[Closed] Invalid Partition Table 🙁

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

Have you tried the instructions [url= http://www.datarecovery.com.sg/data_recovery/troubleshoot_invalid_partition_table.htm ]here[/url]

I would recomend [url= http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/seagate-freeagent-goflex-ultra-portable-hard-drive-250gb-black-06824096-pdt.html#tab-tech-specs ]this[/url] for a backup.

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

[i]livecd[/i]

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 [url= http://www.pendrivelinux.com/ ]linux on usb[/url]

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] [b]not[/b] [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.

[url= http://ping.windowsdream.com/ ]Ping[/url] 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: 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

[i]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 [s]pop in the XP disc[/s]
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.[/i]

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:

[i]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.
[/i]

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, [b]that's[/b] 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!

With Linux, you don't even need a CD, if your PC allows it, you can boot from USB stick, see [url= http://www.pendrivelinux.com/ ]here[/url].

Mogrim.

Gotcha, will do.

RichMars.

Yeah, I noticed that while having a quick scan on the Ubuntu site.

Might be a bit too ambitiouus for this time though.

The well worn path by those who have gone before me, will, hopefully, be safest / most likely to succeed.

Right, I'm off now to Argos, then home. The next time I post, it could all be just a memory...

Thanks muchly.

Later
😉

L

that's the time to play about reinstalling Windows.

I don't recall anyone suggesting reinstalling Windows.

I was recommending booting off the Windows CD to get to a command prompt (the recovery console), so that the OP can run a couple of commands which should fix the issue.

In essense, this exactly what people are suggesting with Live CDs and such, only using tools he [i]already has [/i]rather than buggering about burning CDs.

you can boot from USB stick

That's extra work, not guaranteed to be supported by his laptop (UFD booting can be hit and miss), and doesn't gain you any advantages other than saving the price of a CD-R.

Ubuntu really isn't the optimal LiveCD to go for in this situation - it will work for just copying files, but it's not set up with all the repair tools. You ideally want something designed for the job - there's a list on Wikipedia.

There's less to download (the Ubuntu livecd includes the OS and a load of applications), and they have a load of tools specifically for fixing broken PCs.

As far as I know the recovery console tools are fairly basic? Format /mbr etc?

Linux makes baby jesus cry 🙁

Errm, I cant imagine why you would be sitting logged into a Unix box at work, and not know how to recover the data on your windoze machine?? 😀

Hi 🙂

LoL at mtb_rossi's remark 🙂

ScottyJohn.
My customer requires I use their computer system, and they use Unix.
I'm a Catia V5 Jockey / Engineer, nothing to do, normally, with this level of system badness.
🙂

So. I'm here now, got the XHD, got true image, have made the true image media build CD, but when I point the sick-computer to boot from the CD drive with the True Image cd in it, it tries to continue in windows, but then goes to the HD, where it then comes up with:
Invalid Partition table !.

Should I be putting the XP cd in first ?

Ever booted off a CD before? (Ie, do you know you to / know that it works?)

Acronis rescue CD should be bootable. Could be a duff burn, could be you've got the discs mixed up?

Cougar.

I can't recall if I've booted from a CD before, the last time I had to do anything like this was over two years ago.

I appear to be missing the part where I create a CD that allows windows to run from it, so that I can then, I suspect, run the true image program.

I'm currently downloading the Ubuntu file, a massive 658mb.

Am I correct in assuming that I create the Ubuntu CD, get some sort of windows working, then put the true image cd in ?.

With Acronis, you install it, then there's an option to create a rescue CD. Create that, and boot off it.

Stop buggering about with Linux (for now at least), you're overcomplicating things. (-:

If you get Linux running from the CD then step 1 would be to try and get your data off first. If you can access the disk then copy all your files and docs off somewhere safe in case your repair goes tits up.

In terms of booting off a CD, it varies between PCs but typically you press one of the F-keys to get a one-time boot menu at startup, look for a message that says "F2=setup, F12=boot options" or similar. The alternative is to go into BIOS and change the boot order so that the CD comes first, then the hard disk. Again, this varies between PCs as to its exact location.

Cougar.

Hey 🙂 yeah, I've got the CD working, I'm about to clone the Sick-HD.

Then it'll be trying to fix whatever is required.

Thanks

🙂

Excellent.

I_Me.

Yes, that would be ideal, but if I've understood this correctly, then that would require some sort of fix first, and as it seems that attempting a fix may not yeild the result I'm after, I'd rather clone the sick-HD before I attempt to fix it.

If all goes well, then my plan is to get a new HD from Dell, and reinstall / reload everything, to hopefully be back where, err, I was last Thursday.

I've never worked so hard to get back in time...
😀

I think you have too much money. (-:

There's possibly nothing wrong with the disk, these things happen sometimes. What I'd do once it's fixed is get a proper backup policy in place and then wait and see what happens. It could be broke, or it could just be one of those things.

Theoretically, with an invalid partition table, your data should still be recoverable with the right tools. There's worse errors to have, put it that way. If the Recovery Console doesn't repair it, the next step would be the Linux and Testdisk route as others have suggested.

Btw - you said it's a Dell, right? What vintage? Model?

(just suddenly thought, there might be a recovery partition on there, which may complicate things slightly)

Cougar.

Too much dosh ?, Far from it 😉

Yes sick Hd has two areas, one for recovery. I tried finding a way into the other partition, through the F2 and F12 keys, but to no avail.

Its a Dell M1330. It came with Vista, that was truely terrible, esp as I couldn't run Catia, and so couldn't design my lights, etc.
And even though I did finally manage to switch the UAC off, god that thing tested me to breaking point.
So Vista had to go.

So, reluctantly, I installed XP, going and collecting all the drivers, etc, that Dell kindly made available, in order to get all the other stuff to work with XP, like the in-built webcam, the sound card, etc.

So there was my new M1330 with vista, actually running on XP Pro and doing everything I needed it to.

Then, at a meeting on Thursday night this week, with the Co that makes my light housings, we were reviewing a light design in Catia and all was well.

After that meeting, when I got home, I thought I'd get a head start on the next phase and get some data sent out to them.

Went to switch the comp on, and got the error message

Which brings me up to this point.

I've recieved a warning from Acronis, telling me that all partitions on the destination drive will be lost. This means I may lose the GoFlex back-up progs the xHD came with, but I have used Acronis to archive them first, to the old laptop (worth a go I thought).
I've Ok'd the loss of partition on destination HD as the software wouldn't continue the clonning process unless I did.

Cougar

Oh, yes, hearing you about the HD. If all goes well this weekend, then the Sick HD will have been repaired, I will clear the cloned HD from the xHD and then back-up the repaired HD to the xHD and just keep running the HD.

Then if this happens again, I know I need a replacement HD.

🙂

WooHoo !.

I've just finished cloning the sick HD, thought I'd have a look at what has been transfered to the xHD, and wouldn't you know it ?, ALL MY FILES ARE THERE YIPPEEEEEEEEE

🙂

Err, right then.

Now to try to fixing the sick HD....

I [i]think[/i] its going well, so far...

Hhmmm. XP Recovery console. Ask which drive to access, I select C:, it then asks for admin password.

No idea what that is.

Sorry for the delay, was out shopping.

You should have been prompted to set an Administrator password when you installed XP. If you didn't, the default password is blank, try just pressing enter when prompted.

Is it XP Home or XP Pro? It's been a while, but I think perhaps Home defaults to blank and Pro prompts you. Maybe.

Cougar.

Yay !. Thanks for getting back.

All seems to be good, so far. However, I'm now stuck.

I've been wrestling with trying to get the testdisk utility to run.

I've been trying to find an simple guide to creating a boot disc that will allow me to not only get a dos prompt (I've managed that with my special XP install disc), but also to run TestDisk, as John suggested.

I tried making a disc using nlite, didn't work though.

I typed fixmbr at the prompt booting from my current XP disc, but got quite a scary warning message so deferred going any further along that route, at this time.

Did as you suggested with fdisk and chkdsk and all worked well, no nasties.

I was about to look at making a Ubuntu disc..But seeing as this may make baby Jesus cry, I was having second thoughts.

So. Current situation is:
Files and data are off the sick HD and on xHD AND readeable.
That is a massive score in my book, and is all as a result of kind STW contributors helping here 😉

If I'm right, then at this stage I've saved my files and I could just re-format the sick HD and re-install everything.
But, that will be a major PITA as there was loads of progs and stuff I had all set as I wanted. And the printer, don't even get me started on that sucker.

So, its learning how to run TestDisk, or giving Ubuntu a go

What do you reckon ?.

EDIT: I at least want a crack at repairing the partition table file, with aid of some software, of course, but its how to go about it.

Yeap, just put the Ubuntu disc in.

I think I can see why it makes baby Jesus cry, now

I typed fixmbr at the prompt booting from my current XP disc, but got quite a scary warning message so deferred going any further along that route, at this time.

What was the warning?

Did you try fixboot?

Out of interest, can you boot off the external drive?

If you can by some twist of fate, you could just Acronis the bugger straight back again.

Cougar.

[i]What was the warning?[/i]

A
[i]This computer appears to have a non standard or invalid master boot record[/i]

[i]FIXMBR may damage your partition tables if you proceed[/i]

[i]This could cause all the partitions on the current hard disk to become inaccessible.[/i]

[i]If you are having problems accessing your drive, do not continue[/i]

Not all the commands suggested to me on this thread, are available.

At C:\WINDOWS

When I type "help"

The relevant choices I get are:
"CHKDSK"
"FIXBOOT"
"FIXMBR"

There may be others, but I'm not sure, what from the list, is relevant to trying to attempt a partition file fix.

I'm embarrased to admit that I don't know how to create a "testdisk" boot CD, and its frustrating.

Thanks

L

EDIT: FIXBOOT doesn't appear to have worked.

Skip fixmbr, it's probably not an MBR issue anyway.

Do,
chkdsk /p
fixboot

Cougar.

Did all that, no dice I'm affraid 🙁

Can't understand people who put stuff on the web to fix this sort of thing (testdisk), and can't describe how to use the software they make available, to the [i]average[/i] Joe. Don't know about others, but that cgsecurity webpage is terrible for finding the info one needs.
I just don't understand why it should be that way.

I've not a backround in computer science, but I can follow clear instructions, yet for the hours I've now spent trying to find instructions on how to create a testdisk bootable CD, actually making it available kinda defeats the object, imo. I've got testdisk on this laptop, but getting it to run on the other one, is a total f'ing mystery.

I've tried all, kinds if ideas, and still nothing. I've used the xHD, accessed it through Ubuntu, found the testdisk.exe file, tried to run it and still nothing.
(baby Jesus is Howlin !)

Got to break-off now. Been at this all day, enojoyed the initial 'success' and happy I've got my files.

But p1ssed I can't even get a shot at fixing the PF

Must say, very grateful to you for sticking with me. Sincere thanks 😉

I'm no expert on testdisk but, it comes with Gparted - build a Gparted Live CD maybe?

Perhaps some of the Linux advocates here can help with the actual running of it?

Also,

Out of interest, did you try booting off the external HDD?

Where are you geographically, btw?

Cougar.

Hi.

Yeah, tried booting from the xHD, it didn't like it.

I live in Norwich
😉

Have found "Ultimate Live cd" which may be worth a look

Ta
🙂

How did you get on Luminous?