weird ntfs drive behaviour

[hammeraxe]

My setup: Lenovo IBM T60 running Windows XP from its internal 70 GB hard drive + Ubuntu 9.04 Wubi install on an external 1,5TB drive.

The problem: The setup always worked fine. At one point, though, windows crashed and I had to restart. It could not boot up again showing UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME error.
*Safe mode does not work, recovery partition does not work.
*Ubuntu sees the disk and can read/write without problem.
*ntfsfix says the filesystem is corrupt
*Windows recovery CD cannot find the hard drive

All the solutions on the net regarding this error suggest using the recovery cd and performing a ckhdsk, mbrfix and what not. This is impossible, as the disk seems to have vanished in the windows universe.
Any suggestions on how to fix this, preferably without sweeping the entire disk?

[cascade9]

I would bet your NTFS drive is 'dirty'. ntfsfix may fix it.

http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/...ntfsfix.8.html

[jbeukema]

Have you tried reinstalling the MBR and/or bootsector?

try fixboot and fixmbr from the windows/dos recovery console

[P4man]

so if you boot a windows cd in recovery mode, with the wubi/ubuntu drive disconnected, its not finding any disk at all?

In that case there is something seriously wrong with it. If ubuntu can somehow (Id say magically lol) read the drive, take advantage of it to make a backup before doing anything else. Then you can try testdisk on ubuntu to see if it can salvage the drive. It does sound like an MBR issue.

[hammeraxe]

so if you boot a windows cd in recovery mode, with the wubi/ubuntu drive disconnected, its not finding any disk at all?

This is exactly the case. Backup was the first thing I did when I logged on Ubuntu.

I would bet your NTFS drive is 'dirty'. ntfsfix may fix it.

Actually I already tried ntfsfix once, but now I looked at it once more and an epiphany came upon me: I had used it with /dev/sda rather than /dev/sda1. So now it worked and Windows runs CHKDSK at this very moment. I am getting a whole lot of output. Hopefully this will end good.

[jbeukema]

This is exactly the case. Backup was the first thing I did when I logged on Ubuntu.



Actually I already tried ntfsfix once, but now I looked at it once more and an epiphany came upon me: I had used it with /dev/sda rather than /dev/sda1. So now it worked and Windows runs CHKDSK at this very moment. I am getting a whole lot of output. Hopefully this will end good.

Does your drive support S.M.A.R.T. monitoring?

[hammeraxe]

Ok, CHKDSK finished and I am writing this from Windows XP, which now works like a charm :/ Yet I am not sure how stable the system will be in the long run.

Have you tried reinstalling the MBR and/or bootsector?

try fixboot and fixmbr from the windows/dos recovery console

Is there any point in doing this now that the drive works miraculously?

Does your drive support S.M.A.R.T. monitoring?

I have no idea. How do I check this?

[cascade9]

Actually I already tried ntfsfix once, but now I looked at it once more and an epiphany came upon me: I had used it with /dev/sda rather than /dev/sda1. So now it worked and Windows runs CHKDSK at this very moment. I am getting a whole lot of output. Hopefully this will end good.

Phew! It was either a dirty NTFS or a dead drive. You may want to take hammeraxe's advice, SMART doesnt take much system resources these days,.

Ok, CHKDSK finished and I am writing this from Windows XP, which now works like a charm :/ Yet I am not sure how stable the system will be in the long run.

Is there any point in doing this now that the drive works miraculously?

I have no idea. How do I check this?

Nope, no real piont in running fixmbr/etc. The only point of doing that was to fix winXP, which is now working agian. It should be fine, I've had dirty NTFS problems before and the OS kept running for years (literally)

SMART is more of a BIOS setting, Hdds have suported SMART for a long, long time. Enable it in BIOS.

[jbeukema]

Is there any point in doing this now that the drive works miraculously?

NO!!!!!!!!

I have no idea. How do I check this?

It might say on the drive itself or you can check the model number (from Device Manager) against the manufacterer's website and see whether they have a SMART monioring program for download. Generic SMART readers are out there, but I don't know whether they're to be trusted.

[P4man]

You can check in the bios, there is usually something that allows you to enable smart monitoring. If its enabled, you can use a program such as:
http://www.ntfs.com/disk-monitor.htm (for windows) to monitor the harddisk health. For linux you'd use smartmon (its in the repo's).

That said, SMART is well.. not all that useful. Havent ever seen it catch a problem before it was too late. If you suspect your disk is dying, try a real diagnostics program.

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

Its a bootable cd that contains diagnostics programs for every possible vendor.