File systems damaged? - dynamic disk

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quazar
Posts: 3
Joined: 14 May 2012, 10:41

File systems damaged? - dynamic disk

#1 Post by quazar »

hi,

my server was running fine, and i dont know why, suddenly i started geting "Loading operating system error", i did little reesearch and saw that something was not right at "partiton level"

this is a dynamic disk, containing 2 partitions - the windows operating system partition and data partition. both were mirrored to a second harddrive.

before i go into the quick search, test disk shows me some good info (it seems that recognizes, somehow, the correct structure).

After deeper search i got listng of both partitions, but when i try to list files one windows partition it shows me "file system seems damaged"

I tried to go into advanced menu but i dont see any relevant options.

would it be possible to restore the partitions like they were before? - (im worried mainly on booting operating system successfully)

Can anyone give me a hint about this?

Thanks in advance,

regards

update: added pictures after deep scan
the picture 4 is what happens when i try to change partitions type to what i believe were before (prim boot + pri)
I believe there's something wrong with size but i'm not sure, any help plase?
Attachments
testdisk.zip
Log
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4.jpg
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1.jpg
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Fiona
Posts: 2835
Joined: 18 Feb 2012, 17:19
Location: Ludwigsburg/Stuttgart - Germany

Re: Fle systems damaged? - dynamic disk

#2 Post by Fiona »

Dynamic disks are different.
They don't use a partition table and stores the infos about the LDM (Logical Disk Mangager) at the end of the disk.
before i go into the quick search, test disk shows me some good info (it seems that recognizes, somehow, the correct structure).
Partition table is only created as a dummy to avoid that other software like OS regognizes this disk and will use it.
Newer versions of dynamic disks displaying at least infos about the containing volumes.
Previous versions were only listing one volume, even if the disk contained more.

In TestDisk you're able to repair a boot sector to make dynamical volumes visible to windows again.
But the partitions/volumes must be available in your disk managemant console.
In TestDisk it's possible to convert dynamical didks to basic without loss of data.
It's easily explained if you write a partition to a partition table, it converts your dynamic disk to basic.
TestDisk can write partitions to the partition table and if no partition table is available to write a complete partition table.

Are you sure that you already were running Quick and Deeper Search?
Your screen shot is from Analyse.
It's typical for a dynamic disk.
Then Quick Search will follow.
I'd need another screenshot from the results in Quick Search to compare the difference between your current partition structur and Quick Search (found partitions are listed in green colores) about geometry start and size.
If one partition is faulty, please press enter to proceed.
Check Deeper Search (if not already predefined) and run it also.
It's an additional Search for backup of boot sectors.
It's actually a try to find your partition using backup sector, to examine, are you able to list your files or do you still get an error message?

With dynamic disks, there are some possibilities to be a bit tricky.
Sometimes I used the disk management console to recreate dynamical volume and used TestDisk to rebuild the boot sector (the all data were available).
Also to recreate a situation if a disk contained several volumes and they were vanished and the user didn't know exactly the start and size anymore, TestDisk was looking for partitions and wrote the found partitions to the partition table.
Afterwards it was possible to convert the newly created basic disk back to dynamical.

Infos about your disk management console are appreciated also.
Might be important, is it still a dynamic disk, is your disk online and how your volumes are listed would be helpful.

Fiona

Edit:

Sry, I didn't see your screenshot from Deeper Search.

It helped a lot.
Your first partition uses the whole space from your disk.
Both partition overlap, that's why it's not possible to set both partition for recovery.
In this case , you should run Deeper Search to have a try to find your correct partition.

Fiona
quazar
Posts: 3
Joined: 14 May 2012, 10:41

Re: File systems damaged? - dynamic disk

#3 Post by quazar »

Hi Fiona,

Thanks for your quick reply.

I placed in the attachment the new logfile with quick and deep search and the image after quick search.
After quick search, only appears one of the partitions (the data partition not windows partition)

In the computer management console, the state of disk is external (with exclamation mark) and no partitions are recognized :-/

Regards

update:
Fiona said:
It's actually a try to find your partition using backup sector, to examine, are you able to list your files or do you still get an error message?

i just could list files on the second partition(data), on the windows one i got "file system seems damaged" error.
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Fiona
Posts: 2835
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Location: Ludwigsburg/Stuttgart - Germany

Re: File systems damaged? - dynamic disk

#4 Post by Fiona »

Do you have your dynamic disk as an external disk?
Did you remove it as an internal disk from your server?
Looks like that your disk must be imported using your disk management console and right click in the left square.
Normally, dynamical disks are not supported as external.
But there is a trick to create a dynamic disk internally and connect it as an external disk.
I have no idea it's recommendable or not, but it's not documented from microsoft.

To your case;

You OS should be WinXP.
Reason is, your partitions are aligned on cylinder boundaries.
This is Intel Standard and WinXP uses partitions aligned on cylinder boundaries.
From Vista on, partition aligned on megabyte boundary.
So it's not as easy to create the same partition as before.
Some information about that;
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931854/en-us

You should have a try to import your disk using your disk management console.
Then your second partition with data should be available.
If not, please let me know.
So you'll have exactly the same space for your first partition
You can create an unformatted partition/volume exactly like before using your disk management console (WinXP).
Please don't format it, otherwise you'll going to override your previous file system from your first partition!
That partition should be RAW and leave it as it is.
This is on purpose because you can have a try to rebuild a boot sector and get your partition inclusive files back.
Like in this thread;
http://forum.cgsecurity.org/phpBB3/part ... h-t14.html
But another Screen from TestDisk and the menu Advanced will help to examine your forst partition does it fit.
Also windows often uses for unformatted partition the partition type FAT16 this might be wrong.
In case you can use the menu Advanced and the menu Type to change it to partition type NTFS.
Please note, partition type and file system are different.
File system will be created if you format a partition.
But you shouldn't do it.
Overriding you underlying file system results in a new empty file system.
Then you need datarecovery software.
If your newly created unformatted partition is correct, then you can have a try to recover your file system using TestDisk Rebuild BS to rebuild your boot sector.
Description as in my link above.

If you have no WinXP and you will add an partition manually using TestDisk, it will change the procedur drastically.
TestDisk works Standard and if you add a partition manually, you must write it to your partition table.
So TestDisk will convert your dynamic disk to basic.
But if you have desire to keep your dynamic disk, you can after recovery convert it back to dynamical.

If a boot sector diagnose doesn't help, you'll need datarecovery software.

Fiona
quazar
Posts: 3
Joined: 14 May 2012, 10:41

Re: File systems damaged? - dynamic disk

#5 Post by quazar »

[quote="Fiona"]Do you have your dynamic disk as an external disk?
Did you remove it as an internal disk from your server?
>>I couldnt boot up operating system. it is a SATA drive and its connected directly via SATA (not any external usb device) to another computer
Looks like that your disk must be imported using your disk management console and right click in the left square.
Normally, dynamical disks are not supported as external.
>>i'm affraid that importing disk will "touch" any data on disk or at ldm\mbr level - is this operation safe?
But there is a trick to create a dynamic disk internally and connect it as an external disk.
I have no idea it's recommendable or not, but it's not documented from microsoft.

thank you very much for your help, i'll research on your sugestions,

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

Re: File systems damaged? - dynamic disk

#6 Post by Fiona »

In the computer management console, the state of disk is external (with exclamation mark) and no partitions are recognized :-/
That's why I had a question, is it external or not.
Did you put your disk internally or do you use it as esata (exernal sata)?
Only to clear why your disk state is external.
Your exclamation mark is probably that you must import it.

Dynamical disks behave different.
Important information (it's a large number ->signatur) is located at the end of the disk.
Importing your device will write these infos to your registry, so that windows can handle your disk.
It doesn't change anything else.

Fiona
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