Invalid disk table in boot record

I ran partition magic 8 on my hard drive and made two partitions. I later changed them back to one partition.

This morning, I ran Norton System Doctor's "Speed Disk", but I got an error that said: COURIERS contains illegal long file name entries on drive C:

I also got this message:

Error on drive C: -- Invalid Disk Table in Boot Record

The Boot Record contains a table that describes the logical characteristics of your disk, including the total number of sectors.

Correct this situation ONLY if you are unable to access drive C: properly.

I clicked ok, and I saw a message that said: An error has been detected that can be fixed by running Norton Disk Doctor (NDD).

I tried NDD, but it couldn't fix the problem. So I tried to run it in DOS mode. I rebooted the PC and put the Norton Rescue Boot Floppy Disk in the A: drive. I then replaced it with Norton Emergency Utilities Disk 1 and ran Norton Disk Doctor. I tried it with /R to get a record of any errors, but I don't see any record.

When I ran NDD, but when it got to "Analyzing Directory Structure" it stopped running, before completing. I tried a few times and kept getting the following message:

Error [35]: General protection fault in A:
NDD.EXE at 0090:1674 code 0000 SS=0FD8 DS=FEE0 ES=0000 load base AB40

I also got this pop-up message:

The Boot Record could not be repaired.
Unable to continue testing the rest of the disk.

----------------
I did a search in another forum and got the following two URLs:

http://www.v-com.com/support/faqsgen17.html
http://search.symantec.com/custom/us/query.html

I will check them out, but I would also like some advice from anyone who might be able to help. Thank you.


EDIT: I may have found a solution. I'm going to reinstall Norton Utilities, because of the following information that I found on that V-COM URL:


When Norton is installed it saves the current boot record during its installation. Using a partitioning product like Partition Commander or System Commander will modify the partition table which makes the information that Norton previously saved invalid.

Running a Norton repair here may also leave the partition labeled as unformatted. Norton repair will leave the partition will be inaccessible. All data and OSes in that partition are lost or corrupted beyond recovery. A reinstallation of the OS and applications, and restoration of data from a backup copy (if one was made) will be necessary.

Solution:

Remove and reinstall Norton. This will update the saved information and there will be no further error messages from Norton.

 

use your boot floppy

Always backup everything if possable.
In COSMOS make everything LBA
hit DELETE at boot up go into bios change A,C,D,SCUSI around if your
having trouble finding C: drive at least get it to see A: Prompt
Use page up and down and arrows to move around in these.
at A: prompt with your boot floppy
type FDISK\MBR

M= Master
B= Boot
R= Record
This reinstalls your MBR.
I used the backslash it could be a( / ) forward slash.
It will tell you if the switch: ( \ or / ) is bad.
Once done reboot, this will reinstall your
MBR.
Then with your boot floppy at the A: Prompt
use scandisk all or fix
remember to leave a space between the k and the all or fix, or sometimes it works with
just scandiskall
then try: SYS leave a space C: hence SYS C:
it will say (transfered) if you are lucky!
scandisk agine then you
scanreg all or fix ,or just scanreg select (fix)
reboot you might have to back into Bio's till it see's your C:, you will know this as you watch your start screen to see if it writes the name of your hard drive on the Primary list.
Hopefully you can get back into Windows.
Now go back it up!
xp Gates

 

I re-installed Norton Utilities, but I still got the same error messages. I'm going to replace this hard drive with my backup. If that one has no problems with NDD, then I'm going to transfer all of the data from this hard drive to that one. I'll let you know if it works.

 

I just went through this myself

with your OS boot floppy use ctrl+alt+F8 in win ME & 98Se that puts you at something like
1.boot normal
select it, you will get toboot
1
2
3*
4 messages
*select start without Cd Rom*
Arompt
scandiskall or scandisk all or scandisk
try to get to Crompt then scandisk any combo above

Then with your boot floppy still in: fdisk/MBR (or \ )
this installs the MS-Dos you are missing then
you
SYS C: ( if it says system transfered ) then you have transfered all of your system files into C: or your harddrive
Now you don't have to do a full fdisk.

I KNOW ANOTHER WAY after you do fdisk\MBR you can
get back to the Arompt
C:RN WINDOWS SYSTEM WINOLD

This (RN) renames your (OS) then your Bio's won't detect that copy ! (works great )
Now install your CAB'S
then do your (OS) setup ( you didn't have to do a full fdisk ;you didn't lose any data at all .) sweet !!
You can delete the re-named folder and reclaim the space
scandisk, scanreg (fix) reboot opt&defrag.
The MS-Dos long file name problem can be fixed only in MS-Dos using boot floppy boot normal then; select boot without
CD-ROM support then
run A:scandisk all or fix or scandiskall( mine is different everytime i do it; it drives me nuts.) this makes it find your C:
hardrive or however many you have.
Use standard search
don't let it fix it; untick the autofix box this way you can see what the problem is; and you can select the action you want to take
Now go back it up.


xp Gates

 

I ran scandisk in DOS, using my WinME boot disk.
I forgot to write down exactly what it said, when it was done, but it was something about fixing the incorrect reading on the amount of disk space.

Then I rebooted ME in safe mode and ran Windows Disk Defragmentor program. I ran it in safe mode, since there was some program making changes to the disk and causing Disk Defrag to keep restarting. I started this last night and it's still going. It's at 64% completion. It's a 120GB drive with 105GB full. I selected the options: Rearrange programs files so that my programs start faster, and check the drive for errors, so hopefully by tomorrow morning NDD won't see any problems and I can copy the hard drive.

 

Thanks Bid, after about 35 hours, the defrag is complete. NDD still says the same error:

Error on drive C: -- Invalid Disk Table in Boot Record

I've read both of your posts. They are similar. Do you suggest that I just follow your second post?

I will follow your advice and back the hard drive up before attempting to fix the boot record. I have to check the weather, because it's been raining and the last thing I need is a power outage when I'm making a copy of the hard drive.

After I back up the hard drive and make sure that the backup loads Windows I will attempt to fix the MBR.

 

I have two problems, now. I'll start a new thread for the other one.

I formatted a 30GB drive and installed Windows, then I deleted all of the windows and program files from the 120GB drive that I was getting the Invalid Boot Disk errors on.

I did a Norton System Check, but I still got the same error. I was told that Norton Disk Doctor couldn't fix the problem on the 120GB drive. Again, I reinstalled Norton Utilities, but it didn't fix the problem. I couldn't run Speed Disk, so I ran Window's Disk Defragmenter. I just ran Norton System Check, again, and this time instead of choosing NDD I told it to use Scandisk to fix the problem. It said that it fixed the problem, so I'll have to run the system check, again, to see if it really did.

The other thread is going to be titled "Windows won't load and the screen goes black". Thanks for your help.

 

Hello,

I guess you need to make a clean install of your
system. I believe that all your private stuff is
already saved on another partition (you said you
have PMagic 8).
I advice you to use Norton Ghost to back up your
system and give up to the rest of NSWorks.

be well

Stefan

PS:If you're interested in further details, please let me know