[SOLVED] How do I repair corrupted partition table after failed windows update

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dmanners

May 3, 2021
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Long story short, windows update got messed up because it froze after waking from sleep mode and I had no option (couldn't log back in, couldn't put to sleep) but to power down computer. Windows would no longer load and was in a windows screen bootloop. Couldn't get into repair mode and could use repair option on usb; just constant bootloop. The issue was fixed when I disconnect all but my C: drive, which finally allowed the usb repair to work.

When I managed to repair windows, I shut down and reconnected all my other drives. This led to my current predicament. When my Seagate 3gb sata drive was connected, the system would get stuck in the bios load screen. When disconnected it loaded windows perfectly fine along with my other drives. I removed the seagate and connected it to my pc with a usb sata adapter and it seems the partition tables got corrupted. The seagate drive is no longer recognized and is now detected in disk management as a unknown 4gb unallocated disk, and not initialized. The windows properties show the device status as working properly.

When I tried to initialize the drive, either as mbr or gpt partition, I would get a cyclic redundancy error message. Crystaldiskinfo list my 3gb Seagate with an Unknown health status, although it detected the drive as a 137.4 gb ST3000DM001 drive, which was the original amount of free space. I tried to repair the mbr using aomei partition manager, which it said it did successfully, but it is still incorrectly detected as a 4gb device. I tried to convert it to gpt, but kept getting the cyclic redundancy error message.

I tried using Diskpart and it shows up as a 4gb device under "list disk" command but was not show under "list volume". I tried the "clean" command and the "create primary partition" but it gave the same cyclic redundancy error again. Now its no longer showing up in diskpart, although still detected in aomei and in windows disk management.

Anyone have any ideas on what I can do next?
 
Solution
USAFRet
dmanners said:
Sadly no. The original data drive failed (physical drive failure) so I was using this one as temporary storage until my new external drive came in the mail. Just unfortunate timing. What can go wrong will go wrong eventually.

This is why I'm hoping its a physical drive failure. The thing still spins when access and can be detected with several partition recovery managers. They just cant seem to fix the mbr/gpt table. One program indicated that the mbr/gbt was missing and was supposedly able to fix it, but i'm hesitant on spending the $150 fee without a guarantee.
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Recovering from a physical fail is WAY worse and WAY more expensive than a simple messed up partition.
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I really hope this isn't the case because I need the data off this drive. I'm pretty confident I messed up the partition tables when I tried to repair windows. I used hirensbootcd when I failed to get into recovery mode. I think i used easybcd to try to repair the boot sectors and inadvertently messed it up somehow.
 
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fzabkar said:
A bogus capacity of 3.86GB is a symptom of an internal fault. It cannot be fixed with DIY software tools. You will probably find that the drive is also reporting a bogus model number and serial number to CrystalDiskInfo.
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No, the serial and the model number are correct. Unfortunately, I have good reason to believe that I somehow corrupted the boot sector when trying to fix my windows issue with easybcd. In linux, the disk utility's assessment is that the drive is OK with 1 bad sector. I believe that 1 bad sector is the boot sector and partition table i messed up with easybcd.
 
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USAFRet said:
CRC is almost certainly a physical drive fail.

Even if this was self induced with EasyBCD...
This is when you get a new drive and recover the whole thing from your backup.
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That's what I'm afraid of. This drive was the back up. The original failed a little while back and I just bought a new external drive. Just my luck that this had to happen before I could copy the data over. I just want to exhaust all other possibilities before I had to spend the money on paying for a recovery job. Would you happen to have a ballpark figure on how much this would cost?
 
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dmanners said:
That's what I'm afraid of. This drive was the back up. The original failed a little while back and I just bought a new external drive. Just my luck that this had to happen before I could copy the data over. I just want to exhaust all other possibilities before I had to spend the money on paying for a recovery job. Would you happen to have a ballpark figure on how much this would cost?
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Since this was a "backup", the data still lives on other drives, right?

How much $$?
No idea.
 
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USAFRet said:
Since this was a "backup", the data still lives on other drives, right?

How much $$?
No idea.
Click to expand...
Sadly no. The original data drive failed (physical drive failure) so I was using this one as temporary storage until my new external drive came in the mail. Just unfortunate timing. What can go wrong will go wrong eventually.

This is why I'm hoping it isn't a physical drive failure. The thing still spins when access and can be detected with several partition recovery managers. They just cant seem to fix the mbr/gpt table. One program indicated that the mbr/gbt was missing and was supposedly able to fix it, but i'm hesitant on spending the $150 fee without a guarantee.
 
Last edited:
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dmanners said:
Sadly no. The original data drive failed (physical drive failure) so I was using this one as temporary storage until my new external drive came in the mail. Just unfortunate timing. What can go wrong will go wrong eventually.

This is why I'm hoping its a physical drive failure. The thing still spins when access and can be detected with several partition recovery managers. They just cant seem to fix the mbr/gpt table. One program indicated that the mbr/gbt was missing and was supposedly able to fix it, but i'm hesitant on spending the $150 fee without a guarantee.
Click to expand...
Recovering from a physical fail is WAY worse and WAY more expensive than a simple messed up partition.
 
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Solution
Also, if you are considering to get professional help to restore the data, you must cease and desist any attempts to use the drive immediately, the drive no longer has a valid file table and WILL overwrite random or in sequence data as you keep trying to "repair" it.

If you must use it, make sure it is from a read only situation, hooked up to another PC or docking station.
 
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If a physical drive failure is confined to the PCB, then the fix will cost at most US$50. Otherwise, internal failures requiring headstack replacement can cost from US$500 to $1000, depending on your location, if you avoid the bigger, overpriced outfits.

If the drive has suffered a head crash, then your data will probably be deemed unrecoverable by most DR shops.

BTW, Seagate sometimes offers free data recoveries.
 
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fzabkar said:
Does CrystalDiskInfo report the SMART attributes? This data is stored in the reserved System Area on the platters. If there is no access to SMART, then this would confirm internal problems.
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The drive only shows the correct serial model number with an incorrect disk size (which i believe was the free space available, 137.4 gb) but windows disk management only shows 3.86 gb unallocated.


The rest of the info is missing/blank, such as Read error rate all to way to CRC error count. It looks like I'm out of luck and will have the bite the big financial bullet.
 
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fzabkar said:
A capacity of 137.4 GB corresponds to 0xFFFFFFF sectors. That's a nonsensical result arising from the inability of the drive to read its actual capacity from the System Area.
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So in your opinion, how screwed am I and how much will this cost me? I have an appointment tomorrow to see a specialist but they can't quote me a price until they see it.
 
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Its a local repair shop. They'll charge me a small diagnostic fee that goes toward the price of repair. If they can't I'm only out the small fee. They seem to have a good track record with the hundreds of positive yelp and google reviews.
 
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