/wsr/ - Worksafe Requests » Thread #776510

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RAW data partition

Anonymous Fri 14 Feb 2020 14:51:18 No.776510 View View Reply Original Report

Please help anons...
My laptop's main drive got fucked with a BSOD saying "UNMOUNTABLE_DRIVE_VOLUME". Going into recovery environment's command prompt, the disk shows the main partition as F: instead of C: and the data type is RAW instead of NTFS.

How can I recover this? It was working on Tuesday when I decided to reboot it in Safe Mode to fix something, whereupon it crashed and would never open windows again. I know I managed to recover from this without having to reformat anything, but this time it's really confusing.
It's a 10 year old laptop that I'm in the process of retiring, but I need to use some programs on it and transfer some files... I can't let go so suddenly and so soon...

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 14 Feb 2020 15:35:12 No.776524 Report

Quoted By:

>>776510
Make an image of it, then use something like GetDataBack or recuva on the image.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 14 Feb 2020 15:36:36 No.776526 Report

Quoted By: >>776663

>>776510
>f: instead of c:
That's because it's the recovery environment. The partition doesn't get to choose its drive letter because what if two partitions wanted the same one?

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO 20200214_234039.jpg, 2MiB, 3264x1836

Anonymous Fri 14 Feb 2020 23:27:38 No.776663 Report

Quoted By: >>776685 >>776687

>>776510
>>776526
1) By making an image, you mean a backup? How can I do it from here? Every guide shows it from a normal working PC, not my sorry state.
2) So I put it in another PC and run something like Recuva/ddrescue from there?

Is there really really no other way to turn the data type back into NTFS? It was working normally then all of a sudden it went to hell after a Safe Mode attempt.
Every other boot type failed so far: Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Command Prompt, Last Known Config...
Pic related are the last drivers loaded from the system before another BSOD takes place.

Is there a way to disable some of these drivers upon safe mode booting? I have a suspicion that the AVG ones are at fault as they have been acting strange before this all happened.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 15 Feb 2020 00:39:44 No.776685 Report

Quoted By:

>>776663
>Is there really really no other way to turn the data type back into NTFS
"RAW" isn't a filesystem type, it's the computer telling you it doesn't recognise what's there.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 15 Feb 2020 00:42:39 No.776687 Report

Quoted By: >>776696

>>776663
>Every guide shows it from a normal working PC
That's what you need if you're planning on recovering data from a damaged filesystem. Every byte you write to it overwrites between 1 and 4096 bytes of your valuable data. You absolutely cannot do data recovery on the same disk you're trying to use.

Get another disk, install windows on it, and then proceed from there.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO 1558219280543.jpg, 771KiB, 970x545

Anonymous Sat 15 Feb 2020 00:59:01 No.776696 Report

Quoted By: >>776707 >>776708

>>776687
Just to sate my autism, would it be possible to find out (through third-party tools) which system file(s) is causing this mess exactly, and can they be replaced? (and would that be a solution?)
I have another disk on another PC that can accommodate 222 GB... Should I just use Recuva to "simply transfer" and it's good to go, or are there any specific procedures to data recovery from a RAW partition?

I just don't want anything to get lost in transfer or get forgotten to time. This laptop lasted me most of my life. It's just hard to let go

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 15 Feb 2020 01:26:24 No.776707 Report

Quoted By: >>776723

>>776696
For avoidance of all doubt: can you read the partition or not? How are you booting a PC off a partition with no files that can't be read?

>>776696
>raw partition
Again, there's no such thing. If diskpart is saying RAW, that means it doesn't recognise any filesystem being there.

>>776696
>are there any special procedures?
No, just image it like any normal partition, and make sure you don't write to it by accident. The trial of GetDataBack can do this, if you want the security of using a data recovery tool.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 15 Feb 2020 01:27:50 No.776708 Report

Quoted By: >>776723

>>776696
>which system file(s) is causing this mess exactly
The issue you're having is likely due to data corruption; files that need to be there are unreadable.

My advice is: get a drive that has more free space than the drive you're trying to fix, and use a live Linux distro with ddrescue to make a drive image. This image is for backup purposes, but you can try to recover data from another computer if you so wish. Making an image is important because your drive might be failing and/or trying to fix the actual drive might make things worse. This should help: https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Ddrescue#Disk_to_image

After making the image, you can try to repair the drive with either Microsoft's tools, or programs that the live environment offers. There are distros specifically for hardware recovery, those come with a large toolset. Since you cannot read the partition, your best bet is to start here and try to repair the partition.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO 1571807160700.jpg, 19KiB, 338x424

Anonymous Sat 15 Feb 2020 02:35:24 No.776723 Report

Quoted By: >>776730 >>777150

Thanks for the help anons. Just a few more questions before I start backing up:
Since CHKDSK doesn't work, what would SFC command do in this situation? Thinking of trying all repair options I have after I backup.

But general question: Should I run ddrescue first, or GetDataNow, or Recuva? What is the ideal order to recover as much as possible? (hopefully everything)

>>776707
The boot goes as far as the microsoft loading bar before the logo comes up with the user selection screen. It loads for a long while before a quick BSOD.

>>776708
Sorry for brainlet question, but what is the difference between image or disk?
I'm guessing Disk to Disk method is if I connect the HDD inside another PC with a free drive, while image is...?

How many -rN times would you suggest? I read somewhere that more than once will further ruin the data, while more might provide a chance at recovering more from faulty sectors.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 15 Feb 2020 02:57:06 No.776730 Report

Quoted By: >>777142

>>776723
>difference between image or disk?
An image is a huge file that mirrors the data of the partition(s) you've imaged perfectly (if it was capable of reading all sectors). A disk is a physical device that will receive the perfect copy of data from the old disk.

The difference is that an image is a file (like an .iso) that you will have to mount somehow, or use other software to recover the data from it. Imaging directly to a disk would result in the exact partition scheme and data that was present on the primary disk, and the resulting disk can be used to directly and immediately replace it (in the case that the data and partitions are healthy) - the wiki itself shows you this with an example just under the title Disk to disk.
>How many -rN times would you suggest?
The recommended 3, unless the data you're recovering is very important. It is unlikely that the damaged sectors are those holding files you really care about, unless of course such files occupy the huge majority of the disk. The data shouldn't get ruined, but if the disk is failing, you're on a timer, so use that time well and make the image now.

After making the image, see if you can explore the disk from the live environment (seems unlikely). If you can't get all the files you wanted, I recommend TestDisk for both file recovery and fixing partitions. Make sure that the computer you're attempting imaging/recover from has access to a drive that can hold both the image and files you want to recover before you begin, unless you're very sure your disk is healthy and the issue you're having is a random occurrence.

Anonymous

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Anonymous Sat 15 Feb 2020 21:36:47 No.777142 Report

Quoted By: >>777150

Sorry for keeping this alive, I just need this thread for help every step of the way. This problem seems more complicated than what I have encountered previously and my paranoia is rising as well.

>>776730
Is any Linux distro fine for using ddrescue, TestDisk, Recuva/Photorec...etc.?
I've only had brief experience with Raspbian, and I read somewhere that Ubuntu is too dangerous as a live environment as it might write over the drive. Using this video as a guide in addition to the useful wiki link posted earlier. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddrPnuvFV6E

>unless you're very sure your disk is healthy and the issue you're having is a random occurrence.
I'm pretty sure it's rather "random occurrence". I know the disk is 10 years old and the oddities kept on getting more and more (explorer.exe started crashing loops about a week ago), but having this all triggered by safe mode is really strange.

Also, I am considering trying this option from /g/'s /sqt/ (not the kys ofc, not yet at least)
>>>/g/74752722
Can this be done to (a copy of) the image then attempt to boot using it? I have a serious conviction that a certain few system files are at fault and causing all of this. I would CHKDSK, but the partition (F:) as RAW won't help. SFC /Scannow is maybe the only function I haven't tried yet but I am scared to do so.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 15 Feb 2020 21:51:20 No.777150 Report

Quoted By: >>777158

>>777142
>can I copy the disk and boot from it?
Yes.

- image the disk using disk2VHD, make sure you use a VHDX, and then edit your BCD on whatever machine the file is stored on to dual-boot it
- image the disk with disk2VHD, convert the image to your virtualisation solution of choice (VMWare, KVM, etc.) then boot it as a VM
- dd the entire disk onto a different physical device and swap it in

>>776723
>What would happen if I ran SFC
It would absolutely fuck it. The objective here is to not write to the drive, not write (potentially) gigabytes of replacement Windows files to it

Anonymous

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Anonymous Sat 15 Feb 2020 22:04:26 No.777158 Report

Quoted By: >>777199

>>777150
Thanks for the quick response anon! But what Linux distro should I use for ddrescue?
Sorry for the heavy duty autism

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 16 Feb 2020 00:01:28 No.777199 Report

Quoted By: >>777526

>>777158
I have never had a problem with Ubuntu or Debian. But you might want to try Gparted Live USB, because it's kinda for messing with hard disks so it won't do anything weird like try to install itself. Not sure if it can write to NTFS though.

Anonymous

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Anonymous Sun 16 Feb 2020 20:50:02 No.777526 Report

Quoted By: >>777569

>>777199
Thanks for the suggestion!
Ran ddrescue to move over data from the main partition of the drive (/dev/sda1) to a spare 500gb SSD partition that was previously allocated to X:/ (/dev/sdb2). Pic related are the results.

>>777527

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO HP_Recovery_002_(Post connection).png, 125KiB, 1920x1080

Anonymous Sun 16 Feb 2020 20:51:08 No.777527 Report

Quoted By: >>777526 >>777569 >>777572

Before shutting down and opening Windows 10 to see if I can access the (new) hard disk, I changed the flag of the new partition from 'msftdata' to 'boot' (and 'esp' which came automatically with it) using GParted's functions.
Looking at the results, I cannot access the drive from Windows, and disk management doesn't give a file system meaning it is RAW, yet DISKPART shows the partition as NTFS...

At this point I have two options:
>Run TestDisk to firstly attempt to recover and backup the files, and secondly to try to fix the partition file system
>Run CHKDSK as read-only then with /f to try and fix the partition file system

I am very tempted to try chkdsk after reading below thread which seems to be what I meant in the OP. However, I guess I will run with option 1 then go to option 2 after I make a backup of the data. Any other suggestions or better
https://superuser.com/questions/1309502/how-to-fix-a-partition-detected-as-raw-when-chkdsk-correctly-reads-it-as-ntfs

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 16 Feb 2020 23:32:30 No.777569 Report

Quoted By: >>777907

>>777527
>>777526
I mean, I would have done something like
ddrescue /dev/sda /mnt/mounted_sdb2/sda_image_file.img
, but hey it works. Problems you're going to have:
- there's no way to know how long the image is, other than remembering. Because you didn't write to a filesystem, you've got no metadata
- there's no easy way to get at your image, because most OSes don't read datastreams written directly into partitions
- If you'd written like 5% more data you could have got the whole drive, including the partition table and boot sector.
None of these are insurmountable, but this is not how I would have done it.

>>777526
>bad areas 97
That disk is toast. Your best bet with what you've got and what you did is to
-get a spare >222GB drive
-use Gparted to create an NTFS partition exactly the same size as the one you're trying to recover
-dd_rescue the backup into it (it will eventually fail through out-of-space, which is what you want)
-chkdsk /f the copied partition
-go from there

You could also do

-get a spare >222GB drive
- dd_rescue the entire fucked drive into the entire new drive
- put the new drive in the laptop and see what happens

The downside of the second method is you'll have to do another whole-device read of the fucked drive. The upside is you don't have to do anything complicated to get Windows to boot, you just need to fix whatever's making it not, maybe with SFC or DISM, or maybe by booting off a USB and deleting the AVG drivers.

Don't write to the original device, and try not to even read from it unnecessarily. It's going to be pretty fragile.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 16 Feb 2020 23:35:26 No.777572 Report

Quoted By: >>777907

>>777527
If you need a cheap source of 250GB SATA drives, go to Gamestop and pick up a 250GB Xbox 360 drive. Just remove the plastic (you'll need a torx screwdriver), and inside will be a completely normal 250GB SATA drive.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO HP_Recovery_009_(Collage).png, 136KiB, 1920x1600

Anonymous Mon 17 Feb 2020 19:44:15 No.777907 Report

Quoted By: >>777923

Alright, I managed to recover the files I desired, and as I type this am retrieving the rest of C: drive's folders using TestDisk. Hopefully everything is recovered fine and dandy. Thank you so much for your help!
Remaining steps:
- moving partition to the left somehow (Gparted can do that, but there will be 1mb allocated still there that is unmovable)
- changing GPT to MBR, or some method that will make the disk bootable
- changing its filesystem to NTFS
- running chkdsk, then chkdsk /f

>>777569
>- there's no way to know how long the image is, other than remembering. Because you didn't write to a filesystem, you've got no metadata
I have these two partitions found during a Quick Analysis of the drive using TestDisk. I am not sure what the lost partitions in picture (B) and (C2/D2) are supposed to be. Sector numbers are given, but I don't think I'll be needing them (?).

>- there's no easy way to get at your image, because most OSes don't read datastreams written directly into partitions
You mean recovery of individual files and folders? I managed to do that with TestDisk, but it's a bummer that I cannot access it from File Explorer (yet).
For now I am considering moving the partition on Disk 2 to the left to cover the unallocated 16mb space. I'm thinking of using either of the commercial options to do this (MiniTool, AOMEI), but worried about botnets, backdoors, or unreliability.

>- If you'd written like 5% more data you could have got the whole drive, including the partition table and boot sector.
Sorry I did not understand. What did you mean by this?

>>777572
It's fine desu. I'll perform a chkdsk /f on the laptop drive if it is successful on the copied drive. If the laptop drive dies, then I can be at peace that it has "done its' duty". I don't want to get another drive and put it inside the laptop. If chkdsk ends up successful (doubtful) then I will keep it as a backup laptop or use it every now and then for nostalgia, assuming it will last long enough (lol).

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 17 Feb 2020 20:44:33 No.777923 Report

Quoted By: >>778089

>>777907
>>- If you'd written like 5% more data you could have got the whole drive, including the partition table and boot sector.
>Sorry I did not understand. What did you mean by this?
>>777907
>- changing GPT to MBR, or some method that will make the disk bootable
This. The reason it's not bootable is you didn't copy the master boot record and the partition table. If you'd imaged the entire drive to an entire drive, it would be bootable already (but probably still wouldn't boot because crash).

>>777907
>You mean recovery of individual files and folders?
I meant treating it as a file: copying it to other computers, mounting it, running data recovery utilities on it, making a second copy to run tools that need to write to it, etc. etc. The point of making a disk or partition image is to get a file you can work with easily.

>>777907
>For now I am considering moving the partition on Disk 2 to the left to cover the unallocated 16mb space.
Why? Do you really need that space that badly? The computer doesn't care there's no partition there.

>>777907
>I'll perform a chkdsk /f on the laptop drive if it is successful on the copied drive.
Your call. It's not what I'd do, because:
- the copied drive is the only backup on a non-fucked storage device. It's not for writing to at all, because if you fuck it up you don't have a backup
- the laptop drive is *FUCKED*. It's going to continue to randomly lose data, which is what caused your problem in the first place.

Personally, I'd get a replacement 250GB drive and image the entire laptop drive to it. You're looking at $10-15, and if you replace the broken drive with a working one that means you now have a working laptop. It also means that if the original drive dies, you still have an unaltered backup on your SSD.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO HP_Recovery_010_(Retrieval(2)).png, 196KiB, 1920x1080

Anonymous Tue 18 Feb 2020 04:06:44 No.778089 Report

Quoted By: >>778420 >>778424

>>777923
>The reason it's not bootable is you didn't copy the master boot record and the partition table....
I had a feeling that I should've copied the whole drive (ddrescue /dev/sda instead of doing ddrescue /dev/sda2). I didn't want to dd the other partition (Recovery) because I thought it would be irrelevant or not needed.
As far as I know, partition table and MBR can still be regenerated using third-party tools, right?

>I meant treating it as a file: ...
I didn't go the image route because I wasn't so confident for it, so I went with the disk method. Turns out it is a bit messier, but I'll try my best to figure it out.

>Why? Do you really need that space...
I thought it is needed for MBR or something similar? I read that the beginning sectors of a drive are used for something specific.

>- the copied drive is the only backup on a non-fucked storage device. It's not for writing to at all, because if you fuck it up you don't have a backup
I got the entirety of the laptop's C: drive now (pic related), so I feel rather secure with the data and anything I do next is "free game". I am not sure what are the 2 files that failed to get copied (log file doesn't mention it:)

Results
P MS Data 32768 466192383 466159616
NTFS, blocksize=4096, 238 GB / 222 GiB
P MS Data 510611456 976771071 466159616
NTFS found using backup sector, blocksize=4096, 238 GB / 222 GiB
$MFT has invalid magic.
ntfs_mft_load(): Failed.
Failed to load $MFT: Input/output error.
Failed to startup volume: Input/output error.
$MFT has invalid magic.
ntfs_mft_load(): Failed.
Failed to load $MFT: Input/output error.
>Personally, I'd get a replacement 250GB drive and image the entire laptop drive to it.
I suppose I will give this a shot then.
But just to be sure, can I copy the extract in U: drive (pic related) or the backup from X: drive and proceed from there? Or should I actually re-probe the laptop drive again? Hesitant to do the latter option.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO HP_Recovery_011_(TestDisk fooler (...).png, 61KiB, 1920x1040

Anonymous Tue 18 Feb 2020 20:13:45 No.778420 Report

Quoted By: >>778427

Well, I don't know what to say about this.
This is after playing around with settings in TestDisk, which included turning both partitions into NTFS (according to TestDisk) and changing the boot record into MBR.
Unfortunately this exercise is useless. Maybe I will try a commercial program, but I would like to hear your opinion on this.

I got a HDD on the way and I'll ddrescue the entire laptop drive to it.
For curiousity, can I instead copy the files/folders as extracted here (>>778089), then turn it into a functioning drive a la TestDisk/GParted/other MBR or partition table-making programs?

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 18 Feb 2020 20:20:02 No.778424 Report

Quoted By:

>>778089
>thought it is needed for MBR or something similar? I read that the beginning sectors of a drive are used for something specific.
The master boot record is part of the partition table, and the volume boot record is part of each partition, so there's no need to reserve a specific partition for MBR booting and no need to put the partition you're trying to boot in any specific place (the MBR code just looks in the partition table to see where it is).

On EFI, the ESP needs to exist, and by convention it goes at the start, but again the BIOS just looks in the partition table(s) to see where it is, so it can be anywhere, even on a USB stick or a network server or something.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 18 Feb 2020 20:26:44 No.778427 Report

Quoted By: >>778827

>>778420
>WTF?
NTFS says the partition is 222GB but the partition table says it takes up almost the whole drive, so testdisk has recreated it the size it was, once starting at the start of the partition and once ending at the end of the partition. Testdisk's job is to guess what the partition table *should be*, and by putting a 220GB filesystem in a 480GB partition, you confused it. This is the "there's no way to tell how long it is" thing.

>what do
Try chkdsk /f on the first of the partitions. If you're lucky, testdisk has made a partition that's the same size as the filesystem for it to live in. The second one is just going to be a mistake because that's not where you copied the data to.
If the partition does become readable in windows, you can probably boot it if you first boot off a USB and do startup repair a few times.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO HP_Recovery_012_(GParted+TestDis (...).png, 170KiB, 1920x1080

Anonymous Wed 19 Feb 2020 18:52:44 No.778827 Report

Quoted By: >>778909

>>778427
I couldn't run chkdsk on the first partition because there is no drive letter assigned to it. I could only chkdsk the second (false) drive F:, but when I do, it throws up an error and aborts it (wish I took a screenshot). It did identify the filesystem as NTFS, but it would refuse to run. The second partition is false anyway, so it's fine.

I went to GParted and changed the first partition's flags to "Msftdata", then I went into TestDisk and made a boot sector on the first partition. Previously, opening Boot options on the first partition used to have a loading period, going through all the sectors, while the second partition opens up quick. Now that I made a boot sector for the first one, it opens instantly while the second one has to go look through all the sectors.

Rebooting into Windows I now see that the first (true) partition has a letter X:. It is what the drive previously had. I didn't format it before performing ddrescue. At this point the drive is accessible (pic related). I am going to do a chkdsk /f on the X: drive now.
I got myself a new 250gb disk now, so the steps from here should be:
- chkdsk /f X:
- insert new 250gb drive
- format as NTFS
- ddrescue data from partition X: to new disk
- ???
- insert into laptop, profit!

I am sure I'm missing on a few steps, what should I be doing then?
Thank you all for your patience.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO HP_Recovery_013_(CHKDSK F on X d (...).png, 59KiB, 1920x1080

Anonymous Wed 19 Feb 2020 19:14:56 No.778836 Report

Quoted By: >>778907

Welp, CHKDSK /F ended too quickly. Should it be CHKDSK /R instead?
Also, should I delete the false F: partition?

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Feb 2020 22:41:02 No.778907 Report

Quoted By:

>>778836
>too quickly
Why do you think that? It's not like it took ages for it to become broken.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Feb 2020 22:43:52 No.778909 Report

Quoted By: >>778991 >>779679

>>778827
>???
- chkdsk /f X:
- See if you can read X: (you probably can)
- insert new 250gb drive
- don't format
- gparted partition X: to new disk
- insert into laptop
- boot from Windows USB and do startup repair (maybe more than once)
OR
- boot from Windows USB, shift-f10 and
bootrec /FixMbr
bootrec /FixBoot
bootrec /ScanOs
bootrec /RebuildBcd

Anonymous

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Anonymous Thu 20 Feb 2020 03:16:22 No.778991 Report

Quoted By: >>779098 >>779099

>>778909
>- gparted partition X: to new disk
Gparted or ddrescue (partition sdc1 to sdd)? Earlier posts you mentioned ddrescue so just want to be sure...

Also, assuming I fuck up somewhere (which I'm really good at) I can do a DISKPART CLEAN on the new 250gb disk and start from the above step?

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 20 Feb 2020 10:08:25 No.779098 Report

Quoted By: >>779332

>>778991
Gparted. If you boot the USB you'll get a GUI.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 20 Feb 2020 10:09:28 No.779099 Report

Quoted By: >>779332

>>778991
>I can do a DISKPART CLEAN
You can, but you can also use Gparted.

Anonymous

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Anonymous Thu 20 Feb 2020 23:51:17 No.779332 Report

Quoted By: >>779380 >>779383

>>779098
>>779099
I managed to do everything and now I'm stuck at the last step which is to use a Windows USB.

How do I get one? I was trying to make one using the below linked method, via another Vista SP1 HDD that I had for about 11 years (sporadic use, and possibly the disk must've been replaced). Unfortunately there is no support for the USB.
https://www.vistax64.com/threads/create-a-recovery-disc.141820/

Can I simply use the Windows 10 Recovery Drive utility for this instead of searching for drivers? the tool "Create a system repair disk" has the Drive slot greyed out, so what now?

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 21 Feb 2020 01:43:23 No.779380 Report

Quoted By:

>>779332
>how do I get one?
Use the windows 10 media creation tool.

>but I'm not fixing windows 10
If it couldn't fix other windowses, then it would be completely impossible to fix computers that dual-boot. You can't reinstall windows 7 with a windows 10 disk, but you can certainly do startup repair.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO 02D25520-6EDE-4E99-B17F-C99D6943 (...).png, 46KiB, 600x450

Anonymous Fri 21 Feb 2020 01:52:50 No.779383 Report

Quoted By:

>>779332
Pic relates, here's Windows 10's loader offering to start Windows 7. It needs to be able to do this because on MBR there's only one boot device, with only one MBR, and only one active partition, but there could be dozens of other partitions, each with a Windows that needs to be able to boot.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO IMG_2000.jpg, 3MiB, 3264x2448

Anonymous Fri 21 Feb 2020 15:52:05 No.779679 Report

Quoted By: >>779828 >>779836

Oh man, so close yet so far away.

I done as >>778909 said using GParted to copy the partition on X: onto the new 250gb drive.
(1) Gparted asked for a partition table first, to which I selected gpt.
(2) Then it warned me that I needed to clear the bad sectors on X: first using ntfsfix and ntfsresize. I done that, then Gparted copied the partition over without a complaint.
---
(3) Inserted into laptop and using a Windows 10 USB I tried Startup Repair which didn't do anything, saying that they couldn't fix anything, and the Log was blank.
(4) I went into Command Prompt from the other options, and done all the bootrec commands, which worked successfully except for RebuildBcd.
(Pic Related)

Is this because of the partition table that I chose (gpt), or is there something else missing?

Anonymous

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Anonymous Fri 21 Feb 2020 23:06:56 No.779807 Report

Quoted By: >>779836

Don't mean to bump, as this thread has been going on for far too long, but any clue for the last step?

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 21 Feb 2020 23:47:44 No.779828 Report

Quoted By: >>779836 >>780167

>>779679
Did you accidentally boot the USB using UEFI? If you're planning on booting the hard disk using legacy and MBR, then you need to boot the USB you're using for startup repair using legacy as well.

On a UEFI system there'll be two entries in the boot menu for your USB: one will be EFI and the other will be legacy. RebuildBCD will try to rebuild the BCD on the ESP if you boot the USB uisng EFI, and it won't find a BCD because the hard disk is not set up for booting EFI.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 21 Feb 2020 23:55:24 No.779836 Report

Quoted By: >>780167

>>779679
>>779807
>>779828
>GPT
Sorry, didn't see this earlier. You can't use GPT with legacy boot. If your laptop was using legacy boot you need to either convert the partition table to MBR (I think gparted can do this) or if that fails wipe it and start again.

Or you can convert to UEFI boot: shrink the NTFS partition slightly, add an EFI System Partition, boot a Windows USB in UEFI mode, and try startup repair and/or bootrec.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO HP_Recovery_014_(860_250gb_Boot_ (...).png, 67KiB, 1366x768

Anonymous Sat 22 Feb 2020 20:09:50 No.780167 Report

Quoted By: >>780169

>>779828
>>779836
I changed the partition table to msdos and copied the backup partition over again. I could run bootrec FixMbr, ScanOs, and RebuildBCD, but NOT FixBoot. It was giving an "Element not found" error.
I done a diskpart and made the partition with C the active drive, then tried FixBoot again. This time it gave an "Access Denied" error. I just restarted the PC and apparently everything works fine. (Pic related)

The laptop with the new drive now works "good as new" as fast as it was about 6 months or so before the crash that happened on the 11th of this month. Opening My Computer is not slow anymore, and explorer.exe is no longer in a crashing loop. CPU usage went up to 100% for a long while, but that's probably because AVG is being more malware rather than anti-malware. Surprised to see that happen after it managed to save my laptop about 8 years ago.

To everybody who helped me in this thread, I would like to express my greatest gratitude and thanks for helping me get through this.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 22 Feb 2020 20:12:38 No.780169 Report

Quoted By:

>>780167
OP, good job.

You stuck at it, and you fixed your computer. It makes me happy knowing you got it fixed.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO HP_Recovery_015_(OldHDD_Suddenly!).png, 147KiB, 1920x1080

Anonymous Sat 22 Feb 2020 20:22:11 No.780177 Report

Quoted By:

As for my old HDD, I left it connected inside my Win 10 PC for a while and suddenly a File Explorer window comes up showing the drive being read. I did not run any chkdsk function yet, so it is strange to see the HDD suddenly spring back to life.

I pulled out the 860 out of my laptop and put the HDD in and lo, it is booting normally. Everything was normal, just as the 860 before that. But after a restart and re-connection of an external drive and an Ethernet cable did the old problems reoccur. Explorer.exe crashing loop and things being slow in general.
It's okay. I've been wanting a recovery for the drive and data, which has been successful, and the 860 is standby in case the HDD really kicks the bucket. So overall there is nothing to worry about. I am uninstalling AVG, DropBox and other depreciated unnecessary crap so I can squeeze the most out of the HDD.

My most sincere thanks to you all. I'd kiss you all on the head if I could, but I can't. So please enjoy this instead:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CCf7gvmDEU

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