Re: WD data lifeguard tools on a HDD with data on it


Joep wrote:
> "Folkert Rienstra" <see_reply-to@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:434d0e7d$0$2422$892e7fe2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > "Joep" <available@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:41607$434a7a26$3eddca68$13227@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > I asked for the logfile to be posted in our forum.
> >
> > And now we know why.
>
> We do?
>
> >
> > > Anyway, at first glance
> >
> > How nice to know that you know your own software well.
> >
> > > the partition table and boot sector look fine.
> > > Make sure this is not a Windows problem that may result in behavior as
> > > you describe it:
> > > Windows may have trouble accessing the entire disk and can not reach the
> > > backup boot sector.
> >
> > 11kB of data bull*** but it can't recognize a simple 137GB (or other)
> > capacity addressing limit foldback?
>
> No, because DiskPatch runs in DOS, it can not detect a Windows problem, you
> arse.
>
> --
> Joep

be nice!

UPDATE
======
So, I got my shiny new hard drive, which is exactly the same as the old
one and played around with it, setting it up in different ways with
Data Lifeguard Tools, to see what would happen.

I tried first with biglba enabled in windows and looking at the mbr in
a sector editor it seemed to just set it up as a standard windows
drive.

After writing zeros to the first 63 sectors, I then set it up without
biglba enabled to see what would happen. DLG set up the drive as 137gb
which is not unsurprising, but kind of interesting that it did not go
down the ddo route (there was no option for installing it).

After that I re-enabled biglba and then re-booted. Without writing
zeros to the first 63 sectors, I used DLG to set the drive up again,
deleting the existing partition and putting on one new partition which
took up the whole drive.

DLG reported that the partition/format had completed successfully, but
windows reported the drive as unformatted! Now, that IS interesting. I
would warn people off from using DLG to set up a drive.

Anyway, after that I tried to clone my original disk which would not
work under windows using Disk Image and would not work under DOS using
Maxblast.

So I downloaded an iso of g4u - Harddisk Image Cloning for PCs
http://www.feyrer.de/g4u/ which is a fantastic little proggy for
creating sector to sector copies of hard drives. It is slow, but
creates and exact copy, which is what I wanted.

After removing my original drive (just in case) I booted windows which
gave the usual error... your disk needs to be checked for consistency

then... deleting orphan file record segment nnnnn
then... deleting index entry

after booting, all of the files are gone, except for the last folder I
pasted on the drive before it went wrong. I am now using file recovery
software to see what can be salvaged, but if it does not work, I will
re-clone from my backup.

Clearly the mbr and partition table do not match the data that is on
the drive, and I am wondering if there is anything I can do to rectify.
It is worth trying, to see what happens.

Also, I was wondering if the problem that I am now having has to do
with the allocation unit size in ntfs? if the drive was originally set
up using 512 bytes for the allocation unit size but now the mbr or
partition table have the allocation unit size set differently if that
would cause the problem I am having.

I will update the results of the data recovery, but would still like to
try to find out why my drive went wrong.

.