Cannot boot after Ghost failed

How to use TestDisk to recover lost partition
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benjiboy
Posts: 3
Joined: 19 Feb 2020, 03:54

Cannot boot after Ghost failed

#1 Post by benjiboy »

I'm sure someone here can advise me.
I have a WinXP computer. I ran Norton Ghost 2003 to clone C drive to another disk. Ghost hung up for an age then reported a protection fault. When I try to start the computer it boots to PC Dos with options to run Ghost again or return to Windows. Neither option works. It just hangs.
Putting my original disk in another computer Win10 reports a problem with the drive but I can see all the files in the NTFS partition.
Running testdisk, looking at the disk it shows two partitions; NTFS and *FAT16
I *think* I should delete the FAT16 partition and set the NTFS partition as bootable. Am I correct?

I really, really don't want to lose my XP system. :|

recuperation
Posts: 2720
Joined: 04 Jan 2019, 09:48
Location: Hannover, Deutschland (Germany, Allemagne)

Re: Cannot boot after Ghost failed

#2 Post by recuperation »

benjiboy wrote: 19 Feb 2020, 04:10 I'm sure someone here can advise me.
I have a WinXP computer.
I am responding on an XP machine.
I ran Norton Ghost 2003 to clone C drive to another disk. Ghost hung up for an age then reported a protection fault. When I try to start the computer it boots to PC Dos with options to run Ghost again or return to Windows. Neither option works. It just hangs.
Putting my original disk in another computer Win10 reports a problem with the drive but I can see all the files in the NTFS partition.
Running testdisk, looking at the disk it shows two partitions; NTFS and *FAT16
I *think* I should delete the FAT16 partition and set the NTFS partition as bootable. Am I correct?
Why should you delete your FAT16 partition?
You should have an idea how many partitions you had on your XP machine.
Can you see your files looking into both partitions using the "p"-key?
Please post the logfile.

benjiboy
Posts: 3
Joined: 19 Feb 2020, 03:54

Re: Cannot boot after Ghost failed

#3 Post by benjiboy »

No, I didn't use to have a FAt16 partition and no, I never installed PC Dos. It seems to me that Ghost created a new partition in some empty space at the end of my pre-existing NTFS partition so it could have unrestricted access to the drive.

This is what Testdisk shows when I analyse the drive on another PC:-

TestDisk 7.0, Data Recovery Utility, April 2015
Christophe GRENIER <greniercgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org
Disk /dev/sdc - 500 GB / 465 GiB - CHS 60801 255 63
Current partition structure:
Partition Start End Size in sectors
1 P HPFS - NTFS 0 1 1 60799 254 63 976751937
4 FATI6 LBA 12809 0 1 12809 254 63 16065 [-VPSGHBOOT-]
Space conflict between the following two partitions

1P HPFS - NTFS 0 1 1 1 60799 254 63 976751937
4 FATI6 LBA 12809 0 12809 254 63 16065 [-VPSGHBOOT-]

If I could see how to upload/imbed either images or log file I would - from what I see on screen before me I would have to upload them to some 3rd party file service. I am not signed up to any.

So I think, but I'd like someone else's opinion, that if I delete the FAT16 partition and set the NTFS partition bootable it will be fixed - provided Ghost has interefered with the real data on the drive in some other way.

recuperation
Posts: 2720
Joined: 04 Jan 2019, 09:48
Location: Hannover, Deutschland (Germany, Allemagne)

Re: Cannot boot after Ghost failed

#4 Post by recuperation »

Based on the recent information given by you, setting the NTFS to primary and active might solve the problem.

Your FAT16 partition has been placed into the NTFS partition.
Parts of your NTFS partition have been overwritten.
If the overwritten clusters had been in use, they are lost now.
The NTFS partition could have been dammaged.
Applying chkdsk is necessary.

recuperation
Posts: 2720
Joined: 04 Jan 2019, 09:48
Location: Hannover, Deutschland (Germany, Allemagne)

Re: Cannot boot after Ghost failed

#5 Post by recuperation »

I modified my previous post that ignored the position of the additional FAT16 location.

benjiboy
Posts: 3
Joined: 19 Feb 2020, 03:54

Re: Cannot boot after Ghost failed

#6 Post by benjiboy »

Fixed now. Thanks for the help.
I marked the NTFS partition as bootable, deleted the FAt16 partition, ran chkdsk.

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