Gparted - power failure - lost XP?
 

I was in process of resizing disk partiton with Gparted for PCLOS dual boot install when power went out for several hours. Now I can't boot XP even with a boot CD. Are there any options other than fresh install of XP? Do I try Gparted again and let it complete the resize?

I can boot to linux with the PCLOS liveCD, and it looks like c: is completely blank. There's also d: logical drive for system recovery, and it looks like all of the files are still there, but I can't seem to do a system restore. Boot screen has f10 system restore option, but it doesn't do anything - just goes to black screen. :scratch:

HP PCm7170n dual core, with CD and DVD drives (no floppy)

Use your PCLOS live disk and as root open konsole and type fdisk -l. Post this back, the damage may not be as bad as you think. Also did you get HP system recovery disks with your computer?

I don't have the restore CD's. I think they don't include them because there is a recovery partition.

Here's fdisk output. Thanks for the help

[root@localhost root]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 989 7937968+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 * 1046 27818 215046090 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 989 1046 461160 5 Extended
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda5 989 1037 385528+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 1037 1046 75568+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order
[root@localhost root]#

Being honest you are going to need more help than I can give. Maybe someone more disk configuration knowledge can help. If worse comes to worse you could do a reinstall and be careful of the options when it is time to partition the hard drive. It looks like your XP is still there. It appears to need a home partition.

I doesn't look right but I wouldn't give up (yet). Pop in the gparted cd and run testdisk, which can be used to restore lost/broken partitions. If successful, you'll be back where you started from but that's still better than what you have right now.

Two suggestions.

I think a chkdsk would fix the problem. If the file system is still there then it should fix it. There are just some files needed for Windows to boot missing.

1)You said the Windows CD wouldn't work but it could be because of the HDD. This has happened to me a few times for some reason windows won't boot with the HDD. Try unplugging the IDE/SATA cable to the HDD and then try the CD. If it goes then reboot and connect the IDE/SATA cable just after you push a button to load from CD. The cd should work. Then you can run chkdsk /r from the recovery console. You aren't "supposed" to plug in IDEs while the system is running but I have never had a problem with just the IDE cable its the molex power connector that has caused me troubles.

2)Another much safer way, I recommend this method, if you have another computer with Windows, probably not too hard to find, put the HDD in that as a slave and when you boot the system into the master HDD it should run a chkdsk. If not then run chkdsk /r from the command line.

Hope this helps.

HP is lazy to not create a restore disc themselves, so you have to create one yourself. I think their manual said they recommend the user make a restore disc after setting up the system.

There is always a chance of data corruption when using any disk utility that resizes, merges, and deletes partitions. I strongly recommend backing up the data. The easiest to do this is with Norton Ghost or GNU Partimage.

Like what jay73 have said, use testdisk to recover valuable data. Though I suggest after using testdisk, do a clean installation of Windows. Though trash Windows and go with Linux because it is better. :D

It is best to go into the BIOS and change boot device order. It is stupid to manually going in the computer and disconnect an IDE drive while the system is on. IDE controllers or other IDE drives can be damage this way.

Putting the drive that is corrupted in another computer to correct the problem is not smart. The reason for this is the hardware might be similar, but it is different. One controller might be using one geometry and other is using a different geometry. Each of the two geometries provides the same calculation, but each of them provides a different writing scheme. It is best to keep the corrupted drive in the same system and do the data recovery. The utility chkdsk is ok, but does more harm than good.

There have been several times, with windows, that it is something with the HDD that prevents that boot, reguardless of boot order. And I didn't say to disconnect it while the computer was on I said to connect it.( I would never disconnect while the computer is running.) Plus I did recommend the other way.
Most OS today are able to adjust for deferent hardware. I have saved 1,000 of HDDs this way I don't see any problem with it. Perhaps in the 1980s there was a problem with it but not with todays technology. As for chkdsk I agree linux apps are better but I just believe let linux apps fix linux and windows apps fix windows. Segregation is good sometimes.

If you connect an IDE drive while the computer is on, the controller, the connected drives, or the drive being connected will be damaged. IDE is not meant for hotswap because they do not have the require circuitry to protect the controller from static electricity and a surge on its I/O pins.

The utility chkdsk is alright for minimal corruption but not after using a utility that has adjusted the partition table and the filesystem to suit the new size of the partition. I recommend use a utility like testdisk to get the valuable data and then use another utility to fix the filesystem.

Putting a hard drive from one computer that was connected to a Highpoint controller using HPT370/HPT372 chip and then to another computer that is using an IDE controller made by VIA. The data will not come up because of differences in geometry algorithm. Even IDE hard drives from my 80386 computer can not be read on my AMD Athlon and Intel P4 computers. The controller have to be the same on the other computer or else data may not be extracted correctly. Though ATAPI compatible controllers may minimize these problems.

I am sorry, but I do not recommend your way.

Hard drives are just devices. When they are hooked up to a cheap and soon to be failing power supply, the hard drive will chirp. The chirp sound is the actuator going to the home position because the motor for the plattors are spinning up and then spinning down from the irregular voltages from the power supply. Seagate and Maxtor drives needs a well regulated and well filter power in order to function. Western Digital and IBM/Hitachi hard drives are little resilient.

testdisk is a better tool than what Microsoft provides because testdisk fixes corrupted partition tables and corrupted boot sectors. Photorec should be used before using chkdsk or Norton Disk Doctor because it does its best to extract data from a corrupted drive or from an image.

Ok, tried gparted testdisk, said heads were 255 and should probably be 240, so I changed them to 240, re-ran analyze, and it didn't flag them as bad, but still can't boot windows. Windows XP Boot disk says:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
<Windows root>\system32\hal.dll.
Please re-install a copy of the above file.

what next?
Thanks

From Linux, get your valuable data from the windows partition and then do a clean installation of Windows XP or try to use Windows installation disc to over write that file with a fresh file.

Are you sure there is no recovery partition on your hard disk?
HP used to always include a recovery partition, it was even forced by the Court (last year I think) to give a recovery disk too, because some support tools from the original m$ distribution were missing from the recovery partition. I think your recovery partition is /dev/sda1. Is it damaged too?

A good first step would be a full backup of the disk (or at least of the damaged partition) to another disk. You could ask for a rescue disk to the technical support, or even repair the installation with another cd from a friend. But one of the best tools to save partitions is TestDisk.

About disk geometry, I know that any disk bigger than (about) 8 GB appears with 255/63.

I have backups of my documents, was just hoping to not have to re-install Windows and apps.

Yes, there is a recovery partition. That's all I see on the disk, but I don't know how to use it to recover/restore windows. When I select the recovery option at bootup, it just goes to black screen.

Update - I called HP cause I thought I was still under warranty and could have them restore it. Turns out my warranty had expired so they sold me an extended warranty and promised that I could send it in in 30 days after the warranty was initiated.
30 days has elapsed so I called HP today, now they say no they won't fix it because the problem occurred before the warranty! This after spending another 90 minutes on the phone with them. :mad:

Anyway, can anyone provide help on how to restore Win XP on this thing? I'm running PCLinuxOS from live cd but want to be able to run Win apps and games. HP says the restore CD won't do me any good because it must be a 'Hardware problem', but like I said, I'm able to run PCLos from liveCD with no problem, and can see the restore partition of the hard-drive.

Thanks in advance!