Windows 98 issue - reads hard drive wrong

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

I have a laptop with dual boot Win98SE on C: and XP on D:.

Drives D:, E:, F: and G: are all logical drives within an extended
partition. All are FAT32. The drive is 100 gigabytes. It's a brand
new drive that I installed because the old drive developed the problem
described below, and I had been planning to change the drive anyway, but
now the problem exists on the new drive also. However, the OS was moved
from the old drive to the new drive (Drive Image) rather than being
reinstalled from scratch (which would be a major job on this laptop,
there are a LOT of installed programs). Also, the fact that it's dual
boot would complicate a reinstallation of Windows 98SE, which is on C:.

Somehow, Windows 98SE (which is fully updated) has become corrupted in
such a way that it does not properly see the extended DOS partition.
The drives are totally screwed up, I get reports that the two copies of
the FAT don't match, the drive labels have unprintable characters in
them, scandisk goes nuts on those drives, etc. The problem is minimal
on D: and gets worse the further into the extended DOS partition that
you get. G: isn't even accessible.

The problem has been determined to be in Windows 98's code. The drive
hardware is fine, and based on what I can see, the structure is ok; XP
(which is itself in one of the partitions of the DOS extended partition)
sees everything as fine and, very interestingly, if I boot Windows 98 to
a DOS prompt (boot to true DOS, not a DOS window within 98), MS-DOS sees
everything as fine. I can run diagnostics from DOS and everthing is
cool. If I run those same diagnostics from Windows 98SE, the drive is a
mess.

Question: Apparently an actual code component of Windows 98SE has
become corrupted in a way that is impacting it's ability to properly see
the partitions. Is there any reasonable way to fix this without a
reinstallation? Is there a particular file that is likely to be the
culprit?

Would running SFC replace any corrupted files? If so, what does that do
to the various updates that have been installed since 98 itself was
installed?

Thanks

 

[Malke]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

Barry Watzman wrote:

> I have a laptop with dual boot Win98SE on C: and XP on D:.
>
> Drives D:, E:, F: and G: are all logical drives within an extended
> partition. All are FAT32. The drive is 100 gigabytes. It's a brand
> new drive that I installed because the old drive developed the problem
> described below, and I had been planning to change the drive anyway,
> but
> now the problem exists on the new drive also. However, the OS was
> moved from the old drive to the new drive (Drive Image) rather than
> being reinstalled from scratch (which would be a major job on this
> laptop,
> there are a LOT of installed programs). Also, the fact that it's dual
> boot would complicate a reinstallation of Windows 98SE, which is on
> C:.
>
> Somehow, Windows 98SE (which is fully updated) has become corrupted in
> such a way that it does not properly see the extended DOS partition.
> The drives are totally screwed up, I get reports that the two copies
> of the FAT don't match, the drive labels have unprintable characters
> in
> them, scandisk goes nuts on those drives, etc. The problem is minimal
> on D: and gets worse the further into the extended DOS partition that
> you get. G: isn't even accessible.
>
> The problem has been determined to be in Windows 98's code. The drive
> hardware is fine, and based on what I can see, the structure is ok; XP
> (which is itself in one of the partitions of the DOS extended
> partition) sees everything as fine and, very interestingly, if I boot
> Windows 98 to a DOS prompt (boot to true DOS, not a DOS window within
> 98), MS-DOS sees
> everything as fine. I can run diagnostics from DOS and everthing is
> cool. If I run those same diagnostics from Windows 98SE, the drive is
> a mess.
>
> Question: Apparently an actual code component of Windows 98SE has
> become corrupted in a way that is impacting it's ability to properly
> see
> the partitions. Is there any reasonable way to fix this without a
> reinstallation? Is there a particular file that is likely to be the
> culprit?
>
> Would running SFC replace any corrupted files? If so, what does that
> do to the various updates that have been installed since 98 itself was
> installed?
>
> Thanks

Thank you for the very lucid and detailed post. The reason the new drive
has the problem is because you imaged the old drive and the issues you
had with Win98 came too. Unfortunately, the only thing you can really
do with Win98 at this point is a new clean install. You can try running
SFC in Win98, but I don't hold out much hope for success. Copy XP's
boot files to a floppy first, clean install Win98, and then put XP's
boot files back.

Malke
--
MS-MVP Windows User/Shell
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic"

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

I perfectly understand that imaging the old drive imaged any problems,
but now I'm not as sure about the underlying nature of the situation. I
had an image from October of 2003, when there were no problems (as far
as I know ... this system dates back to December, 2002), I restored it,
and it has the same problems.

I did run SFC and it found one file that it identified as corrupted, but
it had nothing to do with, and did not seem to impact, this issue.

???


Malke wrote:

> Barry Watzman wrote:
>
>
>>I have a laptop with dual boot Win98SE on C: and XP on D:.
>>
>>Drives D:, E:, F: and G: are all logical drives within an extended
>>partition. All are FAT32. The drive is 100 gigabytes. It's a brand
>>new drive that I installed because the old drive developed the problem
>>described below, and I had been planning to change the drive anyway,
>>but
>>now the problem exists on the new drive also. However, the OS was
>>moved from the old drive to the new drive (Drive Image) rather than
>>being reinstalled from scratch (which would be a major job on this
>>laptop,
>>there are a LOT of installed programs). Also, the fact that it's dual
>>boot would complicate a reinstallation of Windows 98SE, which is on
>>C:.
>>
>>Somehow, Windows 98SE (which is fully updated) has become corrupted in
>>such a way that it does not properly see the extended DOS partition.
>>The drives are totally screwed up, I get reports that the two copies
>>of the FAT don't match, the drive labels have unprintable characters
>>in
>>them, scandisk goes nuts on those drives, etc. The problem is minimal
>>on D: and gets worse the further into the extended DOS partition that
>>you get. G: isn't even accessible.
>>
>>The problem has been determined to be in Windows 98's code. The drive
>>hardware is fine, and based on what I can see, the structure is ok; XP
>>(which is itself in one of the partitions of the DOS extended
>>partition) sees everything as fine and, very interestingly, if I boot
>>Windows 98 to a DOS prompt (boot to true DOS, not a DOS window within
>>98), MS-DOS sees
>>everything as fine. I can run diagnostics from DOS and everthing is
>>cool. If I run those same diagnostics from Windows 98SE, the drive is
>>a mess.
>>
>>Question: Apparently an actual code component of Windows 98SE has
>>become corrupted in a way that is impacting it's ability to properly
>>see
>>the partitions. Is there any reasonable way to fix this without a
>>reinstallation? Is there a particular file that is likely to be the
>>culprit?
>>
>>Would running SFC replace any corrupted files? If so, what does that
>>do to the various updates that have been installed since 98 itself was
>>installed?
>>
>>Thanks
>
>
> Thank you for the very lucid and detailed post. The reason the new drive
> has the problem is because you imaged the old drive and the issues you
> had with Win98 came too. Unfortunately, the only thing you can really
> do with Win98 at this point is a new clean install. You can try running
> SFC in Win98, but I don't hold out much hope for success. Copy XP's
> boot files to a floppy first, clean install Win98, and then put XP's
> boot files back.
>
> Malke

 

[Malke]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

Barry Watzman wrote:

> I perfectly understand that imaging the old drive imaged any problems,
> but now I'm not as sure about the underlying nature of the situation.
> I had an image from October of 2003, when there were no problems (as
> far as I know ... this system dates back to December, 2002), I
> restored it, and it has the same problems.
>
> I did run SFC and it found one file that it identified as corrupted,
> but it had nothing to do with, and did not seem to impact, this issue.
>

Then test the other hardware in your computer. Also make sure you are
using the correct type of ribbon cable for your new hard drive and
didn't just use the old one. I'd start hardware testing with the RAM. I
use Memtest86+ from www.memtest.org. Post back if you need more help in
doing hardware troubleshooting.

Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

"Barry Watzman" <WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com> wrote in message news:ukLFbeVcFHA.3840@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...


> A LOT of screwing around has gotten me to the point where 98 sees the partitions ok but still insists that the extended dos
> partition (within which the partitions reside) is corrupt. But I don't "trust" the integrity of this.

What is telling you that it's corrupt?


> I need some better analytical software, not to "fix" anything but to analyze what's going on and tell me in some specific detail.
> All that I have now is chkdsk, scandisk (both DOS and Windows versions) and Norton Disk Doctor. Any recommendations?


Download partinfo, and from a DOS prompt run
partinfo >partinfo.txt
Open partinfo.txt in notepad.

ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/partinfo.zip


If you want another set of eyes to look at it you can email me the
txt file.


>>> The partition structure is:
>>>
>>>Primary Partition
>>>C:, 8 gigs
>>>
>>>Logical Drives in extended DOS partition:
>>>D:, 10 gigs (had and will have XP dual boot)
>>>E:, 32 gigs
>>>F:, 32 gigs
>>>G:, 10 gigs
>>>
>>>All 5 partitions are FAT 32

Check that the "type" (FS) of the extended is 0F and not 05, for starters.
Links to the next logical in the chain should still be 05.