Partition lost

[jefferson]

Hi all
today I lost a 500GB partition. I'm currently trying to recover using GetDataBack and seems to work.

The facts:

Disks: Disk 0, 1 and 2: SATA. Disk 3: PATA

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Physical number of disk 0 : 1f7b1f7b
0 : C:* type=7  (HPFS/NTFS), size= 423376978 KB, Lba Pos=63
1 : C:  type=f  (Win95 XInt 13 extended), size= 65007022 KB, Lba Pos=846754020
2 : C:  type=83   (Linux native), size= 31463271 KB, Lba Pos=846754083
3 : C:  type=5   (Extended), size= 31463302 KB, Lba Pos=909680625
4 : C:  type=83    (Linux native), size= 31463271 KB, Lba Pos=909680688
5 : C:  type=5    (Extended), size= 2080417 KB, Lba Pos=972607230
6 : C:  type=82     (Linux swap), size= 2080386 KB, Lba Pos=972607293
Physical number of disk 1 : f98d5439
7 : D:* type=7  (HPFS/NTFS), size= 586059201 KB, Lba Pos=63
8 : D:  type=5  (Extended), size= 835982437 KB, Lba Pos=1258307190
9 : D:  type=7   (HPFS/NTFS), size= 835982406 KB, Lba Pos=1258307253
Physical number of disk 2 : 955c955c
10 : E:* type=7  (HPFS/NTFS), size= 244198415 KB, Lba Pos=5
Physical number of disk 3 : a4c00e7f
11 : F:* type=7  (HPFS/NTFS), size= 155107543 KB, Lba Pos=63
12 : F:  type=f  (Win95 XInt 13 extended), size= 44034165 KB, Lba Pos=310215150
13 : F:  type=83   (Linux native), size= 44034133 KB, Lba Pos=310215213
Physical number of disk 4 : dad745e0
14 : G:* type=7  (HPFS/NTFS), size= 160834716 KB, Lba Pos=63


boot.ini:

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[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP (C:)" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /usepmtimer
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP (D:)" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /usepmtimer
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(2)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP (E:)" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /usepmtimer
C:\Plop\plpbtldr.bin="Plop Boot Manager"


I have 3 WindowsXP configurations (see above), controlled with boot.ini on first disk.
When I configured plop for the very first time I was working on WindowsXP on D:.

History:
- downloaded the current boot manager plpbt-5.0.11-2.zip and extracted
- downloaded the file plpgenbtldr-0.8.zip and extracted
- defragmented C:
- created a directory c:\plop
- copied plpbt.bin and plpgenbtldr.exe to c:\plop directory
- run plpgenbtldr
- plpbtldr.bin generated
-  add the line below to my c:\boot.ini
    -> c:\plop\plpbtldr.bin="Plop Boot Manager"
- rebooted
- selected "Plop Boot Manager" from XP boot manager
- at plop screen, selected "Partition 2"
- at this point, I got a black screen
- rebooted again
- selected WindowsXP on D:
- "partition not found" error
- rebooted again
- selected WindowsXP on C:
- log into WindowsXP on C: with no errors.

Now I'm trying to recovery the lost partition (disk D:, first partition of disk 0, primary partition, number 7 in list above).

What's gone wrong?

Thank you.

[jefferson]

Please help me!
I need to understand what happened in order to avoid another partition loss! 

[Elmar]

i don't know what happened, maybe because of the xp started from d:

is your partition recovered?

regards
elmar

[jefferson]

i don't know what happened, maybe because of the xp started from d:

is your partition recovered?

regards
elmar

Hi! Yes, the partition is recovered using a raw recover.

I would like to test plop again, but I'm scared that I can loose another partition...

[Elmar]

I would like to test plop again, but I'm scared that I can loose another partition...

i understand that.

xp is not able to start from another hard disk than the first one (except with a trick) without having a "boot partition" on the first hard disk.

[jefferson]

I would like to test plop again, but I'm scared that I can loose another partition...

i understand that.

xp is not able to start from another hard disk than the first one (except with a trick) without having a "boot partition" on the first hard disk.

Yes, I have a "boot partition" on the first hard disk. I simply used boot.ini for selecting another XP installation. This is allowed by XP, and i use this method from years...

What I need is simply understand why plop destroyed my d: partition. I think this can be useful, once understood, to other users too... It's a very dangerous behaviour.

[Elmar]

What I need is simply understand why plop destroyed my d: partition. I think this can be useful, once understood, to other users too... It's a very dangerous behaviour.

plop itself destroyed nothing because plpbt.bin makes no hard disk write access, except you go to profiles and change something there.

[jefferson]

What I need is simply understand why plop destroyed my d: partition. I think this can be useful, once understood, to other users too... It's a very dangerous behaviour.

plop itself destroyed nothing because plpbt.bin makes no hard disk write access, except you go to profiles and change something there.

I changed nothing to profiles. Just the jobs described on first post here...

[Elmar]

i only know that xp is not designed to boot native from d:. that means, when you want to boot xp native from d: then its required to remap the hard disk number and give xp the illusion it boots from the first hard disk. 5.0.11-2 does not remap the hard disk when you boot another hard disk than the first one.

[jefferson]

i only know that xp is not designed to boot native from d:. that means, when you want to boot xp native from d: then its required to remap the hard disk number and give xp the illusion it boots from the first hard disk. 5.0.11-2 does not remap the hard disk when you boot another hard disk than the first one.

The boot is always from the hd#0. Once booted, boot.ini simply redirect boot process where \windows folder is located.
Adding items to boot.ini in order to use another windows installation is performed by windowsxp dvd itself when it realizes that you are installing another xp in another partition.

[Elmar]

The boot is always from the hd#0. Once booted, boot.ini simply redirect boot process where \windows folder is located.

this is only correct when you do not use another boot manager than the windows boot manager.

when you used the plop boot manager and you selected to boot d:, the sequence became different.

pc on -> mbr hd0 -> boot sector windows hd0 -> windows boot manager c: (loaded boot.ini on c: ) -> and then

1) when you use windows boot manager to start xp from hd1
-> the windows boot manager checks the boot.ini and loads the windows kernel from the device hd1 partition 1 and gives some parameters to the kernel

2) when you use plpbt.bin and select the first partition on hd1
-> plpbt.bin -> selected to boot d: -> plop loads the boot sector of windows hd1 -> the boot sector of windows hd1 has the control and continues the boot process. maybe there happened anything wrong because xp is not designed to boot from hd1.
so the initial start of xp at the second hard disk became the boot sector of hd1.

do you understand the technical difference?

[jefferson]

The boot is always from the hd#0. Once booted, boot.ini simply redirect boot process where \windows folder is located.

this is only correct when you do not use another boot manager than the windows boot manager.

when you used the plop boot manager and you selected to boot d:, the sequence became different.

pc on -> mbr hd0 -> boot sector windows hd0 -> windows boot manager c: (loaded boot.ini on c: ) -> and then

1) when you use windows boot manager to start xp from hd1
-> the windows boot manager checks the boot.ini and loads the windows kernel from the device hd1 partition 1 and gives some parameters to the kernel

2) when you use plpbt.bin and select the first partition on hd1
-> plpbt.bin -> selected to boot d: -> plop loads the boot sector of windows hd1 -> the boot sector of windows hd1 has the control and continues the boot process. maybe there happened anything wrong because xp is not designed to boot from hd1.
so the initial start of xp at the second hard disk became the boot sector of hd1.

do you understand the technical difference?

Ok. Thank you for the explanation. Now it's clear. I will further try to understand what happened to me.

[Elmar]

years ago, when i tried to boot xp from the second hard disk with my boot manager, (i cant remember exactly) then i only got an error of the windows boot manager. maybe it was loading boot.ini from hd1, i can't remember exactly. however, i lost no partition. the boot manager was installed to the mbr and not started from boot.ini, maybe this makes any difference.

[Elmar]

for testing, i installed xp to h0 and hd1.

i tried to boot hd1 partition 1 and xp didn't boot. thats no surprise. i got the message "NTLDR  not found". ok, that was also no surprise, because xp did not install ntldr to hd1. i lost NO partition.

i copied ntldr, boot.ini and ntdetect.com from hd0 to hd1 and tried to boot just for fun and SURPRISE, xp booted from hd1 when selecting the hd1 in the plop boot manager. its strange, however, it works now and didn't work years ago.

regards
elmar

[Elmar]

i know now why the previous test worked and the test years ago didn't work. as i said in a post before, xp needs a boot partition at the first hard disk. and the previous test before had the boot partition and the test years ago didn't had the boot partition. so its no longer a surprise that the boot worked with the previous test. the xp boot without a boot partition on the first hard disk works with the boot manager 5.0.12. the test version of the boot manager is already able to boot xp from the second hard disk without boot partition on the first.