greenbaron
asked on
Different "View" of Hard disc by W95 & DOS
A development on my old problem with two views of the logical drives on my second Hard disc which has logical drives D: thru L:.
In Windows 95 drive D: is labelled “drive d:” the rest labelled similarly. D;, E: & F: each contain many folders and several Mbs of files.
Dropping into the DOS shell from W95 the structure is the same.
Close Down/Restart the Computer in DOS brings up a completely different structure.
Initially there appeared some corrupt directories and files - deleting these was difficult.
In this mode I labelled each drive “Dos drive D:” etc. and created one or two small files in the root directory of each.
Drives D:, I: & J: are correctly labelled and contain the files put there but drives E;, F: & G: are all “labelled” Dos drive D and contain the files I put in D:\
My recent discovery was that interupting the boot sequence with F8 and selecting “Command prompt only” brings up DOS with all the drives labelled as in W95.
This at least has enabled me to back the drives up to tape.
I’ve just got Partition Magic 3 which reports problems with Hard disc 2.
Now that I’ve backed everything up I can re-Partition disc 2. Is it possible to remove partition D: or will I need to clear all partitions.
Presumably I need to do it from the “Restart in DOS mode”.
Any advice or suggestions on what, seems to me, a weird situation.
Thanks
Green Baron
In Windows 95 drive D: is labelled “drive d:” the rest labelled similarly. D;, E: & F: each contain many folders and several Mbs of files.
Dropping into the DOS shell from W95 the structure is the same.
Close Down/Restart the Computer in DOS brings up a completely different structure.
Initially there appeared some corrupt directories and files - deleting these was difficult.
In this mode I labelled each drive “Dos drive D:” etc. and created one or two small files in the root directory of each.
Drives D:, I: & J: are correctly labelled and contain the files put there but drives E;, F: & G: are all “labelled” Dos drive D and contain the files I put in D:\
My recent discovery was that interupting the boot sequence with F8 and selecting “Command prompt only” brings up DOS with all the drives labelled as in W95.
This at least has enabled me to back the drives up to tape.
I’ve just got Partition Magic 3 which reports problems with Hard disc 2.
Now that I’ve backed everything up I can re-Partition disc 2. Is it possible to remove partition D: or will I need to clear all partitions.
Presumably I need to do it from the “Restart in DOS mode”.
Any advice or suggestions on what, seems to me, a weird situation.
Thanks
Green Baron
Welcome to the Twilight Zone. Try a scandisk. If you have Norton, see what the disk doctor reports.
ASKER
I don't have Norton - will get, try and report back!
green baron
green baron
Why do you want to work in "Restart to MSDOS mode"? Or in "boot to previous version of MSDOS" ? IMO these modes are riddled with problems, all the functionality you need
can be had from the "Command Prompt Only" mode and the DOS prompt in Win95...
Command Prompt Only is a "pure DOS" in that it is single-tasking and I haven't come across any DOS program or game that doesn't work in it..
can be had from the "Command Prompt Only" mode and the DOS prompt in Win95...
Command Prompt Only is a "pure DOS" in that it is single-tasking and I haven't come across any DOS program or game that doesn't work in it..
ASKER
debugg22
I don't want to but I'm sure that problems which occur could
well be due to this "conflict" - Colorado tape back up almost
invariably fails or stops dead 4 times out of 5 - only when
accessing one of the partitions on the 2nd hard drive.
I'd almost certainly not be able to restore from DOS if I had
to!
green baron
I don't want to but I'm sure that problems which occur could
well be due to this "conflict" - Colorado tape back up almost
invariably fails or stops dead 4 times out of 5 - only when
accessing one of the partitions on the 2nd hard drive.
I'd almost certainly not be able to restore from DOS if I had
to!
green baron
What does Fdisk show for partitions? (including drive lable as displayed in Fdisk)
ASKER
to kayton
installed trial version of Norton Utilities. Automatically restarted Windows and produced (Windows (X) message:
“(X) An error occurred updating the image data for drive J:. This disc is damaged” - pressing OK kept re-cycling the error message.
Warm reboot same problem. Eventually halted process and removed Norton shortcut from Startup menu.
Ran Disk Doctor on drive J: at cluster 59284 (of 59517) reported a bad sector followed by two more before I clicked auto. Then, at 99% complete, the animated display and the cursor kept stopping and starting. After 10 minutes I skipped the process.
installed trial version of Norton Utilities. Automatically restarted Windows and produced (Windows (X) message:
“(X) An error occurred updating the image data for drive J:. This disc is damaged” - pressing OK kept re-cycling the error message.
Warm reboot same problem. Eventually halted process and removed Norton shortcut from Startup menu.
Ran Disk Doctor on drive J: at cluster 59284 (of 59517) reported a bad sector followed by two more before I clicked auto. Then, at 99% complete, the animated display and the cursor kept stopping and starting. After 10 minutes I skipped the process.
greenbaron- sounds like it's time for a new hard drive. Just like there's no such thing as just one cockroach, bad sectors multiply and the whole drive dies very rapidly - even faster than cockroaches. Get all your data off the drive FAST and throw out the old drive.
If you are getting actual bad sectors on the drive, then I would be concerned about it failing. Sometimes bad sectors are false. If the CMOS is set incorrectly, or there is a problem with the partitions, then bad sectors can be falsely reported. Check the CMOS setup to see if the drive configuration is correct.
Since you do have a backup, I recommend you remove all partitions on the second (problem) drive, and recreate them with FDISK (not Partition Manager). Then reboot, and format the partitions. (all in DOS mode) If during the format, you see "Trying to recover allocation unit" with a number, then the drive is failing, and should not be used.
Do keep an eye on the drive to see if any problems start showing up. Of course back up often (in any case).
Since you do have a backup, I recommend you remove all partitions on the second (problem) drive, and recreate them with FDISK (not Partition Manager). Then reboot, and format the partitions. (all in DOS mode) If during the format, you see "Trying to recover allocation unit" with a number, then the drive is failing, and should not be used.
Do keep an eye on the drive to see if any problems start showing up. Of course back up often (in any case).
If you like the "command prompt only". I would advise getting a program called "tweakui". There are several things you can do with this. One is instead of hitting f8 each time you boot up, you can set "tweakui" to automaticaly boot into the "normal,safe-mode,command prompt only, etc." before win95 starts. You can also set how long you want it to remain there before it reverts to the win95 desktop. this might help.
If you like the "command prompt only". I would advise getting a program called "tweakui". There are several things you can do with this. One is instead of hitting f8 each time you boot up, you can set "tweakui" to automaticaly boot into the "normal,safe-mode,command prompt only, etc." before win95 starts. You can also set how long you want it to remain there before it reverts to the win95 desktop. this might help.
If you like the "command prompt only". I would advise getting a program called "tweakui". There are several things you can do with this. One is instead of hitting f8 each time you boot up, you can set "tweakui" to automaticaly boot into the "normal,safe-mode,command prompt only, etc." before win95 starts. You can also set how long you want it to remain there before it reverts to the win95 desktop. this might help.
ASKER
to all
further developments - I'll try and keep it short!
Puzzling about why there should be a difference between one DOS "boot" and another, I took a copy of Autoexec & Config files
then edited a couple of minor changes, rebooting after each.
Eventually found that disk 2 had no partitions at all so I copied back the Autoexec/Config files, rebooted, knowing that all would be back to normal. Of course it wasn't! (is it ever?)
Norton Disk Doctor reported and restored lost partitions. I now had a consistent view of logical drives regardless of DOS or W95 BUT
while drive E:, F: and on where ok with the W95 volume label, drive D: appeared unreadable. Disk Doctor found two FATs on it "The FAT copies are not the same Status corrected" - which suggests that this was the cause of the problem in the first place? I have a lesser problem now because D Doctor has used the incorrect FAT and all the drive contains are a few test files and a great deal of apparently corrupt files. My backup is 10 days old (I know,I know) and if anyone can think of a way of getting back to the old FAT or anything, it would be great to recover a project which will take at least a day to recreate (I know, I know) - at least it's not that serious and I do have drives that are now consistent Windows and all DOS routes.
green baron
further developments - I'll try and keep it short!
Puzzling about why there should be a difference between one DOS "boot" and another, I took a copy of Autoexec & Config files
then edited a couple of minor changes, rebooting after each.
Eventually found that disk 2 had no partitions at all so I copied back the Autoexec/Config files, rebooted, knowing that all would be back to normal. Of course it wasn't! (is it ever?)
Norton Disk Doctor reported and restored lost partitions. I now had a consistent view of logical drives regardless of DOS or W95 BUT
while drive E:, F: and on where ok with the W95 volume label, drive D: appeared unreadable. Disk Doctor found two FATs on it "The FAT copies are not the same Status corrected" - which suggests that this was the cause of the problem in the first place? I have a lesser problem now because D Doctor has used the incorrect FAT and all the drive contains are a few test files and a great deal of apparently corrupt files. My backup is 10 days old (I know,I know) and if anyone can think of a way of getting back to the old FAT or anything, it would be great to recover a project which will take at least a day to recreate (I know, I know) - at least it's not that serious and I do have drives that are now consistent Windows and all DOS routes.
green baron
Did you create an undo disk with NDD?
ASKER
to jason s
Yes I did BUT
I ran D Doctor at least twice, the last one reported 2 FATs and that "The FAT copies are not the same - Corrected" - this report
is dated 13 Jan 1999 18:02. The undo file, on a floppy, has file date 13 Jan 1999 17:25 - I've just tried "reading" it and the
clear text "Invalid partition table" appears several times (presumably one for each log drive D: thru J:
So that isn't going to help is it?
It really isn't the end of the world if I have to reformat(?) drive D: though if I could get at the data it would save me a couple of days of re-work and, having got this far I feel it's
worth trying if there's some tool out there to help. Is there
any way to delete this now incorrect FAT which points to a few
test files and a couple of folders containing totally corrupt filenames. I copied back my backup of D: to drive I: so I can continue with current work and, if in the attempt to recover
the genuine files on D: I lose them all it's no big deal.
Sun is shining here in Oxford so something's going right!
green baron
might it be a good idea to close this question and post a new
one just relating to the present problem?
Yes I did BUT
I ran D Doctor at least twice, the last one reported 2 FATs and that "The FAT copies are not the same - Corrected" - this report
is dated 13 Jan 1999 18:02. The undo file, on a floppy, has file date 13 Jan 1999 17:25 - I've just tried "reading" it and the
clear text "Invalid partition table" appears several times (presumably one for each log drive D: thru J:
So that isn't going to help is it?
It really isn't the end of the world if I have to reformat(?) drive D: though if I could get at the data it would save me a couple of days of re-work and, having got this far I feel it's
worth trying if there's some tool out there to help. Is there
any way to delete this now incorrect FAT which points to a few
test files and a couple of folders containing totally corrupt filenames. I copied back my backup of D: to drive I: so I can continue with current work and, if in the attempt to recover
the genuine files on D: I lose them all it's no big deal.
Sun is shining here in Oxford so something's going right!
green baron
might it be a good idea to close this question and post a new
one just relating to the present problem?
ASKER
kayton
please reply so that I can award the points! Although not completely solved, Norton DD broke the back of the problem and
I now only have one view of the drives - thanx
green baron
please reply so that I can award the points! Although not completely solved, Norton DD broke the back of the problem and
I now only have one view of the drives - thanx
green baron
Glad to hear your up and running.
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