cgsecurity.org

Hello,

I am in a mess, and not sure what to do, because I am not sure what kind of damage I have caused. So first, please accept my apologies for the following...

I have gone through the tutorials, but am not sure which direction I should go because I do not know if I actually deleted a partition, or did something else.

I am working on a old (2006) Sony Vaio (vgn fe-790), 2GB of RAM, with about a 100 GB hard drive. I am currently running off a live Linux Mint 17 CD, as that is the only way I can boot up. Previously, I was running Windows XP (sp3).

This all started because I was hoping to install Linux Mint alongside XP, and it was during that installation, that I got myself into trouble.

When attempting to install Mint 17 alongside XP from the CD, the option to install alongside XP was not available. After doing some research, I found a YouTube video showing exactly what I was trying to do. In that video the person used Gparted to create a partition just for Linux – so I figured that's what I needed to do (wrong!)

After running chkdisk, and defragging the drive, I ran Gparted, and created an almost 10 GB unallocated partition to install Mint on. This only took about 5 minutes, and after it was done Gparted displayed 3 partitions (I had two when I started) but showed one drive as having an error, and gave this warning...

“Failed to load runlist for $MFT/$DATA.
highest_vcn = 0xd127, last_vcn - 1 = 0xd34f
Failed to load $MFT: Input/output error
Failed to mount '/dev/sda2': Input/output error
NTFS is inconsistent. Run chkdsk /f on Windows then reboot it TWICE!
The usage of the /f parameter is very IMPORTANT! No modification was
made to NTFS by this software.

Unable to read the contents of this file system!
Because of this some operations may be unavailable.
The cause might be a missing software package.
The following list of software packages is required for ntfs file system support: ntfsprogs / ntfs-3g.”

The drive I was partitioning is 83 GB, I had just over 16 GB unused, and was trying to create a 10 GB partition for Linux.

Immediately after I got the error I went to the Linux forum seeking help – as I was afraid to do anything. It was recommended that I just follow the instructions to run chkdsk /f on windows and reboot twice. Well – I bet you know that didn't work, because when I restart my computer, and try to bootup in safemode – I get nothing – just a blue screen – not the usually “blue screen of death” - but one that says.... “A problem has been detected. Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. Technical Information: STOP 0x00000024 (0x0019020203, 0x8A1638A0, 0xc0000102, 0x00000000)”

I also posted at the Gparted forum – they recommended I use Testdisk.

Linux does show I have a 83 GB volume – if I click on it – it says “could not mount”

Although confused, I ran Testdisk yesterday, through the Linux Terminal – I don't even know if that's how I should run it. If I download the windows version (onto an external HD) it won't run – I assume, because, as I said, I am operating off the Linux live CD.

Everything is backed up, but if possible, I would like to restore the drive to what it was before my gigantic lapse in judgment. Besides, if I have damaged the drive in some way, I am guessing my backups aren't going to do me any good with this particular drive anyway.
What, if anything, can I do at this point?

Thank you,
Teresa

Can you upload a screen shot of testdisk / Analyse to judge your current partition structure/table?
In case if you use a Linux Live´-CD you can use a camera or handy with low resolution pictures.

Thank you, Fiona. Is this what you wanted? I could not get a screenshot, so just copied the text...

Disk /dev/sda - 100 GB / 93 GiB - CHS 12161 255 63
Partition Start End Size in sectors
>* HPFS - NTFS 0 1 1 783 254 63 12594897
HPFS - NTFS 784 0 1 10864 254 63 161951265
HPFS - NTFS 784 0 1 12160 254 63 182771505


Structure: Ok. Use Up/Down Arrow keys to select partition.
Use Left/Right Arrow keys to CHANGE partition characteristics:
*=Primary bootable P=Primary L=Logical E=Extended D=Deleted
Keys A: add partition, L: load backup, T: change type, P: list files,
Enter: to continue
NTFS, blocksize=2048, 6448 MB / 6149 MiB

Don't know if this will help, but...
On the primary drive - testdisk says the drive is too small. After doing a deeper search - this is what it says:

Disk /dev/sda - 100 GB / 93 GiB - CHS 12161 255 63

The harddisk (100 GB / 93 GiB) seems too small! (< 193 GB / 180 GiB)
Check the harddisk size: HD jumpers settings, BIOS detection...

The following partition can't be recovered:
Partition Start End Size in sectors
> HPFS - NTFS 12160 254 63 23537 254 62 182771505


If I have it list files for the Primary drive, it looks like it's listing a bunch of the original files that came with the computer.

I would like to get my XP boot configuration back to what it was before I tried to partition...is this possible?
Thank you.
Teresa

Try to list your files. If it's ok, switch the partitions to recover/keep to *(bootable) or P(rimary). On next screen, if all your partitions are listed, choose Write, confirm, Quit and reboot.

One question - the files it lists are quite old - I believe they are the original files that came installed on the machine. If I write those files, will I just be setting the computer back to the factory install? What I would like to do, is put my system back in the place it was just before I partitioned the drive.

Thank you.