Operating System not Found [Vista]

Update: Wiping MBR through MBRTool hasn't made a difference to Partition Wizard. It continues to show "bad disk" plus all partitions.

Since Partition Wizard knows/displays all partition start and end addresses, isn't there a tool that is able to construct an MBR from that information (if Partition Wizard itself for some reason can't do that job)?

 

I use those words interchangeably I see MBRTool does differentiate. I generally mean wipe/delete rather than blank as they use it. I can't remember what happened after I wiped track 0 other than the disk appearing empty. I know I tested restoring my backup of it and that worked fine giving back my partitions and MBR. I think the plan was to wipe track 0 and then see if partition wizard could do anything to recover the partitions. But I'm also pretty sure the OP was not worried about his files just trying to reuse the HD.

I think the bad disk is not coming from the MBR but somewhere else. A bad or corrupted MBR would not make a disk "bad". That is why I was looking for a tool to wipe track 0 to see if that made a difference. Testdisk can write an MBR, or the Windows disk can write one using bootrec /fixmbr command. But I don't think it will make a difference.

 

I can't exclude that the disk has some damage, although Partition Wizard shows all these partitions and their content. What worries me is that some other boot CDs and TestDisk refuse to start, showing strange i/o error messages.

What I would like to possibly achieve before sending the laptop in for repair (it still has warranty) is to extract the "BCD" file that Partition Wizard displays on the second of my 5 partitions (2 Sony, 1 Windows, 2 for my data), and use that somehow for try booting from the Sony recovery partition (for which I have no backup unfortunately). Any idea whether that is possible?

 

I was meanwhile able to start from another recovery CD that has tools like GParted and PhotoRec for file recovery -- maybe the latter could give me access to that BCD filey on the recovery partition -- unsure though what I could do with it if I can retrieve it ;-)

The CD runs some form of Ubuntu, and it needed 15 mins to start and displayed cryptic error messages during startup. Currently GParted analyzes my drive, unsure when/whether it will finish.

 

This attempt was unsuccessful, GParted kept hanging, terminated it after 25 minutes or so.

 

The problem is the machine itself is not reading the HD correctly. If yours behaves like the original poster then Gparted won't work with the disk. Testdisk (which i consider the best partition tool) won't work with it either. If Testdisk does work with it then we can try to recover partitions with it.

The problem with using your recovery partition is that the disk isn't being read correctly so ther is no way to boot from the partition. If partition Wizard would let you set that partition to Active (Or Gparted let you set a "boot" flag) which would make it the boot partition then that would probably start recovery and is worth a try if either program sees your partitions and can work with them. Those programs wouldn't work for the other guy.

The BCD is read after a partition is booted from. There is no where to copy it to because you can't read/write to you partitions. My interpretation of your error is that BIOS is pointing to what it thinks is the beginning of your HD and telling the PC to get instructions from there. But that place is either damaged or is pointing to something other than the beginning of the drive so it can't find any instructions and quits. Similarly PW's "bad disk" is also saying it can't quite read the drive's geometry correctly. I don't know how it happens but was hoping that something in track 0 is giving bad information about the HD geometry and if deleted then maybe a program like gparted or partition wizard would look at the HD differently.

If your Linux disc has PhotoRec see if that reads the HD. If it can read it then TestDisk should be able to read it.

 

Ok. I meanwhile tried also wiping the track 0, with no effect to Partition Wizard's recovery operations. Couldn't get GParted or PhotoRec working either.

This then looks like a hardware repair situation, since the HDD doesn't worrk anymore.

Before sending in the laptop for repair, do you have a recommendation for a tool to erase the HDD content, since I have sensitive business data on the disk?

 

I'm disappointed that track 0 wasn't the culprit. It is maddening that a list of files can be found but no way to retrieve them.

PW has a disk wipe function. Any of the first 3 options should be sufficient. http://www.partitionwizard.com/help/wipe-disk.html

If for some reason it won't work you could try the HD manufacturer's utility. They all have a low-level format option which basically writes zeros to the drive. http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287

I don't really have any experience with third party HD erasing tools.

 

I'm not lucky today.

The wipe disk option for the "bad disk" is greyed out in Partition Wizard.

The disk is from Toshiba, and it looks like they don't offer such a utility.

Thanks for all your help!

 

I don't like this most recent version of Partition Wizard. It seems to have too many restrictions compared to earlier versions.

I really don't have any experience with third party HD wiping programs. You can just browse the Drives section of MG for ones that have an ISO file which can be burned to disc so you can boot from it. http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads8.html

Here is one: http://www.miray.de/products/sat.hdshredder.html the free version will wipe the HD. MG's download includes an ISO that can be burnt to CD http://www.majorgeeks.com/HDShredder_d7048.html

Your Linux disc might have some utility that will work. Which version of Linux were you able to boot from?

 

Thanks - I tried HDShredder, but it doesn't recognize the drive. It really looks like Partition Wizard is the only software on this planet that he is able to deal with some of the data on that drive (display its lost partitions and their files). I'll ask Sony to do me the favor and return the replaced drive to me, that gives me a vague feeling of confidence that my data is secure ;-)

Thanks for today.

 

You're welcome.

I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help. I just don't understand how the drive can be so damaged with no warning. Exactly like the original poster's problem. Very strange and both Vaios.

I seriously doubt that the information on that drive is easily recoverable. You tried just about every program that would normally be used. If someone was actually trying they would probably give up and move on to another HD. I'm sure your data is safe.

 

I tried one probably last thing today - booted from the Windows Recovery CD, went into command prompt, executed Diskpart, selected disk 0, and tried what you had suggested some time ago: "attributes disk clear readonly". Interestingly, diskpart then reported "Diskpart failed to clear disk attributes". I did this because with one of the disk wiping programs that I tried out, I got lots of write errors. Probably this doesn't help, but it might be an indicator that there is some lower level problem with writing to this disk.

 

Just read all of these updates. Slightly reassured seeing as I'm not the only one with this problem. I would really really like to get the data off of the disk, so to hear that the information is safe is also a relief (unless I read that wrong?). Honestly, is there any way I can get the information safely off of the disk? I'd be more than happy to trash it afterwords.
Thanks for keeping the brainstorming alive on this, I'm going to try all of the fixes you have listed hear to see if anything works on my machine.

 

Sunglow, did you ever find a solution? We're having the same problem with our Vaio.

I'm so looking forward to your reply...

 

The OP has not been here in over a year. Please create a new thread for support as this one needs to be killed with fire.

Thanks!