Strange Case of the Disappearing Partition.

[Guest Sid Elbow]

My second IDE HD (160 GB) has but two (primary) partitions (both NTFS):

 

DATA ... 8 GB

BIGSPACE ... the remainder

 

(EnableBigLBA is set)

 

It's been running happily for a couple of years until yesterday or today

when the BIGSPACE partition disappeared. In Disk-Manager it just showed

up as "unallocated" space.

 

The data on it wasn't especially crucial (and in any case I recovered

about 90% of it with a file recovery program) so I thought ho-hum and

proceeded to recreate and format the partition. This went fine, the

partition was created with no reported errors. Then I rebooted and the

partition was gone again!

 

I've tried creating the partition both as a primary and as extended

(with a logical drive). Still it disappears when I reboot. Virus scans

find nothing.

 

Next I backed up the DATA partition, shut down and ran the

manufacturer's HD diagnostic from DOS. No problem, the disk is fine.

While in DOS, I ran Partition Magic, killed the DATA partition then

recreated both partitions and formatted NTFS (V3.0 for Win2K). Rebooted

(still in DOS) and ran PM again to confirm the partitions were still

there (they were).

 

Rebooted Windows. Chkdsk kicked in at startup (expected) on the DATA

partition but after fully booting the BIGSPACE partition had gone again!

 

FWIW I have 3 primary partitions on the first HD plus the primary DATA

partition on the second HD. Not sure what the maximum per system is but

in any case I tried both primary and extended. (Disk Manager didn't

object either way).

 

(The only thing of significance that I did yesterday was to temporarily

disconnect the second HD and replace it with another drive for testing

purposes. This was all done in DOS, I never booted into Windows with

that drive. I then reconnected the original drive, put the original

drive in a USB box, rebooted windows and partitioned/formatted the usb

drive from Disk-Manager and copied some files to the usb drive, all of

which went without a hiccup. Because of the mechanical handling during

this process, I've checked and rechecked the HD/Motherboard data and

power connections without joy ... in any case, the DATA partition on the

same HD has shown no signs of trouble).

[Guest philo]

Re: Strange Case of the Disappearing Partition.

 

 

"Sid Elbow" <here@there.com> wrote in message

news:4783fc65$1$16198$c3e8da3@news.astraweb.com...

> My second IDE HD (160 GB) has but two (primary) partitions (both NTFS):

>

> DATA ... 8 GB

> BIGSPACE ... the remainder

>

> (EnableBigLBA is set)

>

> It's been running happily for a couple of years until yesterday or today

> when the BIGSPACE partition disappeared. In Disk-Manager it just showed

> up as "unallocated" space.

>

> The data on it wasn't especially crucial (and in any case I recovered

> about 90% of it with a file recovery program) so I thought ho-hum and

> proceeded to recreate and format the partition. This went fine, the

> partition was created with no reported errors. Then I rebooted and the

> partition was gone again!

>

> I've tried creating the partition both as a primary and as extended

> (with a logical drive). Still it disappears when I reboot. Virus scans

> find nothing.

>

> Next I backed up the DATA partition, shut down and ran the

> manufacturer's HD diagnostic from DOS. No problem, the disk is fine.

> While in DOS, I ran Partition Magic, killed the DATA partition then

> recreated both partitions and formatted NTFS (V3.0 for Win2K). Rebooted

> (still in DOS) and ran PM again to confirm the partitions were still

> there (they were).

>

> Rebooted Windows. Chkdsk kicked in at startup (expected) on the DATA

> partition but after fully booting the BIGSPACE partition had gone again!

>

> FWIW I have 3 primary partitions on the first HD plus the primary DATA

> partition on the second HD. Not sure what the maximum per system is but

> in any case I tried both primary and extended. (Disk Manager didn't

> object either way).

 

 

<snip>

 

I have definately seen a few drives pass the mfg's diagnostic...yet still be

bad.

 

I'd remove the drive in question and put another in it's place.

If the 2nd drive is OK and has no "disappearing" partitions...

then the original drive must be bad.

 

If the problem shows up again on the 2n drive...

then the controller or cable could be bad

[Guest The Kat]

Re: Strange Case of the Disappearing Partition.

 

On Tue, 08 Jan 2008 17:30:32 -0500, Sid Elbow <here@there.com> wrote:

 

>It's been running happily for a couple of years until yesterday or today

>when the BIGSPACE partition disappeared. In Disk-Manager it just showed

>up as "unallocated" space.

 

Sounds like the drive is going bad.

 

If it's SMART-capable, get a SMART-reader and check that.

 

Also, try FDisk /mbr

 

Otherwise, I'd replace that puppy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Guest Sid Elbow]

Re: Strange Case of the Disappearing Partition.

 

philo wrote:

> I have definately seen a few drives pass the mfg's diagnostic...yet still be

> bad.

 

I wouldn't doubt that, actually. There are only so many things a

consumer-level utility can test.

> I'd remove the drive in question and put another in it's place.

> If the 2nd drive is OK and has no "disappearing" partitions...

> then the original drive must be bad.

>

> If the problem shows up again on the 2n drive...

> then the controller or cable could be bad

 

I do just happen to have another 160 GB drive which I can try. It's hard

to imagine though, a drive problem (or especially a controller/cable

problem) which can repeatedly cause the loss of only the second

partition on the drive (and only then during a reboot ... as long as I

stay booted, the partition is stable) while leaving the first (and its

data) totally unaffected.

 

I still lean towards a Windows disk interface problem.

[Guest Sid Elbow]

Re: Strange Case of the Disappearing Partition.

 

The Kat wrote:

> Sounds like the drive is going bad.

> If it's SMART-capable, get a SMART-reader and check that.

 

SMART is run as part of the manufacturer's diagnostic

> Also, try FDisk /mbr

 

I'm running a boot manager so I want to leave that as a last resort.

> Otherwise, I'd replace that puppy.

 

See my response to Philo

[Guest philo]

Re: Strange Case of the Disappearing Partition.

 

 

"Sid Elbow" <here@there.com> wrote in message

news:47841bd7$0$5826$c3e8da3@news.astraweb.com...

> philo wrote:

>

> > I have definately seen a few drives pass the mfg's diagnostic...yet

still be

> > bad.

>

> I wouldn't doubt that, actually. There are only so many things a

> consumer-level utility can test.

>

> > I'd remove the drive in question and put another in it's place.

> > If the 2nd drive is OK and has no "disappearing" partitions...

> > then the original drive must be bad.

> >

> > If the problem shows up again on the 2n drive...

> > then the controller or cable could be bad

>

> I do just happen to have another 160 GB drive which I can try. It's hard

> to imagine though, a drive problem (or especially a controller/cable

> problem) which can repeatedly cause the loss of only the second

> partition on the drive (and only then during a reboot ... as long as I

> stay booted, the partition is stable) while leaving the first (and its

> data) totally unaffected.

>

> I still lean towards a Windows disk interface problem.

 

 

Well, if you try another drive in there...

it will be a start for trouble-shooting

[Guest Sid Elbow]

Re: Strange Case of the Disappearing Partition.

 

philo wrote:

> "Sid Elbow" <here@there.com> wrote in message

>> I still lean towards a Windows disk interface problem.

>

>

> Well, if you try another drive in there...

> it will be a start for trouble-shooting

 

Well, I fixed the problem. First off, while Windows (both win2K and XP

installations on a multi-boot) insisted the partition did not exist, two

different partition utilities outside of Windows insisted that it did.

 

So I tried an fdisk /mbr and now the partition was back in Windows.

 

As I had feared, this did inactivate my boot-manager (BootitNG). It was

rather trivial to reactivate it though .... except that when I did, I

lost the partition in Windows again!

 

I considered uninstalling/reinstalling BootitNG but on a hunch I tried

simply deleting the embr for that drive and replacing it with a standard

mbr and now everything is working.

 

There was a side-effect that some of my other partitions got

re-lettered. Not, curiously, the problem partition which took the same

letter that it had before the problem began. I don't know why the others

got re-lettered.