How Install Win98 with WinXP Preinstalled

[ruab]

Originally Posted by Murf

Oh well was worth a shot.

Lets recap as this is getting long.

You have one hard drive 80GB and it has three partitions (at least it did)

Partition 1 C: Windows XP (34GB)
Partition 2 D: Non O/S (36GB)
Partition 3: Linux (4.5GB) Is/was this drive E:?

Linux Partition Wasn't shown in Windows

Originally Posted by Murf

FDISK shows the following:

C: 35.4GB FAT 32
D: 40.5GB FAT 32
Non-Dos (Linux) 447MB

D Drive in Fdisk is like this as shown in image 2/3 post above
D: 40.5GB FAT 16

Originally Posted by Murf

Windos XP shows:

C: 37.7GB
D: 39.55GB
Non-Dos (Linux) 447MB

These Readings are of Computer Management>Disk Management
Windows Explorer Shows
D: 4.00 GB

Originally Posted by Murf

Partition Magic shows:

C: 35.4GB FAT 32
D: 40.4GB FAT

Partition Table Doctor Shows

C: 35.4GB FAT 32 Win XP
D: 4110KB FAT 32
Free Space: 36.3GB


Very confusing, each program see's something different.

Although it appears that the D: partition is there you cannot access it.

Is this where we are???

I have bought GetDataBack 2.31 Which found many of my files but almost all of them were currupt.

I am trying many data recovery tools and they are not even recognizing my old drive, they are just recognizing current D: Drive of 4 GB

My associates are killing me, I am not being able to sleep for 2 days.

And Yes,

This is exactly where we are.

[ruab]

result of mountvol /D

[Murf]

I am at a total loss. The only thing I think you have not tried. Boot to the A: prompt with the boot disk then type the following:

fdisk /mbr

Hit <enter>

[ruab]

Hello Murf,

result of mbr

A:>fdisk /mbr


A:>

NOTHING HAPPENED

I have done all the things you said from last reboot and nothig else, but,
I got a message that "New Hardware Installed, Restart Computer to take effect"
How ever that didn't caused any changes in system as I checked all the things.


Why did that happen.

[Murf]

I'm pulling out of a hat now. Maybe the partition is "Hidden" on the PM CD find ptedit.exe I think it is in \utility\dos directory. Run it see what happens. Oh you will need to boot to the A: prompt with the boot disk to run this is DOS.

[Murf]

Some free file recovery software:

http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/UK/welcome.htm

http://www.webattack.com/get/restoration.html

[jtdoom]

I was thinking about two programs which have done good things for me in the past.

one is well known, Norton utilities, with its disk doctor
notes +
I think the partition doctor you used should have been able to correct the corrupted fat entries,
or, when it assesses the situation correctly, have given option to use copy of fat to restore fat
end notes +

when the program you use offers to correct FAT to FAT32 with a tab to check for a logical, the logical option should (IMHO) be selected.

I also saw a virtual drive
I have No idea what diskmanagers see when they come across virtual drives, but I have seen letter confusion caused by them. I could install a program which installs virtual drive, and then swap hard drives, see if it were this that prompted me to uninstall/not use this no more... (this should not be altogether too much of an issue here, but IMHO, it CAN introduce letters seemingly out of place.

Norton diskdoctor or similar to correct the table.
checkdisk and scandisk are dangerous to files (the corrupt clusters they "recover" to files just get you meaningless files, and in the process a whole lot of files gets written to root of the drive and that (in win98) could lead to an overloaded root entry. (I recall even fat 32 could only have 2K of files/dir pointers in root)

so one does not use chkdsk or scandisk but uses something like badcopy pro (licenced version)
I just had it look at my D: partition (running in XP)
it don't scan inside directories, but you can go in the folders you have your crucial data in to get the data out.

other recovery programs will most often require that you have a second hard drive to save to, or at least require sufficient space on another partition.

another note +
it is my personal experience that for best result, recovery programs should be run from another clean install, which means another hard disk.
the clean install can be configured to NOT alter a thing on the "damaged" drive.
disabling recylcle bin and restore points is a start.
antivirus programs configured to not write to same drive the file is on...

in other words, the system is set to only copy data, and after the copy is finished (you have your data saved), then one can run repair utilities and scans.

data is sacred, even damaged data

[jtdoom]

well, at least you have xp in fat32, so 98 system floppy can see it.

a little late perhaps, but I thought you should not use 98's fdisk /mbr for that will kill LILO (linux boot loader)

[Murf]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^bump^^^^^^^^^^^^