
.../000:07/LOG> ### LOG START ###
.../000:07/LOG> DISKPATCH 2.0.100
.../000:07/LOG> (C) 2000-2004, DIY DataRecovery
.../000:07/LOG> Contact info: HTTP://www.DIYDataRecovery.nl
.../000:07/LOG> DPRunType: 2
.../000:07/LOG> DPUsrName: GMICHALOPOU
.../000:07/LOG> MemFree: 112Kb
.../000:07/LOG> LogDate: 02-26-2005
.../000:07/CFG> Dump Options requested
.../000:07/CFG> FilePath="1/.DP_FILES"
.../000:07/CFG> LogFilename="DP.LOG"
.../000:07/CFG> ReadRetries="32"
.../000:07/CFG> MaxReadErrors="32"
.../000:07/CFG> ReadDelay="1"
.../000:07/CFG> AutoSaveState="1"
.../000:07/CFG> DumpFoundSectors="0"
.../000:07/CFG> LogLevel="2"
.../000:07/CFG> DebugLevel="0"
.../000:07/CFG> MaxFatScan="51200"
.../000:07/CFG> MaxDataColEntries="512"
.../000:07/CFG> ScanType="0"
.../000:07/CFG> IgnoreF8FF="0"
.../000:07/CFG> ScanSignature="55AA"
.../000:07/13H> Ext13H installed test requested
.../000:07/13H> Ext13H not detected
.../000:07/INI> Ext13H test failed. abort
.../000:24/EXE> First Time Run, FingerPrint check requested
.../000:43/EXE> FingerPrint not entered correctly, Program aborted
.../000:45/LOG> RunTime: 000:45
.../000:45/LOG> ### CLOSE LOG ###
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Contents of DP.log END

=====================================================
Then again do this:

"- I booted with the DP1 (demo version) floppy and then put the DP2 floppy in the drive. I entered the command DP at the command line and I got the error message".

Now check if DiskPatch recreated the file DP.LOG in the DPFILES directory, and if so, can you post the contents of that file please.

Alternatively you can try booting the FreeDOS bootdisk that is available from our download page (bottom right column) and see if that helps.

I you want me to sent a DiskPatch 1 unlock code, please mail me (support@diydatarecovery.nl). You can also scan the disk with DiskPatch 1 and post that logfile.
=====================================================

This is a log file from when I run Diskpatch 1 with just two drives: a completely empty, unfdisked, unformated drive as master on ide0 and the problem drive as slave on the same channel. Although it is not a scan log, maybe you can see something in it.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> DiskPatch1 log BEGIN
*** DiskPatch Logfile ***

Created: 19:46:02 @ 02-26-2005
Build nr:1.0.0

===============================================
Available DOS memory : 162Kbytes
Available Stack space : 6030Bytes
===============================================

Int13h extensions installation check
======================================================================


Ext13hInstalled function: -1 BIOS drive 80h
(Succes.)

Version: EDD-3.0
Support:
- Extended disk access functions
- Enhanced disk drive functions
Ext13hDriveParams function: -1
Flags:
- DMA boundary errors handled transparently
Cylinders: 16383
Heads: 16
Sectors: 63

Total sectors: 234441648
Sector size: 512
------------------------------------------
logical heads 255
logical sects/track 63

dumping sector @ 0 as hex:
000 FA EB 20 01 B5 01 4C 49 4C 4F 16 05 82 A9 54 41 ³ úë .µ.LILO..‚©TA
016 00 00 00 00 57 B9 E5 01 40 65 A5 7A 81 81 60 F5 ³ ....W¹å.@e¥z`õ
032 92 AA 00 B8 C0 07 8E D0 BC 00 08 FB 52 53 06 56 ³ ’ª.¸À.ŽÐ¼..ûRS.V
048 FC 8E D8 31 ED 60 B8 00 12 B3 36 CD 10 61 B0 0D ³ üŽØ1í`¸..³6Í.a°.
064 E8 68 01 B0 0A E8 63 01 B0 4C E8 5E 01 60 1E 07 ³ èh.°.èc.°Lè^.`..
080 80 FA FE 75 02 88 F2 BB 00 02 8A 76 1D 89 D0 80 ³ €úþu.ˆò»..Šv.‰Ð€
096 E4 80 30 E0 78 0A 3C 10 73 06 F6 46 1C 40 75 2C ³ ä€0àx.<.s.öF.@u,
112 88 F2 66 8B 7E 18 66 09 FF 74 21 52 B4 08 B2 80 ³ ˆòf‹~.f.ÿt!R´.²€
128 CD 13 72 55 92 98 91 BA 7F 00 42 66 31 C0 40 E8 ³ Í.rU’˜‘º.Bf1À@è
144 71 00 66 3B BF B8 01 74 03 E2 EF 5A 53 8A 76 1E ³ q.f;¿¸.t.âïZSŠv.
160 BE 1F 00 E8 4B 00 B4 99 66 81 7F FC 4C 49 4C 4F ³ ¾..èK.´™füLILO
176 75 27 5E 68 80 08 07 31 DB E8 35 00 75 FB BE 06 ³ u'^h€..1Ûè5.uû¾.
192 00 89 F7 B9 0A 00 F3 A6 75 0D B0 02 AE 75 08 06 ³ .‰÷¹..ó¦u.°.®u..
208 55 B0 49 E8 D5 00 CB B4 9A B0 20 E8 CD 00 E8 BA ³ U°IèÕ.Ë´š° èÍ.èº
224 00 FE 4E 00 74 08 BC E8 07 61 60 E9 60 FF F4 EB ³ .þN.t.¼è.a`é`ÿôë
240 FD 66 AD 66 09 C0 74 0A 66 03 46 10 E8 04 00 80 ³ ýf­f.Àt.f.F.è..€
256 C7 02 C3 60 55 55 66 50 06 53 6A 01 6A 10 89 E6 ³ Ç.Ã`UUfP.Sj.j.‰æ
272 53 F6 C6 60 74 58 F6 C6 20 74 14 BB AA 55 B4 41 ³ SöÆ`tXöÆ t.»ªU´A
288 CD 13 72 0B 81 FB 55 AA 75 05 F6 C1 01 75 4A 52 ³ Í.r.ûUªu.öÁ.uJR
304 06 B4 08 CD 13 07 72 58 51 C0 E9 06 86 E9 89 CF ³ .´.Í..rXQÀé.†é‰Ï
320 59 C1 EA 08 92 40 83 E1 3F F7 E1 93 8B 44 08 8B ³ YÁê.’@ƒá?÷á“‹D.‹
336 54 0A 39 DA 73 38 F7 F3 39 F8 77 32 C0 E4 06 86 ³ T.9Ús8÷ó9øw2Àä.†
352 E0 92 F6 F1 08 E2 89 D1 41 5A 88 C6 EB 06 66 50 ³ à’öñ.â‰ÑAZˆÆë.fP
368 59 58 88 E6 B8 01 02 EB 02 B4 42 5B BD 05 00 60 ³ YXˆæ¸..ë.´B[½..`
384 CD 13 73 0F 4D 74 09 31 C0 CD 13 61 EB F1 B4 40 ³ Í.s.Mt.1ÀÍ.aëñ´@
400 E9 46 FF 88 64 1F 8D 64 10 61 C3 C1 C0 04 E8 03 ³ éFÿˆd.d.aÃÁÀ.è.
416 00 C1 C0 04 24 0F 27 04 F0 14 40 60 BB 07 00 B4 ³ .ÁÀ.$.'.ð.@`»..´
432 0E CD 10 61 C3 00 00 00 C5 7F 13 49 CF C9 80 01 ³ .Í.aÃ...Å.IÏÉ€.
448 01 00 0B FE 7F 04 3F 00 00 00 86 FA 3F 00 00 00 ³ ...þ.?...†ú?...
464 41 05 0F FE FF FF C5 FA 3F 00 7D 5C 24 02 00 00 ³ A..þÿÿÅú?.}$...
480 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ³ ................
496 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 AA ³ ..............Uª

PQStuffDetect=TRUE
Ext13hInstalled function: -1 BIOS drive 83h
(Succes.)

Version: EDD-3.0
Support:
- Extended disk access functions
- Enhanced disk drive functions
Ext13hDriveParams function: -1
Flags:
- DMA boundary errors handled transparently
Cylinders: 16383
Heads: 16
Sectors: 63

Total sectors: 80418240
Sector size: 512
------------------------------------------
logical heads 255
logical sects/track 63

dumping sector @ 0 as hex:
000 FA 33 C0 8E D0 BC 00 7C 8B F4 50 07 50 1F FB FC ³ ú3ÀŽÐ¼.|‹ôP.P.ûü
016 BF 00 06 B9 00 01 F2 A5 EA 1D 06 00 00 BE BE 07 ³ ¿..¹..ò¥ê....¾¾.
032 B3 04 80 3C 80 74 0E 80 3C 00 75 1C 83 C6 10 FE ³ ³.€<€t.€<.u.ƒÆ.þ
048 CB 75 EF CD 18 8B 14 8B 4C 02 8B EE 83 C6 10 FE ³ ËuïÍ.‹.‹L.‹îƒÆ.þ
064 CB 74 1A 80 3C 00 74 F4 BE 8B 06 AC 3C 00 74 0B ³ Ët.€<.tô¾‹.¬<.t.
080 56 BB 07 00 B4 0E CD 10 5E EB F0 EB FE BF 05 00 ³ V»..´.Í.^ëðëþ¿..
096 BB 00 7C B8 01 02 57 CD 13 5F 73 0C 33 C0 CD 13 ³ ».|¸..WÍ._s.3ÀÍ.
112 4F 75 ED BE A3 06 EB D3 BE C2 06 BF FE 7D 81 3D ³ Ouí¾£.ëÓ¾Â.¿þ}=
128 55 AA 75 C7 8B F5 EA 00 7C 00 00 49 6E 76 61 6C ³ UªuÇ‹õê.|..Inval
144 69 64 20 70 61 72 74 69 74 69 6F 6E 20 74 61 62 ³ id partition tab
160 6C 65 00 45 72 72 6F 72 20 6C 6F 61 64 69 6E 67 ³ le.Error loading
176 20 6F 70 65 72 61 74 69 6E 67 20 73 79 73 74 65 ³ operating syste
192 6D 00 4D 69 73 73 69 6E 67 20 6F 70 65 72 61 74 ³ m.Missing operat
208 69 6E 67 20 73 79 73 74 65 6D 00 00 81 47 31 18 ³ ing system..G1.
224 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ³ ................
240 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ³ ................
256 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ³ ................
272 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ³ ................
288 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ³ ................
304 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ³ ................
320 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ³ ................
336 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ³ ................
352 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ³ ................
368 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ³ ................
384 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ³ ................
400 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ³ ................
416 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ³ ................
432 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 A7 A7 61 CF C9 00 00 ³ .........§§aÏÉ..
448 01 01 0F FE FF FF C1 3E 00 00 8C A4 CA 04 00 00 ³ ...þÿÿÁ>..Œ¤Ê...
464 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ³ ................
480 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ³ ................
496 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 AA ³ ..............Uª

PQStuffDetect=FALSE

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Diskpatch 1 log END

I hope that I won't need an unlock code for DP1. Iirc, I had tried to scan the problem disk with DiskPatch1 Demo a few months ago, but it was taking forever and I had stopped it. Also at that time and now too, DP1 can recognize that there are three partitions on the drive, something that makes me optimistic that I can recover the files.

Thanks again for the help.
Cheers,
Gregory

Product you are using: Diskpatch v. 1 & 2

Operating system / Service Pack: WinME

Size of subject harddisk: 40 GB IBM

Hi,

That's weird. Disk detection is similar in Diskpatch 1 and 2. Yet, DiskPatch 1 detects the physical disk where DiskPatch 2 doesn't.

Run the normal DiskPatch 2 boot diskette > from the boot menu select option 2 (start diskpatch, safe mode). Did you try that already? This way the UDMA driver isn't in the way and DiskPatch 1 and 2 should get the exact same info on the physical disks.

--
Kind regards,
Joep

Hi, here's what I tried

=======================================================
Run the normal DiskPatch 2 boot diskette > from the boot menu select option 2 (start diskpatch, safe mode). Did you try that already? This way the UDMA driver isn't in the way and DiskPatch 1 and 2 should get the exact same info on the physical disks.
=======================================================

Booting with the DiskPatch 2 boot diskette didn't even get me to the four choices when the disk was connected. It hang while loading the kernel.

So I booted with the DiskPatch 1 Demo diskette.
There I tried two things:

- Run dp, choose disk 83 and go to Tools> Surface Scan. It started and as soon as it got to sector 16128 (out of 8041xxxx) it stopped responding. Pressing any key to abort didn't do anything. As a result I rebooted manually.

- From the A:> prompt I run the command "dpscan 131". The progress meter never moved from 0%. Pressing Esc to abort didn't produce any response. Again I rebooted manually.

The Dpscan.log produced is empty, while the Dskpatch.log contains the following (which I think is the same as the one in my previous message):

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> DSKPATCH.LOG Begins
*** DiskPatch Logfile ***

Created: 16:04:51 @ 03-02-2005
Build nr:1.0.0

===============================================
Available DOS memory : 162Kbytes
Available Stack space : 6030Bytes
===============================================

Int13h extensions installation check
======================================================================


Ext13hInstalled function: -1 BIOS drive 80h
(Succes.)

Version: EDD-3.0
Support:
- Extended disk access functions
- Enhanced disk drive functions
Ext13hDriveParams function: -1
Flags:
- DMA boundary errors handled transparently
Cylinders: 16383
Heads: 16
Sectors: 63

Total sectors: 234441648
Sector size: 512
------------------------------------------
logical heads 255
logical sects/track 63

dumping sector @ 0 as hex:
000 FA EB 20 01 B5 01 4C 49 4C 4F 16 05 82 A9 54 41 ³ úë .µ.LILO..‚©TA
016 00 00 00 00 57 B9 E5 01 40 65 A5 7A 81 81 60 F5 ³ ....W¹å.@e¥z`õ
032 92 AA 00 B8 C0 07 8E D0 BC 00 08 FB 52 53 06 56 ³ ’ª.¸À.ŽÐ¼..ûRS.V
048 FC 8E D8 31 ED 60 B8 00 12 B3 36 CD 10 61 B0 0D ³ üŽØ1í`¸..³6Í.a°.
064 E8 68 01 B0 0A E8 63 01 B0 4C E8 5E 01 60 1E 07 ³ èh.°.èc.°Lè^.`..
080 80 FA FE 75 02 88 F2 BB 00 02 8A 76 1D 89 D0 80 ³ €úþu.ˆò»..Šv.‰Ð€
096 E4 80 30 E0 78 0A 3C 10 73 06 F6 46 1C 40 75 2C ³ ä€0àx.<.s.öF.@u,
112 88 F2 66 8B 7E 18 66 09 FF 74 21 52 B4 08 B2 80 ³ ˆòf‹~.f.ÿt!R´.²€
128 CD 13 72 55 92 98 91 BA 7F 00 42 66 31 C0 40 E8 ³ Í.rU’˜‘º.Bf1À@è
144 71 00 66 3B BF B8 01 74 03 E2 EF 5A 53 8A 76 1E ³ q.f;¿¸.t.âïZSŠv.
160 BE 1F 00 E8 4B 00 B4 99 66 81 7F FC 4C 49 4C 4F ³ ¾..èK.´™füLILO
176 75 27 5E 68 80 08 07 31 DB E8 35 00 75 FB BE 06 ³ u'^h€..1Ûè5.uû¾.
192 00 89 F7 B9 0A 00 F3 A6 75 0D B0 02 AE 75 08 06 ³ .‰÷¹..ó¦u.°.®u..
208 55 B0 49 E8 D5 00 CB B4 9A B0 20 E8 CD 00 E8 BA ³ U°IèÕ.Ë´š° èÍ.èº
224 00 FE 4E 00 74 08 BC E8 07 61 60 E9 60 FF F4 EB ³ .þN.t.¼è.a`é`ÿôë
240 FD 66 AD 66 09 C0 74 0A 66 03 46 10 E8 04 00 80 ³ ýf­f.Àt.f.F.è..€
256 C7 02 C3 60 55 55 66 50 06 53 6A 01 6A 10 89 E6 ³ Ç.Ã`UUfP.Sj.j.‰æ
272 53 F6 C6 60 74 58 F6 C6 20 74 14 BB AA 55 B4 41 ³ SöÆ`tXöÆ t.»ªU´A
288 CD 13 72 0B 81 FB 55 AA 75 05 F6 C1 01 75 4A 52 ³ Í.r.ûUªu.öÁ.uJR
304 06 B4 08 CD 13 07 72 58 51 C0 E9 06 86 E9 89 CF ³ .´.Í..rXQÀé.†é‰Ï
320 59 C1 EA 08 92 40 83 E1 3F F7 E1 93 8B 44 08 8B ³ YÁê.’@ƒá?÷á“‹D.‹
336 54 0A 39 DA 73 38 F7 F3 39 F8 77 32 C0 E4 06 86 ³ T.9Ús8÷ó9øw2Àä.†
352 E0 92 F6 F1 08 E2 89 D1 41 5A 88 C6 EB 06 66 50 ³ à’öñ.â‰ÑAZˆÆë.fP
368 59 58 88 E6 B8 01 02 EB 02 B4 42 5B BD 05 00 60 ³ YXˆæ¸..ë.´B[½..`
384 CD 13 73 0F 4D 74 09 31 C0 CD 13 61 EB F1 B4 40 ³ Í.s.Mt.1ÀÍ.aëñ´@
400 E9 46 FF 88 64 1F 8D 64 10 61 C3 C1 C0 04 E8 03 ³ éFÿˆd.d.aÃÁÀ.è.
416 00 C1 C0 04 24 0F 27 04 F0 14 40 60 BB 07 00 B4 ³ .ÁÀ.$.'.ð.@`»..´
432 0E CD 10 61 C3 00 00 00 C5 7F 13 49 CF C9 80 01 ³ .Í.aÃ...Å.IÏÉ€.
448 01 00 0B FE 7F 04 3F 00 00 00 86 FA 3F 00 00 00 ³ ...þ.?...†ú?...
464 41 05 0F FE FF FF C5 FA 3F 00 7D 5C 24 02 00 00 ³ A..þÿÿÅú?.}$...
480 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ³ ................
496 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 AA ³ ..............Uª

PQStuffDetect=TRUE
Ext13hInstalled function: -1 BIOS drive 83h
(Succes.)

Version: EDD-3.0
Support:
- Extended disk access functions
- Enhanced disk drive functions
Ext13hDriveParams function: -1
Flags:
- DMA boundary errors handled transparently
Cylinders: 16383
Heads: 16
Sectors: 63

Total sectors: 80418240
Sector size: 512
------------------------------------------
logical heads 255
logical sects/track 63

dumping sector @ 0 as hex:
000 FA 33 C0 8E D0 BC 00 7C 8B F4 50 07 50 1F FB FC ³ ú3ÀŽÐ¼.|‹ôP.P.ûü
016 BF 00 06 B9 00 01 F2 A5 EA 1D 06 00 00 BE BE 07 ³ ¿..¹..ò¥ê....¾¾.
032 B3 04 80 3C 80 74 0E 80 3C 00 75 1C 83 C6 10 FE ³ ³.€<€t.€<.u.ƒÆ.þ
048 CB 75 EF CD 18 8B 14 8B 4C 02 8B EE 83 C6 10 FE ³ ËuïÍ.‹.‹L.‹îƒÆ.þ
064 CB 74 1A 80 3C 00 74 F4 BE 8B 06 AC 3C 00 74 0B ³ Ët.€<.tô¾‹.¬<.t.
080 56 BB 07 00 B4 0E CD 10 5E EB F0 EB FE BF 05 00 ³ V»..´.Í.^ëðëþ¿..
096 BB 00 7C B8 01 02 57 CD 13 5F 73 0C 33 C0 CD 13 ³ ».|¸..WÍ._s.3ÀÍ.
112 4F 75 ED BE A3 06 EB D3 BE C2 06 BF FE 7D 81 3D ³ Ouí¾£.ëÓ¾Â.¿þ}=
128 55 AA 75 C7 8B F5 EA 00 7C 00 00 49 6E 76 61 6C ³ UªuÇ‹õê.|..Inval
144 69 64 20 70 61 72 74 69 74 69 6F 6E 20 74 61 62 ³ id partition tab
160 6C 65 00 45 72 72 6F 72 20 6C 6F 61 64 69 6E 67 ³ le.Error loading
176 20 6F 70 65 72 61 74 69 6E 67 20 73 79 73 74 65 ³ operating syste
192 6D 00 4D 69 73 73 69 6E 67 20 6F 70 65 72 61 74 ³ m.Missing operat
208 69 6E 67 20 73 79 73 74 65 6D 00 00 81 47 31 18 ³ ing system..G1.
224 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ³ ................
240 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ³ ................
256 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ³ ................
272 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ³ ................
288 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ³ ................
304 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ³ ................
320 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ³ ................
336 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ³ ................
352 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ³ ................
368 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ³ ................
384 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ³ ................
400 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ³ ................
416 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ³ ................
432 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 A7 A7 61 CF C9 00 00 ³ .........§§aÏÉ..
448 01 01 0F FE FF FF C1 3E 00 00 8C A4 CA 04 00 00 ³ ...þÿÿÁ>..Œ¤Ê...
464 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ³ ................
480 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ³ ................
496 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 AA ³ ..............Uª

PQStuffDetect=FALSE

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> DSKPATCH.LOG Ends

That's all for now.
Thanks for any further suggestions.
Regards,
Gregory

Product you are using: Diskpatch v. 1 & 2

Operating system / Service Pack: WinME

Size of subject harddisk: 40 GB IBM

Looks like our options are getting exhausted. From all the symptoms it feels like the problem disk has a negative effect on disk access when connected. The original goal was to clone the disk, that doesn't seem to be possible in the current situation. The fact that windows also struggles and the fact the in the original post you describe that dp starts but immediately exits, suggests a problem with accessing the disk. DP1 also doesn't scan the disk, DPscan can't scan it either. Looks like a technical problem with the board maybe, or connectors. Either way, we can't access the disk for cloning.
Maybe trying the disk in another PC might lead to some insights as to what's wrong. You could check the cabling, or disconnect all other disks except for the problem disk. Obviously you can't clone it then but maybe that could yield some insights.
If we think of anything more we'll post later today.

Regards,
Tom

So the fact that DiskPatch 1 recognizes the boundaries of the 3 partitions doesn't help in recovering them?
Is repairing the MBR relevant or helpful in this situation?

Thanks,
Gregory

Product you are using: Diskpatch v. 1 & 2

Operating system / Service Pack: WinME

Size of subject harddisk: 40 GB IBM

As i understand it windows doesn't like the disk much either, and that has nothing to do with the absence or presence of a valid MBR (according to the windows behaviour you described earlier). I suggested some things to see if it would be possible to determine where this is all going wrong; speaking for myself, i wouldn't do anything to the disk until i know what's going on. Then again, if you think you're able to repair the mbr using dp1, be my guest. I just think that there's something seriously wrong here (dp2 doesn't see the disk, enough cause for concern) and this warrants investigation. But ultimately it's up to you.

Tom

Hi,
I tried booting with the problem disk and my original system disk (the problem disk was master on ide1 and the other was master on ide0). It did manage to complete the boot (even if it was quite slow), brought up the windows desktop, and I got Windows Explorer running. The Explorer did see the three partitions (letters G, H, I).
I clicked on each of them successively and I got the same response after a couple of minutes:
"Disk is not formatted. Would you like to format it now?". I answered no each time and shut the system down.

Something else that I noticed was the following.
A long time ago (before the problems started) I had used a utility called Letter Assigner, in order to keep my cd-rom drives from changing letters every time I repartitioned my drives. I had never used the utility to assign letters to the partitions, just to the cd-rom drives. Anyway, I only used it for a couple of days and then I restored the letters to the way windows assigned them. I had not uninstalled the utility though.

Today, I first booted with just the original system disk, cleaned the mbr from LILO, and uninstalled the utility. It was after this that I managed to boot while the problem disk was connected.

As for Diskpatch, the situation remains unchanged. I can boot with the boot disk containing version 1 and start the program, but version 2 hangs if the problem disk is connected.

Now here is a question. I have a USB external case where I can put any hard drive. Given what I describe above, can I boot normally, connect the drive after booting and then use maybe iRecover to see if I can get something?

Thanks again,
Gregory

Product you are using: Diskpatch v. 1 & 2

Operating system / Service Pack: WinME

Size of subject harddisk: 40 GB IBM

>>>I have a USB external case where I can put any hard drive. Given what I describe above, can I boot normally, connect the drive after booting and then use maybe iRecover to see if I can get something?<<<

That sounds like a plan, but iRecover doesn't access external disks. Neither does DiskPatch. But it's still a nice idea, if only to see if connecting the disk may lead to some insight. I still believe there's something wrong here that's not readily apparent; you should try to put the disk in another PC or try connecting only the problem disk and doing some tests on that to see if it's recognised.

Tom