Unable to troubleshoot a hard disk crash.

[Andyiz]

Dear friends,
I had used Automated Os installation cd to install Win xp sp2 in my friends place.
I had prepared this cd according to what was given in this months issue, "Take a crack"
After doing that My friends 1st drive crashed(it had WIn 98 installed in it)

Now that volume is tottaly inaccesible, not even in my house( i had brought the hdd in my house and tried to reformat it , but even that cant be done).

While i was installing Os i had some Blue screen which said that some file called partmgr is corrupt or damaged, and since then we are having this problem.

How do i come out of the situation, plz suggest workarounds.

Plz let me know was it bcoz i had used the automated cd for installation?

i doubt it bcoz while preparing the Sif file( called answer file) i never had to enter the drive into which the OS wil be installed.

How safe and reliable Disk recovery tools are?
CAn i use them to recover it
Or
Since that drive is a primary drive i wil have to del Extended drive partitions the del primary drive partition and then probably repartition all drives


Which opt to go for?

 

[yrana2002]

Well, couldnt really understand your problem thoroughly, but did you try installing Winxp in the same partition as Win98??

If thats so, then it has corrupted the partition table files for that 98 partition. Its always advised to avoid installing multiple OSes on the same part.

Well, since the damage has been done, its advisable not to try using the disk more. Just try some of these steps here:
1. Use a software called Active Partition Recovery. Its a DOS tool that recovers lost partitions effectively.
If all fails, then simply try to delete all partitions so that you can do a advanced format on the drive( I'm not sure the software does that work too)

2. If that doesnt work, i cant seem to think of any other idea. You may just try to recover your valuable files using Data REcovery tools like Ontrack Recovery Pro.

How safe and reliable Disk recovery tools are?
CAn i use them to recover it

You dont have many options, so you may just have to go into this.

This was the best i could think of. If anybody has some novel ideas, i'd greatly appreciate the effort. Do post in regarding what your method eventually was...

Savvy

 

[JGuru]

If you harddisk is under warranty then give it to the Service Center.
They will replace it with a new one. Don't try all the Digit mag's tricks
on the home PC!! Sometimes it may even damage your OS and motherboard!!