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MBR switch on FDISK



 
 
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  #1  
Old June 4th 04, 07:30 PM
jt3
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default MBR switch on FDISK

Appreciate the ref, Curt; the machine on which I had all my saved pages,
links, and threads is the one that went down.
Thanks for your time,
Joe
"Curt Christianson" wrote in message
...
Hi Joe,
See this MS article on FDISK /MBR:

FDISK /MBR Rewrites the Master Boot Record
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=69013
HTH,
--
Curt--and NOT the MVP Curt Christianson (I wish!)
W98 Support & Discussion:
http://dundats.proboards27.com/index.cgi
Windows How-tos and and Freewa
http://mvps.org/PracticallyNerded/
Windows Help & Discussion:
http://forum.aumha.org/

"jt3" wrote in message
...
I think I recall reading someone posting that the /MBR switch on

FDISK
not only rewrites the master boot record, but also wipes out partition

table
data, so that if you use /MBR on a disk with multiple partitions on it,

you
lose the partition data. Is this true?
I have a problem with a corrupted MBR (I think) and my old version

of
Partition Magic doesn't do the MBR, apparently.
Thanks for your time, as always,
Joe




---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
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  #2  
Old June 4th 04, 07:56 PM
jt3
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default MBR switch on FDISK

Yes that was what I was recalling something about--as I said to Curt,
all my refs went down with that machine.
The problem here is that this is wierd--it's clear that the boot code
is working to some degree--'Starting Windows 98' comes up first, which it
normally wouldn't show, then it comes up with 'Type the name of the Command
Interpreter (e.g. C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM)' cr'A' even though there's no
disk, boot or otherwise in the floppy drive. Also, putting in the startup
disk doesn't get me anywhere--after choosing boot without cd-rom, to
simplify it, it just hangs with the floppy drive trying to access something.
But it seems that this must be coming from IO.SYS, since there couldn't be
much else doing it, if no COMMAND.COM has been loaded (of course..who
knows..).
I should mention that this started with an *apparent* CMOS failure--a
little strange since I just replaced it with a new Li cell just a year and a
month ago. Nothing very strange seemed to have happened to it, except all
the drives (floppies, too) had been lost, and this was on the first boot of
the day.
I reset the boot order for it to boot A: first (had been C: then A and
was able then to boot to DOS from the startup disk, but could not see the
other drives (just A. I had previously installed an old version (4.0) of
Partition Magic and used the PM recovery disk to find out that the
partitions were all still there--but this version doesn't do anything for
MBRs, apparently.
In short, the EOS byte could easily be missing, AFAIK, and the only
thing I can see at the moment is to use Debug to see if it's still there.
Clearly, I would welcome any thoughts on the subject before I try
anything. I'm a little leery of slaving the disk to my other machine, if I
don't know for sure what caused the problem.

Thanks for your time,
Joe
"PCR" wrote in message
...
Enter "FDISK /MBR"
This will rewrite the code portion of the Master Boot Record,
leaving the Partition Table untouched, except it may muss the partition
table, if there is a missing End-Of-Sector marker (55AA), per
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=149877
Boot Record Signature AA55 Not Found

Here are the warnings against it...

(a) If you have a boot sector virus, you may lose access to all
partitions. Then
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/utilities.html MBRWork "might" help to
recover them.

(b) If you have "overlay" code in the MBR, e.g., EZ-BIOS, Maxblast, a
boot manager, then that will need to be reestablished afterwards.
http://www.aefdisk.com/ FDISK & Boot Manager
http://support.microsoft.com/support.../Q245/1/62.ASP Overlay
Utility & FDISK

(c) FDISK may be buggy. So? Use MBRWork to do it, or
http://support.microsoft.com/default...;en-us;Q263044
Latest FDISK, hoping this one doesn't have any bugs. (But it doesn't
solve the 55AA thing.)

(d) If for some reason the "geometry" setting in BIOS does not match the
hard drive, then any write to the drive may be destructive. So, go into
BIOS and have it "automatically detect" the proper setting. (If you can
DIR the drive in DOS, then you have proven the geometry is right. Well,
Blanton says even that may not be true.)


--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
should things get worse after this,
PCR

"jt3" wrote in message
...
| I think I recall reading someone posting that the /MBR switch on
FDISK
| not only rewrites the master boot record, but also wipes out partition
table
| data, so that if you use /MBR on a disk with multiple partitions on
it, you
| lose the partition data. Is this true?
| I have a problem with a corrupted MBR (I think) and my old version
of
| Partition Magic doesn't do the MBR, apparently.
| Thanks for your time, as always,
| Joe
|
|




  #3  
Old June 4th 04, 10:50 PM
PCR
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default MBR switch on FDISK

http://support.microsoft.com/default...41&Product=w98
Err Msg: The Following File Is Missing or Corrupt...
(187641) - When you start your computer, you may receive the following
error message: The following file is missing or corrupt: COMMAND.COM.
Type the name of the Command Interpreter.

It says...
.......Quote article...................
RESOLUTION
To resolve this problem, use the MS-DOS 6.x Upgrade Setup Disk 1 to
restart your computer, and then use the SYS command on drive C. To do
so, follow these steps:

1. Place the MS-DOS 6.x Upgrade Setup Disk 1 in drive A, and then
restart your computer.
2. Press the F3 key when MS-DOS Setup starts to exit MS-DOS Setup.
3. Type sys c:, and then press ENTER.
4. Restart your computer.
.......End of quote....................

HOWEVER... here are some warnings...

This will copy certain system files (IO.sys, Command.com & perhaps
MSDOS.sys) from the Startup Diskette to C:\. (It also sets the BPB drive
number to HD0, so that it is now in the bootstrap. It does so, no matter
whether it is HD0. To boot it, one must still move it to be HD0,
however.) You may now be able to boot to Windows, if all folders are
intact. If not, some further adjustment need be done to "MSDOS.sys",
that was copied to C:\. The floppy has just a shell of it. Well, remove
the floppy & boot.

Oh gosh! Here are some warnings from Jeff Richards, MS MVP W95/W98,
about "SYS C:". DON'T DO IT, he says, if:

(a) "Major errors were reported in Scandisk."
(b) "A drive is moved from one machine to another", because of the next
two, maybe.
(c) "The BIOS setting for a drive is changed (eg, LBA to LARGE)."
(d) "A drive that uses overlay software is operated without the overlay
loaded."


--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
should things get worse after this,
PCR

"jt3" wrote in message
...
| Yes that was what I was recalling something about--as I said to
Curt,
| all my refs went down with that machine.
| The problem here is that this is wierd--it's clear that the boot
code
| is working to some degree--'Starting Windows 98' comes up first, which
it
| normally wouldn't show, then it comes up with 'Type the name of the
Command
| Interpreter (e.g. C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM)' cr'A' even though
there's no
| disk, boot or otherwise in the floppy drive. Also, putting in the
startup
| disk doesn't get me anywhere--after choosing boot without cd-rom, to
| simplify it, it just hangs with the floppy drive trying to access
something.
| But it seems that this must be coming from IO.SYS, since there
couldn't be
| much else doing it, if no COMMAND.COM has been loaded (of course..who
| knows..).
| I should mention that this started with an *apparent* CMOS
failure--a
| little strange since I just replaced it with a new Li cell just a year
and a
| month ago. Nothing very strange seemed to have happened to it, except
all
| the drives (floppies, too) had been lost, and this was on the first
boot of
| the day.
| I reset the boot order for it to boot A: first (had been C: then
A and
| was able then to boot to DOS from the startup disk, but could not see
the
| other drives (just A. I had previously installed an old version
(4.0) of
| Partition Magic and used the PM recovery disk to find out that the
| partitions were all still there--but this version doesn't do anything
for
| MBRs, apparently.
| In short, the EOS byte could easily be missing, AFAIK, and the
only
| thing I can see at the moment is to use Debug to see if it's still
there.
| Clearly, I would welcome any thoughts on the subject before I try
| anything. I'm a little leery of slaving the disk to my other machine,
if I
| don't know for sure what caused the problem.
|
| Thanks for your time,
| Joe
| "PCR" wrote in message
| ...
| Enter "FDISK /MBR"
| This will rewrite the code portion of the Master Boot Record,
| leaving the Partition Table untouched, except it may muss the
partition
| table, if there is a missing End-Of-Sector marker (55AA), per
|
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=149877
| Boot Record Signature AA55 Not Found
|
| Here are the warnings against it...
|
| (a) If you have a boot sector virus, you may lose access to all
| partitions. Then
| http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/utilities.html MBRWork "might" help
to
| recover them.
|
| (b) If you have "overlay" code in the MBR, e.g., EZ-BIOS, Maxblast,
a
| boot manager, then that will need to be reestablished afterwards.
| http://www.aefdisk.com/ FDISK & Boot Manager
| http://support.microsoft.com/support.../Q245/1/62.ASP
Overlay
| Utility & FDISK
|
| (c) FDISK may be buggy. So? Use MBRWork to do it, or
| http://support.microsoft.com/default...;en-us;Q263044
| Latest FDISK, hoping this one doesn't have any bugs. (But it doesn't
| solve the 55AA thing.)
|
| (d) If for some reason the "geometry" setting in BIOS does not match
the
| hard drive, then any write to the drive may be destructive. So, go
into
| BIOS and have it "automatically detect" the proper setting. (If you
can
| DIR the drive in DOS, then you have proven the geometry is right.
Well,
| Blanton says even that may not be true.)
|
|
| --
| Thanks or Good Luck,
| There may be humor in this post, and,
| Naturally, you will not sue,
| should things get worse after this,
| PCR
|
| "jt3" wrote in message
| ...
| | I think I recall reading someone posting that the /MBR switch
on
| FDISK
| | not only rewrites the master boot record, but also wipes out
partition
| table
| | data, so that if you use /MBR on a disk with multiple partitions
on
| it, you
| | lose the partition data. Is this true?
| | I have a problem with a corrupted MBR (I think) and my old
version
| of
| | Partition Magic doesn't do the MBR, apparently.
| | Thanks for your time, as always,
| | Joe
| |
| |
|
|
|
|


  #4  
Old June 5th 04, 04:13 AM
jt3
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default MBR switch on FDISK

That's what I was trying to say: although the PM 'Recovery Disk'
(mainly a
boot disk with PM on it) shows the partitions on both disks as present and
with no problems, the boot disk DOS can't see them--not even C:\--even
though if you don't use the boot disk, it's clearly using the C drive to get
the message: 'Type the name of the Command Interpreter....' as I described
previously.
I think this may go back to a thread back in April, or March, in which
you and cquirke and several other people got involved, but then it was a
question of Restarting in DOS Mode. Although I finally thought that I had
the
answer in the question of the receipt of the Windows shutdown broadcast (and
the answer may still lie there) I was never able to fix it, and other things
(the machine I'm using now) came to the fore. Unfortunately, I only
archived a few of the posts, and I was using the MS support interface at the
time. The server doesn't seem to have retained any posts prior to the
beginning of May, so I can't find the thread there, and it probably wouldn't
do much good, since I doubt I could convince anyone that the two are
related. Would take even longer to explain why I think so, and it's
irrelevant, if the thread's not available.
Obviously, this rambling reflects the state of my understanding, but it
comes down to: If PM can see the disks and the partitions, (1) why can't a
boot disk see any of them, and (2) how does one access anything on the disk
if the boot disk can't see it. Along the way, I might mention that this is
an installation without any older DOS on it, so that it would be deadly to
overwrite IO.SYS with a DOS 6.22 IO.SYS. Any of the files would have to
come off the W98SE installation disk, and that's a little difficult as it
stands. I certainly don't want to reformat the disk.

Thanks,
Joe
"PCR" wrote in message
...
http://support.microsoft.com/default...41&Product=w98
Err Msg: The Following File Is Missing or Corrupt...
(187641) - When you start your computer, you may receive the following
error message: The following file is missing or corrupt: COMMAND.COM.
Type the name of the Command Interpreter.

It says...
......Quote article...................
RESOLUTION
To resolve this problem, use the MS-DOS 6.x Upgrade Setup Disk 1 to
restart your computer, and then use the SYS command on drive C. To do
so, follow these steps:

1. Place the MS-DOS 6.x Upgrade Setup Disk 1 in drive A, and then
restart your computer.
2. Press the F3 key when MS-DOS Setup starts to exit MS-DOS Setup.
3. Type sys c:, and then press ENTER.
4. Restart your computer.
......End of quote....................

HOWEVER... here are some warnings...

This will copy certain system files (IO.sys, Command.com & perhaps
MSDOS.sys) from the Startup Diskette to C:\. (It also sets the BPB drive
number to HD0, so that it is now in the bootstrap. It does so, no matter
whether it is HD0. To boot it, one must still move it to be HD0,
however.) You may now be able to boot to Windows, if all folders are
intact. If not, some further adjustment need be done to "MSDOS.sys",
that was copied to C:\. The floppy has just a shell of it. Well, remove
the floppy & boot.

Oh gosh! Here are some warnings from Jeff Richards, MS MVP W95/W98,
about "SYS C:". DON'T DO IT, he says, if:

(a) "Major errors were reported in Scandisk."
(b) "A drive is moved from one machine to another", because of the next
two, maybe.
(c) "The BIOS setting for a drive is changed (eg, LBA to LARGE)."
(d) "A drive that uses overlay software is operated without the overlay
loaded."


--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
should things get worse after this,
PCR

"jt3" wrote in message
...
| Yes that was what I was recalling something about--as I said to
Curt,
| all my refs went down with that machine.
| The problem here is that this is wierd--it's clear that the boot
code
| is working to some degree--'Starting Windows 98' comes up first, which
it
| normally wouldn't show, then it comes up with 'Type the name of the
Command
| Interpreter (e.g. C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM)' cr'A' even though
there's no
| disk, boot or otherwise in the floppy drive. Also, putting in the
startup
| disk doesn't get me anywhere--after choosing boot without cd-rom, to
| simplify it, it just hangs with the floppy drive trying to access
something.
| But it seems that this must be coming from IO.SYS, since there
couldn't be
| much else doing it, if no COMMAND.COM has been loaded (of course..who
| knows..).
| I should mention that this started with an *apparent* CMOS
failure--a
| little strange since I just replaced it with a new Li cell just a year
and a
| month ago. Nothing very strange seemed to have happened to it, except
all
| the drives (floppies, too) had been lost, and this was on the first
boot of
| the day.
| I reset the boot order for it to boot A: first (had been C: then
A and
| was able then to boot to DOS from the startup disk, but could not see
the
| other drives (just A. I had previously installed an old version
(4.0) of
| Partition Magic and used the PM recovery disk to find out that the
| partitions were all still there--but this version doesn't do anything
for
| MBRs, apparently.
| In short, the EOS byte could easily be missing, AFAIK, and the
only
| thing I can see at the moment is to use Debug to see if it's still
there.
| Clearly, I would welcome any thoughts on the subject before I try
| anything. I'm a little leery of slaving the disk to my other machine,
if I
| don't know for sure what caused the problem.
|
| Thanks for your time,
| Joe
| "PCR" wrote in message
| ...
| Enter "FDISK /MBR"
| This will rewrite the code portion of the Master Boot Record,
| leaving the Partition Table untouched, except it may muss the
partition
| table, if there is a missing End-Of-Sector marker (55AA), per
|
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=149877
| Boot Record Signature AA55 Not Found
|
| Here are the warnings against it...
|
| (a) If you have a boot sector virus, you may lose access to all
| partitions. Then
| http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/utilities.html MBRWork "might" help
to
| recover them.
|
| (b) If you have "overlay" code in the MBR, e.g., EZ-BIOS, Maxblast,
a
| boot manager, then that will need to be reestablished afterwards.
| http://www.aefdisk.com/ FDISK & Boot Manager
| http://support.microsoft.com/support.../Q245/1/62.ASP
Overlay
| Utility & FDISK
|
| (c) FDISK may be buggy. So? Use MBRWork to do it, or
| http://support.microsoft.com/default...;en-us;Q263044
| Latest FDISK, hoping this one doesn't have any bugs. (But it doesn't
| solve the 55AA thing.)
|
| (d) If for some reason the "geometry" setting in BIOS does not match
the
| hard drive, then any write to the drive may be destructive. So, go
into
| BIOS and have it "automatically detect" the proper setting. (If you
can
| DIR the drive in DOS, then you have proven the geometry is right.
Well,
| Blanton says even that may not be true.)
|
|
| --
| Thanks or Good Luck,
| There may be humor in this post, and,
| Naturally, you will not sue,
| should things get worse after this,
| PCR
|
| "jt3" wrote in message
| ...
| | I think I recall reading someone posting that the /MBR switch
on
| FDISK
| | not only rewrites the master boot record, but also wipes out
partition
| table
| | data, so that if you use /MBR on a disk with multiple partitions
on
| it, you
| | lose the partition data. Is this true?
| | I have a problem with a corrupted MBR (I think) and my old
version
| of
| | Partition Magic doesn't do the MBR, apparently.
| | Thanks for your time, as always,
| | Joe
| |
| |
|
|
|
|





  #5  
Old June 5th 04, 06:42 AM
Brian A.
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default MBR switch on FDISK

Since you mention you can get to DOS with a boot disk, boot with the disk in.

At the prompt type:
cd c: and press Enter
dir c:\ /p and press Enter *Note the spaces after dir and between \ /. The /p switch
will move the window contents one page at a time. Pressing ctrl+c anytime will get
you back to the prompt.

Does it show the files in C:?


--
Brian A.

Jack of all trades, Master of none.
One can never truly be a master as there is always more to learn.


"jt3" wrote in message
...
Yes that was what I was recalling something about--as I said to Curt,
all my refs went down with that machine.
The problem here is that this is wierd--it's clear that the boot code
is working to some degree--'Starting Windows 98' comes up first, which it
normally wouldn't show, then it comes up with 'Type the name of the Command
Interpreter (e.g. C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM)' cr'A' even though there's no
disk, boot or otherwise in the floppy drive. Also, putting in the startup
disk doesn't get me anywhere--after choosing boot without cd-rom, to
simplify it, it just hangs with the floppy drive trying to access something.
But it seems that this must be coming from IO.SYS, since there couldn't be
much else doing it, if no COMMAND.COM has been loaded (of course..who
knows..).
I should mention that this started with an *apparent* CMOS failure--a
little strange since I just replaced it with a new Li cell just a year and a
month ago. Nothing very strange seemed to have happened to it, except all
the drives (floppies, too) had been lost, and this was on the first boot of
the day.
I reset the boot order for it to boot A: first (had been C: then A and
was able then to boot to DOS from the startup disk, but could not see the
other drives (just A. I had previously installed an old version (4.0) of
Partition Magic and used the PM recovery disk to find out that the
partitions were all still there--but this version doesn't do anything for
MBRs, apparently.
In short, the EOS byte could easily be missing, AFAIK, and the only
thing I can see at the moment is to use Debug to see if it's still there.
Clearly, I would welcome any thoughts on the subject before I try
anything. I'm a little leery of slaving the disk to my other machine, if I
don't know for sure what caused the problem.

Thanks for your time,
Joe
"PCR" wrote in message
...
Enter "FDISK /MBR"
This will rewrite the code portion of the Master Boot Record,
leaving the Partition Table untouched, except it may muss the partition
table, if there is a missing End-Of-Sector marker (55AA), per
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=149877
Boot Record Signature AA55 Not Found

Here are the warnings against it...

(a) If you have a boot sector virus, you may lose access to all
partitions. Then
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/utilities.html MBRWork "might" help to
recover them.

(b) If you have "overlay" code in the MBR, e.g., EZ-BIOS, Maxblast, a
boot manager, then that will need to be reestablished afterwards.
http://www.aefdisk.com/ FDISK & Boot Manager
http://support.microsoft.com/support.../Q245/1/62.ASP Overlay
Utility & FDISK

(c) FDISK may be buggy. So? Use MBRWork to do it, or
http://support.microsoft.com/default...;en-us;Q263044
Latest FDISK, hoping this one doesn't have any bugs. (But it doesn't
solve the 55AA thing.)

(d) If for some reason the "geometry" setting in BIOS does not match the
hard drive, then any write to the drive may be destructive. So, go into
BIOS and have it "automatically detect" the proper setting. (If you can
DIR the drive in DOS, then you have proven the geometry is right. Well,
Blanton says even that may not be true.)


--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
should things get worse after this,
PCR

"jt3" wrote in message
...
| I think I recall reading someone posting that the /MBR switch on
FDISK
| not only rewrites the master boot record, but also wipes out partition
table
| data, so that if you use /MBR on a disk with multiple partitions on
it, you
| lose the partition data. Is this true?
| I have a problem with a corrupted MBR (I think) and my old version
of
| Partition Magic doesn't do the MBR, apparently.
| Thanks for your time, as always,
| Joe
|
|





  #6  
Old June 5th 04, 09:38 AM
Lee
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default MBR switch on FDISK

I am suspect of the 'new' battery, perhaps it was on the shelf for
several years before you bought it 'new'? I'd replace it and
clear the CMOS with the jumper for that if so equipped. Manually
short the battery terminals for at least 20 seconds if not equipped
with a clear CMOS jumper. Then redetect the drive, etc.

Blanton is right, some drive geometries are so close as to find the
proper boot sector for several different drives and then fail to
find the next sectors correctly which would result in missing
command.com messages/prompts.

If two new batteries don't get you going again right away, I'd
suspect the mobo is failing.

"jt3" wrote in message ...
Yes that was what I was recalling something about--as I said to Curt,
all my refs went down with that machine.
The problem here is that this is wierd--it's clear that the boot code
is working to some degree--'Starting Windows 98' comes up first, which it
normally wouldn't show, then it comes up with 'Type the name of the Command
Interpreter (e.g. C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM)' cr'A' even though there's no
disk, boot or otherwise in the floppy drive. Also, putting in the startup
disk doesn't get me anywhere--after choosing boot without cd-rom, to
simplify it, it just hangs with the floppy drive trying to access something.
But it seems that this must be coming from IO.SYS, since there couldn't be
much else doing it, if no COMMAND.COM has been loaded (of course..who
knows..).
I should mention that this started with an *apparent* CMOS failure--a
little strange since I just replaced it with a new Li cell just a year and a
month ago. Nothing very strange seemed to have happened to it, except all
the drives (floppies, too) had been lost, and this was on the first boot of
the day.
I reset the boot order for it to boot A: first (had been C: then A and
was able then to boot to DOS from the startup disk, but could not see the
other drives (just A. I had previously installed an old version (4.0) of
Partition Magic and used the PM recovery disk to find out that the
partitions were all still there--but this version doesn't do anything for
MBRs, apparently.
In short, the EOS byte could easily be missing, AFAIK, and the only
thing I can see at the moment is to use Debug to see if it's still there.
Clearly, I would welcome any thoughts on the subject before I try
anything. I'm a little leery of slaving the disk to my other machine, if I
don't know for sure what caused the problem.

Thanks for your time,
Joe
"PCR" wrote in message
...
Enter "FDISK /MBR"
This will rewrite the code portion of the Master Boot Record,
leaving the Partition Table untouched, except it may muss the partition
table, if there is a missing End-Of-Sector marker (55AA), per
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=149877
Boot Record Signature AA55 Not Found

Here are the warnings against it...

(a) If you have a boot sector virus, you may lose access to all
partitions. Then
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/utilities.html MBRWork "might" help to
recover them.

(b) If you have "overlay" code in the MBR, e.g., EZ-BIOS, Maxblast, a
boot manager, then that will need to be reestablished afterwards.
http://www.aefdisk.com/ FDISK & Boot Manager
http://support.microsoft.com/support.../Q245/1/62.ASP Overlay
Utility & FDISK

(c) FDISK may be buggy. So? Use MBRWork to do it, or
http://support.microsoft.com/default...;en-us;Q263044
Latest FDISK, hoping this one doesn't have any bugs. (But it doesn't
solve the 55AA thing.)

(d) If for some reason the "geometry" setting in BIOS does not match the
hard drive, then any write to the drive may be destructive. So, go into
BIOS and have it "automatically detect" the proper setting. (If you can
DIR the drive in DOS, then you have proven the geometry is right. Well,
Blanton says even that may not be true.)


--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
should things get worse after this,
PCR

"jt3" wrote in message
...
| I think I recall reading someone posting that the /MBR switch on

FDISK
| not only rewrites the master boot record, but also wipes out partition

table
| data, so that if you use /MBR on a disk with multiple partitions on

it, you
| lose the partition data. Is this true?
| I have a problem with a corrupted MBR (I think) and my old version

of
| Partition Magic doesn't do the MBR, apparently.
| Thanks for your time, as always,
| Joe
|
|


  #7  
Old June 5th 04, 08:42 PM
PCR
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default MBR switch on FDISK

Oops. I was too quick to post that quote of...
http://support.microsoft.com/default...41&Product=w98
....It wouldn't be a "MS-DOS 6.x Upgrade Setup Disk 1" for you, but JUST
a regular Startup Diskette.

(1) Perhaps yours is bad, if it will not see partitions. Then...
Get a Startup Diskette from
http://www.bootdisk.com/ , if you don't already have one from "Control
Panel, Add/Remove Programs, Startup Disk tab". Test the Startup
Diskette. Boot it, put in a CD and "DIR" the CD. It will say which
letter is the CD. (Otherwise, it is likely one letter higher than
normal.)

(2) Perhaps your partition are not the "type" that are recognizable by
DOS. Then, you must wait for Blanton to arrive. (I still haven't
assimilated it.) Does Partition Magic allow you to change the partition
"type". NATURALLY, all one may safely do is to change it from a hidden
type to it's proper unhidden form. One may NOT simply convert an NTFS to
a FAT32, for example, by changing type!


--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
should things get worse after this,
PCR

"jt3" wrote in message
...
| That's what I was trying to say: although the PM 'Recovery Disk'
| (mainly a
| boot disk with PM on it) shows the partitions on both disks as present
and
| with no problems, the boot disk DOS can't see them--not even C:\--even
| though if you don't use the boot disk, it's clearly using the C drive
to get
| the message: 'Type the name of the Command Interpreter....' as I
described
| previously.
| I think this may go back to a thread back in April, or March, in
which
| you and cquirke and several other people got involved, but then it was
a
| question of Restarting in DOS Mode. Although I finally thought that I
had
| the
| answer in the question of the receipt of the Windows shutdown
broadcast (and
| the answer may still lie there) I was never able to fix it, and other
things
| (the machine I'm using now) came to the fore. Unfortunately, I only
| archived a few of the posts, and I was using the MS support interface
at the
| time. The server doesn't seem to have retained any posts prior to the
| beginning of May, so I can't find the thread there, and it probably
wouldn't
| do much good, since I doubt I could convince anyone that the two are
| related. Would take even longer to explain why I think so, and it's
| irrelevant, if the thread's not available.
| Obviously, this rambling reflects the state of my understanding,
but it
| comes down to: If PM can see the disks and the partitions, (1) why
can't a
| boot disk see any of them, and (2) how does one access anything on the
disk
| if the boot disk can't see it. Along the way, I might mention that
this is
| an installation without any older DOS on it, so that it would be
deadly to
| overwrite IO.SYS with a DOS 6.22 IO.SYS. Any of the files would have
to
| come off the W98SE installation disk, and that's a little difficult as
it
| stands. I certainly don't want to reformat the disk.
|
| Thanks,
| Joe
| "PCR" wrote in message
| ...
|
http://support.microsoft.com/default...41&Product=w98
| Err Msg: The Following File Is Missing or Corrupt...
| (187641) - When you start your computer, you may receive the
following
| error message: The following file is missing or corrupt:
COMMAND.COM.
| Type the name of the Command Interpreter.
|
| It says...
| ......Quote article...................
| RESOLUTION
| To resolve this problem, use the MS-DOS 6.x Upgrade Setup Disk 1 to
| restart your computer, and then use the SYS command on drive C. To
do
| so, follow these steps:
|
| 1. Place the MS-DOS 6.x Upgrade Setup Disk 1 in drive A, and then
| restart your computer.
| 2. Press the F3 key when MS-DOS Setup starts to exit MS-DOS Setup.
| 3. Type sys c:, and then press ENTER.
| 4. Restart your computer.
| ......End of quote....................
|
| HOWEVER... here are some warnings...
|
| This will copy certain system files (IO.sys, Command.com & perhaps
| MSDOS.sys) from the Startup Diskette to C:\. (It also sets the BPB
drive
| number to HD0, so that it is now in the bootstrap. It does so, no
matter
| whether it is HD0. To boot it, one must still move it to be HD0,
| however.) You may now be able to boot to Windows, if all folders are
| intact. If not, some further adjustment need be done to "MSDOS.sys",
| that was copied to C:\. The floppy has just a shell of it. Well,
remove
| the floppy & boot.
|
| Oh gosh! Here are some warnings from Jeff Richards, MS MVP W95/W98,
| about "SYS C:". DON'T DO IT, he says, if:
|
| (a) "Major errors were reported in Scandisk."
| (b) "A drive is moved from one machine to another", because of the
next
| two, maybe.
| (c) "The BIOS setting for a drive is changed (eg, LBA to LARGE)."
| (d) "A drive that uses overlay software is operated without the
overlay
| loaded."
|
|
| --
| Thanks or Good Luck,
| There may be humor in this post, and,
| Naturally, you will not sue,
| should things get worse after this,
| PCR
|
| "jt3" wrote in message
| ...
| | Yes that was what I was recalling something about--as I said
to
| Curt,
| | all my refs went down with that machine.
| | The problem here is that this is wierd--it's clear that the
boot
| code
| | is working to some degree--'Starting Windows 98' comes up first,
which
| it
| | normally wouldn't show, then it comes up with 'Type the name of
the
| Command
| | Interpreter (e.g. C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM)' cr'A' even though
| there's no
| | disk, boot or otherwise in the floppy drive. Also, putting in the
| startup
| | disk doesn't get me anywhere--after choosing boot without cd-rom,
to
| | simplify it, it just hangs with the floppy drive trying to access
| something.
| | But it seems that this must be coming from IO.SYS, since there
| couldn't be
| | much else doing it, if no COMMAND.COM has been loaded (of
course..who
| | knows..).
| | I should mention that this started with an *apparent* CMOS
| failure--a
| | little strange since I just replaced it with a new Li cell just a
year
| and a
| | month ago. Nothing very strange seemed to have happened to it,
except
| all
| | the drives (floppies, too) had been lost, and this was on the
first
| boot of
| | the day.
| | I reset the boot order for it to boot A: first (had been C:
then
| A and
| | was able then to boot to DOS from the startup disk, but could not
see
| the
| | other drives (just A. I had previously installed an old version
| (4.0) of
| | Partition Magic and used the PM recovery disk to find out that the
| | partitions were all still there--but this version doesn't do
anything
| for
| | MBRs, apparently.
| | In short, the EOS byte could easily be missing, AFAIK, and the
| only
| | thing I can see at the moment is to use Debug to see if it's still
| there.
| | Clearly, I would welcome any thoughts on the subject before I
try
| | anything. I'm a little leery of slaving the disk to my other
machine,
| if I
| | don't know for sure what caused the problem.
| |
| | Thanks for your time,
| | Joe
| | "PCR" wrote in message
| | ...
| | Enter "FDISK /MBR"
| | This will rewrite the code portion of the Master Boot
Record,
| | leaving the Partition Table untouched, except it may muss the
| partition
| | table, if there is a missing End-Of-Sector marker (55AA), per
| |
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=149877
| | Boot Record Signature AA55 Not Found
| |
| | Here are the warnings against it...
| |
| | (a) If you have a boot sector virus, you may lose access to all
| | partitions. Then
| | http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/utilities.html MBRWork "might"
help
| to
| | recover them.
| |
| | (b) If you have "overlay" code in the MBR, e.g., EZ-BIOS,
Maxblast,
| a
| | boot manager, then that will need to be reestablished
afterwards.
| | http://www.aefdisk.com/ FDISK & Boot Manager
| | http://support.microsoft.com/support.../Q245/1/62.ASP
| Overlay
| | Utility & FDISK
| |
| | (c) FDISK may be buggy. So? Use MBRWork to do it, or
| | http://support.microsoft.com/default...;en-us;Q263044
| | Latest FDISK, hoping this one doesn't have any bugs. (But it
doesn't
| | solve the 55AA thing.)
| |
| | (d) If for some reason the "geometry" setting in BIOS does not
match
| the
| | hard drive, then any write to the drive may be destructive. So,
go
| into
| | BIOS and have it "automatically detect" the proper setting. (If
you
| can
| | DIR the drive in DOS, then you have proven the geometry is
right.
| Well,
| | Blanton says even that may not be true.)
| |
| |
| | --
| | Thanks or Good Luck,
| | There may be humor in this post, and,
| | Naturally, you will not sue,
| | should things get worse after this,
| | PCR
| |
| | "jt3" wrote in message
| | ...
| | | I think I recall reading someone posting that the /MBR
switch
| on
| | FDISK
| | | not only rewrites the master boot record, but also wipes out
| partition
| | table
| | | data, so that if you use /MBR on a disk with multiple
partitions
| on
| | it, you
| | | lose the partition data. Is this true?
| | | I have a problem with a corrupted MBR (I think) and my old
| version
| | of
| | | Partition Magic doesn't do the MBR, apparently.
| | | Thanks for your time, as always,
| | | Joe
| | |
| | |
| |
| |
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
|


  #8  
Old June 6th 04, 04:14 AM
jt3
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default MBR switch on FDISK

I actually tried three different boot disks I have, all for W98SE, two
made on that machine, and one on this. They all did the same thing, and
although I haven't tried them on this one lately, I suspect that it would
net nothing new. The drives don't have any esoteric type of partitions on
them, just standard DOS primary and extended on the 80 drive, FAT 32, the C
partition about 750 MB and the E partition is the balance of the 8 GB
Seagate drive, and the other is a 2 GB Quantum Bigfoot, FAT 16 and
partitioned into 4 partitions, 1 primary, 3 in the extended.
At one time, I was using a WD Caviar 850 MB as the C drive, and I had
W95SR2.1 on it, with the Quantum providing the same as it provides now.
When this happened once before, about 4 years ago, after much thrashing
about I gave up finally, not knowing about the newsgroup as a resource, and
bought the Seagate to replace the WD, installed W98SE, and when not only
everything seemed to work, but I had less trouble installing and setting up
than in any of the previous installs, I thought I had made a fortunate,
move, however blindly.
Now I should mention that which was discussed ad nauseam in the
'Restart...' thread, namely that the hardware is built on an Eteq mbd, VL
bus, 486 DX4-100, and uses a Promise EIDE 4030+ VL Bus controller, which has
its own BIOS, enabling it to do several things not particularly germane to
the problem, except for the fact that it allows me to use a drive as large
as 8GB, while the mbd AMI BIOS (1995) limits it to 2GB.
Thus, for the previous setup in which I used just the WD and Quantum
(same partns), the partitions for the WD were C and E (using FAT16 and
trying to avoid cluster size inefficiencies) I used the *mbd BIOS* for the
disk setup. Now it's been some while ago, but as memory serves, it was a
*very* similar sort of failure, made worse by some other complications that
I would rather not go into here. I wouldn't stake my life on it being the
same, but I have my suspicions.
Anyhow, when I went to use the Seagate, it wouldn't handle it--make a
long story short, the AMI BIOS maxes out at 2.1 G, but the Promise
controller BIOS, I discovered, could handle it, so that caused me to start
using it. This requires, as you may expect, not setting it in the mbd BIOS,
and activating the Promise BIOS which is done through an on-board program,
and everything came up roses.
Now, this time when things went south, the Promise BIOS program still
had all the correct parameters in it, and I should mention that it is all
automated, and so there isn't much possiblity of getting it messed up. The
fact that the PM reading of the partitions came up with all the right data,
suggests that the problem is not with the hard drive, controller, or any
such thing. Since it must still be operating with IO.SYS, it's my bet that
there's something rotten there, but I don't see how to get to it, short of
trying to slave it to another machine.
My reluctance there is based on the fact that I didn't have firewall
protection on that machine, and since I have started perforce using this one
(which has the EZ-Armor on it) I have been astounded by the number of times
it has blocked some sort of invasion (not all of which are ISP pings). This
makes me a little less secure in any assumptions regarding what caused all
this. If I slave it to this machine, I suppose it should be secure enough
until I attempt to access something on it. Question is, does simply reading
the FAT pose a risk? If not, I could do a scan of the drive, once this
machine booted. I'd still have the question of the MBR, but I expect I
could look at it with Debug (if I can find it) and see of the EOS byte is
there. I'd have to deactivate the primary partition, I guess. What happens
if you have a slaved disk which also has a prmary active partition? Surely
DOS 7 wouldn't like that.

Thanks again, I appreciate your efforts and advice,
Joe
"PCR" wrote in message
...
Oops. I was too quick to post that quote of...
http://support.microsoft.com/default...41&Product=w98
...It wouldn't be a "MS-DOS 6.x Upgrade Setup Disk 1" for you, but JUST
a regular Startup Diskette.

(1) Perhaps yours is bad, if it will not see partitions. Then...
Get a Startup Diskette from
http://www.bootdisk.com/ , if you don't already have one from "Control
Panel, Add/Remove Programs, Startup Disk tab". Test the Startup
Diskette. Boot it, put in a CD and "DIR" the CD. It will say which
letter is the CD. (Otherwise, it is likely one letter higher than
normal.)

(2) Perhaps your partition are not the "type" that are recognizable by
DOS. Then, you must wait for Blanton to arrive. (I still haven't
assimilated it.) Does Partition Magic allow you to change the partition
"type". NATURALLY, all one may safely do is to change it from a hidden
type to it's proper unhidden form. One may NOT simply convert an NTFS to
a FAT32, for example, by changing type!


--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
should things get worse after this,
PCR

"jt3" wrote in message
...
| That's what I was trying to say: although the PM 'Recovery Disk'
| (mainly a
| boot disk with PM on it) shows the partitions on both disks as present
and
| with no problems, the boot disk DOS can't see them--not even C:\--even
| though if you don't use the boot disk, it's clearly using the C drive
to get
| the message: 'Type the name of the Command Interpreter....' as I
described
| previously.
| I think this may go back to a thread back in April, or March, in
which
| you and cquirke and several other people got involved, but then it was
a
| question of Restarting in DOS Mode. Although I finally thought that I
had
| the
| answer in the question of the receipt of the Windows shutdown
broadcast (and
| the answer may still lie there) I was never able to fix it, and other
things
| (the machine I'm using now) came to the fore. Unfortunately, I only
| archived a few of the posts, and I was using the MS support interface
at the
| time. The server doesn't seem to have retained any posts prior to the
| beginning of May, so I can't find the thread there, and it probably
wouldn't
| do much good, since I doubt I could convince anyone that the two are
| related. Would take even longer to explain why I think so, and it's
| irrelevant, if the thread's not available.
| Obviously, this rambling reflects the state of my understanding,
but it
| comes down to: If PM can see the disks and the partitions, (1) why
can't a
| boot disk see any of them, and (2) how does one access anything on the
disk
| if the boot disk can't see it. Along the way, I might mention that
this is
| an installation without any older DOS on it, so that it would be
deadly to
| overwrite IO.SYS with a DOS 6.22 IO.SYS. Any of the files would have
to
| come off the W98SE installation disk, and that's a little difficult as
it
| stands. I certainly don't want to reformat the disk.
|
| Thanks,
| Joe
| "PCR" wrote in message
| ...
|
http://support.microsoft.com/default...41&Product=w98
| Err Msg: The Following File Is Missing or Corrupt...
| (187641) - When you start your computer, you may receive the
following
| error message: The following file is missing or corrupt:
COMMAND.COM.
| Type the name of the Command Interpreter.
|
| It says...
| ......Quote article...................
| RESOLUTION
| To resolve this problem, use the MS-DOS 6.x Upgrade Setup Disk 1 to
| restart your computer, and then use the SYS command on drive C. To
do
| so, follow these steps:
|
| 1. Place the MS-DOS 6.x Upgrade Setup Disk 1 in drive A, and then
| restart your computer.
| 2. Press the F3 key when MS-DOS Setup starts to exit MS-DOS Setup.
| 3. Type sys c:, and then press ENTER.
| 4. Restart your computer.
| ......End of quote....................
|
| HOWEVER... here are some warnings...
|
| This will copy certain system files (IO.sys, Command.com & perhaps
| MSDOS.sys) from the Startup Diskette to C:\. (It also sets the BPB
drive
| number to HD0, so that it is now in the bootstrap. It does so, no
matter
| whether it is HD0. To boot it, one must still move it to be HD0,
| however.) You may now be able to boot to Windows, if all folders are
| intact. If not, some further adjustment need be done to "MSDOS.sys",
| that was copied to C:\. The floppy has just a shell of it. Well,
remove
| the floppy & boot.
|
| Oh gosh! Here are some warnings from Jeff Richards, MS MVP W95/W98,
| about "SYS C:". DON'T DO IT, he says, if:
|
| (a) "Major errors were reported in Scandisk."
| (b) "A drive is moved from one machine to another", because of the
next
| two, maybe.
| (c) "The BIOS setting for a drive is changed (eg, LBA to LARGE)."
| (d) "A drive that uses overlay software is operated without the
overlay
| loaded."
|
|
| --
| Thanks or Good Luck,
| There may be humor in this post, and,
| Naturally, you will not sue,
| should things get worse after this,
| PCR
|
| "jt3" wrote in message
| ...
| | Yes that was what I was recalling something about--as I said
to
| Curt,
| | all my refs went down with that machine.
| | The problem here is that this is wierd--it's clear that the
boot
| code
| | is working to some degree--'Starting Windows 98' comes up first,
which
| it
| | normally wouldn't show, then it comes up with 'Type the name of
the
| Command
| | Interpreter (e.g. C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM)' cr'A' even though
| there's no
| | disk, boot or otherwise in the floppy drive. Also, putting in the
| startup
| | disk doesn't get me anywhere--after choosing boot without cd-rom,
to
| | simplify it, it just hangs with the floppy drive trying to access
| something.
| | But it seems that this must be coming from IO.SYS, since there
| couldn't be
| | much else doing it, if no COMMAND.COM has been loaded (of
course..who
| | knows..).
| | I should mention that this started with an *apparent* CMOS
| failure--a
| | little strange since I just replaced it with a new Li cell just a
year
| and a
| | month ago. Nothing very strange seemed to have happened to it,
except
| all
| | the drives (floppies, too) had been lost, and this was on the
first
| boot of
| | the day.
| | I reset the boot order for it to boot A: first (had been C:
then
| A and
| | was able then to boot to DOS from the startup disk, but could not
see
| the
| | other drives (just A. I had previously installed an old version
| (4.0) of
| | Partition Magic and used the PM recovery disk to find out that the
| | partitions were all still there--but this version doesn't do
anything
| for
| | MBRs, apparently.
| | In short, the EOS byte could easily be missing, AFAIK, and the
| only
| | thing I can see at the moment is to use Debug to see if it's still
| there.
| | Clearly, I would welcome any thoughts on the subject before I
try
| | anything. I'm a little leery of slaving the disk to my other
machine,
| if I
| | don't know for sure what caused the problem.
| |
| | Thanks for your time,
| | Joe
| | "PCR" wrote in message
| | ...
| | Enter "FDISK /MBR"
| | This will rewrite the code portion of the Master Boot
Record,
| | leaving the Partition Table untouched, except it may muss the
| partition
| | table, if there is a missing End-Of-Sector marker (55AA), per
| |
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=149877
| | Boot Record Signature AA55 Not Found
| |
| | Here are the warnings against it...
| |
| | (a) If you have a boot sector virus, you may lose access to all
| | partitions. Then
| | http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/utilities.html MBRWork "might"
help
| to
| | recover them.
| |
| | (b) If you have "overlay" code in the MBR, e.g., EZ-BIOS,
Maxblast,
| a
| | boot manager, then that will need to be reestablished
afterwards.
| | http://www.aefdisk.com/ FDISK & Boot Manager
| | http://support.microsoft.com/support.../Q245/1/62.ASP
| Overlay
| | Utility & FDISK
| |
| | (c) FDISK may be buggy. So? Use MBRWork to do it, or
| | http://support.microsoft.com/default...;en-us;Q263044
| | Latest FDISK, hoping this one doesn't have any bugs. (But it
doesn't
| | solve the 55AA thing.)
| |
| | (d) If for some reason the "geometry" setting in BIOS does not
match
| the
| | hard drive, then any write to the drive may be destructive. So,
go
| into
| | BIOS and have it "automatically detect" the proper setting. (If
you
| can
| | DIR the drive in DOS, then you have proven the geometry is
right.
| Well,
| | Blanton says even that may not be true.)
| |
| |
| | --
| | Thanks or Good Luck,
| | There may be humor in this post, and,
| | Naturally, you will not sue,
| | should things get worse after this,
| | PCR
| |
| | "jt3" wrote in message
| | ...
| | | I think I recall reading someone posting that the /MBR
switch
| on
| | FDISK
| | | not only rewrites the master boot record, but also wipes out
| partition
| | table
| | | data, so that if you use /MBR on a disk with multiple
partitions
| on
| | it, you
| | | lose the partition data. Is this true?
| | | I have a problem with a corrupted MBR (I think) and my old
| version
| | of
| | | Partition Magic doesn't do the MBR, apparently.
| | | Thanks for your time, as always,
| | | Joe
| | |
| | |
| |
| |
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
|





  #9  
Old June 6th 04, 04:20 AM
jt3
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default MBR switch on FDISK

The trouble was, that It *wouldn't* recognize the presence of the C:
drive, or any of the other partitions, on either of the two disk drives.
Just insisted it was DOS on an A: stick all by itself. That was, of course
the first thing I hoped for, and in fact, (see my reply to PCR's last post)
as I now recall, the previous failure (4 years ago with W95SR2.1) did see
the other disks, but there was another complication in that case. Probably
the two are not that parallel, just a lot of similarity.
So my problem is now as stated in the other post.
Thanks,
Joe
"Brian A." GoneFishn@aFarAwayLake wrote in message
...
Since you mention you can get to DOS with a boot disk, boot with the disk

in.

At the prompt type:
cd c: and press Enter
dir c:\ /p and press Enter *Note the spaces after dir and between \ /.

The /p switch
will move the window contents one page at a time. Pressing ctrl+c anytime

will get
you back to the prompt.

Does it show the files in C:?


--
Brian A.

Jack of all trades, Master of none.
One can never truly be a master as there is always more to learn.


"jt3" wrote in message
...
Yes that was what I was recalling something about--as I said to

Curt,
all my refs went down with that machine.
The problem here is that this is wierd--it's clear that the boot

code
is working to some degree--'Starting Windows 98' comes up first, which

it
normally wouldn't show, then it comes up with 'Type the name of the

Command
Interpreter (e.g. C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM)' cr'A' even though there's

no
disk, boot or otherwise in the floppy drive. Also, putting in the

startup
disk doesn't get me anywhere--after choosing boot without cd-rom, to
simplify it, it just hangs with the floppy drive trying to access

something.
But it seems that this must be coming from IO.SYS, since there couldn't

be
much else doing it, if no COMMAND.COM has been loaded (of course..who
knows..).
I should mention that this started with an *apparent* CMOS

failure--a
little strange since I just replaced it with a new Li cell just a year

and a
month ago. Nothing very strange seemed to have happened to it, except

all
the drives (floppies, too) had been lost, and this was on the first boot

of
the day.
I reset the boot order for it to boot A: first (had been C: then A

and
was able then to boot to DOS from the startup disk, but could not see

the
other drives (just A. I had previously installed an old version (4.0)

of
Partition Magic and used the PM recovery disk to find out that the
partitions were all still there--but this version doesn't do anything

for
MBRs, apparently.
In short, the EOS byte could easily be missing, AFAIK, and the only
thing I can see at the moment is to use Debug to see if it's still

there.
Clearly, I would welcome any thoughts on the subject before I try
anything. I'm a little leery of slaving the disk to my other machine,

if I
don't know for sure what caused the problem.

Thanks for your time,
Joe
"PCR" wrote in message
...
Enter "FDISK /MBR"
This will rewrite the code portion of the Master Boot Record,
leaving the Partition Table untouched, except it may muss the

partition
table, if there is a missing End-Of-Sector marker (55AA), per
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=149877
Boot Record Signature AA55 Not Found

Here are the warnings against it...

(a) If you have a boot sector virus, you may lose access to all
partitions. Then
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/utilities.html MBRWork "might" help

to
recover them.

(b) If you have "overlay" code in the MBR, e.g., EZ-BIOS, Maxblast, a
boot manager, then that will need to be reestablished afterwards.
http://www.aefdisk.com/ FDISK & Boot Manager
http://support.microsoft.com/support.../Q245/1/62.ASP Overlay
Utility & FDISK

(c) FDISK may be buggy. So? Use MBRWork to do it, or
http://support.microsoft.com/default...;en-us;Q263044
Latest FDISK, hoping this one doesn't have any bugs. (But it doesn't
solve the 55AA thing.)

(d) If for some reason the "geometry" setting in BIOS does not match

the
hard drive, then any write to the drive may be destructive. So, go

into
BIOS and have it "automatically detect" the proper setting. (If you

can
DIR the drive in DOS, then you have proven the geometry is right.

Well,
Blanton says even that may not be true.)


--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
should things get worse after this,
PCR

"jt3" wrote in message
...
| I think I recall reading someone posting that the /MBR switch on
FDISK
| not only rewrites the master boot record, but also wipes out

partition
table
| data, so that if you use /MBR on a disk with multiple partitions on
it, you
| lose the partition data. Is this true?
| I have a problem with a corrupted MBR (I think) and my old

version
of
| Partition Magic doesn't do the MBR, apparently.
| Thanks for your time, as always,
| Joe
|
|







  #10  
Old June 6th 04, 04:33 AM
jt3
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default MBR switch on FDISK

You may well be right about the quality of the Li cell, it wouldn't be
the first time I've ended up with a bad cell. A little less likely with a
Li cell, though, and I got it at a high volume place to avoid long shelf
time. Nevertheless, replacement seems indicated.
I don't know that it would affect what's in the disk parameter table,
since that would be written after the Promise adapter (see my reply post to
PCR, previously) had been scanned during POST and its subsequent
initialization. Perhaps, but only if it had written some non-zero type to
the disk type table.

Thanks for your time,
Joe
"Lee" wrote in message
om...
I am suspect of the 'new' battery, perhaps it was on the shelf for
several years before you bought it 'new'? I'd replace it and
clear the CMOS with the jumper for that if so equipped. Manually
short the battery terminals for at least 20 seconds if not equipped
with a clear CMOS jumper. Then redetect the drive, etc.

Blanton is right, some drive geometries are so close as to find the
proper boot sector for several different drives and then fail to
find the next sectors correctly which would result in missing
command.com messages/prompts.

If two new batteries don't get you going again right away, I'd
suspect the mobo is failing.

"jt3" wrote in message

...
Yes that was what I was recalling something about--as I said to Curt,
all my refs went down with that machine.
The problem here is that this is wierd--it's clear that the boot

code
is working to some degree--'Starting Windows 98' comes up first, which

it
normally wouldn't show, then it comes up with 'Type the name of the

Command
Interpreter (e.g. C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM)' cr'A' even though there's

no
disk, boot or otherwise in the floppy drive. Also, putting in the

startup
disk doesn't get me anywhere--after choosing boot without cd-rom, to
simplify it, it just hangs with the floppy drive trying to access

something.
But it seems that this must be coming from IO.SYS, since there couldn't

be
much else doing it, if no COMMAND.COM has been loaded (of course..who
knows..).
I should mention that this started with an *apparent* CMOS

failure--a
little strange since I just replaced it with a new Li cell just a year

and a
month ago. Nothing very strange seemed to have happened to it, except

all
the drives (floppies, too) had been lost, and this was on the first boot

of
the day.
I reset the boot order for it to boot A: first (had been C: then A

and
was able then to boot to DOS from the startup disk, but could not see

the
other drives (just A. I had previously installed an old version (4.0)

of
Partition Magic and used the PM recovery disk to find out that the
partitions were all still there--but this version doesn't do anything

for
MBRs, apparently.
In short, the EOS byte could easily be missing, AFAIK, and the only
thing I can see at the moment is to use Debug to see if it's still

there.
Clearly, I would welcome any thoughts on the subject before I try
anything. I'm a little leery of slaving the disk to my other machine,

if I
don't know for sure what caused the problem.

Thanks for your time,
Joe
"PCR" wrote in message
...
Enter "FDISK /MBR"
This will rewrite the code portion of the Master Boot Record,
leaving the Partition Table untouched, except it may muss the

partition
table, if there is a missing End-Of-Sector marker (55AA), per
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=149877
Boot Record Signature AA55 Not Found

Here are the warnings against it...

(a) If you have a boot sector virus, you may lose access to all
partitions. Then
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/utilities.html MBRWork "might" help

to
recover them.

(b) If you have "overlay" code in the MBR, e.g., EZ-BIOS, Maxblast, a
boot manager, then that will need to be reestablished afterwards.
http://www.aefdisk.com/ FDISK & Boot Manager
http://support.microsoft.com/support.../Q245/1/62.ASP Overlay
Utility & FDISK

(c) FDISK may be buggy. So? Use MBRWork to do it, or
http://support.microsoft.com/default...;en-us;Q263044
Latest FDISK, hoping this one doesn't have any bugs. (But it doesn't
solve the 55AA thing.)

(d) If for some reason the "geometry" setting in BIOS does not match

the
hard drive, then any write to the drive may be destructive. So, go

into
BIOS and have it "automatically detect" the proper setting. (If you

can
DIR the drive in DOS, then you have proven the geometry is right.

Well,
Blanton says even that may not be true.)


--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
should things get worse after this,
PCR

"jt3" wrote in message
...
| I think I recall reading someone posting that the /MBR switch on

FDISK
| not only rewrites the master boot record, but also wipes out

partition
table
| data, so that if you use /MBR on a disk with multiple partitions on

it, you
| lose the partition data. Is this true?
| I have a problem with a corrupted MBR (I think) and my old

version
of
| Partition Magic doesn't do the MBR, apparently.
| Thanks for your time, as always,
| Joe
|
|




 




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