Dynamic Disk (Unreadable)

[Simon]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

Okay. I'm trying to fix a friend's laptop. it had 2 OS installs on it - one
Red Hat Fedora on 8GB, and one XP on 10GB, and was booting with the Grub boot
loader. XP was completely unusable, it was so screwed up with malware.

I booted to an XP Pro CD, and formatted the foreign disk (the Redhat install
partition) and put a fresh install there. I loaded up some antivirus
software, spybot, and some other utilities, and started to import data from
her old XP install. In particular, I know she was eager to recover all of her
digital photography. Anyway, after some time, I have copied over all relevant
data, and my new install remained uncompromised by the nasty virusses and
malware that infested the original installation.

So, I went into Disk Management, and I deleted the C: Partition (my install
was showing up as D:\Windows), set the D: partition as active, and I kept in
my back of my mind the fact that I would need to modify the boot.ini to
reflect the change. Before I did that, however, I decided to convert the disk
to Dynamic so that I could span the now unformatted space where her old
install resided.

The idea was that I'd avoid doing another install and copying the recovered
data back again.

Well, I got a message about unmounting the file system, and rebooting, but I
don't think it gave me the option to NOT proceed at that point. It said that
it would complete the disk conversion after the reboot. Of course, because I
hadn't yet modified the Boot.ini, this didn't happen... it couldn't boot.

I tried to use the XP CD to repair... and without really thinking about what
I was doing, I went into recovery mode and used the fixmbr command... I had
no idea how bad that would be.

Anyway, I've since reloaded XP Pro to the space inhabitted originally by my
friend's BAD install. In Disk Management, I see the whole disk as Dynamic
Unreadable, and don't even see the partition I am booting in to. The only
option I'm given here is to Convert to Basic Disk, which will delete the data
I'm still intent on recovering.

I've been reading KB articles, and I don't quite understand what I need to
do to resolve this. The disk never finished converting to Dynamic, so does
this mean that I need to edit the boot sector to remove the 0x42 entry that
I'll find when I run dmdiag -v? Or will need I need to modify whatever is
there to be 0x42? The articles I've read attempt to explain the situation I
guess, but I'm not understanding it. I don't feel confident making any change
that low level without some confirmation.

Anyone around that knows a lot about this sort of thing that can give me
some insight? It would be greatly appreciated!!!

 

[peter]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

No lal, he want to keep the data files (digital photos) for his girl friend.

I would suggest you to call a data reocvery expert, need money anyway.


Peter


"Carey Frisch [MVP]" wrote:

> Windows Disk Management console does not support a dynamic
> disk upgrade on a laptop computer. Laptops usually only support
> a single internal hard disk, so they cannot take advantage of the
> advanced volume options that dynamic disks provide.
> Ref: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;232463
>
> Backup the important data files and perform a "clean install".
>
> The Windows XP CD is bootable and contains all the tools necessary
> to partition and format your drive. Follow this procedure and allow
> Windows XP to partition and format your drive:
>
> NOTE: It would be best to physically disconnect all your peripheral hardware
> devices, except the monitor, mouse and keyboard, before installing XP.
>
> NOTE: If you have an internal Zip Drive installed, physically disconnect the
> EIDE and power cable to it before proceeding, otherwise your main
> hard drive may not be assigned the customary C: drive letter.
> After installing Windows XP, you may then reconnect it.
>
> 1. Open your BIOS and set your "CD Drive as the first bootable device".
>
> ===> Accessing Motherboard BIOS
> ===> http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm
>
> 2. Insert your Windows XP CD in the CD Drive and reboot your computer.
> 3. You'll see a message to boot to the CD....follow the instructions.
> 4. The setup menu will appear and you should elect to delete all the existing
> Windows partitions, then create a new partition, then format the primary
> partition (preferably NTFS) and proceed to install Windows XP.
>
> 5. Clean Install Windows XP
> http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html
>
> [Courtesy of Michael Stevens, MS-MVP]
>
> 6. ==> Immediately after installing Windows XP, turn on XP's Firewall.
> ==> http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.aspx
>
> 7. After Windows XP is installed, visit the Windows Update website
> and download the available "Critical Updates".
>
> 8. After installing the critical updates, be sure and visit the support website
> of the manufacturer of the computer to download and install any
> available Windows XP compatible drivers, such as video adapter
> and audio drivers.
>
> 9. If you happen to run into any installation difficulties, use the following resources:
>
> How to Troubleshoot Windows XP Problems During Installation
> http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;310064
>
> Troubleshooting Windows XP Setup
> http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_setup.htm
>
> [Courtesy of MS-MVP Kelly Theriot]
>
> --
> Carey Frisch
> Microsoft MVP
> Windows XP - Shell/User
>
> Be Smart! Protect Your PC!
> http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.aspx
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "Simon" wrote:
>
> | Okay. I'm trying to fix a friend's laptop. it had 2 OS installs on it - one
> | Red Hat Fedora on 8GB, and one XP on 10GB, and was booting with the Grub boot
> | loader. XP was completely unusable, it was so screwed up with malware.
> |
> | I booted to an XP Pro CD, and formatted the foreign disk (the Redhat install
> | partition) and put a fresh install there. I loaded up some antivirus
> | software, spybot, and some other utilities, and started to import data from
> | her old XP install. In particular, I know she was eager to recover all of her
> | digital photography. Anyway, after some time, I have copied over all relevant
> | data, and my new install remained uncompromised by the nasty virusses and
> | malware that infested the original installation.
> |
> | So, I went into Disk Management, and I deleted the C: Partition (my install
> | was showing up as D:\Windows), set the D: partition as active, and I kept in
> | my back of my mind the fact that I would need to modify the boot.ini to
> | reflect the change. Before I did that, however, I decided to convert the disk
> | to Dynamic so that I could span the now unformatted space where her old
> | install resided.
> |
> | The idea was that I'd avoid doing another install and copying the recovered
> | data back again.
> |
> | Well, I got a message about unmounting the file system, and rebooting, but I
> | don't think it gave me the option to NOT proceed at that point. It said that
> | it would complete the disk conversion after the reboot. Of course, because I
> | hadn't yet modified the Boot.ini, this didn't happen... it couldn't boot.
> |
> | I tried to use the XP CD to repair... and without really thinking about what
> | I was doing, I went into recovery mode and used the fixmbr command... I had
> | no idea how bad that would be.
> |
> | Anyway, I've since reloaded XP Pro to the space inhabitted originally by my
> | friend's BAD install. In Disk Management, I see the whole disk as Dynamic
> | Unreadable, and don't even see the partition I am booting in to. The only
> | option I'm given here is to Convert to Basic Disk, which will delete the data
> | I'm still intent on recovering.
> |
> | I've been reading KB articles, and I don't quite understand what I need to
> | do to resolve this. The disk never finished converting to Dynamic, so does
> | this mean that I need to edit the boot sector to remove the 0x42 entry that
> | I'll find when I run dmdiag -v? Or will need I need to modify whatever is
> | there to be 0x42? The articles I've read attempt to explain the situation I
> | guess, but I'm not understanding it. I don't feel confident making any change
> | that low level without some confirmation.
> |
> | Anyone around that knows a lot about this sort of thing that can give me
> | some insight? It would be greatly appreciated!!!
>