Help! It's all screwed up!

[linuxwise]

I hope someone can help I have been on this since Friday. I have an Acer Aspire 3680 laptop 80 gig drive with 2 gis memory. I partitioned my drive a year ago with Mandriva and two windows partitions named C and D so at least 3 partitions when I went to boot XP off the GRUB I got a blue screen o' death and no matter what I tried including Safe Mode(which already wasn't working) or the restore console I kept getting the same thing Run chkdsk /F well I went and got my XP boot disk, but it was scratched, so I tried loading from and external drive with windows as well as flash drive, no luck.

 

I suspect it's not as simple to startup when you are using the Linux GRUB, so I ran SuperGrub and tried repair windows MBR, I'm not sure what I did but I think I deleted or made inactive my Windows Partition, when I went to try to boot instead of the blue screen I got a missing NTLDR with a Chainloader +07 I think, so I thought maybe I made active the failed windows partition I had on my GRUB which was windows1, it got really confusing from there after that I ran Gparted and the partition seeemed to be there. Almost forgot a few days ago Mandriva Spring 2007 started to failed to boot and hung up on some font loading, I think it still does guess if I could boot from Mandriva I woudln't have this problem.

 

My Mandriva 2007 CD hangs in install. I have tried various Linux CDs including Knoppix, worked but can't get ethernet to connect to so I can't load Fprot to do a virus scan and Ubuntu live CD which worked once but now refused to, most just hang when I run a command. I also ran System RescueCD and that failed to work.

 

The only thing that has worked so far is HIRENS WIN PE Mini, when I ran one of the uitlities it allowed me to put a bootloader on so I did, then when I went to boot, I had taken windows out of the GRUB with SuperGrub, the bootloader informed "Caution this harddisk may be infected with virus" I tried to run Avira Rescue CD but that didn't work. I managed to load Bart PE, I think it was and ran a recovery utility can't remember which, at 97% complete it reported there were at least 55 bad sectors, could that be written or actual hard drive sectors, I don't know, anyhow it managed to show drive D, and it's contentes, but drive was not mountable. Have I wiped out all my data? I don't know yet.

 

At this time I have bitdefender checking memory and that is all I could do with bitdefender when I ask it to check the CD to make sure it's burn right or start it, it just give me a Penguin in the upper left side and appears to do nothing, but I don't think it's hanging because I can reboot. At time my goal is to insure that the disk is virus free and the sectors are not damaged, I'm not sure what I will do after that, I am also downloading a mandriva 2007 one right now to see if I can install it.

 

I am at a loss any help would be great, I am using an old compaq desktop with windoze ME that keeps crashing but at least I have a connection and can burn the CDs I need.

 

Thanks

 

[added some paragraphs - arctic]

Edited August 18, 2008 by linuxwise

[arctic]

Just for clarity: Was the Blue screen of death caused by Windows after selecting the Windows boot entry in grub, that is, when Windows took over the booting process? In that case, the problem was caused by Windows, not by Mandrivas grub. Changing or replacing the bootloader will not repair a borked Windows installation.

My Mandriva 2007 CD hangs in install

Where exactly? Please add all the error messages and hardware specs that you can provide.

 

To me it smells like a serious case of "format the whole harddrive and start from scratch".

[ianw1974]

If it's hanging when running a command you could potentially have a hardware fault, perhaps memory since there's a lot of locking up when trying to boot LiveCD's or when trying to run commands.

 

I think you've got a hardware problem, as well as perhaps Windows has gotten trashed somehow which is why it can't seem to start. Bad sectors could also be leading to a hard disk problem which could end up in failure.

 

If you have Linux installed on the machine and can start it, try mounting the Windows NTFS partitions so that you can access them and copy off any data you need before something major goes wrong with the disk. It might not, but it's best to do it while you can, and then you can format the disk and check it for errors later. Sadly, if you don't have a Windows XP CD to access, you won't be able to get Windows XP reinstalled again, or to even repair it from it's current state. Repairing is sometimes possible, depending how far Windows is borked.

[linuxwise]

I have to agree with you guys, I did test the memory and after and hour it found no errors, I am now testing the surface of the drive with a utility in Hirens XP PE, that will probably take a long time but I need to know, what about a virus on the drive itself could it cause the behavior? As far as I know the Blue Screen Of Death showed up while I had windows installed in the GRUB. It was only after I did what I did with SuperGrub and removed it from the MBR that it stopped showing the Blue Screen and started showing the missing NTLDR message and that's where it is now, so how can the partition be bad if it shows that message? Sadly I don't have a working Linux on the drive so I can't do what you suggested. I am going to try to recover whatever I can to an external usb HDD drive. But I'm not going to format and reinstall if the drive is bad, though I may have to if I want it replaced under my warranty, it came with Vista yech! That's why I went to linux in the first place.

I just made short video clip of what it does and loaded it to my photobucket if you want to take a look see. http://s72.photobucket.com/albums/i174/wea...nt=DCAM0163.flv

Thanks for the help.

Edited August 18, 2008 by linuxwise

[willie]

You're missing the NTloader (NTLDR), you have to reinstall it somehow

[linuxwise]

Yes I know it's missing and I read somewhere that with Knoppix I should be able to copy it from a a I386 folder or something like that, but I don't think it will matter much, because I just ran surface scan of the drive and it came back with 165 errors, this is what it said MBytes 76319 Error s 165 Logical Block Address, I'm guessing means actual physical sectors on the hard drive, I.E. it's time to replace it, just after 1 year, I have never seen a drive go so fast! The again it's a cheap seagate so I shouldn't expect much. After that I ran TestDisk 6.6 2006 Data Recovery from Hirens XP PE and this is what it found.

 

Disk 80 GB/74 GiB CHS 9729 255 63

 

 

Partition Start End size in sectors

L Linux 4061 1 1 5079 254 63 16370172

Linux Swap 5080 1 1 5393 254 63 5044347

L Linux 7165 1 1 9728 254 63 41190597

 

Structure O.K.

 

Ext 3 Large File sparse superblock 8381 MB/7993 MiB

 

I am going to try to install Mandriva I will post any errors

 

Thanks

 

Update, just got little piece of good news all my files on C: appear to be recoverable, with Prosoft's recovery program on Hirens CD but how do I do that, what do I recover them to? Can I use my external USB HDD? Please help, I'm lost with this.

 

Also just ran my old Mandriva 2007 CD I'm pretty sure a it's live CD anyhow this what it outputs towards the end before it hangs.

INIT Entering runlevel 5

Open/dev/fb0 No Such File Or Directory

Open/dev/fb0 No Such File Or Directory

 

"Entering Non Interactive setup"

 

and it just hangs there.

 

I just burned another version of Mandriva One and so far. it goes down to Init Version 2.86 booting and just hangs there.

 

Well I managed to get hold of an XP setup CD and don't ask me why but it worked, how come the linux ones haven't I don't understand, so far all I have done is create a new partition that's 8 megs for windows, but so far have not installed anything, I forgot to mention one other linux distro that worked for me was a live CD of Dreamlinux, in expert mode, so I'm going to try to install that before I install XP standalone, will keep you posted.

Thanks again.

Edited August 19, 2008 by linuxwise

[ianw1974]

Booting issues could be acpi or apic related and can be disabled on the kernel line before booting Mandriva One. Although it does seem you need to replace the disk as soon as possible.

 

If you've booted Linux, and can mount and access the NTFS Windows partitions, then you might be able to recover your files this way. Never heard of Hirens XP PE so I couldn't say how you'd recover your files and where to.

[linuxwise]

Funny I was thinking it could have something to do with the acpi but didn't disable it for some reason, I will have to try that. So I guess the logic is that once I have a linux system installed preferably Mandriva, I can mount the NTFS and do a search and rescue to an external hard drive after that I should not use the disk drive for any data storage, but it might just work as a bootup until I can get a replacement drive? Or I could just partition my external drive and use that as a system?

 

Thanks

Edited August 19, 2008 by linuxwise

[ianw1974]

You could partition and use an external drive as a system, but depending on how it's connected, the performance wouldn't be too great (if USB).

 

I'd be tempted to get your machine booted with a LiveCD like Mandriva One or Ubuntu, then gain access to the internal hard disk NTFS partitions and copy across your data that's important to an external disk. Then trash the install on the disk and then format the disk to see if it improves with the bad sectors. Sometimes the odd one or two can be recovered with a couple of formats, but it usually means that it will generally get worse in time. Sometimes you can buy a hard disk and it's faulty immediately, sometimes they last a year, sometimes they last longer.

 

Western Digital are ones I've always used, despite if you search for posts and I mention Seagate. I had probably lost my mind and thought I'd bought Seagate when in fact I hadn't. I also posted about this, cos I found it funny when I found out. I'd been blind for years :D

[linuxwise]

Well so far I can not boot from either of those Live CDs I haven't tried the Ubuntu yet with acpi off so got to try that and I don't know how to do that kernel line thing on the Mandriva liveCD to disable acpi. Funny thing is that the external drive I was referring to is a Western Digital USB My Book, it was defective when I got it used on Ebay, but after some coaxing WD replaced it and gave me a 2 year warranty extension. So you are saying that the bad sectors may just be written ones and I might be able to restore the drive at least for a while by fdisking it?

 

Thanks

Edited August 19, 2008 by linuxwise

[linuxwise]

Ok I can't believe it but I got Ubuntu Live too boot up, so now I need to partition but I don't iwhich to part and I don't want to risk wiping out the NTFS partition. Can you please take a look at screenshot below and give me some guidance?

Thanks

[ianw1974]

I think you can use the Ubuntu CD as a normal LiveCD without having to install, and thus you could then copy off to your external disk. However, how big was your Windows partitions because I see two unusable partitions above. One of 26GB to be precise, which I'm interested in knowing what it is. The other of 518MB maybe isn't so important, but could give us an idea if any data is recoverable.

[linuxwise]

Yes I am using it as a LIveCD right now and so far it's working great. I had two windows partitions one was I believe around 33 gigs that was C drive and the other around 16 gigs that was D drive, so far I haven't figured out how to mount any other partitons other than what you see in the screenshot, so I wouldn't know how to recover the data, any help would be great.

 

Thanks

Edited September 1, 2008 by spinynorman

[ianw1974]

You should be able to open the Computers icon under Places or off the desktop if it's there, and I'm hoping that the partitions will be listed there. Alternatively, do an:

 

fdisk -l

 

that's a lowercase L to list the partitions, and then perhaps we can see from the existing partitions on how to move forward to getting them mounted if they don't exist under Computers for automatic mounting when double-clicked.

[linuxwise]

Ok well this is what I get in computer

as you can see no partitions and the acerdata folder as I recall was the setup files for the laptop I think, I checked the filesystem folder but nothing there looked familiar and this is what happens when I do fdisk -l of course not in root since I have set no root yet.

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ fdisk -l

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

 

as you can see it just goes back to prompt without listing anything, is that bad?

 

Thanks