Edit

I’ve been testing the Test Disk program from Christophe Grenier and it all appears to work, at least in a live environment.  All the steps here, http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step work in my system, which is Win7.  This is it working on my system as it’s currently running.  It’s on the second screen.

You’ll need a Windows XP install disc, (I used an old XP-SP3 iso from my MSDN subscription which I extracted into a folder using 7-zip), and made the boot disc from it using the download from UBCD4Win.  It will just fit on a CD on the default settings although I used a DVD.  You’ll probably need to deselect lots of the addin program options to reduce the ISO size.

Then make the ISO and burn it to CD/DVD disc.

This is a bootable disc which contains the Test Disk program.  You’ll either need a keyboard selection to get your machine to boot from it or preselect the boot order in your BIOS.

Read the process fully here (link above is the same but repeated for emphasis) for the usage of the program. It has extensive example screen-shots.

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step

The program claims to be able to recover all sorts of lost partitions – obviously, I don’t have any now -  and since I’ve given up dancing with the devil, I’ll leave the real testing to you  ;-)

Good luck!

Rees

testdisk20120302.jpg

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Sorry for the delay – I see you’re in Oz so we’re 12 hours difference. If at all possible get the disk from the laptop and plug it into a working system, then use the Easeus software on it as it looks to me to be by far the safest option.  Just plug your laptop’s maker & model name into Google and you’ll soon find a work through about how to change the hard drive.  There are heaps of YouTube videos on it, you’ll find.

It’d be helpful to know what the exact error message you had on the BSOD was, what you did before, and what you did just after the message.

The reason for this is the large amount of unknowns with your disc & system.  Assuming it’s Windows 7, usually on larger discs NTFS is the file system used, if the disc is on the small size then FAT(32) will have been chosen.  There are different methods to recovering for each, and some of the things you’ve done may already have removed some of your recovery routes.  On top of this, you were attempting to make a 5th partition and have also had a BSOD.

Since I’ve never been in exactly your situation, then the Hex Editor you’re after is actually part of the WinXP support tools.  It’s called Dskprobe.exe: DiskProbe, see this link on how to use it, say.  This run-through from the Win7 forums gives lots of links and information as well.

This Microsoft KB article gives pretty convoluted instructions on using Disk Probe as well.  As you’ll see, it’s not straightforward, and a lot depends on what your disk was originally, and if you can actually remember that bit…

As well as this, check this Major Geeks article on creating a bootable rescue disk with the required tools on it.

You’ll find several articles on-line about fixing the boot sector of your hard disc.  IMHO, these will likely make more corruption because the actual partition table has been jiggled in your editing process or afterwards.  Fixboot & FixMbr etc will only fix the bit that’s being read before the table is read, and currently your table makes the partitions invisible.  Like this article here, it gives the proper commands to use, but these may need to be done after the Hex Editing process.

Now before you go away depressed, take a look at these two websites which provide free recovery tools and the discs to use them!

• http://www.ubcd4win.com/index.htm
• http://thestarman.pcministry.com/asm/mbr/BootToolsRefs.htm

Particularly read the bit on TestDisk for both the above links!!  It could be a winner for you!

Hopefully following all these reads you’ve got enough information to decide what to do.  Personally, I’d whip the drive out and access it in a non-bootable state using the Easeus software, as I said earlier.  To me, that’s the simpler option.  However, using the (untried by me) Test Disk tool on a bootable disc provided either of the two links just above will be the next best option for you, and if you are at all nervous about attacking your machine with a screwdriver then one of these options will be best for you, as I currently see the problem.

One thing to bear in mind is that even if you can’t get back into Windows, as long as you can read at least some of the partitions you’ve created (and lost) you’ll be able to copy the data off onto another drive.  This may be the best that you can manage, but it’s better than losing everything.  Following this you’ll wipe the drive completely, install a fresh copy of Windows, then your programs, then put the data you’ve recovered back.  You obviously just didn’t have everything plonked into one C-Drive, so if Windows is there as it is by default and if it’s corrupted or lost then the stuff you’ve put on other partitions may be okay.

Hopefully your machine uses the old-style BIOS and not the newer EUFI and GPT formatting because that is all new to me.  Using FAT or NTFS limits the disc to 4 standard partitions.  You were attempting to make 5 so presumably you made one or more of the four an Extended partition?  As you can see, there are a lot of unknowns when viewed by myself & any others who may want to help you.  So don’t write anything to the disc until you’ve read more about it, and when you do write to the disc, make sure it’s not trying to boot.

Rees.

Thank you for your quick response. I believe that my hard disk is a SATA hard disk, but it is embedded inside a laptop. Also, I don’t know how to take it out and connect it to another computer. Therefore, I would prefer the first method instead of the second method.

I booted the laptop from a Windows 7 DVD and chose the repair option in the Install Windows screen, because my laptop has the Windows 7 OS installed. However, the program was not able to detect the presence of my OS installed on the machine, and therefore I could not proceed to the next screen. Does this denote that the first option you mentioned is not possible? If it is still possible, can you please advise me with more details or appropriate links on how to achieve the first option, probably using other software? Also, I would like to know how to install the recovery console and use its disk editing software to fix the disk, if this is still a valid solution.

Finally, I would like to know how much possibility of revival of my partitions and data from your knowledge, based on the situation that I converted the entire disk to basic disk and then changed from 42 to 07 only on the first line of the four lines which you suggested. I’d be very thankful if I could revert successfully the state of my computer to one before I made a fifth partition from my disk. Please reply to this comment. Many thanks again.

Best regards,

Michael

P.S. I’ll be offline for a few hours, so please don’t expect me to reply to your comment soon (if you do reply). But I’ll reply when I come back online. Thanks.

To access the disc from your position, you’ll either have to:

• Boot into your machine using an external operating system using a simple recovery disc or similar.  Windows makes one for you and there are loads of downloads which will provide one as long as you have access to another machine if you haven’t made one yourself.
• Remove the disc and put in in another machine to do the necessary editing, being VERY careful not to try booting from it as it may muck up this machine too!  If it is a SATA disc, you can boot the other machine first and then carefully plug in the disc.  This will only work with SATA, not EIDE, as SATA can be hot-plugged.

Once you have access to the disc you can edit it and hopefully get it back the way it was.  I can’t guarantee it as Windows, using some self-protective mechanism, may have actually ripped into the sector information or done other things to the partitions (such as scandisc etc) which will fix files it thinks are broken.

The second option above is my preferred one, especially if the disc is SATA.

If you cannot do this, then Windows has disc editing (Hex) software as part of it’s recovery console (which has to be manually installed).  This is essentially a more-confusing version of HxD.

The crucial thing for you is to ensure the disc stays intact and that you don’t try to boot from it.  It must be fixed from without, not within. If you don’t do this then all your data is in limbo-land and only very expensive data recovery solutions will retrieve it.  The last time I looked it was nearly £1000 for a disc and that was when discs were just a few Gb!

Let me know what you’ve got and any plans or outcome of plans you have in mind.

I experienced the same situation as most other people in the comments; I tried to make the fifth partition from my Windows disk using the built-in Computer Management console but accidentally converted the entire Windows disk into a dynamic disk.

I tried to convert it back to basic disk but it was not possible in the Computer Management console. I was scared about the unknown possibility of outcome to my action, and quickly searched the Internet for a solution to the problem.

I found a webpage which suggests a solution. It instructed me to use the Hxd software to alter only the first of the four lines which you instructed on this page. I hadn’t found your solution yet, and I tried the suggested solution and restarted the computer. The Windows logo froze after a few seconds and then the BSOD appeared. Now I can’t boot into Windows and make the necessary changes to convert the Windows disk back to basic.

However, I haven’t backed up my valuation data and programs installed on this disk, so I could like to retain all of them while being able to boot into windows again and to convert the disk to basic. Please help me solve the problem and also give me instructions, if possible, on an alternate method of converting the dynamic disk into basic disk without booting into Windows ASAP. Many thanks.

Best regards,

Michael

Sorry about the delay but I’ve been away from a PC for a month…

My advice now is to use the free Easeus software mentioned a few comments back.  Failing that, put 07 in all four positions to see if that will return the partition visibility.  Earlier comments have shown that if there’s no 42 it tends to suggest a non-standard partition which will be harder to fix.

Make sure your data is backed up before you proceed.

windows xp booted again YAY :)

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