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Can't boot main HDD after Paragon disk copy

Re: Can't boot main HDD after Paragon disk copy

Postby gamez_girl » Wed Aug 26, 2009 1:23 pm

Why doesn't that hard drive work anymore?

What are some "safe" software I could use to copy the copied hard drive back to the original hard drive? All I wanted was two copies of the hard drive as backup but all I did was transfer everything over to a larger hard drive since the original one no longer works.

I'm not sure if there is any data in the original one that I need since I don't know if the copy was actually successful or not. Is there a way to check?

Is there a way to removethe OS protection settings?
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Re: Can't boot main HDD after Paragon disk copy

Postby Grav!ty » Wed Aug 26, 2009 1:53 pm

What's the make of the drive gamez_girl? You could probably find some diagnostic software that will provide quite a few software repair tools for it at the website of the manufacturer. Just make sure you get the tools for your specific drive make and model.
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Re: Can't boot main HDD after Paragon disk copy

Postby JabbaPapa » Wed Aug 26, 2009 3:59 pm

Well, the *meaty* bits of the Paragon software versions 9 and 10 *do* work, if you can get them to, but it's the boot environment (maybe call that the non-boot environment) that it creates that can fail absolutely disastrously, to the point of making a hard drive apparently unusable.

I'd guess that if the drive you copied everything to is working now, if i understood correctly, then you can quite possibly fix the non-working drive by just DELETING the partition on there, and then making a new, clean one. --- Just ensure that your software appears to be working, and that your data appears intact before proceeding.

If this fails, then Grav!ty has some hands-on experience with an extremely similar issue, and may be able to help you :)
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Re: Can't boot main HDD after Paragon disk copy

Postby gamez_girl » Thu Aug 27, 2009 12:45 pm

The original HDD is a Toshiba MK1652GSX - it oesn't se mt ohave any diagnostic software.

I'm not sure howto test the copied HDD to make sure everything is working. I was only to get online and I did copy some files only to my external HDD but didn't check that they were okay before doing so. Afraid something is wrong there.

Problem with the non-workign dive is that it is suppoe to be just 160GB but currenlty wtih Paragon brecovery cd it is showing up as having 5 partitions, 2 of which are hidden, have having approx. 2TB of space in total. One is only 5Kb but another goes to 967Gb. So I have no clue what is wrong with this HD at all.
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Re: Can't boot main HDD after Paragon disk copy

Postby JabbaPapa » Thu Aug 27, 2009 1:19 pm

Oh, then the damage appears to be fairly severe, and you should ask Grav!ty for his suggestions :(
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Re: Can't boot main HDD after Paragon disk copy

Postby Grav!ty » Fri Aug 28, 2009 5:50 am

Without your having any disk repair software or a XP installation CD there's nothing I can suggest. See if you can borrow a XP CD from a friend and then we can try running a fixboot and a fixmbr command and see if that fixes your boot sector and master boot record.

When I had a similar situation with Paragon it took more than that to fix my drive, but maybe in your case the above will work.

By the way, what does Paragon have to say about this problem of yours on their website?
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Re: Can't boot main HDD after Paragon disk copy

Postby gamez_girl » Fri Aug 28, 2009 12:39 pm

They don't know what went wrong. I could try deleting the partition and undeleting it to see if I could recover them. The netbook has winXP Home but I have the winXP Pro discs since they are for my desktop. Would they work on the netbook?
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Re: Can't boot main HDD after Paragon disk copy

Postby Grav!ty » Fri Aug 28, 2009 1:18 pm

Yeah the XP Pro disk should work fine but please note that if there is any possibility of your being able to make a warranty claim then I strongly suggest you first investigate that before going any further. You may have already voided your warranty by opening the system and removing the HDD but it's probably worth being sure .

Here's some directions and commands to run. I suggest you remove the working HDD so there's no confusion or need to run any additional commands.

Step 1.

Insert your XP CD and boot to it.

At the first setup screen it stops at, select "To repair a Windows installation press R" or words similar, I think it's the middle choice of threee.

If you're given the screen to select an installation you want to repair then type 1 and press Enter on your keyboard.

You may be prompted for a password and if you don't have one just press Enter.

At the command prompt type fixboot C: and press Enter

Once you've had confirmation the command has run (it should be seconds), type fixmbr and press Enter

Type exit and reboot.

Step 2.

Again boot to the XP CD and to the recovery console.

At the command prompt, type diskpart and press Enter

Type list disk and press Enter then check what specifications your disk is listed with. It should show all partitions and the disk size should be correctly reflected.

I think at that point let us know what the results are and then maybe we can try to at the very least create a new partition and format it.
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Re: Can't boot main HDD after Paragon disk copy

Postby gamez_girl » Fri Aug 28, 2009 6:39 pm

The netbook is about 4 months old so if the original 160GB HDD is defective than I should be able to make a warranty claim but I don't know how to check if the HDD is or not since I can't find any diagnostic tools for the Toshiba drive. PowerMax ISO didn't detect the HDD. And, they just might tell me to try to use the recovery cds to install the OS again and wipe the HDD clean. It wasn't hard to change the HDD since you just had to remove two screws to the HDD compartment and change it. Is it possible to make a claim?
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Re: Can't boot main HDD after Paragon disk copy

Postby Grav!ty » Sat Aug 29, 2009 12:13 am

Yeah I think put the original HDD back and try to RMA it. Phone them and tell them that you think the HDD is faulty, and that you tried to backup your stuff and the result was you can't boot anymore and the hard drive is acting weird. They'll let you know how to go about getting it sorted out. It's a teeny bit of a stretch of the truth but worth a try I think :)

The only downside is you'll be without your netbook for a few weeks I think, and they may reject your claim since the systems been opened but definitely worth a try.

Not a nice experience you've been through. Some of our staff have had similar problems with Paragon 9.5 which was a free give away a week or two ago. Two of the guys got their drives back quite easily but mine was a heck of job, took me hours and special tools from Western Digital and Microsoft to fix. As you can imagine we're pretty anti Paragon at the moment.

Let us know what you decide and how it goes.
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