Hi.

Returned home from a meeting last night, regarding latest projects, etc.

Thought I'd get a little more work done before going to bed.

Went to switch the computer on and ended up with:

"Invalid partition table"

I've been meaning to get round to backing up the HD, but have heard stories about the BU software not doing a very good job, so deferred the back-up. Yes, I am angry with myself for this.

So, two things really. Can I get it all back ?

Also, what is recommeded for effective HD back-up ?

Its gonna be a loonnnngg weekend 🙁

Any and all help welcome

Luminous

You should be able to boot with a livecd and fix the partition table / pull the data off.

Have you tried the instructions here

I would recomend this for a backup.

Sorry Tron, but I've no idea what you mean.

livecd

Is that the windows XP system disc that I used to load XP onto the machine in the first place ?.

Will this have a facility / program to fix the partition, or do I have to do something else too ?

And if I do get the data off, what would you recommend I get it onto, I've no appreciable remote HD to send over 300GB to, although on recommendation, I'm happy to go get something for the job.

Thanks

Yeah, I've googled the error message and found something called EASEUS

But I thought I'd ask here first, as not all software, ime, does what it claims to.

Nothing as good as getting sound advice on STW.

Thanks for the responses so far
😉

EDIT: I_ME. Thanks, yes I've found those instructions, but again, I'm not sure what disc I should be using

Is that the windows XP system disc that I used to load XP

Yes. Stick it in the CD ROM and turn the PC on.

If you dont have it then stick linux on a USB stick and use that to get at your data linux on usb

A LiveCD is an entire operating system on a CD, often Linux based. You run the computer from that, and recover the data from the hard drive. Despite being Linux based, there are plenty that are simple to use – point and click interface etc.

Parted Magic is one I've used in the past – it's specifically for messing about with partitions. There may be better rescue ones available though.

If you have properly important stuff, I'd be inclined to boot with a LiveCD, see if you can get any data off without trying to fix anything, then consider paying someone who knows if you can't.

Tron.

Sorry for my thickness, thanks. I have that disc.

Its a Dell 1330 and I had to take Vista off and load XP a few years ago, so I have all that stuff.

Whats the consensus ?, is the HD shot ?, or is this a one-off glitch that should [EDIT] not [EDIT] occur again ?.

I_Me. Thanks, I'm at work now, but I'm straight onto this when I get home.

I_Me.

That drive, you have experience of the back-up performance of this ?

Cheers

Luminous

You won't have had a full LiveCD with the PC. A live CD is a proper operating system on a CD – not an installation disk, the thing actually runs from the CD, with apps which are designed to handle half dead disks.

You may have the Dell recovery boot disk, which from what I can remember of it, is pretty basic – it's a "Press 1 to run diagnostics" type thing.

Be careful how you go with any Installation / recovery CD you have. You could well be prompted with "Your hard drive appears not to be formatted, would you like to format it?".

I don't mean to sound funny, but you're asking fairly basic questions – if there is data worth £££ on the disk, consult a professional. If there's just stuff you'd like to still have, get a LiveCD and try to copy the data onto an external hard drive first, working in order of important stuff first.

I personally wouldn't trust a hard drive that had started acting oddly – it could last ages, it could last a month, but with the cost of hard drives now, you might as well replace it. It's too much of a pain when they do go wrong.

That drive, you have experience of the back-up performance of this ?

Yeah it seems ok. Got one for my mum's university work. It lets you schedule daily backups and allows you to manually back up a drive's contents. First time round it obviously takes a little while but from then on its a pretty quick process <2 minutes. Although it will be slower the more changes you make.

Its quite good for synching data between computers too.

Tron.

Thanks for the advice. So the install disc isn't what I use. How do I obtain, create a Live CD ?.

I should have the dell disc, but won't that be expecting to find Vista on my machine ?, or does that not matter.

Yes, my Qs are basic, I do not claim computer knowledge at this level, but how I wish I did have
🙂

Not fully understanding which or where the Live CD comes from, does anyone know about EASEUS and whether it will fix the partition, at least long enough to get stuff off.

Info, yes, the most important pics and personal stuff, then theres the financial and business stuff, etc.

I am sooooo gonna back this stuff up when I get it back (pma). Any more recommendations to go with I-Me's ?.

Cheers

Luminous

Have you tried just pressing all the connectors firmly into place?

The linux suggestions above are good: for example there's a program called "testpart" under Linux that will scan your disk to try to recover your partition table.

EDIT: just google "live CD". There's lots. I've used http://www.sysresccd.org/ in the past.

Messing around with hard disks, especially if you don't particularly know what you are doing can lead to unexpected results.

1. Step away from the computer. Go and get an external hard drive that at least matches the capacity of your current drive.

2. Make a backup of your current drive with TrueImage. Go and put the backup hard drive somewhere safe.

3. continue with the instructions above regarding fixing the problem with the invalid partition table.

Luke, Cranberry.

Thanks, will do as suggested. Cranberry made me smile with the Police arrest style commands
😉

I have found the Seagate in a 500Gb version, at my local Argos, so will be there asap to collect and then off home to the white knuckle ride that will be my attempt to recover the data.

Really appreciate the help, thanks.

EDIT: I did find some chat about the HD connector may have just come lose.
It is a Laptop, and it was working before I put it in the Deuter and rode home…20 mins earlier

Cranberry.

TureImage will just go grab the disc image even when the machine doesn't get past the bios stage ?.

Is this what Ive seen referred to as "ghosting"

Yes – it is the same as Ghosting. It will clone the contents of your hard drive. That way if you knacker things, you can always put the contents back to how they are now.

TrueImage also contains a bunch of backup utilities for when the computer is running, so you can also use it after you have everything back in place and running to keep a backup of your system.

Cranberry.

Thanks for that. My thanks to all.

Gonna be busy this weekend, I suppose.

Luminous

Before you do anything else, is there something else in the laptop it's trying to boot from? Have you left a CD in the drive or a USB key plugged in?

Next, run a chkdsk of the drive. You need to get to a command prompt to do this. Easiest way is from the Windows XP CD – boot off the disc and press R at the 'welcome to setup' screen. It'll ask you which Windows installation you want to log on to, then eventually come up with a command prompt. Type the following commands:

fixboot
chkdsk /p

If fixboot gives errors, stop and report back here.

Incidentally, whilst I'm less convinced of the merits of cloning the disk at this point, Acronis TrueImage really is the wasp's nipples, well worth the 20 quid or whatever it is these days.

Ping does imaging for free.

But I also don't see the point in imaging the disk.

I'd say follow Cougars advice a couple of posts above, and if that fails boot from a live CD (say Ubuntu), that'll allow you to copy personal files of one hard drive (the one with the borked partition table) to another.

Edit *Johns post below looks good too – open source to the rescue!*

this happened to me a while ago, fixed it with testdisk: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

it's text based, but follow the step by step guide linked from that page and it's okay. It makes it fairly clear when it's about to do things so you can always use it to analyse the disk and see what it can do, but run away if uncertain without breaking things.

Cougar.

Right then, when I get back from Argos with the external HD, I'll be getting a trueimage license too, Looks like it would be handy, in any event.
(thanks goodness I kept my old laptop, cleaned out the cooling system and spent a few quid on a new battery).

Thanks
😉

Current plan seems to be:

1 get external HD
2 un-plug and re-insert HD (its a laptop) and it might just be that simple…?
3 try to ghost the drive
4 pop in the XP disc
5 if no luck with XP disc get Live CD
6 If I get to this stage, it may be Parted Magic or EASEUS to try to fix the partition data / info
7 get replacement HD for the machine, and fit, and reload all my stuff and check I have it backed up.

Feel free to adjust / rearrange the list if I've missed something.

Ta

Luminous

Waderider. Thanks for that 😉

John. Wow, I haven't read it all, but looks promising. Thanks to you too.
🙂

I've always said that when helping people, STW is an awesome place.
🙂

The XP disc is pretty unlikely to do anything. As far as I remember they go like this:
1) Check disk is formatted.
2) Run Checkdsk do a full disk scan.
3) Install windows

I reckon it'll say the disk isn't formatted. Do you have another PC at home which you can use to download and burn a LiveCD? If not, I'd do it at work before you go home for the weekend.

Tron.

Yeap, previous Dell laptop at home. Slow, but worthy 😉

No disc buring facilities here, I'm stuck on a Unix machine, and locked out as just a user, not admin.

Hearing you about the XP disc.

I'll skip that and just go for a liveCD, when I get to that stage

1 get external HD
2 un-plug and re-insert HD (its a laptop) and it might just be that simple…?
3 try to ghost the drive
4 pop in the XP disc
5 if no luck with XP disc get Live CD
6 If I get to this stage, it may be Parted Magic or EASEUS to try to fix the partition data / info
7 get replacement HD for the machine, and fit, and reload all my stuff and check I have it backed up.

The XP disc is pretty unlikely to do anything.

Recovery Console.

So, upto step 3, is a must do as in:

Check the physical connection, and at least copy the entire drive as it is now, before trying to fix / retrieve any data

Got it

😉

I was really worried this morning driving to work today, but you all have given me hope.

Thanks
😉

Step 4 is the one that's going to fix it. But, y'know, if you want to skip that bit and just have two broken partitions… (-:

Ok then. I'll consider the XP disc, if I do stick it in, I'll be very careful which options I go for, if any.

You're saying I should be looking out for the recovery console on there.

But before I get anywhere near that stage, there will be more reading and contemplation from me. Going through this thread again, and the links again.

I think I can do this, but haste, will produce waste, so cautious progress will be my MO.

Cheers
🙂

Luminous

Yeah. You don't want to continue with the installation of XP, you want to drop to the Recovery Console. From memory, you press 'R' on the welcome screen.

Cougar, will give that a go.

Ta

Luminous

Ok then. I'll consider the XP disc, if I do stick it in, I'll be very careful which options I go for, if any.

That is why you have already made a full copy of the hard disk onto the external hard disk – if something does go wrong you can always go back to the start.

You missed 3.a. disconnect the external drive. ( this is important as you need to make sure that you are fixing the internal one/worse case scenario – you try to fix the wrong one, something goes wrong, you then try and restore an even more broken partition to your laptop )

Good point, well made.

Cranberry.

Thats such a scary scenario. That would see me sitting in the corner of a dark room just gentley rocking back and forth.

So, its:

1 get external HD
2 un-plug and re-insert HD (its a laptop) and it might just be that simple…?
3 try to ghost the drive
4 Disconnect External HD, after ghosting
5 pop in the XP disc
6 if no luck with XP disc get Live CD
7 If I get to this stage, it may be Parted Magic or EASEUS to try to fix the partition file data / info
8 get replacement HD for the machine, and fit, then reload all my stuff and check I have it backed up.

Cheers.

Yes.

Step 9. Make regular backups ( though I don't think you need telling 🙂 )

Good luck.

Cranberry.

Yes !, that exactly what I've been thinking.

Telling myself, "Luminous you fool, Back it UP !"

😀

I'd go with the Linux LiveCD, you just need to download a copy (from Ubuntu or wherever), then boot from it. Once it's loaded, plug in your external drive, and copy the content over.

Minimal risk, a lot safer than playing about restoring the system.

Once you've saved your data, that's the time to play about reinstalling Windows.

Ubuntu.

Just did a quick Google on it. I expect that once I've created the Live CD, I pop it into the machine, fire it up, and follow some sort of prompt along the lines of my wanting to either fix the corrupted partition file, or at least read the HD.

Once access to the HD has been estalished I connect the ExHD and create an image of the first HD.

?

EDIT: Given that I've accessed the Bios and set the machine to boot from the CD

Copy the HD before trying to fix anything!