OT: today 2 8GB partitions on 2 different disks vanished

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Sun Mar 24, 2002 11:14 am

(edit: problems are solved now)

Hi. My computer was wasted. ); ); );

The partitions were FAT32, on 2 different harddisks. Now they're RAW partitions. The partitions contained 1) all my samples and 2) my projects and audio drive.
I scanned w latest anti-virus scanner, cos I received a mail warning for this virus that eats the FAT. No virus found.

What the heck can cause this problem? I think it's software, cos fysical damage would make all partitions on one drive dissappear, now it's one partition on each drive that's gone.

Because Explorer now doesn't find the info about the vanished drives, it takes very long time before Explorer opens or before Windows reboots. Take 10-15 minutes or so.

I'm on XP pro, I recently did 2 Winupdates. One was for a 'Windows hasn't shutdown properly' msg to not appear again after clicked away, the other one I don't remember.

Could system restore help me on this? (also takes very long to load, so I gave up my experiments)

Any links to pc tech sites or more info would be greatly appreciated.

at0m.

[ This Message was edited by: at0mic on 2002-04-02 07:08 ]

remixme · Post by **remixme** » Sun Mar 24, 2002 1:11 pm

Right Im gonna send you a rescue utility, its in a 3 part rar to your email so be ready for it.

[ This Message was edited by: remixme on 2002-03-24 13:13 ]

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Sun Mar 24, 2002 1:19 pm

tx a lot i've got them.

i'll let you know how goes...

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Sun Mar 24, 2002 5:25 pm

Remixme, thanks for the program! Is it compatible w WinXP/NTFS? The partitions I've lost were FAT32, but C: is NTFS. Gonna play w it some more. Problem is all testing takes so long because of the problem

it takes about 10minutes to refresh My Computer or load any other programs which are looking for drive info. Once something's running, it runs as before.

Fun fun fun.

darkrezin · Post by **darkrezin** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 5:21 am

If you haven't done so already, try a recovery util such as Easy Recovery Pro - friends of mine have reported great results from this - it can even rescue stuff after a format.

As to why it happened - it seems very weird. Do you have any programs which use dodgy hard-drive authorization systems such as PACE? These can write to the HD without the knowledge of the OS so could have messed things up.

peace

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 5:46 am

I don't use any dodge disk utils or
protectors like pgp or so. Yesterday I did troubleshooting, by removing disks etc. to find out which one would cause the problem. someone told me to try to boot w only 1 hd installed, and no cdrom's. It didn't change a thing. The partition magic disks make an error in the pqmagic.exe or so, the PM program. But it seems to boot form win98 bootdisk, althoug it doesn't find any drives. (only cdroms are detected, the others need partitioning as the setup disk suggests. Let's first try something else

someone's getting me the Partition Magic full install for XP, instead of the rescue disks. Should work better, cos only winXP boots cool and finds the drives.

Thanks for your help,

at0m.

Post by **hubird** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 5:51 am

Can't help you at0mic, but I can imagine how you (not really a starter...) feel.
Just wanne wish you good luck!!

Spirit · Post by **Spirit** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 5:33 pm

This email warning you got seems a bit coincidental doesn't it ? Who was it from, what did it say ?

I did a comprehensive search for viruses that might do what you describe - with no result. More info ?

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 6:38 pm

No, it was a warning by mail, more like precautionary. Not the scanner that warned he found something.

The mail did talk about a virus that destroyed boot sectors etc, but I scanned several times and my disks seem clean. I have the latest anti virus update. And some years of mail experience hm hm, which also helps a great deal preventing virusses from infecting my system.

I also received 3 contaminated virusses, but they got blocked. I'm quite sure of that because my scanner would be gone, my dll's would have vanished and my bootsectors destroyed.

Edit: Partition Magic installed, reboot fails until boot.ini was restored, as predicted in the readme.txt. Gonna chkdsk w Partition Magic now.

at0mic.

[ This Message was edited by: at0mic on 2002-03-25 20:32 ]

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Tue Mar 26, 2002 7:30 am

Partition Magic finds the partitions and displays the right free/used space. It hangs on a scandisk for my E: and stops on S: cos of too many errors.

If I don't find this quick, I reset the partitions. Tomorrow I got visit again and I want my comp to work as supposed.

at0mic.

borg · Post by **borg** » Tue Mar 26, 2002 7:41 am

zie dan maar dat ge nog eens verlucht... al da gesmoor kan nie gezond zijn.

net een nieuwe muis gekocht. optische tracking en eindelijk een rechter knop, wat een luxe.
visite, visite, een huis vol visite.

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Tue Mar 26, 2002 7:46 am

Morning andy. I'm afraid today is wasted, maybe back to reality tomorrow. Not.

I've finally reset (read formatted;) the e: drive, 5 minutes later I found out how to do adv. scandisk in windoze and recuperated 6GB of my 8GB samples.

I'm one happy man now.

[ This Message was edited by: at0mic on 2002-03-26 08:42 ]

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Tue Apr 02, 2002 6:51 am

It's too late for this now but I have this program called Drive Image which allows you to image your partitions and span them to a size which fits on CDs. This way you will never have to worry about a virus etc.. Atomic, I am surprized you didn't at least have your important music data backed up.

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Tue Apr 02, 2002 7:07 am

I have all most important files on cd, I've been carrying them around for long time

But I have to get back to the cd's and put them back. Sooo many cd's... need to get structured soon

Please post us a link to that program, it would come in very handy. Now I copy selected folders to cd instead, as a backup. I have 2 Win setup backups on hd, but they are too big to fit on a cd or to be easily restored from cd. I don't like doing standard setups and then restoring a tweaked backup.

Cheers.

Spirit · Post by **Spirit** » Tue Apr 02, 2002 7:20 am

I render everything to separate audio tracks then save each piece/song as a complete file. That way you can back up finished pieces rather than long lists of "library" wavs. But I suppose I'm just stating the obvious...

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Tue Apr 02, 2002 7:29 am

That's how my Projects disk looked like. The other disk was Samples, a bulk drive for all my samples. The Samples drive has a rather different structure as the sample cd's, cos samples come from anywhere. They need to be structured, so I had clearly ordered into loops/shots, drumkits/drums/synths/pads/sounds/... I didn't backup it, cos the drive is a collection of my cd's. Now, I'll have to reorganise.

Each folder on Projects had all the files necessary to do the song. hm hm most of them are still on cd, somewhere... I should bring some order in my cd's.

Anywayz, gonna look for the multi tracks and flp files from my old Fruity songs again, I'm gonna redo some older work. Pull it thru the Pulsar, see what makes the difference. And guess I've evolved too, after these years. I think I did my best songs in the early days w Fruity.

[ This Message was edited by: at0mic on 2002-04-02 07:36 ]

Post by **hubird** » Tue Apr 02, 2002 12:31 pm

On 2002-04-02 07:20, Spirit wrote:
I render everything to separate audio tracks then save each piece/song as a complete file. That way you can back up finished pieces rather than long lists of "library" wavs. But I suppose I'm just stating the obvious...

Hey Spirit, I have somehow the same workaround:
In EVERY Song Map I put the same sub maps:
1. Song ( the Cubase song/arrangments, in all stadia, numbered 1-n. Here also the Mix Mastering Song)
2. Audio Original ( all source samples with or. names)
3. Audio Used (the in the song used, processed and renamed audio files)
4. FX (all used Cubase VST effects and instruments)
5. MIX (the mastered audio mix(es), and nothing else!)
6. Remix (if so; same submaps)
7. Back-up (usely just for the Cubase Song and specially the Arrangements of the song. Handsome for copy/paste old parts)

So At0mic, if I wanne backup a song, I just take the song map of that song, and burn everything to one or more cd's.
So this way you can allways pick up an original or processed sample , or a moderated VST effect you wanne re-use, etc.
But indeed, of course you know allready.

Let There Be Music.

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Tue Apr 02, 2002 12:36 pm

http://www.powerquest.com/driveimage/

Drive Image 5
Drive Image® 5.0 helps keep the data on your hard drive safe. With its new Windows® interface and improved performance, this new version maintains its position as the premier disk imaging utility for the proficient PC user. Whether you want to create an exact image of your hard drive for easy recovery, or upgrade to a new system, you can depend on the proven technology of Drive Image.

ohmelas · Post by **ohmelas** » Thu Apr 04, 2002 12:28 pm

Atomic,

I have a friend tell me this once. I lost a lot of my clients information once and then decided he was right.

I bought ghost and backed up the entire system on CD.

Just in case now.....

ohmelas · Post by **ohmelas** » Thu Apr 04, 2002 1:18 pm

Atomic,

I have a friend tell me this once. I lost a lot of my clients information once and then decided he was right.

I bought ghost and backed up the entire system on CD.

Just in case now.....