Question I Hex edited my disk and now it's not working anymore ?

[Nikooo777]

Hello,
I have a serious problem here,
My hard disk is a Seagate sized 2000GB.
It's installed in my computer as secondary drive but i lately wanted to try out windows 8 and divided the drive in 2 partitions (one with all my backups and such, the other for a windows 8 installation.
For some reasons I didn't like windows 8 and decided to format the partition (from windows 7 booted on the main SSD) using the partition manager. I was unable to complete what i wanted to do because 2 "new" partitions were showing which i couldn't remove or anything else. They were a 200MB partition and a 300MB partition. One was a windows 8 recovery partition and the other one was an EFI partition. i was also unable to create a new disk out of the 1TB of data i previously deleted because of an error saying i needed at least 1MB of free space (I had more than 1TB!). Well, no big deal because my main partition with all my data was still usable and all was fine.

Then i rebooted my computer and it didn't boot. It got stuck before loading with a colorful bar on the top (a horizontal bar of colored pixels).
I turned off my computer, i detached the secondary hard disk and windows 7 booted correctly. After plugging the disk back in, nothing came up. going in the partition manager i could see this: "Disk 0 Dynamic Invalid".
I googled that and found this video:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQgRkEuFQac
that explained how to use HxD Hex editor to modify a certain byte of the sector 0 of the hard disk.
There i must have been really stupid to really do it because based on what i knew i went on and edited line 1c0 changing 42 to 07 and also the next 2 lines which were all null. This was the mistake, i shouldn't have touched those 2 lines (1D0 and 1E0). After rebooting the disk was not recognized by the bios anymore. It's totally dead. The disks spin, i can hear it, but it's not showing anywhere. I can't use the tool anymore as I can't see the drive.
Please tell me there is something i can do to fix this issue. I know exactly what was written in those lines and i can re-write it if only i knew how to.
Please let me know as the data that is contained there mean a lot to me.

Thank you.

 

[USAFRet]

For anyone else reading this:

This right here is why you never, ever screw around with partitions, doubly why you don't dick around with registry entries, and triply why you do not dick with a Hex editor on the boot sector if you do not know exactly what you are doing, on a drive that contains the one and only copy of your critical data.

 

[Nikooo777]

For anyone else reading this:

This right here is why you never, ever screw around with partitions, doubly why you don't dick around with registry entries, and triply why you do not dick with a Hex editor on the boot sector if you do not know exactly what you are doing, on a drive that contains the one and only copy of your critical data.

Am i completely screwed?
I know, I know i shouldn't have done that. I damn know.
I wish I died there.

I'm willing to bring the data back somehow. I'll spend money if needed but before I do that (as a student i really need to take care of the money), I would like to know if there is anything that could save me 500 bucks.

I am an IT student, I will try if i can.

 

[rgd1101]

if you have time, try the tools in
http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd

 

[USAFRet]

For anyone else reading this:

This right here is why you never, ever screw around with partitions, doubly why you don't dick around with registry entries, and triply why you do not dick with a Hex editor on the boot sector if you do not know exactly what you are doing, on a drive that contains the one and only copy of your critical data.

Am i completely screwed?
I know, I know i shouldn't have done that. I damn know.
I wish I died there.

I'm willing to bring the data back somehow. I'll spend money if needed but before I do that (as a student i really need to take care of the money), I would like to know if there is anything that could save me 500 bucks.

I am an IT student, I will try if i can.

As far as the hardware? Probably not. For the data that was on that drive? No idea, but if I were a betting man, I'd say yes, it is toast.

This is when you reinstall the OS etc, and bring your critical data up from the backup.

How to fix that drive, with the existing data? Maybe someone else has an idea. I don't.

 

[Nikooo777]

Thank you for the answers. I have a question here then:

My hard disk is NOT recognized by the bios. I can't see it. Anyway it spins and it's connected via SATA, Is there a tool that allows me to hex edit the sector from bios-level? I'd put everything back as it was, but I really don't know where to look right now.
rgd1101 linked me a list of tools and i'm checking them out but they don't seem to help my issue.
Any clue?

 

[Nikooo777]

Some new details:

If the hard disk is plugged i cannot boot in anything. Either windows 7 or recovery. It will try to load forever (the bars/flag part).

Also somebody told me that buying the same hard disk again and replacing the motherboard could help. I know how to solder and manage PCBs but i am not sure if that would help me. Would it?

 

[USAFRet]

Some new details:

If the hard disk is plugged i cannot boot in anything. Either windows 7 or recovery. It will try to load forever (the bars/flag part).

Also somebody told me that buying the same hard disk again and replacing the motherboard could help. I know how to solder and manage PCBs but i am not sure if that would help me. Would it?

I doubt that would do anything beneficial. The actual data/boot sector on the hard drive, modified by your hex editor changes, is what is screwed....not the drive circuit board.

Is there any absolutely cannot do without, critical data on this drive?
If not.....toss it and move on.
If there is, toss it and move on.

This is where a good backup factors in.

 

[Nikooo777]

Alright tomorrow i will call a lab and see if anything can be done.
As the data is still there, I believe I can retrieve it somehow.

Quoting a stick on this subforum:

I like to think of storage devices as being similar to carbon paper. Essentially, there are two layers. The top layer is what is visible to you and stores the information. As information is written to the top layer, an impression is made on the bottom layer. If you were to erase the top layer, you may think the information is gone for good. In reality, it’s still there on the bottom layer.

I swear on god that by january i have a RAID 1 running for both system and data volumes.

I'll let you know if I succeed!

 

[Paperdoc]

Five points before you do more:

1. I agree with USAFRet - you do NOT need to start replacing pieces of hardware. The problem entirely is in the data written on the HDD unit.

2. I am concerned that you say, "My hard disk is NOT recognized by the bios. I can't see it." The tale you tell should NOT prevent the BIOS for detecting the HDD. Are you sure it cannot be detected in BIOS?

3. There is no tool built into BIOS to allow you to edit HDD sectors. However, many such software tools exist on bootable CD's (maybe on hiren referenced by rgd1101?) If you are SURE you can restore data to all the places you made changes, you could try that. To use such tools you must have the CD in your optical drive, of course, and you must set your BIOS to boot ONLY from that optical drive, so it does not get stuck trying to access other storage units - specifically, the failed HDD it gets stuck on! Then it can boot from and run the OS on the bootable CD.

4. IF you can get your machine to a state where it can boot normally with the faulty HDD connected, but still not accessible, then you really need to do a data recovery operation. In almost all cases the tools used will make a COPY of all the data it can find from that "bad" drive" onto another spare HDD. So, to do this, you need that empty spare HDD to put the copied data onto. One such software tool is GetDataBack NTFS, but there are many others. You must pay for GetDataBack, but it has an interesting process. From their website you can run it on your failed HDD and it will do all its analysis, even to the point of showing you a "directory" of all the files it got (hopefully all of the drive's data) and allow you to open some of those files to verify that they are valid. IF you are satisfied that the tool is doing all you need, you THEN must pay for the software, and it is installed on your machine and finishes the recovery process by writing its recovered data to your spare HDD. ON the other hand, if you don't think the tool is doing things right, you do NOT pay, and it leaves your faulty HDD untouched - it has operated in read-only mode. The HDD is untouched and available for analysis by any other software. Whether you use this tool or another, in this manner you can retrieve (hopefully) all of the data on the HDD to another drive. THEN you can use diagnostic and repair tools, like the Seatools for DOS suite, to completely wipe that faulty unit clean with a Zero Fill, then Partition and Format it and start fresh.

5. You REALLY should read up on the MAJOR differences between RAID1 and true backups. In a RAID1 system, EVERY change you make is done to BOTH HDD units instantly. If you foul up one with odd operations, the other also is just as bad! I doubt very much that a RAID1 system would have prevented your current problem.

 

[fzabkar]

If you can't see the HDD in BIOS, then this would suggest that it has a physical problem, not a logical one. Editing sector 0 CANNOT create a physical problem.

 

[Paperdoc]

What fzabkar said ^.

I know, my point #1 says you don't need to replace hardware. BUT fzabkar is right. If you confirm that BIOS cannot detect the hardware, then you DO have a hardware problem. And it is NOT caused by the sector editing you did.

 

[USAFRet]

What fzabkar said ^.

I know, my point #1 says you don't need to replace hardware. BUT fzabkar is right. If you confirm that BIOS cannot detect the hardware, then you DO have a hardware problem. And it is NOT caused by the sector editing you did.

Right. I think the hardware fail came first, then the Hex editing, which probably made things worse.

 

[Nikooo777]

Hey guys,
thanks for everything.
I didn't give up and I bought a second identical drive.
I installed linux on it.
It recognizes the disk (broken GPT table!).
I hex edited it again and tada... it came back as an empty raw disk on windows!

I then proceeded recovering the data with a tool.

here it is 😉

http://storni.info/scrn/20131204174553299.png

I'm now deciding what the best solution is, whether to mirror it with a RAID or to schedule a backup on the second drive.

Leaning for a mirror.

The only odd thing is that now, having two partitions on it, they are divided in two:
http://storni.info/scrn/20131204174738875.png

 

[hang-the-9]

RAID 1,5, is really used for a drive failure so you can get the system up and running quickly if one drive fails and to prevent data loss if a drive physically fails, not data backup to restore if you accidentally formatted or deleted something.

The best DATA backup plan is to a second drive using a copy program. That COMBINED with a RAID setup (not RAID 0) will give you a proper and pretty safe backup strategy. I like to keep the OS and programs on a separate hard drive from my files (movies, email folders, etc...), image the OS drive, and run backups of the data drive. You can image the data drive, but that takes longer and it's easier to just run a copy overnight to get the file differences.

What I do when I setup system is to create an image of the drive after setting everything up, updates, drivers, programs to make restoring it easy. Then do a restore of the data. If re-building a system I almost never re-use the drive, the old drive gets yanked and put aside as another backup drive, a new drive gets put in, image is dumped on it, and files restored from the backup.

I have about 4 drives with my files on it now from doing drive upgrades, and I can restore any of my computers including games, MS Office, etc... in a few hours from the images, then can simply plug in a backup drive and copy the files over. If one of my backup drives goes bad, at most I would lose a few weeks of stuff and can go back to an older drive. I try to keep my backups on two different hard-drives in addition to the main data drive, for 3 copies of most of my files.

 

[Nikooo777]

Thank you this was a nice explanation.

However I have 1 SSD sized 120GB and 2 HDD sizes 2TB.

I was planning something like a partition of 1600GB where i can hold my data and have it backed up on the other disk. Meanwhile use the remaining 400+400 GB of the two disks to:
1) Backup and sync my SSD
2) Mess around, put temporary stuff there and so on.

What do you think my solution should be?

I Often keep my computer on until about 1AM but when it's on I use it. I don't always need all its performance because I don't play a lot but overnight i turn my pc off as it's in my room and i like to sleep quietly.

I anyway don't want to risk a data loss again so I wish to have the data always synced with a second drive, with at most 1-2 days of out-sync.

I am not as expert as you guys are, so I'm all hears

Thanks again for all the help

 

[hang-the-9]

Don't bother with different partitions. I am guessing your programs and OS will be on the SSD, and data will live on the regular drives.

Get an external drive and use something like clonezilla to image the SSD onto it after it's setup. Put that away.

Use one HDD for data and the second for a backup (MS Backup in the operating system works just fine, or you can just copy the full directory with your files manually). Keep in mind partitions in a drive will do NOTHING for you if the drive goes bad, it's just there to logically separate things to make it easier to work with, not to hold backups of the other partition. If a drive goes bad, all the partitions on it will be gone.

 

[Paperdoc]

As an IT student you have learned so far the power and danger of Hex editors, and something about data recovery tools and processes. Now you're starting to learn the major differences between various RAID systems and a true backup system. You definitely need to learn more in this area so you can decide how best to set up your own. You're making progress, whilst experiencing the pain of mis-steps.

Some simple principles for backups:

The backup should always be made to a physically different HDD unit.

Ideally, that HDD unit should be connected to the system being backed up only when the backup copy is being made. Thereafter it should be disconnected from the computer AND from a power source to keep it safe electrically.

Ideally, the HDD containing the backup should be stored at a physically separate safe site.

At one large business where worked, their IT staff had backups made automatically during the nights and stored in TWO places - on tapes stored at the site, with the second backup sent electronically to a service in a different part of the country. They needed them when TWO of the HDD's in their RAID5 system failed almost simultaneously, so the RAID system could not repair itself.

 

[dragonilly]

Hi everyone, I know it's been 10 years since this topic was last discussed, however history tends to repeat itself.
I also messed around with a Seagate 1500GB hdd. More specifically I messed with the hex values of its partition, in basically the same way. "edited line 1c0 changing 42 to 07" . I did this because I was accessing the drive via a linux OS, and without my knowledge windows had turned the drive into a RAID one(alongside a 1TB WD drive).
Now something went wrong during the edit and now the drive has become completely unusable. it needs to be connected either via USB, or if using a SATA interface then AHCI. No recovery software can do anything with it though. Can't initialize it in windows, and everywhere it says 0KB, even the hex editor only shows 1 line with 0 value.

I don't care that much about the data inside(it would be cool to recover them though). What I care is just to get the HDD back to be able to use it as a storage device. the bios correctly recognizes it as a 1500GB drive.

Any advice?

 

[USAFRet]

Hi everyone, I know it's been 10 years since this topic was last discussed, however history tends to repeat itself.
I also messed around with a Seagate 1500GB hdd. More specifically I messed with the hex values of its partition, in basically the same way. "edited line 1c0 changing 42 to 07" . I did this because I was accessing the drive via a linux OS, and without my knowledge windows had turned the drive into a RAID one(alongside a 1TB WD drive).
Now something went wrong during the edit and now the drive has become completely unusable. it needs to be connected either via USB, or if using a SATA interface then AHCI. No recovery software can do anything with it though. Can't initialize it in windows, and everywhere it says 0KB, even the hex editor only shows 1 line with 0 value.

I don't care that much about the data inside(it would be cool to recover them though). What I care is just to get the HDD back to be able to use it as a storage device. the bios correctly recognizes it as a 1500GB drive.

Any advice?

Please start a NEW thread for your particular situation.
This one is over a decade old.