Hard Drive Salvage from corrupted Windows XP NTFS drive

Here's the situation:

A couple of bored days ago, I had decided to try and make my guinea pig test drive, the old 12 gig SCSI IDE hard drive, which had Xandros Linux on it, into a game drive for a bunch of old Windows 98 games.

I had a main 80 gig Serial ATA drive with Windows XP installed on it too.

In spite of changing the boot sequence in BIOS to where only the Windows 98 CD ROM would boot and the old 12gig side kick hard drive would boot afterwards,

To make a long story cut to the chase and short, I managed to somehow corrupt the main hard drive so that Windows XP won't load anymore . . .

Worse, though the 80gig drive use to be mounted by the Knoppix 2.6.6 Kernel, now when I run Knoppix it just recognizes it with the icon

[hde1] but WON'T MOUNT.

It gives the error message:

"Could not mount device.
mount: I could not determine file system. None was specified"


-----------------------------------

Fortunately I've backed up all my real important files on a CD ROM I burnt before I did this experiment, but still would like to salvage some of the nifty downloads that weren't backed up on that 80 gig thing. ASAP

------------------

having tried to write all this script
_____________
knoppix@ttyp0[knoppix]$ mkdr /tmp/hd
bash: mkdr: command not found
knoppix@ttyp0[knoppix]$ mkdir /tmp/hd
knoppix@ttyp0[knoppix]$ mount -t ntfs /dev/hde1
mount: only root can do that


knoppix@ttyp0[knoppix]$ su
root@ttyp0[knoppix]# mount -t ntfs /dev/hde1

The consol spits out this:


Usage: mount -V : print version
mount -h : print this help
mount : list mounted filesystems
mount -l : idem, including volume labels
So far the informational part. Next the mounting.
The command is `mount [-t fstype] something somewhere'.
Details found in /etc/fstab may be omitted.
mount -a [-t|-O] ... : mount all stuff from /etc/fstab
mount device : mount device at the known place
mount directory : mount known device here
mount -t type dev dir : ordinary mount command
Note that one does not really mount a device, one mounts
a filesystem (of the given type) found on the device.
One can also mount an already visible directory tree elsewhere:
mount --bind olddir newdir
or move a subtree:
mount --move olddir newdir
A device can be given by name, say /dev/hda1 or /dev/cdrom,
or by label, using -L label or by uuid, using -U uuid .
Other options: [-nfFrsvw] [-o options] [-p num].
For many more details, say man 8 mount .
------------------


And I still have this error message when trying to open the hard drive hde1 from the KDE desktop:

"Could not mount device.
The reported error was:
mount: I could not determine the filesystem type, and none was specified "

I think you would have to do

mount -t ntfs /dev/hde1 /mnt/hde1

so that mount know where to mount it. This can be omitted only if you are using all default settings...ie what is listed in fstab.
BTW, what is listed in your /etc/fstab file?

You could also try running qtparted or cfdisk to see what format (if any) they think /hde1 is formatted to. I once lost my windows drive (hda1) because it somehow got switched to a type 1C (hidden Fat32) instead of a type 0B (FAT32). Merely switching it back cured everything except the hangover.

knoppix@ttyp0[knoppix]$ mount -t ntfs /dev/hde1 /mnt/hde1
mount: only root can do that

knoppix@ttyp0[knoppix]$ su

root@ttyp0[knoppix]# mount -t ntfs /dev/hde1 /mnt/hde1
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/hde1,
or too many mounted file systems
root@ttyp0[knoppix]#

thank you for your suggestions

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by CrashedAgain

I think you would have to do

mount -t ntfs /dev/hde1 /mnt/hde1

so that mount know where to mount it. This can be omitted only if you are using all default settings...ie what is listed in fstab.
BTW, what is listed in your /etc/fstab file?

You could also try running qtparted or cfdisk to see what format (if any) they think /hde1 is formatted to. I once lost my windows drive (hda1) because it somehow got switched to a type 1C (hidden Fat32) instead of a type 0B (FAT32). Merely switching it back cured everything except the hangover.

---

I'm sorry I really am an amateur at Linux script and file systems. Where would the /etc/fstab file be?

Where can I access the programs qtparted & cfdisk?

fstab

ttp://www.tldp.org/LDP/gs/node6.html#SECTION00641000000000000000


By the way,

the hard drive was never given a FAT format of any kind. It was NTFS.

file:/mnt/hde1

is not listed as having anything in it,

it still won't mount

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kidsatacrux

file:/mnt/hde1

is not listed as having anything in it,

it still won't mount

---

Most especially NOT " /etc/fstab "

There's nothing listed in that.

Could someone please help me?

To whom it may concern,

As a side note to this apparent inability for

Debian,

&/or Koppix 3.4-5-17-04 w/ both the 2.4.* kernels & 2.6.6,

&/or KDE,


to find any files on this main hard drive, (maybe it really broke?)

it seems the 2.4 kernel recognizes other CD-R & RW, but not that SATA hard drive,

yet the 2.6 kernel recognizes my SATA hard drive, but still won't mount,

nor recoginze the Samsung DVD ROM /CD-R / CDRW

worse that Kb3 CD burner won't burn files



This is disappointing and I hope these issues are solved someday when a humongous massive HARDWARE recognition ENGINE program with a thorough database on old hardware configurations is designed someday.

If Knoppix isn't the best at doing that, I don't know what operating system could match it.

Hi,

Pop in the Windows XP CD and boot off it. At some point it should say "Found Windows XP instalation on drive X: What do you want to do?" One of those options is Repair so choose that. Or, just boot to boot to DOS with a disk and type "Fixmbr" You can get the rescue disks at bootdisk.com, I believe.
All this assumes that you DID NOT erase all the Windows XP info. If all you did was corrupt the drive header than you can rescue the whole disk. Also, a repair SHOULD not erase any info -- just lay down a new Windows XP kernel and such. You will need to re-update all the Windows XP software after this.
In the future, it would be a good idea to partition your drives (I dual boot between WIindows 2000/Knoopix 3.3) so that after there is a section for apps and a section for files. Like, on your 80GB drive, if it only has Windows XP, partition 12-15GB (NTFS) for Windows XP and then the rest (65-68 NTFS) for storage like downloaded files or documents. Also, if using Linux, and you want to transfer files between Linux/XP then make sure that you cut the rest of the drive in half and use FAT32 and NTFS. Write from Linux to the FAT32 section.
If you did earse the Windows XP stuff then you need to do a complete reinstall.
However, as a last resort try in Linux go to console and type:
su
fdisk /dev/hde *Or whatever your drive is*
t * This changes the partition's type*
1 *chooses partition 1*
m * HPFS/NTFS file system*
w *writes table and exits*

This method doesn't, I believe, erase anything other than the beginning and only tells the OS that the disk formnat is now NTFS.

After this, you should be able to mount the drive.

Good luck,

AdriMagnon

P.S. Get the SystemRescueDisk here: http://www.sysresccd.org/
and try QTParted. Also, tak ea look at this thread, especially at the bottom when they mention test disk: http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12132

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AdriMagnon

Hi,

Pop in the Windows XP CD and boot off it. At some point it should say "Found Windows XP instalation on drive X: What do you want to do?" One of those options is Repair so choose that.

---

That makes sense, but what all I have is the XP PRO upgrade version CD which won't do anything when I boot from it, nor will the Win2000 CD.

I tried booting from a CD with WinXP_EN_PRO_BF.EXE [url] http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...7-4FED408EA73F

burnt on it and it won't do anything either, probably because I am suppose to run it in a healthy Windows machine and make floppies or something for it to work on my sick machine.

REDUNDANT! I don't have Windows.


In the mean time I'll look some more at bootdisk.com and try some of your other advice.

Thank you. I do appreciate your help greatly.



If I could just get to another Windows machine and make the disk with it. Clearly its not something you can just burn to a CD and then expect it to do what its suppose to.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kidsatacrux

Clearly its not something you can just burn to a CD and then expect it to do what its suppose to.

---

Nope, but this is. Bootable WinXP live CD repair disk. Not sure if you can make with upgrade disk, but might be worth a try.

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

jd

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by j.drake

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kidsatacrux

Clearly its not something you can just burn to a CD and then expect it to do what its suppose to.

---

Nope, but this is. Bootable WinXP live CD repair disk. Not sure if you can make with upgrade disk, but might be worth a try.

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

jd

---

I know this is really getting somewhat off the KNoppix & Linux Topic, but let me please clarify my situation a little more about how Bart's PE builder seems to be working for me.

So I managed to get on a Windows 2000 machine at the local computer lab where I have privelages to use,

I try and run PE Builder 3.0.32,

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

and then it asks "Path to Windows insallation files?, as though this rescue CD ROM can be created only from the Computer I'm trying to cure, before it get's sick.

In the meantime at least I'll get the official microsoft pre-installer boot floppies made, but somehow I wonder if they'll give me access to the data I want to salvage in such a way that it will let me burn them to CD ROM.

Maybe I could run the PE Builder on a Windows XP machine for it to build a CD right?

Simply downloading and extracting the files on a CD and expecting the thing to run right won't work either.

Is my situation sounding futile yet?

Quote:

---

In the meantime at least I'll get the official microsoft pre-installer boot floppies made, but somehow I wonder if they'll give me access to the data I want to salvage in such a way that it will let me burn them to CD ROM.

---

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];310994

fingers are being crossed,

trying not to seem too pessimistic . . .

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AdriMagnon

Hi,


If you did earse the Windows XP stuff then you need to do a complete reinstall.
However, as a last resort try in Linux go to console and type:
su
fdisk /dev/hde *Or whatever your drive is*
t * This changes the partition's type*
1 *chooses partition 1*
m * HPFS/NTFS file system*
w *writes table and exits*

This method doesn't, I believe, erase anything other than the beginning and only tells the OS that the disk formnat is now NTFS.

After this, you should be able to mount the drive.

---

HERE ARE THE CONSOLE LOG RESULTS OF THIS METHOD
-----------------
knoppix@ttyp0[knoppix]$ su
root@ttyp0[knoppix]# fdisk /dev/hde



The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 9729.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
(e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)

Command (m for help):

Command (m for help): M
Command action
a toggle a bootable flag
b edit bsd disklabel
c toggle the dos compatibility flag
d delete a partition
l list known partition types
m print this menu
n add a new partition
o create a new empty DOS partition table
p print the partition table
q quit without saving changes
s create a new empty Sun disklabel
t change a partition's system id
u change display/entry units
v verify the partition table
w write table to disk and exit
x extra functionality (experts only)

Command (m for help): l

0 Empty 1c Hidden W95 FAT3 70 DiskSecure Mult bb Boot Wizard hid
1 FAT12 1e Hidden W95 FAT1 75 PC/IX be Solaris boot
2 XENIX root 24 NEC DOS 80 Old Minix c1 DRDOS/sec (FAT-
3 XENIX usr 39 Plan 9 81 Minix / old Lin c4 DRDOS/sec (FAT-
4 FAT16 <32M 3c PartitionMagic 82 Linux swap c6 DRDOS/sec (FAT-
5 Extended 40 Venix 80286 83 Linux c7 Syrinx
6 FAT16 41 PPC PReP Boot 84 OS/2 hidden C: da Non-FS data
7 HPFS/NTFS 42 SFS 85 Linux extended db CP/M / CTOS / .
8 AIX 4d QNX4.x 86 NTFS volume set de Dell Utility
9 AIX bootable 4e QNX4.x 2nd part 87 NTFS volume set df BootIt
a OS/2 Boot Manag 4f QNX4.x 3rd part 8e Linux LVM e1 DOS access
b W95 FAT32 50 OnTrack DM 93 Amoeba e3 DOS R/O
c W95 FAT32 (LBA) 51 OnTrack DM6 Aux 94 Amoeba BBT e4 SpeedStor
e W95 FAT16 (LBA) 52 CP/M 9f BSD/OS eb BeOS fs
f W95 Ext'd (LBA) 53 OnTrack DM6 Aux a0 IBM Thinkpad hi ee EFI GPT
10 OPUS 54 OnTrackDM6 a5 FreeBSD ef EFI (FAT-12/16/
11 Hidden FAT12 55 EZ-Drive a6 OpenBSD f0 Linux/PA-RISC b
12 Compaq diagnost 56 Golden Bow a7 NeXTSTEP f1 SpeedStor
14 Hidden FAT16 <3 5c Priam Edisk a8 Darwin UFS f4 SpeedStor
16 Hidden FAT16 61 SpeedStor a9 NetBSD f2 DOS secondary
17 Hidden HPFS/NTF 63 GNU HURD or Sys ab Darwin boot fd Linux raid auto
18 AST SmartSleep 64 Novell Netware b7 BSDI fs fe LANstep
1b Hidden W95 FAT3 65 Novell Netware b8 BSDI swap ff BBT

Command (m for help):


Command (m for help):
---------------------------------------------------------

[quote="kidsatacrux"]

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AdriMagnon

Hi,


If you did earse the Windows XP stuff then you need to do a complete reinstall.
However, as a last resort try in Linux go to console and type:
su
fdisk /dev/hde *Or whatever your drive is*
t * This changes the partition's type*
1 *chooses partition 1*
m * HPFS/NTFS file system*
w *writes table and exits*

This method doesn't, I believe, erase anything other than the beginning and only tells the OS that the disk formnat is now NTFS.

After this, you should be able to mount the drive.

---

should, but I'm not
-------------console shell log -------------------
Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!

Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.

WARNING: If you have created or modified any DOS 6.x
partitions, please see the fdisk manual page for additional
information.
Syncing disks.

---------------
And when the disk is attempted to be entered from the KDE desktop interface:

the same error message

"Could not mount device.
The reported error was:
mount: I could not determine the filesystem type, and none was specified'

happens
________________


Those BartPE disk and 911 Cd disks are only good to make for those who have a full version Win XP CD. I just have the upgrade versions.

----more experimental console shell log------

root@ttyp0[knoppix]# fdisk /dev/hde1
Device contains neither a valid DOS partition table, nor Sun, SGI or OSF disklabel
Building a new DOS disklabel. Changes will remain in memory only,
until you decide to write them. After that, of course, the previous
content won't be recoverable.


The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 9728.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
(e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)
Warning: invalid flag 0x0000 of partition table 4 will be corrected by w(rite)

Command (m for help):

Command (m for help): o
Building a new DOS disklabel. Changes will remain in memory only,
until you decide to write them. After that, of course, the previous
content won't be recoverable.


The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 9728.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
(e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)
Warning: invalid flag 0x0000 of partition table 4 will be corrected by w(rite)

Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!

Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.

"
WARNING: Re-reading the partition table failed with error 22: Invalid argument.
The kernel still uses the old table.
The new table will be used at the next reboot.
Syncing disks.
root@ttyp0[knoppix]#

----------------------- clicking on hde1 icon in KDE desktop still gives this error message:
Could not mount device.
The reported error was:
mount: I could not determine the filesystem type, and none was specified "

Command (m for help): t
No partition is defined yet!

hde1 is a big POS and seems SOL

Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!

Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.

WARNING: Re-reading the partition table failed with error 22: Invalid argument.
The kernel still uses the old table.
The new table will be used at the next reboot.
Syncing disks.
root@ttyp0[knoppix]# l
. .Xdefaults .gconfd .gnome_private .mailcap .netscape Desktop
.. .acrorc .gimp-2.0 .kde .mcop .qt office
.DCOPserver_Knoppix_:0 .bash_history .gnome .kderc .mime.types .sversionrc tmp
.DCOPserver_Knoppix__0 .bashrc .gnome-desktop .links .mozilla .xine
.ICEauthority .gconf .gnome2 .local .nessusrc .xsession-errors
root@ttyp0[knoppix]#
--------

Now left clicking on hde1 icon doesn't do damn thing!!!!!!!

From the sounds of things the hardrive might be corrupted. I had a hadrive curropt it self in a matter of days.

Or when you were installing the old drive you unseated the ide cables there for disallowing acess to the drive. This may be a hardware thing rather then software.

Try reseating the cables and if that doesn't work switch the cables between the hardrive and cd drive.

BTW if needed I can send a ISO of a built Bart PE system. Its just got the standard software and a defragger.