Figure this one out! - Printable Version
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Figure this one out! by ipab on 08-30-2008 at 08:38 PM
Ok, so I fix computers at my work, and I got to work today and there was a computer sitting there and the issue was the famed "NTLDR is missing". So I figured, "Oh, this one is easy, I've dealt with it numerous times"... but before I do anything usually, I boot with UBCD and run chkdisk, well this time when I booted this computer (which is a compaq machine by the way), I saw nothing on the hard drive!
There were two partitions as expected, the main os partition and the recovery partition. Both named properly, but on the main partition NOTHING is there (142 GB out of 142 Free). Now the recovery partition is a whole different ballgame. There are the general low level boot files, but all the necessary files that are required to re-image the hard drive, and gone (152 MB Used of 6.62 GB available).
I'm sitting here pondering how someone can even manage this. I must note that this customer is not the kind to stick in boot disks and format from command line and so on... I just cannot comprehend this!
RE: Figure this one out! by Menthix on 08-30-2008 at 09:43 PM
My personal experience, not wanting to understand what truly happened is sometimes the best way to go 
.
Could have been some kind of nasty virus just wiping everything it sees.
RE: Figure this one out! by Jarrod on 08-30-2008 at 11:59 PM
faulty disk?
RE: Figure this one out! by ipab on 08-31-2008 at 05:58 AM
I really don't think it's a fault disk because I ran several diagnostic tests on it and it passed all of them. The customer is going to bring his son in tomorrow, who apparently knows more about what is going on that he does, so we shall see what he says...
RE: Figure this one out! by Mike on 08-31-2008 at 10:16 AM
Sounds like a corrupted MFT to me.
Have you tried using a file recovery program (R-Studio, etc)?
RE: RE: Figure this one out! by andrewdodd13 on 08-31-2008 at 10:28 AM
quote:*MFT.
Originally posted by Mike
Sounds like a corrupted MTF to me.
quote:Would be my first choice as well.
Originally posted by Mike
Have you tried using a file recovery program (R-Studio, etc)?
I don't think it'd be the MFT though, even stranger things happen when that gets corrupt.
This definitely sounds odd to me. It'd be very smart (yet annoying, of course) for a virus to be able to format a system partition while the computer is running, and in general NTFS write support is fairly bulky, although I suppose you could possibly do it.
The other option is that the son "accidentally" deleted Windows while trying to install Linux or whatever, and just re-created the partition. It's also possible he deleted the image files off the disk to make more space.
PS. You open on a sunday?
RE: Figure this one out! by ipab on 08-31-2008 at 04:08 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Mike
Sounds like a corrupted MFT to me.
Have you tried using a file recovery program (R-Studio, etc)?
That was my initial reaction, but the way the hdd looks, it seems unlikely.
quote:
Originally posted by andrewdodd13
PS. You open on a sunday? (Smilie)
Retail Store
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