Odd computer fault

adwb · 05-14-2014, 12:07 AM

We don't really have a forum for this so if a mod wants to move it please go ahead.
I have a pc running on win7 with 3 x 1tb hdd fitted. One of the 3 hd is is partitioned in to 3 drives.

In drive one stored worked on images. In drive 2 duplicate of what LR downloads in case of primary download drive or me deleting originals by mistake.and in drive 3 a small back up of document data.

I noticed at boot up a message about a lbr fault and all of a sudden two out of the 3 partition drives are no longer found by windows 7 when i look at what's on the computer hdd drive wise.

I have no problem seeing any other partitions on the other 2 hdd or the third partition with stored images on the hdd in question.

Any way I removed the now faulty hdd with two invisible and one visible partitions and put it in a caddy and plugged it in via USB to a old laptop with xp intending to investigate and to my surprise all the partitions are visible and the data accessible!

I pluged it in to the desktop running windows 7 USB and still the two partitions are there but not available to be read or formatted or any thing.

What I can't understand is why xp can see the partitions and their content but win 7 can no longer do so.

Any bright ideas any one? Any suggestions for disc maintenance software that can check a disc, and block out faulty sectors?

JohnX · 05-14-2014, 01:26 AM

On the win7 machine the partitions are drive mapped, which presumably includes some 'directions' towards/from the appropriate hard disk?

If that's the case, won't the win7 machine still 'know' that it's the same hard disk even though plugged in via USB?

The XP machine wouldn't know about the mapping and just see the partitions as partitions.

If all this is correct, maybe the 'mapping' on the win7 machine has become corrupted? Tried System Restore?

Not a Number · 05-14-2014, 02:44 AM

If you have the "My Computer" icon on you desktop right click on it and pick "Manage" from the context menu. Otherwise click you "Start" button and right click on "Computer" from the menu. This will open the Computer Managment Panel. If not already expand "Storage" by clicking on the triangle to the left or double clicking it. Select "Disk Management". On the right the panel should show on the top all you logical drives and status. The bottom right panel should show your physical drives and partitions.

From here you can right click on the partition and assign or change logical drive letters. This mapping may have gotten lost for one reason or another. Do not delete, change or format the partitions on the physical drive in question unless you have backed up the data. I recommend you backup the data from the partitions while in XP.

If Disk Manager does give you back access to the missing partitions you could try some of the other partition management tools available. Worst comes to worst - backup under XP. delete the partitions in Win7 using Disk Management and recreate them and restore the data.

**Schraubstock** · 05-14-2014, 04:47 AM

I guess by LBR fault you meant MBR fault.

You most likely have a corrupt MBR (Master Boot Record). Run "master boot record" repair,
You need the original Win installation CD.

MBR - Restore Windows 7 Master Boot Record - Windows 7 Help Forums

Greetings

adwb · 05-14-2014, 06:58 AM

i thought it said lbr not mbr but cant tell now since i pulled the drive out and replaced out with a new one.
the "faulty" partitions that show as empty in win7 but will not allow writting work fine on the xp machine.
still cant see why?
i am going to copy what can be found via xp to a spare drive then format and see what happens

photolady95 · 05-14-2014, 08:13 AM

I would suggest you test the drive to make sure it's okay before formating and maybe fighting it further. I use this disc quite often to check drives, memory, etc.

UBCD And if you're not sure how to burn an .iso image, use this guide

adwb · 05-14-2014, 09:01 AM

Originally posted by photolady95

I would suggest you test the drive to make sure it's okay before formating and maybe fighting it further. I use this disc quite often to check drives, memory, etc.

UBCD And if you're not sure how to burn an .iso image, use this guide

ok that makes sense , what is a iso image and what does it do?

photolady95 · 05-14-2014, 02:10 PM

An .iso image is just a container. It holds many things inside it. This paritcular container has system tools, such as, memory testers, harddrive testers, cloning tools, etc. After you burn the image, you use it to test different things installed on your computer before it loads windows. UBCD means Ultimate Boot CD, as in Boot disc.

Once you have it burned to a dvd or cd, you make sure your computer is set to boot from which ever drive you have, dvd, or cd, then with that disc in the drive, you save the changes in Setup/BIOS, and the computer should boot up allowing the UBCD to open up. In the list you see, you pick which test, or software you want to use. In this case, you need to know which brand your harddrive is so you can pick which testing software you need. I have found over the years that even if you don't know the brand of your harddrive, the one test for Seagate drives works with other drives, and I just pick that one to test the harddrive with. It is a simple but effective set of tools in that .iso.

Paleo Pete · 05-14-2014, 03:58 PM

ISO image

ISO image - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The "restore disk" you have to make with a new computer, formerly sent with it, is the same thing. Most CD/DVD burning software has the capability to burn an image into a usable disk, as an ISO it will not work, it's just an image of the data.

stevebrot · 05-14-2014, 04:39 PM

Originally posted by photolady95

UBCD And if you're not sure how to burn an .iso image, use this guide

Note that once burned to CD, you will use the UBCD to boot the computer. There are a ton of tools and figuring out which one to use is a challenge. At the very least, you will want to find and run the diagnostic programs for your drive and probably also retrieve the S.M.A.R.T. logs from the drive. The S.M.A.R.T. long test is also a good thing to do. Those will allow you to rule out a physical problem with the drive.

The Parted Magic program (also on UBCD) provides a very nice desktop environment for its suite of tools. Highly recommended.

BTW...use the download link on the far left of the UBCD Home page and scroll down to the bottom of the download page to find the actual links to get the .iso file from one of several mirror sites. Ignore the other links and flashing lights and such.

Steve

Imageman · 05-14-2014, 05:16 PM

Do nothing.

Save what you can of what you can see before doing ANYTHING.

The sector mapping that has failed is the Large sector resizing to enable very large disk blocks to be read. Save everything you can, this might be your only chance.

Colbyt · 05-14-2014, 06:37 PM

I am not experienced with this particular problem.

I do know really sound advice when I see it and that is what Imageman has provided below.

Originally posted by Imageman

Do nothing.

Save what you can of what you can see before doing ANYTHING.

The sector mapping that has failed is the Large sector resizing to enable very large disk blocks to be read. Save everything you can, this might be your only chance.

**Schraubstock** · 05-15-2014, 01:33 AM

I had pretty well the same problem a little while back.

Tell me, when you boot up, at one stage do you see in the upper left corner of the screen (it is black at this stage) a message flashing for a very short time ? (white letters) If so it reads MBR2 (or 3) ? It is fast and difficult to read. I took a photograph of itby putting the camera in machine gun mode.

In my case it read MBR3 which means the computer was booting up by using a third standby copy of the computer. Everything worked seemingly ok except not all drives or partitions were showing up.

If indeed this error message is flashing by when you boot up then you need to do nothing more then rebuild the MBR.
If indeed this error message is flashing by when you boot up and you do not do anything then your computer will never work properly (or even totally break down) until you do the MBR re-build.

As I said the problem you are having was much identical with my computer, but only you can say if this above mentioned error message displays during boot up. It flashes so fast it is often overlooked.

Greetings

adwb · 05-15-2014, 07:20 AM

Originally posted by Schraubstock

I had pretty well the same problem a little while back.

Tell me, when you boot up, at one stage do you see in the upper left corner of the screen (it is black at this stage) a message flashing for a very short time ? (white letters) If so it reads MBR2 (or 3) ? It is fast and difficult to read. I took a photograph of itby putting the camera in machine gun mode.

In my case it read MBR3 which means the computer was booting up by using a third standby copy of the computer. Everything worked seemingly ok except not all drives or partitions were showing up.

If indeed this error message is flashing by when you boot up then you need to do nothing more then rebuild the MBR.
If indeed this error message is flashing by when you boot up and you do not do anything then your computer will never work properly (or even totally break down) until you do the MBR re-build.

As I said the problem you are having was much identical with my computer, but only you can say if this above mentioned error message displays during boot up. It flashes so fast it is often overlooked.

Greetings

Yes that's what happened but since i pulled the drive and replaced it it has gone.

i have down loaded from the faulty disc via the xp laptop all the files from all the partitions [which are only image files] to a spare hdd so now can test and or format safely the "faulty" one if required.

adwb · 05-15-2014, 08:32 AM

ok bit more help please,
i have downloaded and unzipped ubcd and got files , boot, pmagic,ubcd,autorun and licence.

copying them to a disc i assume can't be correct so what am i coping to the disc?

05-14-2014, 12:07 AM	#1
adwb Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Bristol UK Photos: Gallery Posts: 1,636	Odd computer fault We don't really have a forum for this so if a mod wants to move it please go ahead. I have a pc running on win7 with 3 x 1tb hdd fitted. One of the 3 hd is is partitioned in to 3 drives. In drive one stored worked on images. In drive 2 duplicate of what LR downloads in case of primary download drive or me deleting originals by mistake.and in drive 3 a small back up of document data. I noticed at boot up a message about a lbr fault and all of a sudden two out of the 3 partition drives are no longer found by windows 7 when i look at what's on the computer hdd drive wise. I have no problem seeing any other partitions on the other 2 hdd or the third partition with stored images on the hdd in question. Any way I removed the now faulty hdd with two invisible and one visible partitions and put it in a caddy and plugged it in via USB to a old laptop with xp intending to investigate and to my surprise all the partitions are visible and the data accessible! I pluged it in to the desktop running windows 7 USB and still the two partitions are there but not available to be read or formatted or any thing. What I can't understand is why xp can see the partitions and their content but win 7 can no longer do so. Any bright ideas any one? Any suggestions for disc maintenance software that can check a disc, and block out faulty sectors?

05-14-2014, 04:39 PM	#10
stevebrot Otis Memorial Pentaxian Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Vancouver (USA) Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 42,007	Originally posted by photolady95 UBCD And if you're not sure how to burn an .iso image, use this guide Note that once burned to CD, you will use the UBCD to boot the computer. There are a ton of tools and figuring out which one to use is a challenge. At the very least, you will want to find and run the diagnostic programs for your drive and probably also retrieve the S.M.A.R.T. logs from the drive. The S.M.A.R.T. long test is also a good thing to do. Those will allow you to rule out a physical problem with the drive. The Parted Magic program (also on UBCD) provides a very nice desktop environment for its suite of tools. Highly recommended. BTW...use the download link on the far left of the UBCD Home page and scroll down to the bottom of the download page to find the actual links to get the .iso file from one of several mirror sites. Ignore the other links and flashing lights and such. Steve Last edited by stevebrot; 05-14-2014 at 04:44 PM.

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05-14-2014, 01:26 AM	#2
JohnX Pentaxian Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: London Posts: 1,116	On the win7 machine the partitions are drive mapped, which presumably includes some 'directions' towards/from the appropriate hard disk? If that's the case, won't the win7 machine still 'know' that it's the same hard disk even though plugged in via USB? The XP machine wouldn't know about the mapping and just see the partitions as partitions. If all this is correct, maybe the 'mapping' on the win7 machine has become corrupted? Tried System Restore?

05-14-2014, 02:44 AM	#3
Not a Number Moderator Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Venice, CA Posts: 10,526	If you have the "My Computer" icon on you desktop right click on it and pick "Manage" from the context menu. Otherwise click you "Start" button and right click on "Computer" from the menu. This will open the Computer Managment Panel. If not already expand "Storage" by clicking on the triangle to the left or double clicking it. Select "Disk Management". On the right the panel should show on the top all you logical drives and status. The bottom right panel should show your physical drives and partitions. From here you can right click on the partition and assign or change logical drive letters. This mapping may have gotten lost for one reason or another. Do not delete, change or format the partitions on the physical drive in question unless you have backed up the data. I recommend you backup the data from the partitions while in XP. If Disk Manager does give you back access to the missing partitions you could try some of the other partition management tools available. Worst comes to worst - backup under XP. delete the partitions in Win7 using Disk Management and recreate them and restore the data.

05-14-2014, 04:47 AM	#4
Schraubstock Site Supporter Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Melbourne Photos: Gallery Posts: 3,386	I guess by LBR fault you meant MBR fault. You most likely have a corrupt MBR (Master Boot Record). Run "master boot record" repair, You need the original Win installation CD. MBR - Restore Windows 7 Master Boot Record - Windows 7 Help Forums Greetings

05-14-2014, 06:58 AM	#5
adwb Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Bristol UK Photos: Gallery Posts: 1,636 Original Poster	i thought it said lbr not mbr but cant tell now since i pulled the drive out and replaced out with a new one. the "faulty" partitions that show as empty in win7 but will not allow writting work fine on the xp machine. still cant see why? i am going to copy what can be found via xp to a spare drive then format and see what happens

05-14-2014, 08:13 AM	#6
photolady95 Otis Memorial Pentaxian Join Date: May 2009 Location: Cruising the forum watching his back Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 12,712	I would suggest you test the drive to make sure it's okay before formating and maybe fighting it further. I use this disc quite often to check drives, memory, etc. UBCD And if you're not sure how to burn an .iso image, use this guide

05-14-2014, 09:01 AM	#7
adwb Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Bristol UK Photos: Gallery Posts: 1,636 Original Poster	Originally posted by photolady95 I would suggest you test the drive to make sure it's okay before formating and maybe fighting it further. I use this disc quite often to check drives, memory, etc. UBCD And if you're not sure how to burn an .iso image, use this guide ok that makes sense , what is a iso image and what does it do?

05-14-2014, 02:10 PM	#8
photolady95 Otis Memorial Pentaxian Join Date: May 2009 Location: Cruising the forum watching his back Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 12,712	An .iso image is just a container. It holds many things inside it. This paritcular container has system tools, such as, memory testers, harddrive testers, cloning tools, etc. After you burn the image, you use it to test different things installed on your computer before it loads windows. UBCD means Ultimate Boot CD, as in Boot disc. Once you have it burned to a dvd or cd, you make sure your computer is set to boot from which ever drive you have, dvd, or cd, then with that disc in the drive, you save the changes in Setup/BIOS, and the computer should boot up allowing the UBCD to open up. In the list you see, you pick which test, or software you want to use. In this case, you need to know which brand your harddrive is so you can pick which testing software you need. I have found over the years that even if you don't know the brand of your harddrive, the one test for Seagate drives works with other drives, and I just pick that one to test the harddrive with. It is a simple but effective set of tools in that .iso.

05-14-2014, 03:58 PM	#9
Paleo Pete Veteran Member Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Texas Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 2,880	ISO image ISO image - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The "restore disk" you have to make with a new computer, formerly sent with it, is the same thing. Most CD/DVD burning software has the capability to burn an image into a usable disk, as an ISO it will not work, it's just an image of the data.

05-14-2014, 05:16 PM	#11
Imageman Veteran Member Join Date: Dec 2013 Photos: Albums Posts: 461	Do nothing. Save what you can of what you can see before doing ANYTHING. The sector mapping that has failed is the Large sector resizing to enable very large disk blocks to be read. Save everything you can, this might be your only chance.

05-14-2014, 06:37 PM	#12
Colbyt Veteran Member Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Central Kentucky Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 1,418	I am not experienced with this particular problem. I do know really sound advice when I see it and that is what Imageman has provided below. Originally posted by Imageman Do nothing. Save what you can of what you can see before doing ANYTHING. The sector mapping that has failed is the Large sector resizing to enable very large disk blocks to be read. Save everything you can, this might be your only chance.

05-15-2014, 01:33 AM	#13
Schraubstock Site Supporter Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Melbourne Photos: Gallery Posts: 3,386	I had pretty well the same problem a little while back. Tell me, when you boot up, at one stage do you see in the upper left corner of the screen (it is black at this stage) a message flashing for a very short time ? (white letters) If so it reads MBR2 (or 3) ? It is fast and difficult to read. I took a photograph of itby putting the camera in machine gun mode. In my case it read MBR3 which means the computer was booting up by using a third standby copy of the computer. Everything worked seemingly ok except not all drives or partitions were showing up. If indeed this error message is flashing by when you boot up then you need to do nothing more then rebuild the MBR. If indeed this error message is flashing by when you boot up and you do not do anything then your computer will never work properly (or even totally break down) until you do the MBR re-build. As I said the problem you are having was much identical with my computer, but only you can say if this above mentioned error message displays during boot up. It flashes so fast it is often overlooked. Greetings

05-15-2014, 07:20 AM	#14
adwb Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Bristol UK Photos: Gallery Posts: 1,636 Original Poster	Originally posted by Schraubstock I had pretty well the same problem a little while back. Tell me, when you boot up, at one stage do you see in the upper left corner of the screen (it is black at this stage) a message flashing for a very short time ? (white letters) If so it reads MBR2 (or 3) ? It is fast and difficult to read. I took a photograph of itby putting the camera in machine gun mode. In my case it read MBR3 which means the computer was booting up by using a third standby copy of the computer. Everything worked seemingly ok except not all drives or partitions were showing up. If indeed this error message is flashing by when you boot up then you need to do nothing more then rebuild the MBR. If indeed this error message is flashing by when you boot up and you do not do anything then your computer will never work properly (or even totally break down) until you do the MBR re-build. As I said the problem you are having was much identical with my computer, but only you can say if this above mentioned error message displays during boot up. It flashes so fast it is often overlooked. Greetings Yes that's what happened but since i pulled the drive and replaced it it has gone. i have down loaded from the faulty disc via the xp laptop all the files from all the partitions [which are only image files] to a spare hdd so now can test and or format safely the "faulty" one if required.

05-15-2014, 08:32 AM	#15
adwb Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Bristol UK Photos: Gallery Posts: 1,636 Original Poster	ok bit more help please, i have downloaded and unzipped ubcd and got files , boot, pmagic,ubcd,autorun and licence. copying them to a disc i assume can't be correct so what am i coping to the disc?