HDD troubles

[sierra9972]

the reason win98 can't see it is because you are using NTFS, not because your MBR is damaged. win98 has not support for the NTFS filing system. and if it cannot boot up if it previously was able to than yes, your files used to tell the operating system how to boot up is wrong. this was caused when you slaved that hard disk and winxp changed your boot files. do a search on boot loader

I had originally tried to unsuccessfully slave this Win98 drive in an XP box that was using NTFS.(Still not positive what went wrong) Now I'm trying to slave it in a Win98 box. So I'm thinking that the boot loader shouldn't be an issue?? Or is this boot loader file needed even if the drive is not being booted?

Thanks for all the help,

Todd

 

[sierra9972]

Ok here is were I'm at. I launched fdisk. I displayed partion information. Everything looked valid execpt this "System: Unknown". I expected it to read FAT32. I used Norton Diskedit and it told me "Invalid Partition table". I then used it to check the last two bytes of the mbr and it is 55AA. So I ran fdisk /mbr. This didn't fix anything. So I suspect a corrupt partion table. Does anyone know what I need to do now?????

Thanks,

Todd

 

[ekÆsine]

good grief, i give up. i honestly don't think you even understood or read any of my comments. there is nothing wrong with the partitions to begin with, your........oh forget it.

 

[sierra9972]

good grief, i give up. i honestly don't think you even understood or read any of my comments. there is nothing wrong with the partitions to begin with, your........oh forget it.

Hey hey......don't be like that. You may not remember, but I'm sure you didn't catch on to everthing when you first started to learn this computer stuff. I'm trying to understand what your comments are while also doing some reading myself. So it's not that I'm not reading your comments, but I've been trying things myself also..........which is sometimes the best way to learn.

So.......if you can be paitent with me, I would appreciate your help. If I understand you right, you are saying that I have a boot loader problem. I felt I didn't as I thought I should still be able to access this drive as a slave in a win98 machine. Plus, I get "Invalid Partition Table" when using Norton Diskedit. I will try searching on "boot loader" and see what I can find.

Any other thoughts/comments I would appreciate.

Todd

 

[neversleeps]

the reason win98 can't see it is because you are using NTFS,

if it was a win98 hdd to begin with why would it b formatted to ntfs, i kno he said he tried to slave it in xp but never said nething about formatting it to ntfs, if im wrong correct me plz, in xp u can get to the boot.ini by rite clicking my computer, properties, advanced tab, startup and recovery settings and there is an edit button

here is a copy of my boot.ini just so u kno what ur looking for,
[boot loader]
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
timeout=3
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect

make a back up of it first before changing anything if u decide to do so!

 

[sierra9972]

if it was a win98 hdd to begin with why would it b formatted to ntfs, i kno he said he tried to slave it in xp but never said nething about formatting it to ntfs, if im wrong correct me plz, in xp u can get to the boot.ini by rite clicking my computer, properties, advanced tab, startup and recovery settings and there is an edit button

here is a copy of my boot.ini just so u kno what ur looking for,
[boot loader]
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
timeout=3
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect

make a back up of it first before changing anything if u decide to do so!

Thanks for the info. And your right, it's not formatted as ntfs. The xp box that I tried to slave to was ntfs. Since then, the win98 drive won't boot and windows won't recognize it when slaved.

So I take it that you feel that I have a problem with my boot.ini? All I have to work with right now is a win98 box. Do you know how to access this file in 98? Also remember, windows does not recognize this drive, so I'm very limited what I can do within the windows environment.

Cheers,

Todd

 

[neversleeps]

i have no idea if its ur boot.ini, i wouldnt assume it is cuz u didnt change it and i dont know how they get changed unless u go in and do it urself unless its corrupted or something. i have xp but i assume 98's boot.ini is the root directory also, c:\.. u would have to turn on show hidden and protected system files to see it. so putting it back in ur 98 pc it wont boot from it like it used to just from an unsucessful slaving in ur xp pc? thats very strange. u didnt like set it down next to a magnet or something while it was out of pc did u? lol, i would get knoppix or something similar and boot from that and see what u can find on the drive and make sure everything is intact and make sure the drive didnt become damaged or something switching it from computers, if its ok in that and all of ur bios settings r correct then im out of ideas

 

[ekÆsine]

you caught me on a bad day. i got a speeding ticket, my acedemic plan might take too long to approve which might make me miss out signing up for classes this quarter, which has a direct impact on both of my jobs meaning i may lose them both, and a few other things which suck almost as bad.....all happened on the same day. so yeah, i'm pretty mad.

sierra9972 i didn't mean to say that. give me your Instant messanger name, i'll see if i can troubleshoot your problem in real-time. we are getting nowhere with this back and forth posting. you may be leaving out info that might be important to your problem.

Hey hey......don't be like that. You may not remember, but I'm sure you didn't catch on to everthing when you first started to learn this computer stuff.

 

[sierra9972]

No problem ekÆsine, we all have those days. I gave up.....well sort of. I was using winhex and found that FAT1 contained all zero's and FAT2 didn't seem to exist. So without understanding 100% everything I was getting into, decided to stop there. But.....I did manage to retreive the files I needed by using a program called "GetDataBack". Not sure if you have heard of it, but it worked great. It even found files that were fragmented.

So thanks anyways, but I'm done banging my head against my monitor.........for now anyways. Goodluck with your getting your acedemic plan approved.

Cheers,

Todd

 

[asupertech]

i will try to interject. You said this HDD is formattted as NTFS. and you stuck it into a WIN98 computer. Ok that is the first problem.

NTFS, Fat32, FAT16 are all names of the file systems for a computers operating system.

Fat16(File Allocation Table) came first... Dos... had limitations 4 gigs max partion stuff like that...no security, stuff liek that.

FAT32 Was a new type of file system introduced with windows 98 (was it 98 or very larte verison of 95??) in any case, it had a LITTLE security, more efficinet use of space, and allowed for detection of Largeer hard drives... 80 gigs? anyone remeber??

NTFS (New Technolgy File System) Came about wih WINNT. Allowed for the support of large hard drives, substantial secirity... (ok goos security Unix guys dont laugh).

Operating systems that support NTFS can read FAT32and FAT16.
Operating systems that run FAT32 can not read NTFS, But can read FAT16.

you can convert fat32 to NTFS, but can't go back...
Ok not by any means a complete lesson, but the basics...

So if you have Data on the NTFS partion that you want to keep. You need to install it into a computer that is running an Operating system that can read NTFS, those would be WinNT, Win2000, or WinXP.
copy the data, then using Disk admiistrator format it as Fat32. Or just delete the partion. leaving it as free space.
Or stick it in the box winning windows 98, use FDISK choose Option 4 (i Think) "Delete non-dos partiion"

after using that EVERYTHING will be gone... format as FAT32.. you will be reading the hard drive again.

Easy right.....