WD Raptor 74GB specs?

[Gambit]

Well, my uncles computer is crashing at boot (before the login screen) with "UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_DEVICE", we've tried pretty much everything (chkdsk /r, chkdsk /p, fdisk /mbr, etc) and we can't fix it. We were able to pull the data off the drive with Knoppix, but he would like to save the drive instead of reformatting. We're using a 3rd party partition recovery tool, but it requires the heads and cylinders on the drive, but all I can find on it is the LBA... nothing else. Anyone have any idea?

 

[Tigerbiten]

As you have got all the data off the drive, why don't you use the WD Data lifeguard tools to check the drive out ?
It will do a bad sector scan plus a zero fill as needed.

Luck.........

 

[Gambit]

Well, he'd like to not have to reformat the drive and start over. Which is the reason we want to just try and repair the partition table first and go from there.

 

[darkkai]

I work at a University tech help desk and get these errors all the time. With that said, there's usually two tracks to fix..:

1. with Recover console, run chkdsk /r, then run fixboot and fixmbr, then remove the read only attribute from the boot.ini with "attrib -r-h-s c:\boot.ini," delete the boot.ini and rebuild the boot using "bootcfg /rebuild." If it still doesnt work, try a windows repair.

2. if above does not work, boot up with either ERD commander or Bart PE and it'll let you grab files and transfer to an external HD or another computer through a network transfer. Or you could slave the drive to another computer and grab files off there too.

Hope this helps! let me know what happens

 

[Gambit]

darkkai, I realize you're only trying to help, but *PLEASE* read entire threads, especially when they're only 3 short posts. I already tried running chkdsk, fdisk /mbr, fixboot, etc none worked. Past that, as I said in my first post, we already have the data off the drive. I just need the heads / cylinders on the drive to try to repair the partition table.

 

[unhappy_mage]

If you're using Linux, try this to get the CHS of the drive:
fdisk -l /dev/sda
On my machine, this prints:
Disk /dev/sda: 9105 MB, 9105018880 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 8683 cylinders
...

So there are the CHS values Linux is using. There may be other values that would work for a given disk; this is not a precise science from what I understand. Try a value, then try to mount it read-only, and see what works. Using captive-ntfs will give you predictably NT-ish behavior.

 

[P3N1X0R]

darkkai, I realize you're only trying to help, but *PLEASE* read entire threads, especially when they're only 3 short posts. I already tried running chkdsk, fdisk /mbr, fixboot, etc none worked. Past that, as I said in my first post, we already have the data off the drive. I just need the heads / cylinders on the drive to try to repair the partition table.

just chiming in...while i understand you may have tried all this....have you tried it the exact way hes talkin about doing? or was it random tries of things?

give it a shot, it just might work in that order.

if u got all the data u need off, cool, but if u didnt, give this program a shot
Ontrack Easy Recovery Pro 6.0.exe

try the manufacturers utilities on the drive as well for any further repair....im repairin a maxtor drive now as we speak....also, google for hirens boot disc, and u can get some partition repairing tools as well as a whole cataloug of valuable tools for workin with pc's

 

[Gambit]

just chiming in...while i understand you may have tried all this....have you tried it the exact way hes talkin about doing?

Well, I tried running chkdsk /r and it crapped out after about 30sec - 1min Don't remember the exact output, but I know it didn't work. I also proceeded to try the fdisk and fixboot commands.

if u got all the data u need off, cool, but if u didnt, give this program a shot Ontrack Easy Recovery Pro 6.0.exe

I'll see what I can do, thanks!

try the manufacturers utilities on the drive as well for any further repair....im repairin a maxtor drive now as we speak....also, google for hirens boot disc, and u can get some partition repairing tools as well as a whole cataloug of valuable tools for workin with pc's

The manufacturer's utils are on the list of to-do items. I haven't tried hirens, but I tried ultimate boot CD for windows, which hangs on boot... I assume it's trying to mount the drive and failing. Knoppix does it fine though =\