Dell Computer Boot Failure

How to use TestDisk to recover lost partition
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BobSpeth
Posts: 2
Joined: 09 Mar 2012, 21:19

Dell Computer Boot Failure

#1 Post by BobSpeth »

I tried to install Ubuntu 10.10 on a drive that already had Windows 2000 on it. The Install failed and took me to a
"grub rescue" prompt screen. Googling the prompt provided me with actions beyond my desire to learn.

I ran Testdisk with the non-booting drive as a slave to a drive with a Windows OS (multiple attempts to create a Testdisk Live CD had failed). After the Analyse step finished, it looked like the partition structure had not been damaged. It appeared, from the Testdisk documentation, that I needed to go the Advanced -> Boot -> Rebuild BS route. When Rebuild BS finished, I selected "Y" as the answer to the question displayed. At the next question, I selected "Write" and then "Y" to the next question which I thought would result in a bootable hard drive.

However, when the drive's jumper is set to "Cable Select" or "Single", it still does not boot into Windows but puts
up the "grub rescue" prompt screen. So a valid FAT Boot sector must still be missing. Going back into the Testdisk docs, I discovered that Dell computers have an extra partition on the harddrive. The Testdisk documentation shows the following for a Dell drive:

Disk 80 - CHS 4865 255 63 - 38162 MB (Enh BIOS mode)
* FAT16 >32M 0 1 1 3 254 63 64197 [DellUtility]
P HPFS - NTFS 4 0 1 4864 254 63 78091965

But I never obtained anything comparable to the above on my Testdisk screens. Plus the Testdisk documentation also states:

After Analyse, select the DellUtility partition,
use 'T' to change the partition type to DE.
Use the arrow key to boot into the NTFS partition.

Since the DellUtility partition is never shown after the Analyse is run, I do not have the opportunity to "use 'T' to change the partition type to DE". What do I need to do to make this drive bootable?

As a Slave, I can pull data off of the drive and store new data on it. I don't want it as a Slave. I want to be able
to boot off the Windows OS it contains.

Thank you in advance,
Bob

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Fiona
Posts: 2835
Joined: 18 Feb 2012, 17:19
Location: Ludwigsburg/Stuttgart - Germany

Re: Dell Computer Boot Failure

#2 Post by Fiona »

It doesn't help as much if you copy a part of a recovery example from the mainpage. :)
We'd need infos about your situation!
Did you run Deeper Search?
Can you repeat your diagnose running Quit and Deeper Search and upload the testisk.log?
To upload the testdisk.log, you must zip or rename it to testdisk.txt .
You also can copy and paste the content of the testdisk.log into a post.
If your Dell Utility partition is not found, you can set your windows partition as primary active to repair your boot.
At least you're able to boot windows.
Probably it would be possible to create a Dell Utility-partition afterwards, using the dell support?
Since the DellUtility partition is never shown after the Analyse is run, I do not have the opportunity to "use 'T' to change the partition type to DE". What do I need to do to make this drive bootable?
What are the results after Quick and Deeper Search (if your Dell Utility-Partition is not found during Quick Search).
A step by step example might be;

Confirm in TestDisk through until you see your partitions (either Quick or Deeper Search).
Select your FAT16 >32M-partition and press t for Type.
Press enter to continue.
You should see this;
TestDisk 6.14-WIP, Data Recovery Utility, March 2012
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org

* FAT16 >32M 0 1 1 3 254 63 64197 [DellUtility]

>List of partition type
01 FAT12 50 OnTrack DM RO a9 NetBSD
02 XENIX root 51 OnTrack DM RW-NOVEL ab Darwin boot
03 XENIX /usr 52 CP/M-Microport V/386 af HFS
04 FAT16 <32M 53 OnTrack DM WO ??? b7 BSDI
06 FAT16 >32M 54 OnTrack DM DDO b8 BSDI swap
07 HPFS - NTFS 55 EZ-Drive bc Acronis
09 AIX data 56 GoldenBow VFeature be Solaris boot
0a OS/2 Boot Manager 61 SpeedStor bf Solaris
0b FAT32 63 Unixware, HURD, SCO c1 secured FAT12
0c FAT32 LBA 64 NetWare 286 c4 secured FAT16
0e FAT16 LBA 65 NetWare 3.11+ c6 sec. Huge-bad FAT16
10 OPUS 67 Novell c7 Syrinx Boot-bad NTFS
Next

New partition type [current FAT16 >32M] ? _
The cursor might blink.
Type de .
Your partition looks like;
New partition type [current FAT16 >32M] ? de_

Press enter to leave the menu.
Your partitions look like this;

* DellUtility 0 1 1 3 254 63 64197 [DellUtility]
P HPFS - NTFS 4 0 1 4864 254 63 78091965
Your Dell Utility-Partition should be still selected.
Use the right or left arrow key on your keybord to change it from * (Star) as primary active to P for only primary.
It Looks like;
P DellUtility 0 1 1 3 254 63 64197 [DellUtility]

Select your next partition.
P HPFS - NTFS 4 0 1 4864 254 63 78091965
It's your windows-Partition and must boot.
Change it to primary active * (star) using your left or reight arrow key.
Then it should look like;
* HPFS - NTFS 4 0 1 4864 254 63 78091965

Your partitions should look like;

P DellUtility 0 1 1 3 254 63 64197 [DellUtility]
* HPFS - NTFS 4 0 1 4864 254 63 78091965

Press Enter to proceed.
Check Write and press enter and y to register your partitions into your partition table.
If any boot sector might be damaged you'll get a screen to repair your boot sector.
Confirm at Backup BS to copy the backup of the boot sector over your boot sector.
So your boot sector will be repaired.

Quit TestDisk and reboot.
If you still experience any problems about boot, run fixmbr and fixboot from your W2k recovery console.
It might probably related to grub?

BobSpeth
Posts: 2
Joined: 09 Mar 2012, 21:19

Re: Dell Computer Boot Failure

#3 Post by BobSpeth »

Fiona,
I attach the latest Testdisk log. I had tried the W2k recovery console procedures fixmbr and fixboot. Neither worked which led me to seek a boot repair utility. That search led me to Testdisk.

Since I cannot locate a DellUtility partition on the drive, it looks like I need to get Dell involved.

Thanks,
Bob
Attachments
testdisk.zip
(1.55 KiB) Downloaded 353 times

serge1966
Posts: 1
Joined: 11 Feb 2015, 03:02

Re: Dell Computer Boot Failure

#4 Post by serge1966 »

Fiona wrote:New partition type [current FAT16 >32M] ? _
The cursor might blink.
Type de .
Thank you Fiona. The way it is documented (use 'T' to change the partition type to DE) was confusing to me so your explanation really helped me to address the issue!

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