# Corrupt Partition Table



## shaygate (Mar 29, 2002)

Hi Guys,

If I ever needed your help now is it !

My friends computer which is running Win Me on a new HD and AMD Duron 1200 system was infected with a virus for while before we figured out what the problem was, in fact i thought iut was the anti virus but it turned out to be the virus giving false error mesages, if you are interested it was W32/[email protected]

In addition to the new HD he has /had his old Western Digital HD running as his D: drive, now somewhere around the time he picked up the virus this drive stopped working. The BIOS sees it, but windows doesn't. When booted from the emergency floppy DOS reports that the drive hasn't got a valid partition (I also tried FDISK/MBR). After installing new virus software (Command Anti Virus) I tried the rescue disks to reserect the drive but it reports that the partition table is corrupt.

Can anyone help me rescue the disk ? there is data on it he needs, and yes I gave him a lecture on the importance of backups but its too late now.  

Ian


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## shaygate (Mar 29, 2002)

No takers ?


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

Is there an operating system on the drive that windows won't see?


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## DaveBurnett (Nov 11, 2002)

Download Symon from www.symon.ru 
Create a boot/install diskette for it. Install it on that machine/disk. The first thing it will do is recover/report all partitions it finds and allows you to recover the partition table. It will also install a boot manager to that disk, but if you are not going to boot from it, that will be transparent. Once any partitions are recovered you can the restore the MBR.


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## shaygate (Mar 29, 2002)

Dave, I will have a look at this programme but I am a little confused, i can't install anything on the dead disk because the partition table is corrupted. Also I would think its a VERY bad idea to install anything on this disk until I can see evrything on it just in case it overwrites the very data I'm after  

Thanks for the reply

AcaCandy, the bios detects the drive, but windows can't, Fdisk when run says there isn't a valid partition on the disk and the anti virus rescue disks says the partition table is corrupt. So no data can be 'seen' on the disk but it is there (I hope !)


Ian


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

You still didn't answer my question  IS there an operating system on that problem drive?


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## DaveBurnett (Nov 11, 2002)

> Also I would think its a VERY bad idea to install anything on this disk until I can see evrything on it just in case it overwrites the very data I'm after


The whole point of doing this is that it DOES NOT write to the data area. It backs up the boot sector and the first track to the install floppy and then loads into the boot sector and first track of the disk which is only ever used for this purpose. It then scans the data on the disk in read-only mode looking for and noting valid partitions without using the partition table. So if there is anything there to recover it notes where it is. It builds its own partition table from what it finds, and gives you the oportunity to selectively rebuild the real partition table, and boot from any bootable partition. When you uninstall it, it gives you the options of restoring the disk to its previous state(bad idea in this case) or just restoring the boot sector - leaving the rebuilt partition table.


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## shaygate (Mar 29, 2002)

Thanks for the clarification Dave, I will probably have a go this weekend when I can spend some proper time on it and not rush anything ! I will let you know how I get on !

Aca, sorry i missread your question, yes the disk has an operating system on it as i recall its Win 95 so it will most likely be a FAT16 partition.

thanks again

Ian


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## ~Candy~ (Jan 27, 2001)

What I guess I'm wondering then, will that drive boot up without the other one attached?


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## DaveBurnett (Nov 11, 2002)

> What I guess I'm wondering then, will that drive boot up without the other one attached?


Not wirh a corrupt partition table it won't.


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## shaygate (Mar 29, 2002)

Daves quite right, it won't boot although the bios finds a boot record as soon as it attempts to load it halts and gives a plaintive "Error loading Operating system" In all respects the drive is dead my only hope is that as long as the bios continues to see it there is a chance i can recover the data, or at least a proportion of it.

Ian


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