W2K Partition Problem

[Fushigi]

Windows strikes again...

The config:
C: Boot: X-15, 8GB partition, FAT32
D: X-15, 9GB, FAT32
E: Optical
no letter: (hidden/inactive/primary) WD160GB, 8GB, FAT32 (used to back up C
F: WD160GB, 70GB, NTFS
G: WD160GB, 70GB, NTFS


Thursday night:
Attach USB2 HD. W2KSP3 detects, loads stuff, prompts for a reboot.
Reboot. Go to disk manager and activate the drive as H:.
Start copying files, about 40GB, from H: to F:. Let it run overnight.
Friday morning:
PC locked up. Can't get to task manager; reboot. Resume copying from where it left off.
When finished, copy some other files (about 35GB) from H: to G:. Copy completes normally.
In Explorer, click on the dir on F: containing the copied files. Get an error saying the directory can't be accessed (or is corrupted; something like that). G: works fine. Reboot.

F: and G: no longer show up. The drive is in disk manager and the hidden partition is still there so I know the drive itself is fine. But the remaining space is showing 'unallocated'.

Run Partition Magic 8 to see if it can recover the partitions. No luck.

Take the rest of Friday away from technology .. it is a holiday here after all.

Now that it's Saturday...
So now I'm out about 130GB of data. Maybe 75% can be recreated without too much trouble and another 20% I can flat live without. The remaining 5% would be difficult to impossible to recreate. I'd really rather recover if at all possible.

Two questions:

1. WTF caused this? What would cause Windows to just stop recognizing or delete the partition entries?

2. What are some good tools for examing a disk and rebuilding the partition table? Commercial products are fine as long as they aren't too expensive.

- I'd stop short of sending to a data recovery center.
- I don't have another W2K box at my disposal; just W98 on a desktop and XP on my notebook.
- I'm not opposed to mounting a drive in an external (USB2 or firewire)/ATA100+ box to connect it to the laptop if recovering under XP is possible.

TIA,
- Fushigi

 

[Fushigi]

Current conjecture is that W2KSP3 freaked when I finally wrote out enough data to pass the 127GB (or is it 137GB) barrier.

I'm using EasyRecovery Pro from OnTrack to attempt to retrieve the data. It couldn't find/rebuild the partition table but does have a raw recovery mode where it examines the blocks and recoveres whatever files it comes across. Because raw recovery needs a restore device and I didn't have much other available space, I picked up a 200GB/8MB DM+9 ($130 after rebate at CompUSA).

I patched W2K with the driver update that came with the DM+9; had to in order for Windows to see the new drive beyond the 127GB barrier. Funny how I hadn't needed that when formatting the 160GB drive.

Anyway, all seems to be OK, except I've a few thousand recovered files named FILxxxx.ext to sort through. And now 2 spare Promise controllers.

- Fushigi

 

[time]

Sorry we couldn't offer better advice.

 

[LiamC]

See my reply here:

http://www.storageforum.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2382

Yes there are manual steps needed to use large disks under W2K and XP. Sorry I didn't see this earlier.

I may need to write this up.

 

[Fushigi]

What I had previously heard was that W2KSP3 supported the large drives and hadn't heard about the registry key issue you pointed out. I have now installed the Maxblast product from Maxtor which has enabled the large drive support. I guess I never realized I needed the registry key from your earlier thread since I was running fine at the time.

Now, as long as SP4 doesn't break it I'll be fine.

- Fushigi