How to diagnose hard drive bootup problems with Disk Editor

Situation:

You are unable to start the computer from the C drive, or you suspect the drive may not have been configured correctly or may have lost its sector translation.
Solution:

In this situation, use Disk Editor to check the drive. Disk Editor is a DOS based program that allo!s you to edit individual bytes on the hard drive in either he"adecimal or decimal format. IMPORTANT

#efore beginning, determine the correct !ay to boot the computer in $uestion from a floppy disk. If the computer is using drive translation soft!are, do not insert the Emergency disk or the %escue disk until you see a message similar to &'ress spacebar to boot from floppy.& (o boot correctly from any other bootable floppy disk, consult your drive documentation. )or detailed information on ho! to start the system from a floppy disk !hen using drive translation soft!are, see the document *o! to boot from floppy disk !hen a DDO is installed. (his document e"plains an advanced technical procedure using Disk Editor. Symantec does not provide technical support for this document. +se this information at your o!n risk. ,ith the advent of hard drives larger than -.. /#, the old convention of using cylinders, sides, and sectors has been abandoned for a ne! drive translation approach that uses absolute sectors. (he numbers remain !ithin partition tables for back!ard compatibility purposes only. (he only cylinder, side, and sector numbers that are still actively in use on modern systems are the beginning location of the first active partition in the 0aster #oot %ecord.

Loading Disk Editor

(here are several !ays to load Disk Editor. Each of these methods !ill load Disk Editor and leave the screen in Disk Editor at the &%ead only mode& message. Using Windows 9x to load Disk Editor If you can run ,indo!s 1", follo! these steps to load Disk Editor2 Note: (his !ill not !ork on systems running ,indo!s 0e. 3. Start the computer. 4. Click Start, and choose Shut Do!n. 5. Select %estart in 0S DOS 0ode, and click O6. (he system !ill display a C2 prompt. .. Change to the 7orton +tilities folder by typing the follo!ing command, then pressing Enter2
CD\Program Files\Norton Utilities\

Note: 7ot all versions of ,indo!s !ill display the long folder name in 0S DOS mode. If the system !ill not allo! you to change to 8'rogram )iles87orton +tilities, use the short version of the folder name2 8'%O/%9:387O%(O7:3. In addition, if you have more than one Symantec 7orton product, the folder name could be 8'%O/%9:387O%(O7:4, 8'%O/%9:387O%(O7:5, and so forth. ;. (o load Disk Editor, type2
DISKEDIT /M

and press Enter. Using Basi Res !e "ro# Norton Utilities $%& or later If you have 7orton +tilities 5.< or later, and you have created a set of #asic %escue disks, follo! these steps to load Disk Editor2 3. Start the system !ith the %escue Disk set. 4. ,hen you see a message that refers to Ctrl=C, press Ctrl+C, then press Y to terminate the batch file. (he system !ill display an 928> prompt. 5. Determine !hich disk in the %escue set has the DIS6EDI(.E?E file and put that disk into the floppy drive. .. (ype2
DISKEDIT /M

and press Enter. Using Basi Res !e "ro# Norton Utilities '%& or (%& If you have 7orton +tilities 3.< or 4.< for ,indo!s 1;, and you have created a set of %escue disks that include DIS6EDI(.E?E, follo! these steps to load Disk Editor2 3. Start the system !ith the %escue Disk set. (he system !ill display an 928> prompt. 4. Determine !hich disk in the %escue set has the DIS6EDI(.E?E file, and put that disk into the floppy drive. 5. (ype2
DISKEDIT /M

and press Enter. Using t)e E#ergen * disks If you don@t have a %escue disk set, follo! these steps to load Disk Editor2 3. Start the system !ith Emergency Disk 3. 7orton +tilities includes t!o disks for this Aor, in later versions, you should have been instructed to create themB. #ooting this !ay displays a menu that includes the option for Disk Editor. 4. Select Disk Editor from the menu, but do not press the Enter key yet. 5. 9t the command line, type2

/M

and press Enter. .. Insert Emergency Disk 4 !hen prompted. Using a Boota+le DO, "lo--* disk If none of the options above are available to you, follo! these steps to load Disk Editor2 3. Cocate a bootable DOS floppy Aa system diskB and start the system !ith it. (he system !ill display an 928> prompt. 4. Insert a floppy disk that contains the file Diskedit.e"e. You can obtain this file from %escue disks, Emergency Disks, or a !orking computer that has 7orton +tilities successfully installed on it. 5. (ype2
DISKEDIT /M

and press Enter.

Using Disk Editor

9fter you have loaded Disk Editor, you !ill see a message regarding &%ead only mode.& )ollo! these steps to select the drive2 3. 'ress the Enter key to bypass the message regarding &%ead only mode.& 4. Choose 3.. 0# for the siDe of the floppy drive. You should no! be in Disk Editor. 5. 'ress Alt+O to choose the ObEect menu. .. 'ress D to choose Drives. ;. Check the 'hysical Disks option on the right side of the Drive Selection !indo!. F. On the left side of the !indo!, select the drive !ith the problem. If the computer cannot boot from the hard drive, this !ill be *ard Disk 3. If Disk Editor does not list the hard drive at all or displays a message indicating Error 341, then the hard drive probably has physical damage. See the section &If Disk Editor does not list the hard drive.& G. 'ress Enter to select O6. (o search for physical damage to the drive, follo! these steps2 3. 'ress Alt+O to choose the ObEect 0enu. 4. Choose 'hysical Sector. 5. Change the value in the 7umber of Sectors field to 4<<<. .. Choose O6. ;. 'ress Alt+T to choose the (ools menu. F. 'ress F to select )ind. G. In the 9SCII bo", type a phrase you are sure is not on the hard drive, such as &Mary a! a little lam".& -. Choose O6.

1. If Disk Editor displays the message &no matches found&, then it is unlikely that the drive has physical damage in the system area. *o!ever, if Disk Editor displays a message indicating Error 341, then the hard drive probably has physical damage. See the section &If Disk Editor does not list the hard drive.& Deter#ining Legal .al!es )ollo! these steps to determine the Cegal Halues, !hich are the values that DOS sees. Note: (he version of Disk Editor included !ith 7orton +tilities 4<<< and later does not display legal values in cylinder, side, sector format. %ather, it uses only absolute sectors in calculating drive values. (his is also the case !ith older versions of Disk Editor !hen used on drives larger than -.. /#. 3. 'ress Alt+O to choose the ObEect menu. 4. 'ress P to choose 'hysical Sector. 5. ,rite do!n the numbers listed under Cegal Halues for the top three lines only. )or e"ample2 Cylinder2 < 3<45 Side2 < 3; Sector2 3 F5 If the number of cylinders is over 3<45, the drive is not configured correctly. (he drive translation soft!are is either disabled, or is not !orking correctly. .. 'ress Es# to e"it from the Select 'hysical Sector %ange !indo!. ;. 'ress Alt+O to choose the ObEect menu. F. 'ress T to choose 'artition (able. G. 'ress Alt+$ to choose the Hie! menu. -. 'ress P to choose the 'artition (able vie!. 1. ,rite do!n the numbers that you see. 3<. Compare the partition table numbers in the section called Ending Cocation to the Cegal Halues you !rote do!n. o (he number of sides should e"actly match the number of sides from the Cegal Halues. o (he number of sectors should e"actly match the number of sectors from the Cegal Halues. o (he highest number sho!n for number of cylinders should be e$ual to or less than the number of cylinders from Cegal Halues by about one to three cylinders. If any of the three criteria in step 3< are not met, the drive is not correctly configured. I" Disk Editor does not list t)e )ard dri/e Disk Editor !ill see all drives physically connected to the computer, as long as the physical connection is correct and secure Afor e"ample, none of the connections have become looseB. 9ny of the follo!ing can prevent Disk Editor from seeing the drive2

(he hard drive@s physical connection is not correct. (his is sometimes due to a loose cable. (he #IOS does not list a drive type. (he computer has other physical problems. (he hard drive is severely damaged and Disk Editor cannot fi" it.

Data re o/er* If you need the data that is on the drive, but Disk Editor is unable to see the drive, you should contact a data recover service.

,o!r es o" in"or#ation

)or more information on hard drive configuration see *o! to check hard drive configuration and *ard drive configuration simplified.