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#1
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Windows won't start...disk problems
Did you run scandisk from the floppy ?
I wouldn't let it auto FIX until you get a better idea of what is going on. "Terry" tms[AT]pcpostal[DOT]com wrote in message ... Hello, I'm having a problem with my Win98SE PC that has a Seagate 20gig Baracuda HD (FAT32). On startup, booting to Windows just hangs at the start screen. I can hear repeated audible little "bips" coming from the hard drive and the drive light stays lit. I can boot to DOS from startup floppy and can access the disk from DOS (list files, do stuff). When I do a "dir" on the drive's root, among the list of the normal files are 7 files who's names are ascii 128 (like Ç Ç Ç Ç .Ç Ç) with a size of 4,286,644,096 with the date/time stamp of 12-00-07 19:60p. Obviously, the sizes of those funky Ç "files" add up to more than the 20 gig size of the drive. Ran Seagate's SeaTools and it reports "Invalid media descriptor", everything else reports fine (disk tests, surface scan, etc.). Anyone know what happened, what those funky files are, and what I can do to correct this? Thanks in advance |
#2
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Windows won't start...disk problems
Hello,
I'm having a problem with my Win98SE PC that has a Seagate 20gig Baracuda HD (FAT32). On startup, booting to Windows just hangs at the start screen. I can hear repeated audible little "bips" coming from the hard drive and the drive light stays lit. I can boot to DOS from startup floppy and can access the disk from DOS (list files, do stuff). When I do a "dir" on the drive's root, among the list of the normal files are 7 files who's names are ascii 128 (like Ç Ç Ç Ç .Ç Ç) with a size of 4,286,644,096 with the date/time stamp of 12-00-07 19:60p. Obviously, the sizes of those funky Ç "files" add up to more than the 20 gig size of the drive. Ran Seagate's SeaTools and it reports "Invalid media descriptor", everything else reports fine (disk tests, surface scan, etc.). Anyone know what happened, what those funky files are, and what I can do to correct this? Thanks in advance |
#3
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Windows won't start...disk problems
A followup...
Booting to dos prompt, I discovered my Windows directory has vanished! "C:\windows" itself is gone. The only new files at the root are those 7 Ç Ç Ç Ç .Ç Ç files. Any ideas as to what has happened? Will I be able to recover my windows directory without reinstalling? Hello, I'm having a problem with my Win98SE PC that has a Seagate 20gig Baracuda HD (FAT32). On startup, booting to Windows just hangs at the start screen. I can hear repeated audible little "bips" coming from the hard drive and the drive light stays lit. I can boot to DOS from startup floppy and can access the disk from DOS (list files, do stuff). When I do a "dir" on the drive's root, among the list of the normal files are 7 files who's names are ascii 128 (like Ç Ç Ç Ç .Ç Ç) with a size of 4,286,644,096 with the date/time stamp of 12-00-07 19:60p. Obviously, the sizes of those funky Ç "files" add up to more than the 20 gig size of the drive. Ran Seagate's SeaTools and it reports "Invalid media descriptor", everything else reports fine (disk tests, surface scan, etc.). Anyone know what happened, what those funky files are, and what I can do to correct this? Thanks in advance |
#4
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Windows won't start...disk problems
STOP USING THE DRIVE the more you try to do the worse it will get. those funky
files are the total of your hard disk, during the failure the disk was damaged,, they dont really add up to more than 20meg, since a kb=1024 and a gig=1073741824, much larger than the 1000000000 assumed. there are utility programs to recover the disk by restoring the MBR, but you CANT use that pc to download them not sure whether these are right but its a start http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/utils.html http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/ use another pc -- Adaware http://www.lavasoft.de spybot http://security.kolla.de AVG free antivirus http://www.grisoft.com Panda online AntiVirus scan http://www.pandasoftware.com/ActiveScan/ Catalog of removal tools http://www.pandasoftware.com/download/utilities/ Blocking Unwanted Parasites with a Hosts file http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm links provided as a courtesy, read all instructions on the pages before use Grateful thanks to the authors/webmasters "Terry" tms[AT]pcpostal[DOT]com wrote in message ... | Hello, | | I'm having a problem with my Win98SE PC that has a Seagate 20gig Baracuda HD | (FAT32). On startup, booting to Windows just hangs at the start screen. I | can hear repeated audible little "bips" coming from the hard drive and the | drive light stays lit. I can boot to DOS from startup floppy and can access | the disk from DOS (list files, do stuff). When I do a "dir" on the drive's | root, among the list of the normal files are 7 files who's names are ascii | 128 (like Ç Ç Ç Ç .Ç Ç) with a size of 4,286,644,096 with the date/time | stamp of 12-00-07 19:60p. Obviously, the sizes of those funky Ç "files" add | up to more than the 20 gig size of the drive. Ran Seagate's SeaTools and it | reports "Invalid media descriptor", everything else reports fine (disk | tests, surface scan, etc.). | | Anyone know what happened, what those funky files are, and what I can do to | correct this? | | Thanks in advance | | |
#5
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Windows won't start...disk problems
Thank you for your reply.
Fortunately, I have my wife's PC, which is what I've been using since the problem surfaced. I can't do much with the problem PC anyhoo since the Windows directory has vanished. Will restoring the MBR fix the issue of those funky files and restore my C:\Windows directory? Seagate's SeaTools is only a diagnostic utility, and I wasn't able to locate a utility on their site for restoring the MBR. I searched the web and Usenet archives for an MBR restore utility, and all I found were for utilities that restore the MBR from a backup it created of the MBR ( I don't have a backup of my MBR). Some mention using FDISK /MBR to recreate the master boot record. I'm running Win98SE, FAT32 (straight windows, no special partitioning stuff or other disk stuff (disk managers, etc.)). So... will doing a fdisk /mbr hose my existing files on the drive, or will it keep the files intact? I hope to be able to retain my files as it would take a week to get everything back to normal (reinstalls, backup restores, etc.). Anyone know of any issues doing a fdisk /mbr with Win98SE / FAT32? Can anyone recommend a utility for repairing my MBR? Any other suggestions or advice? Thanks. "AlmostBob" wrote in message ... STOP USING THE DRIVE the more you try to do the worse it will get. those funky files are the total of your hard disk, during the failure the disk was damaged,, they dont really add up to more than 20meg, since a kb=1024 and a gig=1073741824, much larger than the 1000000000 assumed. there are utility programs to recover the disk by restoring the MBR, but you CANT use that pc to download them not sure whether these are right but its a start http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/utils.html http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/ use another pc -- Adaware http://www.lavasoft.de spybot http://security.kolla.de AVG free antivirus http://www.grisoft.com Panda online AntiVirus scan http://www.pandasoftware.com/ActiveScan/ Catalog of removal tools http://www.pandasoftware.com/download/utilities/ Blocking Unwanted Parasites with a Hosts file http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm links provided as a courtesy, read all instructions on the pages before use Grateful thanks to the authors/webmasters "Terry" tms[AT]pcpostal[DOT]com wrote in message ... | Hello, | | I'm having a problem with my Win98SE PC that has a Seagate 20gig Baracuda HD | (FAT32). On startup, booting to Windows just hangs at the start screen. I | can hear repeated audible little "bips" coming from the hard drive and the | drive light stays lit. I can boot to DOS from startup floppy and can access | the disk from DOS (list files, do stuff). When I do a "dir" on the drive's | root, among the list of the normal files are 7 files who's names are ascii | 128 (like Ç Ç Ç Ç .Ç Ç) with a size of 4,286,644,096 with the date/time | stamp of 12-00-07 19:60p. Obviously, the sizes of those funky Ç "files" add | up to more than the 20 gig size of the drive. Ran Seagate's SeaTools and it | reports "Invalid media descriptor", everything else reports fine (disk | tests, surface scan, etc.). | | Anyone know what happened, what those funky files are, and what I can do to | correct this? | | Thanks in advance | | |
#6
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Windows won't start...disk problems
The symptoms that you noted I would think are partition boot
record/FAT/FAT32 associated. Were you messing with the bios settings, or was there a power outage lately? "Terry" tms[AT]pcpostal[DOT]com wrote in message ... Thank you for your reply. Fortunately, I have my wife's PC, which is what I've been using since the problem surfaced. I can't do much with the problem PC anyhoo since the Windows directory has vanished. Will restoring the MBR fix the issue of those funky files and restore my C:\Windows directory? Seagate's SeaTools is only a diagnostic utility, and I wasn't able to locate a utility on their site for restoring the MBR. I searched the web and Usenet archives for an MBR restore utility, and all I found were for utilities that restore the MBR from a backup it created of the MBR ( I don't have a backup of my MBR). Some mention using FDISK /MBR to recreate the master boot record. I'm running Win98SE, FAT32 (straight windows, no special partitioning stuff or other disk stuff (disk managers, etc.)). So... will doing a fdisk /mbr hose my existing files on the drive, or will it keep the files intact? I hope to be able to retain my files as it would take a week to get everything back to normal (reinstalls, backup restores, etc.). Anyone know of any issues doing a fdisk /mbr with Win98SE / FAT32? Can anyone recommend a utility for repairing my MBR? Any other suggestions or advice? Thanks. "AlmostBob" wrote in message ... STOP USING THE DRIVE the more you try to do the worse it will get. those funky files are the total of your hard disk, during the failure the disk was damaged,, they dont really add up to more than 20meg, since a kb=1024 and a gig=1073741824, much larger than the 1000000000 assumed. there are utility programs to recover the disk by restoring the MBR, but you CANT use that pc to download them not sure whether these are right but its a start http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/utils.html http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/ use another pc -- Adaware http://www.lavasoft.de spybot http://security.kolla.de AVG free antivirus http://www.grisoft.com Panda online AntiVirus scan http://www.pandasoftware.com/ActiveScan/ Catalog of removal tools http://www.pandasoftware.com/download/utilities/ Blocking Unwanted Parasites with a Hosts file http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm links provided as a courtesy, read all instructions on the pages before use Grateful thanks to the authors/webmasters "Terry" tms[AT]pcpostal[DOT]com wrote in message ... | Hello, | | I'm having a problem with my Win98SE PC that has a Seagate 20gig Baracuda HD | (FAT32). On startup, booting to Windows just hangs at the start screen. I | can hear repeated audible little "bips" coming from the hard drive and the | drive light stays lit. I can boot to DOS from startup floppy and can access | the disk from DOS (list files, do stuff). When I do a "dir" on the drive's | root, among the list of the normal files are 7 files who's names are ascii | 128 (like Ç Ç Ç Ç .Ç Ç) with a size of 4,286,644,096 with the date/time | stamp of 12-00-07 19:60p. Obviously, the sizes of those funky Ç "files" add | up to more than the 20 gig size of the drive. Ran Seagate's SeaTools and it | reports "Invalid media descriptor", everything else reports fine (disk | tests, surface scan, etc.). | | Anyone know what happened, what those funky files are, and what I can do to | correct this? | | Thanks in advance | | |
#7
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Windows won't start...disk problems
Nope. Haven't touched the BIOS in quite awhile, and I run off a battery
backup. A couple of days ago, the PC locked up completely when I went to close an IE window. It ran fine afterwards for a day or so, then the problem arose. The PC has drive drawers so I can cold swap the HDs between my general HD and a few special ones I occasionally need for my work (my general purpose one is the one with the problem). I haven't needed to swap in awhile though. The drive has AVG running, I had updated the sig 2 or 3 days before. "Lil' Dave" wrote in message news:X9Drc.50546$pJ1.47511@lakeread02... The symptoms that you noted I would think are partition boot record/FAT/FAT32 associated. Were you messing with the bios settings, or was there a power outage lately? "Terry" tms[AT]pcpostal[DOT]com wrote in message ... Thank you for your reply. Fortunately, I have my wife's PC, which is what I've been using since the problem surfaced. I can't do much with the problem PC anyhoo since the Windows directory has vanished. Will restoring the MBR fix the issue of those funky files and restore my C:\Windows directory? Seagate's SeaTools is only a diagnostic utility, and I wasn't able to locate a utility on their site for restoring the MBR. I searched the web and Usenet archives for an MBR restore utility, and all I found were for utilities that restore the MBR from a backup it created of the MBR ( I don't have a backup of my MBR). Some mention using FDISK /MBR to recreate the master boot record. I'm running Win98SE, FAT32 (straight windows, no special partitioning stuff or other disk stuff (disk managers, etc.)). So... will doing a fdisk /mbr hose my existing files on the drive, or will it keep the files intact? I hope to be able to retain my files as it would take a week to get everything back to normal (reinstalls, backup restores, etc.). Anyone know of any issues doing a fdisk /mbr with Win98SE / FAT32? Can anyone recommend a utility for repairing my MBR? Any other suggestions or advice? Thanks. "AlmostBob" wrote in message ... STOP USING THE DRIVE the more you try to do the worse it will get. those funky files are the total of your hard disk, during the failure the disk was damaged,, they dont really add up to more than 20meg, since a kb=1024 and a gig=1073741824, much larger than the 1000000000 assumed. there are utility programs to recover the disk by restoring the MBR, but you CANT use that pc to download them not sure whether these are right but its a start http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/utils.html http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/ use another pc -- Adaware http://www.lavasoft.de spybot http://security.kolla.de AVG free antivirus http://www.grisoft.com Panda online AntiVirus scan http://www.pandasoftware.com/ActiveScan/ Catalog of removal tools http://www.pandasoftware.com/download/utilities/ Blocking Unwanted Parasites with a Hosts file http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm links provided as a courtesy, read all instructions on the pages before use Grateful thanks to the authors/webmasters "Terry" tms[AT]pcpostal[DOT]com wrote in message ... | Hello, | | I'm having a problem with my Win98SE PC that has a Seagate 20gig Baracuda HD | (FAT32). On startup, booting to Windows just hangs at the start screen. I | can hear repeated audible little "bips" coming from the hard drive and the | drive light stays lit. I can boot to DOS from startup floppy and can access | the disk from DOS (list files, do stuff). When I do a "dir" on the drive's | root, among the list of the normal files are 7 files who's names are ascii | 128 (like Ç Ç Ç Ç .Ç Ç) with a size of 4,286,644,096 with the date/time | stamp of 12-00-07 19:60p. Obviously, the sizes of those funky Ç "files" add | up to more than the 20 gig size of the drive. Ran Seagate's SeaTools and it | reports "Invalid media descriptor", everything else reports fine (disk | tests, surface scan, etc.). | | Anyone know what happened, what those funky files are, and what I can do to | correct this? | | Thanks in advance | | |
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