My setup is as follows....
Abit NF7-S
Athlon xp 2500+
1 gig of kingston HyperX
550w Enermax PSU
120GB WD SE IDE(Win2k-boots/reads fine, old stuff, stopped using the OS a few months ago when I got the newer drive and installed XP on it)
250GB WD SE SATA(WinXP-won't boot but readable from win2k, primary stuff)
250GB Maxtor IDE (Misc. Storage/backups from other drives- unreadable in windows)
(All drives using NTFS)


Basicly I had been having some prefomance issues in winxp while gaming so I went into safe mode and removed all my video card drivers, then used the program driver clean pro and a few registry cleaners. I had done all this a few times before on this windows install when I felt it needed a cleaning. I then rebooted to install new video drivers and I only got as far as selecting to boot XP and then got a blue screen - which you can see here http://smdb.krypt.com/images/bsod.jpg . The microsoft knowledge base suggests this error can be caused by a boot sector virus.

I then booted into win2k and I was able to read all my drives properly from there. I copied over some files from my 250gb WD SATA drive to my maxtor storage drive and downloaded a few drivers onto that drive in case I needed to reinstall windows.

I then booted my winxp install CD and when I got the drive selection screen I realized I would need my SATA drivers but also noticed my maxtor drive was now showing up as unparitioned space. I booted back into win2k and my maxtor drive which was showing up fine under my computer and reading/writing is now no longer visible.

I turned off the computer, cleared the cmos and the drive shows up in the bios and while posting but still could not get it to show up in win2k. At this point I decided not to mess with my storage drive for now and disconnected it. I'm more worried with my other drive right now.

Right now I am trying to figure out if there is anything wrong with my WD SE SATA drive with winxp on it other than a corrupted windows install. I ran diskpatch on the drive and here is the log file http://smdb.krypt.com/drive/DP.LOG

Please let me know if you can see anything wrong with this drive. I would have suspected that I caused some problem in the registry or something except for the fact that my OTHER drive with no OS on it stopped working shortly after this and the BSOD suggests it could be something more. If there is nothing you can see wrong I will attempt to repair the windows install on this drive or install windows to a new directory and access all my files and get them backed up before I wipe it clean.

Product you are using: DiskPatch

Operating system / Service Pack: WindowsXP SP2

Size of subject harddisk: 250GB

I would just like to state that I've now used AVG7 FREE and Norton 2005 both with the latest updates on both my drives and found no viruses. I tried replacing the registry for xp as recommended in a microsoft support article but I got the same error as before, so I reverted back and now will try a repair install and then a parallel install if that fails.

What I am going on right now is that my drive with winxp on it is fine, but the OS is bad and my storage drive got messed up by something related to win2k... I'm not sure I've even accessed that drive before under win2k.

However I welcome any advice or other ideas about what caused this all and how to fix it. Thanks for the help.

Product you are using: DiskPatch

Operating system / Service Pack: WindowsXP SP2

Size of subject harddisk: 250GB

Hi,

From a datarecovery point of view there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the disk, the partitions look fine. Also the disk can be accessed and the sizes seem to be okay. Make sure it's not a large disk (> 128Gb) issue (check www.48bitlba.com), but that's all the advice i can think of.

>>>If there is nothing you can see wrong I will attempt to repair the windows install on this drive or install windows to a new directory and access all my files and get them backed up before I wipe it clean<<<

Sounds good to me. Good luck.

Regards,
Tom

Tom, Thank you very much. I was able to repair the windows install on that drive.

I reconnected my Maxtor drive and its still not reading under windows. I went into diskpatch and tried to create a scan log but I had to abort because it wanted to take like 300 minutes and just sat there for a while without the remaining time decreasing. Here is the log from what I have.

.../000:13/LOG> ### LOG START ###
.../000:13/LOG> DISKPATCH 2.1.100
.../000:13/LOG> (C) 2000-2005, DIY DataRecovery
.../000:13/LOG> Contact info: HTTP://www.DIYDataRecovery.nl
.../000:13/LOG> DPRunType: 0
.../000:13/LOG> DPUsrName: DEMO
.../000:13/LOG> MemFree: 107Kb
.../000:13/LOG> LogDate: 02-24-2005
.../000:13/CFG> Dump Options requested
.../000:13/CFG> FilePath="1/.DP_FILES"
.../000:13/CFG> LogFilename="DP.LOG"
.../000:13/CFG> ReadRetries="32"
.../000:13/CFG> MaxReadErrors="32"
.../000:13/CFG> ReadDelay="1"
.../000:13/CFG> AutoSaveState="1"
.../000:13/CFG> DumpFoundSectors="0"
.../000:13/CFG> LogLevel="2"
.../000:13/CFG> DebugLevel="0"
.../000:13/CFG> MaxFatScan="51200"
.../000:13/CFG> MaxDataColEntries="512"
.../000:13/CFG> ScanType="0"
.../000:13/CFG> IgnoreF8FF="0"
.../000:13/CFG> ScanSignature="55AA"
.../000:13/13H> Ext13H installed test requested
.../000:13/13H> Disk found at 128
.../000:13/13H> Ext13H version: 2.1 / EDD-1.1
.../000:13/13H> Ext13H Support: Extended disk access functions
.../000:13/13H> Ext13H Support: Enhanced disk drive functions
.../000:13/13H> Disk 128 X13H data : 16383/16/63 234441648/512
.../000:13/13H> Disk found at 129
.../000:13/13H> Ext13H version: 2.1 / EDD-1.1
.../000:13/13H> Ext13H Support: Extended disk access functions
.../000:13/13H> Ext13H Support: Enhanced disk drive functions
.../000:13/13H> Disk 129 X13H data : 65535/16/255 490234752/512
.../000:13/13H> Disk found at 130
.../000:13/13H> Ext13H version: 2.1 / EDD-1.1
.../000:13/13H> Ext13H Support: Extended disk access functions
.../000:13/13H> Ext13H Support: Enhanced disk drive functions
.../000:13/13H> Ext13H Flags: DMA boundary errors handled transparently
.../000:13/13H> Disk 130 X13H data : 16383/255/63 488397168/512
.../000:13/13H> Ext13H tested ok
.../000:13/FDL> DiskList requested
.../000:13/FDL> Disk found at 128
.../000:13/FDL> Disk found at 129
.../000:13/FDL> Disk found at 130
.../000:13/LOG> Dump DiskList requested
### DISKLIST.ARRAY ###
__D_|________LBA_|___H_|__S_|__GB
128 | .234441648 | 255 | 63 | 111
129 | .490234752 | .16 | 63 | 233
130 | .488397168 | 255 | 63 | 232
..0 | .........0 | ..0 | .0 | ..0

.../000:14/IAS> Admi Sector found on disk 0 (128)
.../000:14/IAS> Admi Sector init complete for disk 1 (129)
.../000:14/IAS> Admi Sector found on disk 2 (130)
.../000:14/EXE> FingerPrint found
.../000:14/PFC> PQstuff signature not detected on disk 0 (128)
.../000:14/PFC> PQstuff signature not detected on disk 1 (129)
.../000:14/PFC> PQstuff signature not detected on disk 2 (130)
.../000:14/PFC> Partition State Backup not found on disk 0 (128)
.../000:14/PFC> Partition State Backup not found on disk 1 (129)
.../000:14/PFC> Partition State Backup not found on disk 2 (130)
.../000:25/MNU> - Main, Select Disk
.../000:40/USD> Disk 1 (129) selected
.../000:40/USD> Read/WriteErrors reset to 0
.../000:40/USD> DataCollection / PartList cleared
.../000:40/GSC> First DP Run, Geo Info for disk 1 (129) not yet saved
.../000:40/GSC> Geo for Disk 1 (129) saved as 0490234752016063
129/000:41/LOG> Dump MBR requested
### MBR FOR DISK 129
000 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
016 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
032 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
048 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
064 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
080 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
096 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
112 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
128 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
144 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
160 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
176 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
192 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
208 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
224 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
240 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
256 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
272 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
288 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
304 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
320 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
336 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
352 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
368 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
384 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
400 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
416 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
432 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 BF 41 C0 41 00 00 00 00 | ........¿AÀA....
448 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
464 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
480 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ................
496 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 AA | ..............Uª
### Interpreted Partition Table Information
### _ACT_|_TYPE_|__START--C/H/S_|__END----C/H/S_|__LBA-start_|_LBA-length
..1 ...0 | ..00 | ....0...0...0 | ....0...0...0 | .........0 | .........0
..2 ...0 | ..00 | ....0...0...0 | ....0...0...0 | .........0 | .........0
..3 ...0 | ..00 | ....0...0...0 | ....0...0...0 | .........0 | .........0
..4 ...0 | ..00 | ....0...0...0 | ....0...0...0 | .........0 | .........0

129/000:45/MNU> - Support, Analyze Disk / StateFile (no repair, create log)
129/000:45/SCN> DiskScan requested, ScanType is 0
129/000:46/SCN> DiskScan 0 (0 0 1) / 490234751 (486343 15 63) / 490234752
129/000:46/SCN> First bunnyhop BS at 63 (0 1 1)
129/000:46/SCN> Next bunnyhop BS at 63 (0 1 1)
129/006:22/SCN> DiskScan aborted at JumpSector 10690560 (10605 11 28)
129/006:26/EXE> Analysis aborted
129/006:34/MNU> - Main, Quit
129/006:34/LOG> RunTime: 006:34
129/006:34/LOG> ### CLOSE LOG ###


Can you tell me anything from that? Can the partition be recovered? Do I need to go through the full scan? Thanks again.

Product you are using: DiskPatch

Operating system / Service Pack: WinXP SP2

Size of subject harddisk: 250GB

We can't see much on this scan, except that the MBR is empty, which would account for the fact that no partitions are visible. We need a completed scan to determine if things are recoverable or not.

Tom

I just attempted another scan... I let the scan run for 4 hours or so unattended and when I returned it had 1:58 left and had reached maxreaderrors and maxretries, I reset both of those parameters and continued. An hour later its stuck at 1:98 and is still reading both the floppy and hd. I didn't want to leave it running any longer so I rebooted. The result was a 0KB log file. How shall I proceed?

Product you are using: DiskPatch

Operating system / Service Pack: WinXP SP2

Size of subject harddisk: 250GB

From your previous posting it looks like your disk is getting bad. ReadErrors are (obviously) not good. You should verify the disk to see what the status is, check the disk surface. You can use the diskpatch demo for this, or you could download the hdworkbench demo (this includes smart checks, might be handy to see what's going on). Keep in mind that if the number of bad sectors is rapidly growing, the disk is likely to fail soon.
The best thing at this point would be (if bad sectors are really the problem, that is) to clone the disk and perform repairs on the clone.

So in short:
- determine if bad sectors are the problem (run a surface scan, or a partial surface scan, at least 1/3)
- if so, depending on how important the data is, clone the disk and perform recovery on the clone

Tom

Thanks, Tom. I have a lisenced copy of R-Studio and I should have enough space on my other 250GB drive to recover all the stuff I want to see again.

I brought the drive less than a year ago and have only been using it for a matter of months so I guess its time to RMA it.

Product you are using: DiskPatch

Operating system / Service Pack: WinXP SP2

Size of subject harddisk: 250GB