Windows ME Hard Drive Problem

I am fixing a friends dell inspiron 8000 laptop. It has windows ME (don't worry i'll get rid of it as soon as I get some files from the computer) and Norton System Works 2003. When I got it, it would only boot into safe mode. After disabling all norton services using msconfig, I was able to start the computer normally. My problem is that the hard drive(c reports used and free space as 0 kb. I am unable to write anything to the hard drive. This prevents me from using many programs, especially norton. The only thing I can think of is norton ghost somehow locked the hard drive. I tried to do a Windows XP upgrade and the disk partitioner that XP uses does not recognize the hard drive as FAT32. Does anyone have ANY ideas? They would be greatly appreciated.

 

Try running a Scan Disk on the computer, Windows could be reporting the wrong size.

CJC

 

thanks for the suggestion, however, when i try and run scandisk, this message pops up: 'Scandisk cannot check this drive now because the disk is not properly formatted , or a program such as a disk utility has locked it. Format the disk or wait for the utility to finish, and the restart the SanDisk'. I get similar messages about the drive not being formatted woth any other disk utility program.

 

from M$ site:

To me, it seems that Norton's is still actually running.

Can you do anything in Safe Mode, eg change, delete, etc.

Another suggestion would be to boot into DOS from a Start-up disc and run Scandisk C:
then choose the Surface Scan at the end, that will take a while to scan, depending on the size of the HDD, but it will tell you if it has any bad sectors etc...

CJC

 

thanks for the suggestion, I'll give it a try

 

Unfortunately, using scandisk off a windows me boot disk, I get a message saying that 'scandisk cannot examine drive C'. @##!!#***. I Have a feeling this computer might be in serious trouble. Thanks for your help and any further thoughts.

 

Your need to check the type using a partion table editor such as PTedit that comes with Partition Magic(I recommend this). Partition Magic can also check for errors and convert it to a few formats. also resizing and HD to HD coping. The type should be a 2 digit HEX number for fat32 is 80. also if the computer is using a Disk Overlay Software such as EZBios that should be loaded before the os(check the HD manufacturer for EZbios or equivalent). Such software is used on machine that have hard drive that surpass certain limitation at time of the motherboards build. And the software changes the partition types to nonstandard formats. Might help you might not but I think it will get you going in the right direction

 

Hey! Sounds like you have quite a challenge on your hands--you must be a good friend!!
Whenever I have encountered a confusing hd problem that gives me a headache I always remove it from the offending machine and connect it to a good computer as a slave. You then can have a better idea as to what the problem could be--and the soloution.You can gain much more info and run utilities easier. You can use disk management,etc... to assess and wipe drive if you have to.
Since the drive is laptop you will need an adapter($20)to connect to a pc and you can take it from there.

GOOD LUCK!

ianski7

 

Thank you for all your suggestions. I still have not been able to overcome this one.

Webfriend: I tried your suggestion and I tried ptedit in windows. I noticed that the hardrive was FAT32X instead of just FAT32. I switched it just to try and the comp. wouldn't boot. Luckily I had a boot disk and was able to run ptedit in dos mode to switch it back.

Unfortunately, when I try to resize or perform any operation using Part.Magic, I get errors. The 'info' and 'check for errors' operations give me back the following error message:

"Error 45 CRC error in data"

if anyone has any further ideas, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

I still believe the problem lies in the partition table. But it may be a file system error. Have you tried runnig chkdsk?

 

I looked up your error code on www.symantec.com and here is what I found,

Error 45: "CRC Error in data"

Situation:
You see the message "Error 45: CRC Error in data" while using one of the following products:
- PartitionMagic
- PartitionMagic Pro
- Drive Image
- Drive Image Pro
- DriveCopy
- VolumeManager
- ServerMagic

Solution:
This problem is often caused by bad sectors on the hard drive.

To resolve the problem

Run ScanDisk (in Windows 9x/Me) or CHKDSK (in Windows NT/2000/XP) to perform a thorough surface scan of the disk.
This flags any bad sectors on the disk so that they cannot be used in the future.
Reinstall the software that you were using when you saw the error message to ensure that none of the program's files are corrupted.

If the error still occurs after you have done this, try any of the following:
Update the product to the current version.
If your computer has two IDE hard drives that share the same cable, try connecting the drives using separate cables.
If the error is the result of a corrupted file, you can identify the affected file by running your program (PartitionMagic, DriveCopy, Drive Image, etc.) at a command prompt using the /dbg switch (debug) and sending the results to a text file. When the error occurs again, the name of the file that was being read at the time that the error occurred is written to the text file. After you have identified the corrupted file, replace it with a good backup copy of the file, if possible.
If you were using DriveCopy when you saw the error, try rerunning DriveCopy at the command line using the /ire switch (Ignore Redundancy Errors).



Technical Information:
When PartitionMagic, DriveCopy, Drive Image, and so forth, read data from a hard drive, it checks the CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check) information that is contained in each sector and performs a CRC test. If the test returns a value that is different from the CRC value stored on the tested sector, a CRC error is reported. CRC errors are usually the result of one of the following:
The file that is being read is corrupted.
A sector that contains information about a file's location on the disk has failed, consequently corrupting part of the file itself.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: This error has also been seen on FAT32 partitions that are larger than 64 GB.

partitions need to be resized down. You might have to delete some useless items to obtain enough free space to do a sucessfull resize

 

Thanks for everyone's help. I finally broke down and bought a 40 to 44 pin adapter so I could hook the laptops harddrive up to my pc. After a lot of complicated file transfers. I was able to retreive the files I needed. I reformatted the laptop HD using NTFS and installed Windows XP without a hitck. Thanks for everyones help out there. I appreiciate the thought.

Michael

 

Glad you got everything finally sorted.
If you have any more problems, feel free to come back, and if you can help people on here, thats always good aswell.

CJC