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Losing Disk Partition Information
A Dell Gn+, Pentium 233, PC had one 2GB partition (100% usage) created using fdisk and was running Windows '95. After installing Windows Messaging during a Novell GroupWise 5.2 installation, the user was prompted to reboot. When the system rebooted, an error of "invalid system disk" came up. Upon booting to floppy and running a 'dir' on c:\, I got a message of "file not found" even though it is reporting only about 1GB free. On closer inspection with fdisk, the partition information now shows usage at 77% (1547MB) even though total disk space is still 2012MB. How can I change the partition size back to 100% usage (and hopefully preserve the data on the drive) without having to delete the partition and create a new one?
Did you try re-installing 95? I've done this a few times with damaged disks, and only the /win95 directory was modified. Upon installing it seemed to correct the corrupted partition, and allowed me to get the data off the drive. (although some of the directories were flaky)
It's pretty tough to fix damaged partions without a good disk editing tool like Norton's Disk Doctor.
If all else fails, you can get your machine back to the exact same condition you bought it by running a hidden program from the command line. Run:
c:>zztop
This is a hidden file that Dell uses to restore machines to original condition. I thought it was a joke till I checked it out myself. You may not be able to get to it if your FAT table is screwed up.
Anyway, good luck
If all else fails, you can get your machine back to the exact same condition you bought it by running a hidden program from the command line. Run:
c:>zztop
This is a hidden file that Dell uses to restore machines to original condition. I thought it was a joke till I checked it out myself. You may not be able to get to it if your FAT table is screwed up.
Anyway, good luck
If when trying to boot from the hard drive you get 'Invalid System Disk', then the Master Boot Record of your Hard drive has been corrupted.
Use an emergancy boot floppy made from the same operating system that resides on your hard drive, to boot the system. When in the DOS prompt. Type FDISK /MBR. This will rewrite your Master Boot Record.
Try then to reboot from your hard drive. If this does'nt work then get back to me, because you will need to rebuild your FAT.
Use an emergancy boot floppy made from the same operating system that resides on your hard drive, to boot the system. When in the DOS prompt. Type FDISK /MBR. This will rewrite your Master Boot Record.
Try then to reboot from your hard drive. If this does'nt work then get back to me, because you will need to rebuild your FAT.
1. Check BIOS settings regarding the Hard drive
2. Get Norton Utilities (demoversion I believe is available and Disk Doctor can repair the partition information even wit it) or buy Nuts'n'Bolts
2. Get Norton Utilities (demoversion I believe is available and Disk Doctor can repair the partition information even wit it) or buy Nuts'n'Bolts
I suggest that before you do anything much, you find out if there is a virus involved, if you have not done so already. Then test the drive in another machine if one is available. If you can read anything, get as much as possible off the drive. You may find
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/data_recovery/
to be intersting. I just found out about it today here at EE.
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/data_recovery/
to be intersting. I just found out about it today here at EE.
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TO make more clear my answer the only thing you need to do is to resize your partition to a bigger size and in a safe manner. with those Partition programs you can do it without lossing data or riksing you FAT. good luck.
If this is still a problem, I believe the CMOS settings for the drive have changed. Correct this before doing anything else with the drive, or you will have other porblems down the road.
I had the same problem on a system I was working on before. It would lose partions size and also a cd rom would disappear and reappear. What I found by using Dr. Solomons Virus Scan was that I had a monkey c virus. The only way I was was able to get rid of it was with the Dr. Solomons clean par utility.. Mcaffee and Nortons failed miserable.
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