boot sector issues....

[MerlynMatthew]

alrighty then...heres one thatLL stump ya...

i HAD a quantumBF 19.2gb that had been divided into 4 parts...after messing with xp for awhile ...i noticed that i could format each partition via the main GUI...aka "mycomputer"....i formated the extended partitions all ntfs while the logical drive remained fat32...UNTIL....
i hooked up my out hd...*another quantumBF and installed a second instance of winxp (figured i could use it as a backup) ...that went well...except i noticed a marked decrease in seek speed....i decide to format the remaining logical drive ntfs as well....i was going to reinstall xp ....after the format...the drive wasnt recognized by xp as storage...but it is in the device listing...the old hd has xp running fine...so i can boot...but iVe been surfing threads here and offsite for ideas...

iVe hooked them both up with the 19.2*failed drive as slave on ide0....ran fdisk....it DOES recognize it...but will not allow me to del or create any partitions...
use readntfs.exe....doesnt recognize
use wipeout....

this one comes back as "cannot read c: bootsector"....okay...so i guess my issue is this

i need to repair the bootsector??...
how??????

need input please

MM

 

[MerlynMatthew]

...just ran a bootable killdisk

still didnt work....

HEEEELLLLPPP!!!


mm

 

[KimLeece]

If I understand you correctly you want to completely fdisk/reformat the drive?
Ok - first make or get a DOS boot disk and copy fdisk, format and debug onto it.

Connect only the drive you want to format to the IDE0 and boot from floppy.(Make sure the drive is correctly detected in the BIOS)

Then do the following procedure:

Debug
F 9000:0 L 200 0 (enter)
a (enter)

Mov dx,9000 (enter)

Mov es,dx (enter)

Xor bx,bx (enter)

Mov cx,0001 (enter)

Mov dx,0080 (enter)

Mov ax,0301 (enter)

Int 13 (enter)

Int 20

Hit enter twice.

To check that you have typed everything correctly type:
u 100 L 12 (enter)

It is important to get everything, including spaces, correct.
If you need to do it again type q and start over.

Otherwise type g and then enter - You should receive a message - Program terminated normally.
Now you should be able to fdisk/format.

Kim Leece.

 

[MerlynMatthew]

Kim, thank you...that was a the most promising "fix" iVe gotten yet...

but, it didnt work...

fdisk returns a "cannot access disk 1" msg....

although "killdisk" did progress further than before...even if it is reporting the hD at 2gigs less than it registers as in bios

have any other debug sequences i could try?

...kill disk allows viewing of sectors...the very first bytes are still blank....like the rest of the drive

does it matter that the disk was partitioned before?

wipeout doesnt find any drive...iLL try a few more dl'd utils

tks again
MM

 

[edfair]

Now is probably time for you to go for the manufacturer's diagnostic programs.
You might also try deleting the drive entry in CMOS and let the BIOS resize it.


Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[MerlynMatthew]

tx ed...iM going through that process

iVe found a few different debug scripts and as it seems its sector 0 only thats giving the issue

so if ANYONE could give me any hope of correcting this, i have one more option as i see it

only one thing...

the "Maxblast" auto config util that iM getting off the maxtor site will have an unknown effect on the quantum drive that i have. Seeing as though Maxtor has taken over support for quantum drives (??? i hate it when they do that)

anyway Ed, Kim...tx for the assist

MM