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Partition Magic Error 108 problem
I have a Seagate ST320014A “20GB� hard drive, which was partitioned (using
PowerQuest’s Partition Magic 7.0) to give one primary and one extended partition. The extended partition contained three logical partitions. The machine I use is old: operating at 800MHz it features a Pentium III processor, which is incapable of dealing with even 40GB hard drives. I first noticed my problem when the operating system was not found. Using a start-up disk I could not see a “C� drive, although the correct name was given for the hard drive found when the BIOS booted. Using another hard drive and Partition Magic 7.0, still I see no drive letters for the Seagate disk (although the BIOS “sees� it). Partition Magic reports the disk as being bad, of the correct overall size but with no partitions, and gives “Error 108�. The handbook defines Error 108 as, “Partition doesn’t end at end of cylinder� and refers one to Error 105. The Error 105 entry says, “Partition starts on wrong boundary� “The hard-disk partition table contains erroneous values. Partition Magic expects partitions to begin and end on the correct cylinder boundaries. If they do not, the disk may be partially corrupted. In this circumstance, if Partition Magic were to make any modifications it might cause the loss of data. Therefore, Partition Magic refuses to recognise any of the hard disk’s partitions. To resolve this problem, see the instructions in ‘Resolving Partition Table Errors’ on page 117.� The latter says, “… In most cases, you must resolve partition table errors by creating new, error-free partition tables. The general steps a (1) ensure you have no viruses (see below) (sic) (2) back up the data on the affected partitions, (3) delete the partitions, (4) re-create them, and (5) restore their contents. You may need to use the FDISK program from a recent DOS version as earlier versions may refuse to delete HPFS or hidden partitions, and the OS2 FDISK program may recognise the partition’s corruption and refuse to modify it. Please can some kind, knowledgeable person tell me (1) what is the most likely cause of the problem (2) how I can check for viruses a drive which I can’t see (3) or indeed how I can NOW back up the data (do I need a special program?) (4) Is there a program that I can use to examine the MBR and correct it, and if so, how I use it? Is there anything else anyone can suggest? The really annoying thing about it is that I had just got to grips with the CD writing facility that would have enabled me to back up the entire disk when this happened – as always, the day before the event that would have meant that it didn’t matter…. -- "When I am right, no-one remembers: when I am wrong, no-one forgets..." |
#2
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Partition Magic Error 108 problem
I suggest you first make sure the hard drive is OK, by running the diagnostics from
the hard drive manufacturer's web site. If you don't know what brand the drive is, you can download the limited-use free edition of OnTrack Data Advisor from this location: http://www.ontrack.com/freesoftware/#dataadvisor When you click the download link on that page for Data Advisor 5.0 Free edition, you will be taken to a page to register with the OnTrack site, then you will be able to download the diskette creator file. The downloads are diskette creators. They are to be run once from a working Windows system and will guide you through the process of extracting the Data Advisor onto a 3.5" floppy disk. Download and Use Instructions: http://www.ontrack.com/dataadvisor/downloadinfo.asp As far as I know, Maxtor's diagnostics will also work with any brand of drive, and the older versions of Seagate Seatools also, but I am not sure about the new version. Hard Drive Diagnostic Programs by Vendor: OnTrack Data Advisor: http://www.ontrack.com/freesoftware/#dataadvisor IBM/Hitachi Drive Fitness Test: http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm Western Digital Data Lifeguard Tools: http://support.wdc.com/download/ Quantum/Maxtor PowerMax: http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/powermax.htm Seagate SeaTools: http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/index.html Download: http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/B7a.html http://www.seagate.com/support/seato...toold_reg.html -- Glen Ventura, MS MVP Shell/User, A+ http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm "Phil R." wrote in message ... I have a Seagate ST320014A “20GB� hard drive, which was partitioned (using PowerQuest’s Partition Magic 7.0) to give one primary and one extended partition. The extended partition contained three logical partitions. The machine I use is old: operating at 800MHz it features a Pentium III processor, which is incapable of dealing with even 40GB hard drives. I first noticed my problem when the operating system was not found. Using a start-up disk I could not see a “C� drive, although the correct name was given for the hard drive found when the BIOS booted. Using another hard drive and Partition Magic 7.0, still I see no drive letters for the Seagate disk (although the BIOS “sees� it). Partition Magic reports the disk as being bad, of the correct overall size but with no partitions, and gives “Error 108�. The handbook defines Error 108 as, “Partition doesn’t end at end of cylinder� and refers one to Error 105. The Error 105 entry says, “Partition starts on wrong boundary� “The hard-disk partition table contains erroneous values. Partition Magic expects partitions to begin and end on the correct cylinder boundaries. If they do not, the disk may be partially corrupted. In this circumstance, if Partition Magic were to make any modifications it might cause the loss of data. Therefore, Partition Magic refuses to recognise any of the hard disk’s partitions. To resolve this problem, see the instructions in ‘Resolving Partition Table Errors’ on page 117.� The latter says, “… In most cases, you must resolve partition table errors by creating new, error-free partition tables. The general steps a (1) ensure you have no viruses (see below) (sic) (2) back up the data on the affected partitions, (3) delete the partitions, (4) re-create them, and (5) restore their contents. You may need to use the FDISK program from a recent DOS version as earlier versions may refuse to delete HPFS or hidden partitions, and the OS2 FDISK program may recognise the partition’s corruption and refuse to modify it. Please can some kind, knowledgeable person tell me (1) what is the most likely cause of the problem (2) how I can check for viruses a drive which I can’t see (3) or indeed how I can NOW back up the data (do I need a special program?) (4) Is there a program that I can use to examine the MBR and correct it, and if so, how I use it? Is there anything else anyone can suggest? The really annoying thing about it is that I had just got to grips with the CD writing facility that would have enabled me to back up the entire disk when this happened – as always, the day before the event that would have meant that it didn’t matter…. -- "When I am right, no-one remembers: when I am wrong, no-one forgets..." |
#4
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Partition Magic Error 108 problem
On Wed, 15 Feb 2006 03:19:27 -0800, "Phil R."
wrote: I have a Seagate ST320014A “20GB” hard drive, which was partitioned (using PowerQuest’s Partition Magic 7.0) to give one primary and one extended partition. The extended partition contained three logical partitions. The machine I use is old: operating at 800MHz it features a Pentium III processor, which is incapable of dealing with even 40GB hard drives. Since I use an 80GB drive on my Pentium III 450 MHz system, this is not part of the problem. I first noticed my problem when the operating system was not found. Using a start-up disk I could not see a “C” drive, although the correct name was given for the hard drive found when the BIOS booted. Using another hard drive and Partition Magic 7.0, still I see no drive letters for the Seagate disk (although the BIOS “sees” it). Partition Magic reports the disk as being bad, of the correct overall size but with no partitions, and gives “Error 108”. The handbook defines Error 108 as, “Partition doesn’t end at end of cylinder” and refers one to Error 105. The Error 105 entry says, “Partition starts on wrong boundary” “The hard-disk partition table contains erroneous values. Partition Magic expects partitions to begin and end on the correct cylinder boundaries. If they do not, the disk may be partially corrupted. In this circumstance, if Partition Magic were to make any modifications it might cause the loss of data. Therefore, Partition Magic refuses to recognise any of the hard disk’s partitions. To resolve this problem, see the instructions in ‘Resolving Partition Table Errors’ on page 117.” The latter says, “… In most cases, you must resolve partition table errors by creating new, error-free partition tables. The general steps a (1) ensure you have no viruses (see below) (sic) (2) back up the data on the affected partitions, (3) delete the partitions, (4) re-create them, and (5) restore their contents. You may need to use the FDISK program from a recent DOS version as earlier versions may refuse to delete HPFS or hidden partitions, and the OS2 FDISK program may recognise the partition’s corruption and refuse to modify it. Please can some kind, knowledgeable person tell me (1) what is the most likely cause of the problem (2) how I can check for viruses a drive which I My guess is something altered the partition table in the master boot sector. can’t see (3) or indeed how I can NOW back up the data (do I need a special program?) (4) Is there a program that I can use to examine the MBR and correct it, and if so, how I use it? Is there anything else anyone can Did you make a rescue disk from your anti-virus software? The one Norton makes reports changes to the boot records and partition table and asks if you want to restore them to their "original" contents. suggest? The really annoying thing about it is that I had just got to grips with the CD writing facility that would have enabled me to back up the entire disk when this happened – as always, the day before the event that would have meant that it didn’t matter…. Murphy always wins. Remove del for email |
#5
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Partition Magic Error 108 problem
Thank you for that. I downloaded the Seagate test utility and got some
information, but the tests caused my system to lock up. I guess that the tests confirmed that my disk is "ok" but the partition record in the mbr is corrupt. Unfortunately there seems to be no fix for this and I don't have any idea how, if at all, I can back up any data files from the disk before reformatting it. It seems a pity that just one or two corrupt bits in the mbr can completely foul up the hdd. -- "When I am right, no-one remembers: when I am wrong, no-one forgets..." "glee" wrote: I suggest you first make sure the hard drive is OK, by running the diagnostics from the hard drive manufacturer's web site. If you don't know what brand the drive is, you can download the limited-use free edition of OnTrack Data Advisor from this location: http://www.ontrack.com/freesoftware/#dataadvisor When you click the download link on that page for Data Advisor 5.0 Free edition, you will be taken to a page to register with the OnTrack site, then you will be able to download the diskette creator file. The downloads are diskette creators. They are to be run once from a working Windows system and will guide you through the process of extracting the Data Advisor onto a 3.5" floppy disk. Download and Use Instructions: http://www.ontrack.com/dataadvisor/downloadinfo.asp As far as I know, Maxtor's diagnostics will also work with any brand of drive, and the older versions of Seagate Seatools also, but I am not sure about the new version. Hard Drive Diagnostic Programs by Vendor: OnTrack Data Advisor: http://www.ontrack.com/freesoftware/#dataadvisor IBM/Hitachi Drive Fitness Test: http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm Western Digital Data Lifeguard Tools: http://support.wdc.com/download/ Quantum/Maxtor PowerMax: http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/powermax.htm Seagate SeaTools: http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/index.html Download: http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/B7a.html http://www.seagate.com/support/seato...toold_reg.html -- Glen Ventura, MS MVP Shell/User, A+ http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm "Phil R." wrote in message ... I have a Seagate ST320014A “20GB� hard drive, which was partitioned (using PowerQuest’s Partition Magic 7.0) to give one primary and one extended partition. The extended partition contained three logical partitions. The machine I use is old: operating at 800MHz it features a Pentium III processor, which is incapable of dealing with even 40GB hard drives. I first noticed my problem when the operating system was not found. Using a start-up disk I could not see a “C� drive, although the correct name was given for the hard drive found when the BIOS booted. Using another hard drive and Partition Magic 7.0, still I see no drive letters for the Seagate disk (although the BIOS “sees� it). Partition Magic reports the disk as being bad, of the correct overall size but with no partitions, and gives “Error 108�. The handbook defines Error 108 as, “Partition doesn’t end at end of cylinder� and refers one to Error 105. The Error 105 entry says, “Partition starts on wrong boundary� “The hard-disk partition table contains erroneous values. Partition Magic expects partitions to begin and end on the correct cylinder boundaries. If they do not, the disk may be partially corrupted. In this circumstance, if Partition Magic were to make any modifications it might cause the loss of data. Therefore, Partition Magic refuses to recognise any of the hard disk’s partitions. To resolve this problem, see the instructions in ‘Resolving Partition Table Errors’ on page 117.� The latter says, “… In most cases, you must resolve partition table errors by creating new, error-free partition tables. The general steps a (1) ensure you have no viruses (see below) (sic) (2) back up the data on the affected partitions, (3) delete the partitions, (4) re-create them, and (5) restore their contents. You may need to use the FDISK program from a recent DOS version as earlier versions may refuse to delete HPFS or hidden partitions, and the OS2 FDISK program may recognise the partition’s corruption and refuse to modify it. Please can some kind, knowledgeable person tell me (1) what is the most likely cause of the problem (2) how I can check for viruses a drive which I can’t see (3) or indeed how I can NOW back up the data (do I need a special program?) (4) Is there a program that I can use to examine the MBR and correct it, and if so, how I use it? Is there anything else anyone can suggest? The really annoying thing about it is that I had just got to grips with the CD writing facility that would have enabled me to back up the entire disk when this happened – as always, the day before the event that would have meant that it didn’t matter…. -- "When I am right, no-one remembers: when I am wrong, no-one forgets..." |
#6
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Partition Magic Error 108 problem
Thanks for that. Please see interleaved remarks...
-- "When I am right, no-one remembers: when I am wrong, no-one forgets..." "PCR" wrote: Yes, get the Seagate tool as Glee suggested. Although it won't fix a partition table, it will do valuable integrity tests on the drive & re-map bad sectors. Been there. Unfortunately I've not been able to get any sense from the "quick test" utility. I was beginning to wonder if I've had a head crash, but somehow I doubt it. I'm sure it's just a problem in the mbr. ... more... It's possible the PM error message is bogus. Windows may not care about it. (1) Was another utility used, such as BootIt NG, to adjust a partition after it was originally created using PM? No... (2) Can you boot to DOS & see the hard drive? Yes... ISTR that the correct overall size is given, but that it seemed to be only one (unformatted) partition. I shall have to check again. Particularly I don't want to risk the possibility of damaging any of my recent data - (My last full back up was about 3 moonths ago) At DOS, enter... FDISK /Status To get to DOS, hold CTRL as you boot & select "Command Prompt Only", or boot a Startup Diskette. 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". Put the diskette in & turn on the computer. (3) Where is the "bad" hard drive now, as you said...?... | Using another hard drive and Partition Magic 7.0 (4) Do you know for certain it has no drive overlay or 3rd party boot manager installed? ....yes... Then... "FDISK /MBR" & "SYS C:" may be the answer to the boot problem. But we need to know where the drive is mounted to issue the proper commands! http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/utilities.html MBRWork Free MBR utility. ........Quote... MBRWork Readme ....... MBRWork - Freeware utility to perform some common and uncommon MBR and disk functions. Provided As-Is. It can perform the following: 1 - Backup the first track on a hard drive. 2 - Restore the backup file. 3 - Reset the EMBR area to all zeros. 4 - Reset the MBR are to all zeros. 5 - Install standard MBR Code 6 - Set a partition active (avail on the command line too) 7 - Work with multiple hard drives. 8 - Remove EZ-Drive (You must boot directly to a diskette (by passing ez-drive) for this option to show) 9 - Edit MBR partition entry values. A - If no partitions exist in the MBR and no EMBR exists then this option will allow you to recover lost FAT, HPFS, NTFS, and Extened partitions. C - Capture up to 64 disk sectors to a file. R - Restore up to 64 disk sectors from a file. This feature should only be used by those who completely understand what they are doing! T - Transfer/Copy sectors from disk to disk. This feature should only be used by those who completely understand what they are doing! P - Compare sectors. ......EOQ... MBRWork Readme ............. Quite so. The Microsoft bullettin Q69013 also warns against using fdisk/mbr if there more than four partitions exist. Unfortunately I cannot remember if the affected hdd contained just c:, d:, e:, and f:, or g: as well. I may risk it... -- Thanks or Good Luck, There may be humor in this post, and, Naturally, you will not sue, should things get worse after this, Certainly not!! PCR [rest snipped] |
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Partition Magic Error 108 problem
Thanks for that. Pleae see interleaved response 8-)
-- "When I am right, no-one remembers: when I am wrong, no-one forgets..." "Barry Schwarz" wrote: On Wed, 15 Feb 2006 03:19:27 -0800, "Phil R." wrote: I have a Seagate ST320014A “20GB� hard drive, which was partitioned (using PowerQuest’s Partition Magic 7.0) to give one primary and one extended partition. The extended partition contained three logical partitions. The machine I use is old: operating at 800MHz it features a Pentium III processor, which is incapable of dealing with even 40GB hard drives. Since I use an 80GB drive on my Pentium III 450 MHz system, this is not part of the problem. I appreciate this does not relate to my original question, but it does throw up a wobbly for me... I AM surprised! I've never been able to see a 40 MB drive on my system, and was told (long, long after I bought it) by PC World, who sold me the product, that I needed a Pentium 4 to see it. They said it worked ok on their machines.. I first noticed my problem when the operating system was not found. Using a start-up disk I could not see a “C� drive, although the correct name was given for the hard drive found when the BIOS booted. Using another hard drive and Partition Magic 7.0, still I see no drive letters for the Seagate disk (although the BIOS “sees� it). Partition Magic reports the disk as being bad, of the correct overall size but with no partitions, and gives “Error 108�. The handbook defines Error 108 as, “Partition doesn’t end at end of cylinder� and refers one to Error 105. The Error 105 entry says, “Partition starts on wrong boundary� “The hard-disk partition table contains erroneous values. Partition Magic expects partitions to begin and end on the correct cylinder boundaries. If they do not, the disk may be partially corrupted. In this circumstance, if Partition Magic were to make any modifications it might cause the loss of data. Therefore, Partition Magic refuses to recognise any of the hard disk’s partitions. To resolve this problem, see the instructions in ‘Resolving Partition Table Errors’ on page 117.� The latter says, “… In most cases, you must resolve partition table errors by creating new, error-free partition tables. The general steps a (1) ensure you have no viruses (see below) (sic) (2) back up the data on the affected partitions, (3) delete the partitions, (4) re-create them, and (5) restore their contents. You may need to use the FDISK program from a recent DOS version as earlier versions may refuse to delete HPFS or hidden partitions, and the OS2 FDISK program may recognise the partition’s corruption and refuse to modify it. Please can some kind, knowledgeable person tell me (1) what is the most likely cause of the problem (2) how I can check for viruses a drive which I My guess is something altered the partition table in the master boot sector. can’t see (3) or indeed how I can NOW back up the data (do I need a special program?) (4) Is there a program that I can use to examine the MBR and correct it, and if so, how I use it? Is there anything else anyone can Did you make a rescue disk from your anti-virus software? The one Norton makes reports changes to the boot records and partition table and asks if you want to restore them to their "original" contents. *******! No 8-( suggest? The really annoying thing about it is that I had just got to grips with the CD writing facility that would have enabled me to back up the entire disk when this happened – as always, the day before the event that would have meant that it didn’t matter…. Murphy always wins. Too true.A corollary to Murphy's Law is that if you prepare for the unexpected, it won't happen... Remove del for email |
#8
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Partition Magic Error 108 problem
"Phil R." wrote in message ...
| Thanks for that. You are welcome. | Please see interleaved remarks... | -- | "When I am right, no-one remembers: when I am wrong, no-one forgets..." | | | "PCR" wrote: | | Yes, get the Seagate tool as Glee suggested. Although it won't fix a partition table, it will do valuable integrity tests on the drive & re-map bad sectors. | | | Been there. Unfortunately I've not been able to get any sense from the | "quick test" utility. I was beginning to wonder if I've had a head crash, but | somehow I doubt it. I'm sure it's just a problem in the mbr. ... more... I see, here & in your response to Glee,... .......Quote.............. I downloaded the Seagate test utility and got some information, but the tests caused my system to lock up. I guess that the tests confirmed that my disk is "ok" but the partition record in the mbr is corrupt. .......EOQ................ ....it is questionable the Seagate tool ran well. I don't know what to make of that. I tend to think you need a clean bill of health from it, though, BEFORE you can proceed safely to other procedures. I doubt a bad MBR would/could cause this tool to freeze. It's looking deeper than the Windows file system & MBR contents. It's looking to see whether the drive can hold any data, not whether the data is correct for Windows. (a) Did it give you a message? (b) Did it say "PASSED" anywhere? (c) Did you give it enough time? (d) Was it waiting for you to choose another option, by using the arrow keys & ENTER? Because you have sworn not to sue, I will continue, BUT, really, you should get that resolved. Maybe Glee can say how in his portion of this thread. | It's possible the PM error message is bogus. Windows may not care about it. | | (1) Was another utility used, such as BootIt NG, to adjust a partition after it was originally created using PM? | | | No... Too bad. It would have confirmed the message to be bogus. AIUI, BootIt NG can start a partition on a boundary that PM doesn't like. Windows is OK with it, though. | | (2) Can you boot to DOS & see the hard drive? | | Yes... | ISTR that the correct overall size is given, but that it seemed to be only | one (unformatted) partition. I shall have to check again. Check again! Write it down & post it. Post the full results to... (a) FDISK /Status (b) FDISK For (b), use option 4, thus... (a) FDISK (b) Press ENTER to accept Large Disk Support. (c) Select option 4 (Display Partition Information), & hit ENTER. (d) Hit ENTER at the pre-printed "Y", to get the Extended too. (e) ESC your way OUT, after jotting it all down. DON'T try to do any partitioning! BETTER just post what you see! Here is what mine showed... NOTES: "PRI" is Primary, "EXT" is Extended... "A" under "Status" means "Active". Display Partition Information Current fixed disk drive: 1 Partition Status Type Volume Label Mbytes System Usage C: 1 A PRI DOS P C R HARD 7996 FAT32 42% 2 EXT DOS 11096 58% Total disk space is 19092 Mbytes (1 Mbyte = 1048576 bytes) The Extended DOS Partition contains Logical DOS Drives. Do you want to display the logical drive information (Y/N)......?[Y] Display Logical DOS Drive Information Drv Volume Label Mbytes System Usage E: C TWO 7996 FAT32 72% | Particularly I | don't want to risk the possibility of damaging any of my recent data - (My | last full back up was about 3 moonths ago) | | At DOS, enter... FDISK /Status | | To get to DOS, hold CTRL as you boot & select "Command Prompt Only", or boot a Startup Diskette. 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". Put the diskette in & | turn on the computer. | | (3) Where is the "bad" hard drive now, as you said...?... | | Using another hard drive and Partition Magic 7.0 You didn't answer this question. | | (4) Do you know for certain it has no drive overlay or 3rd party boot manager installed? | | | ...yes... That's good. That's one/two fewer considerations in whether "FDISK /MBR" is destructive. But WHERE is that hard drive mounted? Is it in the Primary Master slot on the motherboard? Is it HDD0, I mean? You have to know it's letter also for "SYS". | | Then... "FDISK /MBR" & "SYS C:" may be the answer to the boot problem. But | we need to know where the drive is mounted to issue the proper commands! | | | http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/utilities.html MBRWork | Free MBR utility. ....snip | | Quite so. The Microsoft bullettin Q69013 also warns against using fdisk/mbr | if there more than four partitions exist. Unfortunately I cannot remember if | the affected hdd contained just c:, d:, e:, and f:, or g: as well. I may risk | it... It's the number of PRIMARY partitions that matter. An Extended partition counts as one primary, no matter how many volumes it contains. Each volume would get a separate letter in Windows. Show us the results of FDISK per above. Windows won't recognize more than four primary partitions per hard drive. If you have more than four, they were invisible without a 3rd party boot manager. | -- | Thanks or Good Luck, | There may be humor in this post, and, | Naturally, you will not sue, should things get worse after this, | | Certainly not!! O-KAY-EEE, then! | | PCR | | [rest snipped] |
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Partition Magic Error 108 problem
As PCR noted, the failing of Seagate's tool probably has nothing to do with
the MBR. (More inline below) "Phil R." wrote in message ... "Barry Schwarz" wrote: On Wed, 15 Feb 2006 03:19:27 -0800, "Phil R." wrote: I have a Seagate ST320014A "20GB" hard drive, which was partitioned (using PowerQuest's Partition Magic 7.0) to give one primary and one extended partition. The extended partition contained three logical partitions. The machine I use is old: operating at 800MHz it features a Pentium III processor, which is incapable of dealing with even 40GB hard drives. Since I use an 80GB drive on my Pentium III 450 MHz system, this is not part of the problem. I appreciate this does not relate to my original question, but it does throw up a wobbly for me... I AM surprised! I've never been able to see a 40 MB drive on my system, and was told (long, long after I bought it) by PC World, who sold me the product, that I needed a Pentium 4 to see it. They said it worked ok on their machines.. What model processor is irrelevant, though it'll give you a clue as to how old the BIOS is, which is relevant. Some BIOSs have a problem over 32GB, but it wasn't as prevalent as other limits. Over 32GB, the next (very) common limit is 128GB. That "era" processor was about the time that the 32GB limit was seen. (but again, not necessarily so) I first noticed my problem when the operating system was not found. Using a start-up disk I could not see a "C" drive, although the correct name was given for the hard drive found when the BIOS booted. Using another hard drive and Partition Magic 7.0, still I see no drive letters for the Seagate disk (although the BIOS "sees" it). Partition Magic reports the disk as being bad, of the correct overall size but with no partitions, and gives "Error 108". The handbook defines Error 108 as, "Partition doesn't end at end of cylinder" and refers one to Error 105. The Error 105 entry says, "Partition starts on wrong boundary" "The hard-disk partition table contains erroneous values. Partition Magic expects partitions to begin and end on the correct cylinder boundaries. If they do not, the disk may be partially corrupted. PM is very strict about partitions and volumes starting and ending on cylinder boundaries. Not all partitioning tools are, and Windows doesn't seem to mind. However, if you partitioned with PM and now it's reporting this error, (and you haven't used other tools) then something is definetly changed in the first sector.. The latter says, ". In most cases, you must resolve partition table errors by creating new, error-free partition tables. The general steps a (1) ensure you have no viruses (see below) (sic) (2) back up the data on the affected partitions, (3) delete the partitions, (4) re-create them, and (5) restore their contents. You may need to use the FDISK program from a recent DOS version as earlier versions may refuse to delete HPFS or hidden partitions, and the OS2 FDISK program may recognise the partition's corruption and refuse to modify it. Please can some kind, knowledgeable person tell me (1) what is the most likely cause of the problem (2) how I can check for viruses a drive which I My guess is something altered the partition table in the master boot sector. Or the whole sector is corrupt. As you seem to be aware, you don't want to run any tools that write to the drive until you can figure out the problem. The first thing you need to do is determine what the "MBR" tables look like and if you have a drive overlay or virus (do you use anything like Goback?) installed. If it was me, I would run PowerQuest's (Symantec) read-only tool ,partinfo, on the drive. ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/englis...s/partinfo.zip (Or you may have it on your PM emergency boot disk, or install CD) Unzip to a DOS boot floppy. Boot to the floppy and run partinfo A:\partinfo.txt |
#10
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Partition Magic Error 108 problem
"PCR" wrote in message ... "Phil R." wrote in message ... | Thanks for that. You are welcome. | Please see interleaved remarks... | -- | "When I am right, no-one remembers: when I am wrong, no-one forgets..." | | | "PCR" wrote: | | Yes, get the Seagate tool as Glee suggested. Although it won't fix a partition table, it will do valuable integrity tests on the drive & re-map bad sectors. | | | Been there. Unfortunately I've not been able to get any sense from the | "quick test" utility. I was beginning to wonder if I've had a head crash, but | somehow I doubt it. I'm sure it's just a problem in the mbr. ... more... I see, here & in your response to Glee,... .......Quote.............. I downloaded the Seagate test utility and got some information, but the tests caused my system to lock up. I guess that the tests confirmed that my disk is "ok" but the partition record in the mbr is corrupt. .......EOQ................ ....it is questionable the Seagate tool ran well. I don't know what to make of that. I tend to think you need a clean bill of health from it, though, BEFORE you can proceed safely to other procedures. I doubt a bad MBR would/could cause this tool to freeze. It's looking deeper than the Windows file system & MBR contents. It's looking to see whether the drive can hold any data, not whether the data is correct for Windows. (a) Did it give you a message? (b) Did it say "PASSED" anywhere? (c) Did you give it enough time? (d) Was it waiting for you to choose another option, by using the arrow keys & ENTER? Because you have sworn not to sue, I will continue, BUT, really, you should get that resolved. Maybe Glee can say how in his portion of this thread. | It's possible the PM error message is bogus. Windows may not care about it. | | (1) Was another utility used, such as BootIt NG, to adjust a partition after it was originally created using PM? | | | No... Too bad. It would have confirmed the message to be bogus. AIUI, BootIt NG can start a partition on a boundary that PM doesn't like. Windows is OK with it, though. | | (2) Can you boot to DOS & see the hard drive? | | Yes... | ISTR that the correct overall size is given, but that it seemed to be only | one (unformatted) partition. I shall have to check again. Check again! Write it down & post it. Post the full results to... (a) FDISK /Status (b) FDISK For (b), use option 4, thus... (a) FDISK (b) Press ENTER to accept Large Disk Support. (c) Select option 4 (Display Partition Information), & hit ENTER. (d) Hit ENTER at the pre-printed "Y", to get the Extended too. (e) ESC your way OUT, after jotting it all down. DON'T try to do any partitioning! BETTER just post what you see! Here is what mine showed... NOTES: "PRI" is Primary, "EXT" is Extended... "A" under "Status" means "Active". Display Partition Information Current fixed disk drive: 1 Partition Status Type Volume Label Mbytes System Usage C: 1 A PRI DOS P C R HARD 7996 FAT32 42% 2 EXT DOS 11096 58% Total disk space is 19092 Mbytes (1 Mbyte = 1048576 bytes) The Extended DOS Partition contains Logical DOS Drives. Do you want to display the logical drive information (Y/N)......?[Y] Display Logical DOS Drive Information Drv Volume Label Mbytes System Usage E: C TWO 7996 FAT32 72% | Particularly I | don't want to risk the possibility of damaging any of my recent data - (My | last full back up was about 3 moonths ago) | | At DOS, enter... FDISK /Status | | To get to DOS, hold CTRL as you boot & select "Command Prompt Only", or boot a Startup Diskette. 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". Put the diskette in & | turn on the computer. | | (3) Where is the "bad" hard drive now, as you said...?... | | Using another hard drive and Partition Magic 7.0 You didn't answer this question. | | (4) Do you know for certain it has no drive overlay or 3rd party boot manager installed? | | | ...yes... That's good. That's one/two fewer considerations in whether "FDISK /MBR" is destructive. But WHERE is that hard drive mounted? Is it in the Primary Master slot on the motherboard? Is it HDD0, I mean? You have to know it's letter also for "SYS". | | Then... "FDISK /MBR" & "SYS C:" may be the answer to the boot problem. But | we need to know where the drive is mounted to issue the proper commands! | | | http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/utilities.html MBRWork | Free MBR utility. ....snip | | Quite so. The Microsoft bullettin Q69013 also warns against using fdisk/mbr | if there more than four partitions exist. Unfortunately I cannot remember if | the affected hdd contained just c:, d:, e:, and f:, or g: as well. I may risk | it... It's the number of PRIMARY partitions that matter. An Extended partition counts as one primary, no matter how many volumes it contains. Each volume would get a separate letter in Windows. Show us the results of FDISK per above. Windows won't recognize more than four primary partitions per hard drive. If you have more than four, they were invisible without a 3rd party boot manager. | -- | Thanks or Good Luck, | There may be humor in this post, and, | Naturally, you will not sue, should things get worse after this, | | Certainly not!! O-KAY-EEE, then! | | PCR | | [rest snipped] |
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