John John wrote:
> Did you try running the fixboot command from the Recovery Console?
>
> Can you mount the disk to another Windows XP installation and when you
> do can you see and access all the files on the corrupt disk? If no to
> the above do you have an NTFS or FAT32 driver for your Linux installation?
>
> If you can answer yes to one of the above what you can do is get another
> hard disk, mount it to an XP box or use the XP cd to partition and
> format it and mark the primary partition active (prepare it for XP) then
> mount it and the broken disk to your other operating system. You can
> then use Xcopy, XXcopy or (something similar if you are doing this with
> Linux) and then using the appropriate switches copy the files and folder
> structure from the broken disk to the new disk. Once done you may need
> to run the fixboot command on the new disk for it to boot. No guarantee
> but worth a try.
>
> John

Hello.

I can access the broken partition from Linux alright.

I have not tried fixboot yet, ...
Will fixboot mess up the Grub Linux boot loader (I think that resides in
the MBR, so I'd figure not) ??

Your description sounds good:
So I would:
1.) Do a recursive copy backup of NTFS-C: to my external Harddisk
2.) Reformat NTFS-C: so that it gets a clean filesystem
3.) Do a recursive copy back from my external drive to NTFS-C:
4.) Run the recovery console and do a 'fixboot'

Is this OK?

It's just one more copy, but I do not have another disk so that will
have to do.


Thanks!
-Martin-

>
> Martin T. wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> SHORT:
>> ------
>> How do I preserve a Windows XP sp2 installation (registry, drivers,
>> installed programs) when I want to reformat my C: drive, without using
>> a disk cloning tool??
>>
>> LONG:
>> My C: NTFS partition went bad when a power outage occurred during
>> shutdown. Now, when XP tries to boot I get a UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME
>> blue screen.
>> Booting to the recovery console and running chkdsk /P will result in
>> chkdsk telling me that there are unrecoverable errors on C: (In fact,
>> the recovery console won't even dir the contents of the C: drive.
>> So far so bad.
>> When I access the NTFS volume (read only) from my Linux boot option, I
>> can see that basically all data on there is intact and accessible
>> (read only). (Checked with a few images and zip files -- assuming that
>> most other stuff would also be correct.)
>>
>> Now, as I see this, since CHKDSK refuses to repair the volume I will
>> have to reformat (I can get all data I need off it.)
>>
>> What would also be great be when I'd be able to preserve my Windows
>> Install.
>>
>> I can't use a Clone Program since these will copy at the partition
>> level and so I guess will just replicate the broken NFTS structure.
>> (-> ??)
>>
>> Is there a way to preserve my old registry etc. ??
>>
>>
>> thanks!
>> -Martin-
>

Martin T. wrote:

> On Aug 22, 7:41 pm, John John <audetw....TakeThisOut@nbnet.nb.ca> wrote:
>
>>Martin T. wrote:
>>
>>>John John wrote:
>>
>>>>Martin T. wrote:
>>
>>>>>(snipped)
>>
>>>>>Martin T. wrote:
>>
>>>>>Hello.
>>
>>>>>I can access the broken partition from Linux alright.
>>
>>>>>I have not tried fixboot yet, ...
>>>>>Will fixboot mess up the Grub Linux boot loader (I think that resides
>>>>>in the MBR, so I'd figure not) ??
>>
>>>>>Your description sounds good:
>>>>>So I would:
>>>>>1.) Do a recursive copy backup of NTFS-C: to my external Harddisk
>>>>>2.) Reformat NTFS-C: so that it gets a clean filesystem
>>>>>3.) Do a recursive copy back from my external drive to NTFS-C:
>>>>>4.) Run the recovery console and do a 'fixboot'
>>
>>>>>Is this OK?
>>
>>>>>It's just one more copy, but I do not have another disk so that will
>>>>>have to do.
>>
>>>>>Thanks!
>>
>>>>To dislodge the GRUB loader you would use the fixmbr command, if
>>>>fixboot damages GRUB then you will have to repair it, shouldn't be too
>>>>big a problem to fix if the disk is otherwise sound, search the net
>>>>and you will quickly find how to do that. I don't know how your disks
>>>>are arranged and where GRUB is being started, that is for you to
>>>>determine.
>>
>>>>As for the trying to salvage the Windows installation that is how I
>>>>would try if nothing else works, which seems to be where you're at
>>>>now. Strange that Linux can read the files on the disk but that
>>>>Windows cannot see them or even chkdsk the drive, go figure! But it
>>>>seems that I have read posts with similar happenings before.
>>
>>>>I want to *emphasize* that there is no guarantee that this will work!
>>>>There is no saying what kind of corruption the disk is having and if
>>>>all the files are recoverable, maybe there are certain areas or
>>>>sectors of the disk where system files reside that are corrupt beyond
>>>>repair or recovery. After you do this copy over job you may still
>>>>need to to a repair install. Before you try to copy files back to the
>>>>disk it would be a good idea to run a disk diagnostic utility from the
>>>>hard drive manufacturer to make sure that the disk is sound.
>>
>>>>Also, I don't have extensive experience with Linux and I am not sure
>>>>that you will be able to copy files to an NTFS disk without the
>>>>Paragon driver or without another similar driver. If you cannot copy
>>>>to NTFS you may be able to copy to FAT32 and convert the file system
>>>>after the mess is fixed, if it is fixable to start with!
>>
>>>>Good luck,
>>
>>>>John
>>
>>>Thanks! You've been very helpful.
>>
>>>I'm aware that the data on the C: windows partition might be partially
>>>unaccessible, and I'll maybe end up doing a reinstall anyway.
>>>Grub shouldn't be too much of a problem I guess.
>>
>>>FYI: I use the ntfs-3g driver under linux for write access. It will have
>>>to be seen if I succeed in copying really everything on the C: drive.
>>
>>>Thanks again!
>>
>>You're welcome. Keep us posted, it would be interesting and informative
>>to see how well (or not) things turn out. As for copying the files back
>>and forth to NTFS there is also the matter of NTFS permissions which may
>>or may not be affected, once again it depends on the level of corruption
>>on the disk and the file system of the intermediate location to where
>>you copy the files to. An In-Place upgrade (repair install) should
>>reapply the default NTFS permissions, or they can be reapplied using
>>Secedit and the proper security.inf file. Nothing to worry about for
>>the time being but something that you might need to do... depending on
>>how things turn out.
>>
>>John
>
>
>
> Weeeeell.
> I really messed up. Since I haven't got my external drive around atm I
> thought I'd give it a try and run run fixboot anyway to se what it
> does.
> And what it bloody did was corrupt (or delete or whatever) the
> PARTITION TABLE of my harddisk.
> When I ran "fixboot C:" it put out some messages and then appeared to
> change the drive type of the partition to FAT (!). Although this drive
> has never seen a fat part.
> Before running fixboot I had a disk with 100GB of accessible data and
> a running linux partition on. (there were 3 part. on disk, C: NTFS, D:
> NTFS and one ext3 linux partition)
> NOW, there's nothing. *cry*
> When I boot from my PartitinMagic floppy I get a big fat yellow blob
> for my harddisk saying "partition table corrupted".
>
> When I boot from my linux CD and run fdisk, I get: Device contains
> neither a valid DOS partition table, nor SUN, SGI or OSF disklabel ...
>
> So kids, don't be as silly as me and try this at home with a complete
> physical backup of all data.
>
> Well ... maybe I can get my data back somehow ... should still be on
> there, shouldnt it ... Bah!
>
> I'll keep you posted, this promises to get really thrilling.

Oh my, I thought you were doing this from two separate and different
hard disks! Definitely not something to do to try to recover data from
a corrupt partition from another operating system on the same disk, or
without backing up data that is stored on other partitions on the same
disk! If the utilities that you used to prepare the disk cannot recover
the partition table, or unless you had backed up the MBR, you may have
to try recovery software.

John

Martin T. wrote:

> On Aug 22, 7:41 pm, John John <audetw... DeleteThis @nbnet.nb.ca> wrote:
>
>>Martin T. wrote:
>>
>>>John John wrote:
>>
>>>>Martin T. wrote:
>>
>>>>>(snipped)
>>
>>>>>Martin T. wrote:
>>
>>>>>Hello.
>>
>>>>>I can access the broken partition from Linux alright.
>>
>>>>>I have not tried fixboot yet, ...
>>>>>Will fixboot mess up the Grub Linux boot loader (I think that resides
>>>>>in the MBR, so I'd figure not) ??
>>
>>>>>Your description sounds good:
>>>>>So I would:
>>>>>1.) Do a recursive copy backup of NTFS-C: to my external Harddisk
>>>>>2.) Reformat NTFS-C: so that it gets a clean filesystem
>>>>>3.) Do a recursive copy back from my external drive to NTFS-C:
>>>>>4.) Run the recovery console and do a 'fixboot'
>>
>>>>>Is this OK?
>>
>>>>>It's just one more copy, but I do not have another disk so that will
>>>>>have to do.
>>
>>>>>Thanks!
>>
>>>>To dislodge the GRUB loader you would use the fixmbr command, if
>>>>fixboot damages GRUB then you will have to repair it, shouldn't be too
>>>>big a problem to fix if the disk is otherwise sound, search the net
>>>>and you will quickly find how to do that. I don't know how your disks
>>>>are arranged and where GRUB is being started, that is for you to
>>>>determine.
>>
>>>>As for the trying to salvage the Windows installation that is how I
>>>>would try if nothing else works, which seems to be where you're at
>>>>now. Strange that Linux can read the files on the disk but that
>>>>Windows cannot see them or even chkdsk the drive, go figure! But it
>>>>seems that I have read posts with similar happenings before.
>>
>>>>I want to *emphasize* that there is no guarantee that this will work!
>>>>There is no saying what kind of corruption the disk is having and if
>>>>all the files are recoverable, maybe there are certain areas or
>>>>sectors of the disk where system files reside that are corrupt beyond
>>>>repair or recovery. After you do this copy over job you may still
>>>>need to to a repair install. Before you try to copy files back to the
>>>>disk it would be a good idea to run a disk diagnostic utility from the
>>>>hard drive manufacturer to make sure that the disk is sound.
>>
>>>>Also, I don't have extensive experience with Linux and I am not sure
>>>>that you will be able to copy files to an NTFS disk without the
>>>>Paragon driver or without another similar driver. If you cannot copy
>>>>to NTFS you may be able to copy to FAT32 and convert the file system
>>>>after the mess is fixed, if it is fixable to start with!
>>
>>>>Good luck,
>>
>>>>John
>>
>>>Thanks! You've been very helpful.
>>
>>>I'm aware that the data on the C: windows partition might be partially
>>>unaccessible, and I'll maybe end up doing a reinstall anyway.
>>>Grub shouldn't be too much of a problem I guess.
>>
>>>FYI: I use the ntfs-3g driver under linux for write access. It will have
>>>to be seen if I succeed in copying really everything on the C: drive.
>>
>>>Thanks again!
>>
>>You're welcome. Keep us posted, it would be interesting and informative
>>to see how well (or not) things turn out. As for copying the files back
>>and forth to NTFS there is also the matter of NTFS permissions which may
>>or may not be affected, once again it depends on the level of corruption
>>on the disk and the file system of the intermediate location to where
>>you copy the files to. An In-Place upgrade (repair install) should
>>reapply the default NTFS permissions, or they can be reapplied using
>>Secedit and the proper security.inf file. Nothing to worry about for
>>the time being but something that you might need to do... depending on
>>how things turn out.
>>
>>John
>
>
>
> Weeeeell.
> I really messed up. Since I haven't got my external drive around atm I
> thought I'd give it a try and run run fixboot anyway to se what it
> does.
> And what it bloody did was corrupt (or delete or whatever) the
> PARTITION TABLE of my harddisk.
> When I ran "fixboot C:" it put out some messages and then appeared to
> change the drive type of the partition to FAT (!). Although this drive
> has never seen a fat part.
> Before running fixboot I had a disk with 100GB of accessible data and
> a running linux partition on. (there were 3 part. on disk, C: NTFS, D:
> NTFS and one ext3 linux partition)
> NOW, there's nothing. *cry*
> When I boot from my PartitinMagic floppy I get a big fat yellow blob
> for my harddisk saying "partition table corrupted".
>
> When I boot from my linux CD and run fdisk, I get: Device contains
> neither a valid DOS partition table, nor SUN, SGI or OSF disklabel ...
>
> So kids, don't be as silly as me and try this at home with a complete
> physical backup of all data.
>
> Well ... maybe I can get my data back somehow ... should still be on
> there, shouldnt it ... Bah!
>
> I'll keep you posted, this promises to get really thrilling.

Oh my, I thought you were doing this from two separate and different
hard disks! Definitely not something to do to try to recover data from
a corrupt partition from another operating system on the same disk, or
without backing up data that is stored on other partitions on the same
disk! If the utilities that you used to prepare the disk cannot recover
the partition table, or unless you had backed up the MBR, you may have
to try recovery software.

John

John John wrote:
> Martin T. wrote:
>
>>(snipped)
>
>> Martin T. wrote:
>>
>> Hello.
>>
>> I can access the broken partition from Linux alright.
>>
>> I have not tried fixboot yet, ...
>> Will fixboot mess up the Grub Linux boot loader (I think that resides
>> in the MBR, so I'd figure not) ??
>>
>> Your description sounds good:
>> So I would:
>> 1.) Do a recursive copy backup of NTFS-C: to my external Harddisk
>> 2.) Reformat NTFS-C: so that it gets a clean filesystem
>> 3.) Do a recursive copy back from my external drive to NTFS-C:
>> 4.) Run the recovery console and do a 'fixboot'
>>
>> Is this OK?
>>
>> It's just one more copy, but I do not have another disk so that will
>> have to do.
>>
>>
>> Thanks!
>
> To dislodge the GRUB loader you would use the fixmbr command, if fixboot
> damages GRUB then you will have to repair it, shouldn't be too big a
> problem to fix if the disk is otherwise sound, search the net and you
> will quickly find how to do that. I don't know how your disks are
> arranged and where GRUB is being started, that is for you to determine.
>
> As for the trying to salvage the Windows installation that is how I
> would try if nothing else works, which seems to be where you're at now.
> Strange that Linux can read the files on the disk but that Windows
> cannot see them or even chkdsk the drive, go figure! But it seems that
> I have read posts with similar happenings before.
>
> I want to *emphasize* that there is no guarantee that this will work!
> There is no saying what kind of corruption the disk is having and if all
> the files are recoverable, maybe there are certain areas or sectors of
> the disk where system files reside that are corrupt beyond repair or
> recovery. After you do this copy over job you may still need to to a
> repair install. Before you try to copy files back to the disk it would
> be a good idea to run a disk diagnostic utility from the hard drive
> manufacturer to make sure that the disk is sound.
>
> Also, I don't have extensive experience with Linux and I am not sure
> that you will be able to copy files to an NTFS disk without the Paragon
> driver or without another similar driver. If you cannot copy to NTFS
> you may be able to copy to FAT32 and convert the file system after the
> mess is fixed, if it is fixable to start with!
>
> Good luck,
>
> John
>

Thanks! You've been very helpful.

I'm aware that the data on the C: windows partition might be partially
unaccessible, and I'll maybe end up doing a reinstall anyway.
Grub shouldn't be too much of a problem I guess.

FYI: I use the ntfs-3g driver under linux for write access. It will have
to be seen if I succeed in copying really everything on the C: drive.

Thanks again!
-Martin-

Martin T. wrote:

> John John wrote:
>
>> Martin T. wrote:
>>
>>> (snipped)
>>
>>
>>> Martin T. wrote:
>>>
>>> Hello.
>>>
>>> I can access the broken partition from Linux alright.
>>>
>>> I have not tried fixboot yet, ...
>>> Will fixboot mess up the Grub Linux boot loader (I think that resides
>>> in the MBR, so I'd figure not) ??
>>>
>>> Your description sounds good:
>>> So I would:
>>> 1.) Do a recursive copy backup of NTFS-C: to my external Harddisk
>>> 2.) Reformat NTFS-C: so that it gets a clean filesystem
>>> 3.) Do a recursive copy back from my external drive to NTFS-C:
>>> 4.) Run the recovery console and do a 'fixboot'
>>>
>>> Is this OK?
>>>
>>> It's just one more copy, but I do not have another disk so that will
>>> have to do.
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks!
>>
>>
>> To dislodge the GRUB loader you would use the fixmbr command, if
>> fixboot damages GRUB then you will have to repair it, shouldn't be too
>> big a problem to fix if the disk is otherwise sound, search the net
>> and you will quickly find how to do that. I don't know how your disks
>> are arranged and where GRUB is being started, that is for you to
>> determine.
>>
>> As for the trying to salvage the Windows installation that is how I
>> would try if nothing else works, which seems to be where you're at
>> now. Strange that Linux can read the files on the disk but that
>> Windows cannot see them or even chkdsk the drive, go figure! But it
>> seems that I have read posts with similar happenings before.
>>
>> I want to *emphasize* that there is no guarantee that this will work!
>> There is no saying what kind of corruption the disk is having and if
>> all the files are recoverable, maybe there are certain areas or
>> sectors of the disk where system files reside that are corrupt beyond
>> repair or recovery. After you do this copy over job you may still
>> need to to a repair install. Before you try to copy files back to the
>> disk it would be a good idea to run a disk diagnostic utility from the
>> hard drive manufacturer to make sure that the disk is sound.
>>
>> Also, I don't have extensive experience with Linux and I am not sure
>> that you will be able to copy files to an NTFS disk without the
>> Paragon driver or without another similar driver. If you cannot copy
>> to NTFS you may be able to copy to FAT32 and convert the file system
>> after the mess is fixed, if it is fixable to start with!
>>
>> Good luck,
>>
>> John
>>
>
> Thanks! You've been very helpful.
>
> I'm aware that the data on the C: windows partition might be partially
> unaccessible, and I'll maybe end up doing a reinstall anyway.
> Grub shouldn't be too much of a problem I guess.
>
> FYI: I use the ntfs-3g driver under linux for write access. It will have
> to be seen if I succeed in copying really everything on the C: drive.
>
> Thanks again!

You're welcome. Keep us posted, it would be interesting and informative
to see how well (or not) things turn out. As for copying the files back
and forth to NTFS there is also the matter of NTFS permissions which may
or may not be affected, once again it depends on the level of corruption
on the disk and the file system of the intermediate location to where
you copy the files to. An In-Place upgrade (repair install) should
reapply the default NTFS permissions, or they can be reapplied using
Secedit and the proper security.inf file. Nothing to worry about for
the time being but something that you might need to do... depending on
how things turn out.

John

Martin T. wrote:

> John John wrote:
>
>> Martin T. wrote:
>>
>>> (snipped)
>>
>>
>>> Martin T. wrote:
>>>
>>> Hello.
>>>
>>> I can access the broken partition from Linux alright.
>>>
>>> I have not tried fixboot yet, ...
>>> Will fixboot mess up the Grub Linux boot loader (I think that resides
>>> in the MBR, so I'd figure not) ??
>>>
>>> Your description sounds good:
>>> So I would:
>>> 1.) Do a recursive copy backup of NTFS-C: to my external Harddisk
>>> 2.) Reformat NTFS-C: so that it gets a clean filesystem
>>> 3.) Do a recursive copy back from my external drive to NTFS-C:
>>> 4.) Run the recovery console and do a 'fixboot'
>>>
>>> Is this OK?
>>>
>>> It's just one more copy, but I do not have another disk so that will
>>> have to do.
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks!
>>
>>
>> To dislodge the GRUB loader you would use the fixmbr command, if
>> fixboot damages GRUB then you will have to repair it, shouldn't be too
>> big a problem to fix if the disk is otherwise sound, search the net
>> and you will quickly find how to do that. I don't know how your disks
>> are arranged and where GRUB is being started, that is for you to
>> determine.
>>
>> As for the trying to salvage the Windows installation that is how I
>> would try if nothing else works, which seems to be where you're at
>> now. Strange that Linux can read the files on the disk but that
>> Windows cannot see them or even chkdsk the drive, go figure! But it
>> seems that I have read posts with similar happenings before.
>>
>> I want to *emphasize* that there is no guarantee that this will work!
>> There is no saying what kind of corruption the disk is having and if
>> all the files are recoverable, maybe there are certain areas or
>> sectors of the disk where system files reside that are corrupt beyond
>> repair or recovery. After you do this copy over job you may still
>> need to to a repair install. Before you try to copy files back to the
>> disk it would be a good idea to run a disk diagnostic utility from the
>> hard drive manufacturer to make sure that the disk is sound.
>>
>> Also, I don't have extensive experience with Linux and I am not sure
>> that you will be able to copy files to an NTFS disk without the
>> Paragon driver or without another similar driver. If you cannot copy
>> to NTFS you may be able to copy to FAT32 and convert the file system
>> after the mess is fixed, if it is fixable to start with!
>>
>> Good luck,
>>
>> John
>>
>
> Thanks! You've been very helpful.
>
> I'm aware that the data on the C: windows partition might be partially
> unaccessible, and I'll maybe end up doing a reinstall anyway.
> Grub shouldn't be too much of a problem I guess.
>
> FYI: I use the ntfs-3g driver under linux for write access. It will have
> to be seen if I succeed in copying really everything on the C: drive.
>
> Thanks again!

You're welcome. Keep us posted, it would be interesting and informative
to see how well (or not) things turn out. As for copying the files back
and forth to NTFS there is also the matter of NTFS permissions which may
or may not be affected, once again it depends on the level of corruption
on the disk and the file system of the intermediate location to where
you copy the files to. An In-Place upgrade (repair install) should
reapply the default NTFS permissions, or they can be reapplied using
Secedit and the proper security.inf file. Nothing to worry about for
the time being but something that you might need to do... depending on
how things turn out.

John

John John wrote:
> Martin T. wrote:
>
>>(snipped)
>
>> Martin T. wrote:
>>
>> Hello.
>>
>> I can access the broken partition from Linux alright.
>>
>> I have not tried fixboot yet, ...
>> Will fixboot mess up the Grub Linux boot loader (I think that resides
>> in the MBR, so I'd figure not) ??
>>
>> Your description sounds good:
>> So I would:
>> 1.) Do a recursive copy backup of NTFS-C: to my external Harddisk
>> 2.) Reformat NTFS-C: so that it gets a clean filesystem
>> 3.) Do a recursive copy back from my external drive to NTFS-C:
>> 4.) Run the recovery console and do a 'fixboot'
>>
>> Is this OK?
>>
>> It's just one more copy, but I do not have another disk so that will
>> have to do.
>>
>>
>> Thanks!
>
> To dislodge the GRUB loader you would use the fixmbr command, if fixboot
> damages GRUB then you will have to repair it, shouldn't be too big a
> problem to fix if the disk is otherwise sound, search the net and you
> will quickly find how to do that. I don't know how your disks are
> arranged and where GRUB is being started, that is for you to determine.
>
> As for the trying to salvage the Windows installation that is how I
> would try if nothing else works, which seems to be where you're at now.
> Strange that Linux can read the files on the disk but that Windows
> cannot see them or even chkdsk the drive, go figure! But it seems that
> I have read posts with similar happenings before.
>
> I want to *emphasize* that there is no guarantee that this will work!
> There is no saying what kind of corruption the disk is having and if all
> the files are recoverable, maybe there are certain areas or sectors of
> the disk where system files reside that are corrupt beyond repair or
> recovery. After you do this copy over job you may still need to to a
> repair install. Before you try to copy files back to the disk it would
> be a good idea to run a disk diagnostic utility from the hard drive
> manufacturer to make sure that the disk is sound.
>
> Also, I don't have extensive experience with Linux and I am not sure
> that you will be able to copy files to an NTFS disk without the Paragon
> driver or without another similar driver. If you cannot copy to NTFS
> you may be able to copy to FAT32 and convert the file system after the
> mess is fixed, if it is fixable to start with!
>
> Good luck,
>
> John
>

Thanks! You've been very helpful.

I'm aware that the data on the C: windows partition might be partially
unaccessible, and I'll maybe end up doing a reinstall anyway.
Grub shouldn't be too much of a problem I guess.

FYI: I use the ntfs-3g driver under linux for write access. It will have
to be seen if I succeed in copying really everything on the C: drive.

Thanks again!
-Martin-

Martin T. wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> SHORT:
> ------
> How do I preserve a Windows XP sp2 installation (registry, drivers,
> installed programs) when I want to reformat my C: drive, without using a
> disk cloning tool??
>

Besides performing a full system backup, you can't.

> LONG:
> My C: NTFS partition went bad when a power outage occurred during
> shutdown. Now, when XP tries to boot I get a UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME
> blue screen.
> Booting to the recovery console and running chkdsk /P will result in
> chkdsk telling me that there are unrecoverable errors on C: (In fact,
> the recovery console won't even dir the contents of the C: drive.
> So far so bad.
> When I access the NTFS volume (read only) from my Linux boot option, I
> can see that basically all data on there is intact and accessible (read
> only). (Checked with a few images and zip files -- assuming that most
> other stuff would also be correct.)
>
> Now, as I see this, since CHKDSK refuses to repair the volume I will
> have to reformat (I can get all data I need off it.)
>


From your description, formatting won't help. You need to replace the
hard drive.




--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
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safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell

Martin T. wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> SHORT:
> ------
> How do I preserve a Windows XP sp2 installation (registry, drivers,
> installed programs) when I want to reformat my C: drive, without using a
> disk cloning tool??
>

Besides performing a full system backup, you can't.

> LONG:
> My C: NTFS partition went bad when a power outage occurred during
> shutdown. Now, when XP tries to boot I get a UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME
> blue screen.
> Booting to the recovery console and running chkdsk /P will result in
> chkdsk telling me that there are unrecoverable errors on C: (In fact,
> the recovery console won't even dir the contents of the C: drive.
> So far so bad.
> When I access the NTFS volume (read only) from my Linux boot option, I
> can see that basically all data on there is intact and accessible (read
> only). (Checked with a few images and zip files -- assuming that most
> other stuff would also be correct.)
>
> Now, as I see this, since CHKDSK refuses to repair the volume I will
> have to reformat (I can get all data I need off it.)
>


From your description, formatting won't help. You need to replace the
hard drive.




--

Bruce Chambers

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Martin T. wrote:
>>(...)
>>All that remains now is to get grub back on to see if Linux also
>>starts.
>>Phew. Seems I was half lucky. (Though I'd say I've not halfway
>>deserved it trying these stunts w/o backup.)
>
>
> Okies - got grub to reinstall and now everything is back to before I
> ran fixboot. Fixboot indeed!!
>
> I will post again as soon as I get another harddrive to do proper
> backup and reinstall/repair windows.
>
> ... Now that was an interesting evening ... : =)

You are quite adept and resourceful! It is quite remarkable that you
managed to recover the MBR and the whole disk so quickly and
(apparently) fairly easily with the Test Disk utility, I have never used
that utility but I have now added it to my list of disk recovery
utilities! Do keep us posted on your progress and efforts, it is very
interesting and informative to have knowledgeable folks tell us how they
manged to fix tough problems like the one you are having.

John

Martin T. wrote:
>>(...)
>>All that remains now is to get grub back on to see if Linux also
>>starts.
>>Phew. Seems I was half lucky. (Though I'd say I've not halfway
>>deserved it trying these stunts w/o backup.)
>
>
> Okies - got grub to reinstall and now everything is back to before I
> ran fixboot. Fixboot indeed!!
>
> I will post again as soon as I get another harddrive to do proper
> backup and reinstall/repair windows.
>
> ... Now that was an interesting evening ... : =)

You are quite adept and resourceful! It is quite remarkable that you
managed to recover the MBR and the whole disk so quickly and
(apparently) fairly easily with the Test Disk utility, I have never used
that utility but I have now added it to my list of disk recovery
utilities! Do keep us posted on your progress and efforts, it is very
interesting and informative to have knowledgeable folks tell us how they
manged to fix tough problems like the one you are having.

John

Bruce Chambers wrote:
> Martin T. wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> SHORT:
>> ------
>> How do I preserve a Windows XP sp2 installation (registry, drivers,
>> installed programs) when I want to reformat my C: drive, without using
>> a disk cloning tool??
>>
>
> Besides performing a full system backup, you can't.
>

Grml. I feared that. I'll still try though.

>> LONG:
>> My C: NTFS partition went bad when a power outage occurred during
>> shutdown. Now, when XP tries to boot I get a UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME
>> blue screen.
>> Booting to the recovery console and running chkdsk /P will result in
>> chkdsk telling me that there are unrecoverable errors on C: (In fact,
>> the recovery console won't even dir the contents of the C: drive.
>> So far so bad.
>> When I access the NTFS volume (read only) from my Linux boot option, I
>> can see that basically all data on there is intact and accessible
>> (read only). (Checked with a few images and zip files -- assuming that
>> most other stuff would also be correct.)
>>
>> Now, as I see this, since CHKDSK refuses to repair the volume I will
>> have to reformat (I can get all data I need off it.)
>>
>
>
> From your description, formatting won't help. You need to replace
> the hard drive.
>

I do not think it has anything to do with the physical drive.
Power outage during shutdown -> NTFS bust.
This has nothing to do with hardware. (imho)
(All data on the drive is accessible, it's just the NTFS-filesystem on
the first part. that is unrepairable.)

cheers,
Martin

Bruce Chambers wrote:
> Martin T. wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> SHORT:
>> ------
>> How do I preserve a Windows XP sp2 installation (registry, drivers,
>> installed programs) when I want to reformat my C: drive, without using
>> a disk cloning tool??
>>
>
> Besides performing a full system backup, you can't.
>

Grml. I feared that. I'll still try though.

>> LONG:
>> My C: NTFS partition went bad when a power outage occurred during
>> shutdown. Now, when XP tries to boot I get a UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME
>> blue screen.
>> Booting to the recovery console and running chkdsk /P will result in
>> chkdsk telling me that there are unrecoverable errors on C: (In fact,
>> the recovery console won't even dir the contents of the C: drive.
>> So far so bad.
>> When I access the NTFS volume (read only) from my Linux boot option, I
>> can see that basically all data on there is intact and accessible
>> (read only). (Checked with a few images and zip files -- assuming that
>> most other stuff would also be correct.)
>>
>> Now, as I see this, since CHKDSK refuses to repair the volume I will
>> have to reformat (I can get all data I need off it.)
>>
>
>
> From your description, formatting won't help. You need to replace
> the hard drive.
>

I do not think it has anything to do with the physical drive.
Power outage during shutdown -> NTFS bust.
This has nothing to do with hardware. (imho)
(All data on the drive is accessible, it's just the NTFS-filesystem on
the first part. that is unrepairable.)

cheers,
Martin