A really bad problem involving hard drive and NTDLR

sabbyk · #1 03-09-2005, 02:08 AM

I had an NTDLR error, so I thought I could make my corrupted hard drive a slave on another computer so I could just get my stuff that way. Unfortunately when Windows XP started, it started checking the newly added slave and it took forever and started doing all this stuff, all I remember seeing is...deleting index entry yatta yatta. I don't know what it did!! But when I got into windows, all that was there what was originally on the root drive (c:/) like unzipped, My Shared Folder, and WINDOWS. NO MY DOCUMENTS, nothing..no way to even get to my user files with my favorites, documents etc. Yet, in the disk information when I right click it says the drive is occupied with the same amount as before - 80 gigs. I tried to defrag too and the files that I can't find otherwise were being defragmented! So how can I access these files? Windows xp recovery said it could not be fixed. I need this stuff, is there any other way to get it!? It's NTFS file format

When I put the hard drive back in the other computer, the same error came up - ntdlr is missing , reboot. So I found what I could for the ntdlr, which is what you said - rebuild the boot.ini, and copy ntdetect.com and ntldr or whatever it is. After that, windows would start up then say that 'system32\drivers\isapnp.sys' is corrupted or missing, start Setup on the win xp cd then type R. I did that, and it was suppose to repair that installation of XP. When it was done , it said it was unsucessful. So the computer would boot up and windows would start..then hang or the computer would just restart again. So I thought I should just try to install xp over the version that is corrupted. I went ahead and did that, except I put it as a separate installation on the same drive. It did not copy over it because it said it could corrupt the files like my documents etc *(the stuff that I can't see). So now it's running on that copy of windows, and the same thing happens - says 80 gigs of space is taken but where is all the stuff? I don't know how to get rid of the extra installation of xp now. ugh. Even if I did I wouldn't be able to get into the corrupted windows, so what should I do?

daemonOS · #2 03-09-2005, 11:38 AM

You could have bad sectors on the drive the the system files are on. I would do this first. d/l a 98 boot disk Go Here. First Run check disk and see if that helps any. Next repair the mbr

Code:

fdisk /mbr

And try to boot w/the floppy you made w/the boot.ini,ntldr and the ntdetect. If that does not work and you need your data you will need a data recovery app. As far as getting rid of the first partition d/l partition magic or partition commander format and then reinstall. note: I am assuming you have a OEM disk of windows.

sabbyk · #3 03-09-2005, 05:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daemonOS

You could have bad sectors on the drive the the system files are on. I would do this first. d/l a 98 boot disk Go Here. First Run check disk and see if that helps any. Next repair the mbr

Code:

fdisk /mbr

And try to boot w/the floppy you made w/the boot.ini,ntldr and the ntdetect. If that does not work and you need your data you will need a data recovery app. As far as getting rid of the first partition d/l partition magic or partition commander format and then reinstall. note: I am assuming you have a OEM disk of windows.

I noticed this too - all the stuff that is missing was under a user name, so is that why all the stuff on the root drive is showing but nothing more? like prog files and documents and settings?

kpanic · #4 03-10-2005, 05:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sabbyk

I had an NTDLR error, so I thought I could make my corrupted hard drive a slave on another computer so I could just get my stuff that way. Unfortunately when Windows XP started, it started checking the newly added slave and it took forever and started doing all this stuff, all I remember seeing is...deleting index entry yatta yatta. I don't know what it did!! But when I got into windows, all that was there what was originally on the root drive (c:/) like unzipped, My Shared Folder, and WINDOWS. NO MY DOCUMENTS, nothing..no way to even get to my user files with my favorites, documents etc. Yet, in the disk information when I right click it says the drive is occupied with the same amount as before - 80 gigs. I tried to defrag too and the files that I can't find otherwise were being defragmented! So how can I access these files? Windows xp recovery said it could not be fixed. I need this stuff, is there any other way to get it!? It's NTFS file format

When I put the hard drive back in the other computer, the same error came up - ntdlr is missing , reboot. So I found what I could for the ntdlr, which is what you said - rebuild the boot.ini, and copy ntdetect.com and ntldr or whatever it is. After that, windows would start up then say that 'system32\drivers\isapnp.sys' is corrupted or missing, start Setup on the win xp cd then type R. I did that, and it was suppose to repair that installation of XP. When it was done , it said it was unsucessful. So the computer would boot up and windows would start..then hang or the computer would just restart again. So I thought I should just try to install xp over the version that is corrupted. I went ahead and did that, except I put it as a separate installation on the same drive. It did not copy over it because it said it could corrupt the files like my documents etc *(the stuff that I can't see). So now it's running on that copy of windows, and the same thing happens - says 80 gigs of space is taken but where is all the stuff? I don't know how to get rid of the extra installation of xp now. ugh. Even if I did I wouldn't be able to get into the corrupted windows, so what should I do?

NTDLR is when the hdd is not the primary or master drive ways to sort this out :

1. make sure the HDD cable is pluged in the right one you got 2 plugs on that puppy and it is confusing to what one is the primary.
2. Check the jumper settings and make sure its Primary master if oyur unsure go into bios and check.
3. Insert your windows xp cd and boot up from the cd ( asuming you know how to do this ) then windows will see your hdd and not give you that stupid error there you can format.

If you are geting problems in windows with your hdd then right click on the " my computer and select manage then click on disk management and see if they are healthy"

hope that helped slightly.

sabbyk · #5 03-10-2005, 07:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by qaz

You may be able to recover the files with a DOS utility like this one:
http://www.omnixray.com
So, you can go in under the radar so-to-speak.

This software is a disk editor and can recover individual NTFS files, but only to a FAT volume. Also, you may be able to examine the NT Loader file, where the sector is.

I think that in your case the partition sector may be screwy, and that could cause it not to get the ntloader file sector, or something like that. If the recovery counsel was of no help, and Windows did screw things up when scanning the drive, then I would agree that attempting a recovery of the files is what is needed.

BTW:When chkdsk says "Deleting Index", this refers to the files in the index where windows references files in the Master File Table. However, as explained to me..If the files data is still in the MFT, then a recovery is quite possible.

Would be really interested in how this goes, and I hope you can recover your files.

This works even if this is a fresh copy of xp, not an upgrade? Meaning that I originally never had Win 98 or below on here? Thanks so much, I'll probably come back and ask more questions under here for this topic.

sabbyk · #6 03-14-2005, 02:31 AM

I ended up using Knoppix to view my files. Knoppix also has the tools for me to copy the stuff to cds and dvd rs. My files were in a folder called found.000, broken up in several folders called dsk0001.chk or similar. I think window's diskcheck did this, boo!!