Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

Back at school, I couldn't get my old win95 computer to reformat, so I let my
"knowledgeable" roommate try to fix it. Boy am I stupid. He went into fdisk
and deleted my partition, so now it recognizes nothing. Just shows A>. When
booting up, it requires the recovery cd in place, shows the usual list of
goodies but with a 0 as my installed hard disk, but then nothing happens from
there. It just goes over to DOS and A>. When I type A>recovery, it tells
me I must have a partition first, then goes right back to A>. So, at least I
know the harddrive is still there, I just can't get to it.

Is there a free partition recovery download that any one knows of? I really
need that computer for my summer school class, and for my whole agenda for next
year. I don't have any $, or I'd just go buy Partition Magic or something. But
they want $80.

OR - Is there a code or list of codes I can input after A> to get5 it to fix
itself? I with I had DOS for Dummies, although I can't be sure it'd tell me
what I need ot know.

I had to rewrite my final, and it was two days late which lowered my grade by
half! I can't believe this happened. I will never trust anyone but
professionals with my computer again. I wish I could afford a computer. But
school fees are so high, and almost tripling next semester. With an 18 unit
semester, I can't find time for working more than 20 hours a week, and that's
BARELY enough to eat with. Seriously. Please help me. Thanks. Aartzi!

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

"Aartzi" <aartzi@aol.comnospam> wrote in message
news:20040426145728.23183.00000253@mb-m24.aol.com...
> Back at school, I couldn't get my old win95 computer to reformat, so I let
my
> "knowledgeable" roommate try to fix it. Boy am I stupid. He went into
fdisk
> and deleted my partition, so now it recognizes nothing. Just shows A>.
When
> booting up, it requires the recovery cd in place, shows the usual list of
> goodies but with a 0 as my installed hard disk, but then nothing happens
from
> there. It just goes over to DOS and A>. When I type A>recovery, it
tells
> me I must have a partition first, then goes right back to A>. So, at
least I
> know the harddrive is still there, I just can't get to it.
>
> Is there a free partition recovery download that any one knows of? I
really
> need that computer for my summer school class, and for my whole agenda for
next
> year. I don't have any $, or I'd just go buy Partition Magic or something.
But
> they want $80.
>
> OR - Is there a code or list of codes I can input after A> to get5 it to
fix
> itself? I with I had DOS for Dummies, although I can't be sure it'd tell
me
> what I need ot know.
>
> I had to rewrite my final, and it was two days late which lowered my grade
by
> half! I can't believe this happened. I will never trust anyone but
> professionals with my computer again. I wish I could afford a computer.
But
> school fees are so high, and almost tripling next semester. With an 18
unit
> semester, I can't find time for working more than 20 hours a week, and
that's
> BARELY enough to eat with. Seriously. Please help me. Thanks. Aartzi!

If there was only one partition, one way to go about that nasty business
would be to type format C: at dos prompt - just kidding .

Here's what i would do(if it's just one partition):

Bit backup the disk to !another! disk using Norton Ghost or similar.

Start Ranish Partition Manager(free download).
Leave the Master Boot Record alone.
Goto line below Master Boot record, and press Ins(ert) in the 'File System
Type' column to choose the file system(probably FAT-32).
Use the hard disk geometry as 'Ending' values(Cylinders and Heads are 0
based so decrement one from their total count; sectors are 1 based).
'Starting' values require some guesswork but most probable(99.9%) values are
0/1/1 for Cylinder, Head, Sector.
If the values are correct you'll get info from your windows 95 boot sector
in the lower right corner(cluster size, system id...).
If it works
Press B on the same line to set the bootable flag and save.
Else
Squirt holy water on the box and toss it out of the window...
Endif

There's a lot of assumed stuff here so you should definitively image the
drive beforehand.

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

You will need something like
http://www.partition-recovery.com/partition.htm, but it is not free
and there is no guarantee that it will fix your problem. If you just
want to create a new partition just type fdisk at the a: prompt. This
will give you the options to create a partition.
BA

aartzi@aol.comnospam (Aartzi) wrote in message news:<20040426145728.23183.00000253@mb-m24.aol.com>...
> Back at school, I couldn't get my old win95 computer to reformat, so I let my
> "knowledgeable" roommate try to fix it. Boy am I stupid. He went into fdisk
> and deleted my partition, so now it recognizes nothing. Just shows A>. When
> booting up, it requires the recovery cd in place, shows the usual list of
> goodies but with a 0 as my installed hard disk, but then nothing happens from
> there. It just goes over to DOS and A>. When I type A>recovery, it tells
> me I must have a partition first, then goes right back to A>. So, at least I
> know the harddrive is still there, I just can't get to it.
>
> Is there a free partition recovery download that any one knows of? I really
> need that computer for my summer school class, and for my whole agenda for next
> year. I don't have any $, or I'd just go buy Partition Magic or something. But
> they want $80.
>
> OR - Is there a code or list of codes I can input after A> to get5 it to fix
> itself? I with I had DOS for Dummies, although I can't be sure it'd tell me
> what I need ot know.
>
> I had to rewrite my final, and it was two days late which lowered my grade by
> half! I can't believe this happened. I will never trust anyone but
> professionals with my computer again. I wish I could afford a computer. But
> school fees are so high, and almost tripling next semester. With an 18 unit
> semester, I can't find time for working more than 20 hours a week, and that's
> BARELY enough to eat with. Seriously. Please help me. Thanks. Aartzi!

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

>aartzi@aol.comnospam (Aartzi) wrote in message news:<20040426145728.23183.00000253@mb-m24.aol.com>...
>> Back at school, I couldn't get my old win95 computer to reformat, so I let my
>> "knowledgeable" roommate try to fix it. Boy am I stupid. He went into fdisk
>> and deleted my partition, so now it recognizes nothing. Just shows A>. When
>> booting up, it requires the recovery cd in place, shows the usual list of
>> goodies but with a 0 as my installed hard disk, but then nothing happens from
>> there. It just goes over to DOS and A>. When I type A>recovery, it tells
>> me I must have a partition first, then goes right back to A>. So, at least I
>> know the harddrive is still there, I just can't get to it.

I came in the thread late, but I had a similar problem recently. If my solution
has already been suggested here please forgive me.

My 3 year old Compaq Presario laptop did exactly the same thing that you
describe. Turned out that Compaq stored some essential files on the D: partition
that got corrupted and so the original recovery disk would no longer work and
gave me the A: drive screen just like yours. Apparently Compaq got lots of
complaints on this because the same problem happens when you change the drive
and those essential files are no longer there. Anyway Compaq now sells an
updated 2 disk QuickRestore disk set for US$10 at their website that has those
files and fixed me right up.

I don't know what brand computer you have but perhaps if the cause of your
problem is similar, the mfg has a similar offering.

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage (More info?)

X-No-Archive: yes

On 26 Apr 2004 18:57:28 GMT, aartzi@aol.comnospam (Aartzi) wrote:

>He went into fdisk
>and deleted my partition, so now it recognizes nothing

If he deleted the partition only then it cold be recovered using
Ranish's Partition Manager as suggested by flekso.

Even if there were multiple partitions they can all be recovered but
it is bit laborious. Look at my Hard Disk Management site for some
description.

HTH

--
Sandy Archer
Reply to newsgroup only

For links to Harddisk management freeware
httpmembers.tripod.com/~diligent/harddisk.htm