Failure to Format Disk 0 Partition 3 on Gateway Recovery

Discussion in 'Software' started by kourosh, Oct 11, 2012.

  1. kourosh

    kourosh Private E-2

    I have a gateway laptop and am having trouble recovering the system to factory settings. When I run the recovery disk, I get the message:
    Fail to format disk 0 partition 3
    I tried running an AVG bootable CD to diagnose the recovery issues, but the laptop does not run the disk and instead gives the error msg:
    BOOTMGR is missing
    Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart

    Can anyone help me with this problem -- many thanks in advance.
     
  2. sach2

    sach2 Major Geek Extraordinaire

    Thanks for the new thread.

    So just to be sure you are booting from the recovery discs and not trying to run them in Windows which was the other persons problem?

    Does the AVG disc let you see files and folders on the HD? And which version of Windows are you running 32bit or 64bit or give model number of laptop.
     
  3. kourosh

    kourosh Private E-2

    Yes, I am able to select running from CD on the boot menu. The windows that was installed on the laptop when I got it was 64-bit, but i have not been able to get any Windows screens on this machine since it began having problems.
     
  4. sach2

    sach2 Major Geek Extraordinaire

    I'm not sure if the restore ever went through and I am not sure about the partition error since you are booting the CD which is correct.

    How did you burn the AVG CD? To make a CD bootable the ISO image file has to be burnt as an image file. Imgburn's "Write image File to Disc" option will burn the CD correctly. Imgburn: http://majorgeeks.com/ImgBurn_d4870.html Guide: http://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?showtopic=61

    Get the file from the text document below and use Imbgurn to write it as an image file to CD. That will let us look at the partitions on the HD and figure out if you still have a Windows installation and which partition is which. We can get past the bootmgr is missing error if the HD recovery went through. Did you think the HD recovery ran most of the way?
     

    Attached Files:

  5. kourosh

    kourosh Private E-2

    Thanks. I burned again with different software and the CD is now running on the gateway. It gives me the following msg:

    smartctl reports some problems with disk!
    UTILITIES_SMARTCTL_ERROR

    When prompted to continue, I get a screen with:
    Mounting Windows partitions
     
    Last edited: Oct 11, 2012
  6. sach2

    sach2 Major Geek Extraordinaire

    SMART is an early warning system for HD failure. I'm guessing that that is what that error is referencing. Having some errors is normal but if it states SMART status is BAD rather than GOOD it generally means the HD will fail soon.

    If the HD is really in bad shape then that would explain the problems with recovery.

    I'm not familiar with the AVG disc and its utilities. Is that just the beginning of a scan or is that the entire message?
     
  7. kourosh

    kourosh Private E-2

    That is the entire scan. I suspect you are correct about the HD failing.
     
  8. sach2

    sach2 Major Geek Extraordinaire

    I just saw two threads where people got that message from AVG's disc and they then ran other utilities which said their HD was fine. It didn't say the HD was bad.

    I think it is worth burning the recovery environment disc to see what it says about the partitions. The bootmgr is missing message could just be the wrong partition is active or it could be that the recovery wiped out your Win7 files. If you have another Win7 64bit computer you can just type in repair in the Start/Search box and "Create a Repair Disc" will be one of the search results and it will guide you through the process, otherwise you have to download it.
     
  9. kourosh

    kourosh Private E-2

    Thanks Sach2 -- I'll try that and see where it leads me. Appreciate your help!
     
  10. sach2

    sach2 Major Geek Extraordinaire

    It will boot to the screens in Option Two here. You want to pay attention to the step 5 in Option 2 to see if it shows an installation as in the first of those two screenshots or if it is blank as in the second. If it is blank then we have more of a problem.
     
  11. kourosh

    kourosh Private E-2

    I replaced the HD with a new Toshiba 500GB SATA yesterday and the OEM recovery disks went much further than before...but not quite there. After about 30-40 minutes of switching back and forth between the System, Recovery, and Language disks, it seemed every thing was a go, until Windows tried to restart, and I had the following msg on the screen:

    Setup is applying system settings

    Shortly after that, a pop screen showed the msg:
    Install Windows
    Windows Setup could not configure Windows to run on this computers hardware.

    Are my recovery media defective or am I missing an intermediate step to prepare my new HD before trying to boot from the recovery disks?
     
  12. sach2

    sach2 Major Geek Extraordinaire

    Hi,

    I'm not really familiar with this error. I only glanced at a few threads on the issue. Here is the MS information: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2466753

    What is your Gateway model number?

    If you enter BIOS (usually F2 during the Gateway screen) Can you find anything related to SATA Configuration? What is it set to? You want to try ACHI or IDE if available.
     
  13. kourosh

    kourosh Private E-2

    Thanks Sach2! You are a genius! I checked out the link and after checking the windows/panther directory confirmed that the problem is with the TOSHIBA SATA being RAID, so as you suggested I went to BIOS and changed it to IDE and ran the system restore disks again. Viola, the problem resolved! Really appreciate your help with this!
    Kourosh
     
  14. sach2

    sach2 Major Geek Extraordinaire

    I'm glad you got it installed. :)

    I think ideally you want to be running ACHI but that involves a registry fix and then a fingers-crossed restart. I just did it a few months ago after realizing I possibly had the setting wrong in my BIOS during install. It is not absolutely necessary but ACHI mode should technically be a little faster access to the SATA drive.

    Did you happen to notice if you had ACHI available in BIOS?

    This is the edit http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/61869-ahci-enable-windows-7-vista.html
    Notice there are two restarts after the edit. One for the driver install and then a second to begin using the ACHI mode.

    Again, it is not absolutely necessary but I thought I would mention it and offer to answer an questions if you wanted to think about it.

    ***
    I don't really foresee any problem with doing it but it can potentially cause a blue screen so since you only have recovery discs rather than a retail installation disc you may want to wait until you have a blank CD/DVD to burn a repair disc before applying the change. A repair disc would let you boot to recovery options that include System Restore if you did blue screen and F8 and Safe Mode did not work. Creating a repair disc is just going to Start and typing repair into the Search box and then clicking on "Create a Repair Disc" from the list of search results.

    I ran my newest installation of Win7 for 3 months without ever realizing I was in IDE mode. After the change to ACHI, I can't really say I noticed any difference so it really is optional.
     
    Last edited: Oct 18, 2012

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