[AccessD] Horror of horrors

[James Button]

Also  - if the drive is a hard drive then the sectors with the data - NTFS $MFT
etc. may well still be where they were
And simply restating the partition table entry could  make the partition
accessible
- many data recovery facilities can recover 'deleted' partitions  or  reset the
partition format type entry
Also - MBR mode will - hopefully have a simple 4 partition block
GDP has a more complicated setup with a copy of the partition definitions
towards the end of the drive, as well as a possibility of a BIOS type MBR
partition specification.

SSD devices are far more likely to be unrecoverable as the LBA Block id that
windows will expect to be fixed will be linked to an actual memory block entry
within the SSD controlling data
And expect every write to get put onto a different block of the storage, with
the link adjusted to point to that different block of storage.

Also to consider - UEFI implications - although (AFAIK) most windows PC's will
have been set to allow 'legacy' devices to be booted using MBR/BIOS type setup-
avoiding the UEFI security
And there may be a system (FAT mode) partition associated with the Boot and
UEFI/OS selection entries.

A primary question - do you have a "recovery' diskette (USB stick) - as that
should contain the partition entries 

Additionally, 
At startup the PC will probably be accessing partitions by port, and
specification location within the partition specification table(s)
Until actual startup of the OS  the partitions do not actually have partition
letters, so you should try looking at the storage device partition
specifications and looking for use by their sizes.
OK - newer versions of Windows want a partition to be assigned a letter  and may
ignore that if an earlier 'mounted' partition has been assigned that letter
Also windows startup can still get confused if there are multiple 'internal' or
at least connected at startup time drives with the same letter assigned to
partitions
so - having an additional partition as well as the usual OS one specified to be
"C:"  may have the boot, or the OS startup  consider the interloper partition to
be C, and the OS gets ignored, or assigned a different letter.

Do you have a 'system image' backup set  
And maybe a OS partition backup
Technique would be ( after trying other options)  to do the system image
restore, then update the OS partition with the later partition image.

BUT - first - 
What is the device type
What partitions should be on it - are they there
Any partition management software should report that !
 
Contact the system 'supplier' and labeller  ( store you got it from) and whoever
calls themselves the 'manufacturer' - maybe just the label glue-er
Backup your data from the partitions you can access.
Consider paying any extra to get a ('PE') restore facility that will copy an
image to a drive on a new PC, then update that partition with drivers that match
the new PC.

Unless the problem was caused by some identifiable action on your part - or
mains problem
Then I would consider the storage unit to be untrustworthy
The problem may be with the motherboard or malware - but how will you know 

Sorry I cannot be more enthusiastically specific about the chances - but there
are many options in setup, and many possible causes for the problem

If the data on the lost partition is important then maybe contact a data
recovery organisation - 
and put a cost cap on their work, with a requirement that the device be returned
even if not recoverable, 
so you can ask the supplier for a replacement, or restitution/recompense for the
costs associated with the device failure

JimB

-----Original Message-----
From: AccessD
<accessd-bounces+jamesbutton=blueyonder.co.uk at databaseadvisors.com> On Behalf Of
Helmut Kotsch via AccessD
Sent: Monday, January 9, 2023 10:29 PM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
<accessd at databaseadvisors.com>
Cc: Helmut Kotsch <hkotsch at arcor.de>
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Horror of horrors

You might be booting from an USB Drive / stick without knowing.

Helmut



-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: AccessD [mailto:accessd-bounces+hkotsch=arcor.de at databaseadvisors.com]
Im Auftrag von John Colby
Gesendet: Montag, 9. Januar 2023 23:12
An: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Betreff: [AccessD] Horror of horrors

I tried to boot my laptop today and it went into an endless boot loop /
repair.  After mych stuff I got to a command prompt and discovered that the
c: drive is now a raw" disk.

It is booting to an X: drive which is a very basic system.  It contains
windows but no users or anything else useful.  No idea where it (X) is
coming from.

I keep all my dev off on a D: disk which I can do a dir on and see all my
files (whew) but my boot disk (c:) is nowhere to be found.

So.... has anyone experienced this and more importantly figured out how to
get the c: drive back to an NTFS system?  IOW recover the boot
drive(partition)

Luckily I have my old computer which is what I am using now.  The "new"
computer is my new Lenovo Legion Pro and I really want to get it recovered
without a format reinstall, although that would not be the end of the
world.  I took the boot drive from this HP Pavillion, put it on another
disk and used that to boot the Lenovo (to keep all of the multitude of
installed programs intact).  Windows 10 did an admirable job of booting and
working doing that.  I have been using the Lenovo for many many months
now.

Until today.

Can anyone help me with this?
-- 
John W. Colby
Colby Consulting
-- 
AccessD mailing list
AccessD at databaseadvisors.com
https://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd
Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com

-- 
AccessD mailing list
AccessD at databaseadvisors.com
https://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd
Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com