Computer Science Canada

Not Quite Programming, but kinda definitely Urgent.

Author:  GreenTiger [ Sat May 01, 2004 10:46 am ]
Post subject:  Not Quite Programming, but kinda definitely Urgent.

Okay, okay, I know this might not be the right board for this, so you can give me links or whatever you can if you think I should go somewhere else for this...but you're the only ones I thought would actully have an answer.

Okay, I'll say this succintly, if possible. I'm rendering in 3ds Max 4 on my really cool computer, running Deliplayer 2 (it's a .mod file player) at the same time. In the past this has caused no problems. My computer hadn't been doing anything right then, I'd finished saving and I was staring blankly at the screen when it happened...

basically my screen decided it'd stare blankly back...

I heard some weird high-pitched sound (almost like the neuraliser from MIB) and all of a sudden the damn ****ing thing resets. I try to go into WIN2K and it won't let me because it says it's missing files. Unfortunately, this is a familiar screen because of the numerous system crashes I've been having since my new hard disk (a 180 GB or so Western Digital HD) So I reset and start up WIN98 SE (and thank god for the small miracles) it works, because it's installed on my old drive.

I check my new drive and I see that all the files are really ****ed up bad. I used to have 18 folders or so and tons of files in the root...and now, well...I've attached the BMP of it (all my editing equipment was on D...I only ever use 98 for playing games, and within the last month, recovering from crashes.)

Okay, okay, good news; I became wise to this after the first few times. I backed up last night, and I'd only made two more models since this morning, no new coding for my game, no massive loss.

But it'll take forever to reinstall all my equipment.

So I took out the two differant file recovery programs that I had, neither of which were cheap when I got them THIS MONTH (again, becoming wise to these crashes) but for the first time, they can't read a damn thing there. They were reading gobbledy-gook as bad as the shiznat in the BMP, just MORE of it.

However, I was connected to the net at the time.

So; here's where you guys come in to help.

WTF was this? Is it indeed the new hard drive (wouldn't be any big surprise) or is it a computer virus/trojan, ect that I couldn't detect (again, wouldn't be surprised; I've been getting suspicious emails, and my Norton/Ad-Aware/Trojan Killer is like two months old.

More importantly ('cause that first part is really a second prioirity) how do I fix it? Any assistance that allows me to recover all my lost data (or at least my windows settings and programs and stuff) will earn more than just my eternal gratitude, but probably first billing in the credits to my game. Yeah, I know, it's not much, what else can I offer really? I'm hoping to become a more active participant here as soon as I've got my act together, but...that's where I need a little bit of, well...

...Help?
<Edit:Okay, my last good floppy just got butt-freaked like the rest of them...I just can't get the picture of my hard drive's folders off the comp, sorry, I know you could help me better if you could see the problem...>
<Edit:Oh, and sorry if I seem agressive/violent/swearing-mood...I'm kinda angry because this is completely out of my control...it's either WD's fault for giving me a bad one and STILL not sending the replacement yet or some kid's for hacking my comp...and maybe I'm angry at myself too for still being dumb enough to use the damn drive...>

Author:  GreenTiger [ Sat May 01, 2004 2:31 pm ]
Post subject: 

Okay, I copied my backed-up windows folder from last night (at least that was backed up) in windows 98 after reconfiging 98's network settings a bit. I am KINDA back online. Here's where things get curiouser...

I went into 2000 and started trying to copy my other folders from last night, and they wouldn't copy correctly; they gave me an error message (shown in the attached jpg) which basically said that it could not copy/ create the corrupted file. Copying those folders to the other comps on the network has no problems. Copying folders that wern't previously on my comp poses no problems either.

This leads me to beleive that the data is still recoverable.

Yet none of my data recovery proggys make any sense of ANY of it.

Suggestions, please?

Author:  the_short1 [ Sat May 01, 2004 3:45 pm ]
Post subject: 

ok... i know what may be the problem... this happened to me on a 500MB WD hd.. *sad compared to urs... but Razz...all of my filenames had black |s and other weird chars.... also... it was only a 500 MB HD but yet it had over 300 files that were 256 MB... Confused

did u set ur partitions rite>>>???

insert a bootdisk
type:
fdisk


then check partition info..
tell me the reading under each category..

then maybe i can help..
software could prob not help u if i suspect what i think..
**untill u fix da problem...
u may be able to get the files..

Author:  the_short1 [ Sat May 01, 2004 4:14 pm ]
Post subject: 

also...
go into ur bios (press delete or w/e when ur comp is starting up)

go to standard CMOS ...
tell me what setting the HD was on...
LBA... NORMAL... **one other one i cant remember...

go into IDE HD Detection or w.e one it is ...

then watch what ur putting in..
maybe u have the hard drive on Normal or Small... when it probaly should be on LBA or vise versa... (check ur manual)... LBA is used 90% of the time..


then.... run scandisk **u probaly have... but try it again..
does it say something about FAT 1 or 2 being wrong and the other one is better???... or did it say taht recently???



ive had my comp crashed lots b4.... now i am not so stupid about the things i install and run..

*** spysweeper is da BEST spyware cleaner... it found 50 things rite afta i did a full Adware scan..!!!... maybe both is the best combo.. me dont know..

Author:  GreenTiger [ Sat May 01, 2004 6:36 pm ]
Post subject: 

Thanks man, I'll check those out sorta now-ish after I finish my other post in the turing section...and I'll get right back with the data...

Author:  GreenTiger [ Sat May 01, 2004 8:25 pm ]
Post subject: 

Okay, I'm back with the infos, man. Fdisk, (though my Dos-born Dad trusts it more than anything else) is full of s***take mushrooms when it comes to disk sizes.

Here's roughly what it gave me
Partition Status Type VolumeLabel Mbytes System Usage
C:1 A PRI DOS ADAM1C 10781 FAT32 100%
D:1 PRI DOS 21553 FAT32 100%

I went into BIOS, but I run a differant BIOS than the traditional one...it was like some kind of special BIOS that was repgrogrammed for Y2K (oh, what a horror that was)
All the infos I got out of that was that C was the Primary Master and D was the Primary Slave...but that's just their connections in the box, right?

Then I tried running Scandisk in Windows 98 it paused, hung, stalled and crashed. 98 is still fine though (thank God for small miracles) so then I tried it in 2K and it said it was in use, and that it'd have to try it the next time it started up. So I reset and it does the Scandisk, and I think it did more harm than good...

Excepert (or however you spell that damn word):

Windows is verifying files and folders...
The size of \hbin entry is not valid
The size of \ || ... entry is not valid
The size of the <impossible to type on QWERTY Dvork Keyoboard> is not valid
\dioViewC.ols first allocation unit is not valid, entry will be truncated.
\<> Soou Folder has non-zero file size
\<> Soou first allocation unit is not valid, entry will be truncated.

<and ect until>

Removing Trailing folder entries
<Something about some other not-good sounding thing...didn't copy it down in time>

End of Excerpt

yeah, fun stuff. Now I have a FOUND.000 folder on my drive and I know those arn't good. Suggestions?

Author:  the_short1 [ Mon May 03, 2004 4:45 pm ]
Post subject: 

u dont have anywhere to select LBA or NORMAL or ??? last one still cant remember... maybe i should check on next boot Wink



hmmm.... sounds like ur hard drive got fucked bad..
and u did the WORST thing %% at least i think.... u ran scandisk and acually clicked yes.. Sadi had the turncated thingys... and the FATS not being the same... and when i acually pressed yes,,, it made EVERYTHING turn into folder.001 folder.002 file001.chk i mean EVEYRTHING.....
*** that happened to my 1GIG.. *not WD


***this is about my 500 MB.. WD
but.... i got the black | as all my files when i had my partitions wrong and / or LBA - Normal - ??? one wrong.... i dont know which one it was ... but... one of them made the HD turn into mush... then it was having issues acually geting scaned...then that is when i tried LBA even thou the HD was under a gig... then it worked... for the most part.. but i think i damaged.. or something... meh... i put it in a computer that i wanted to sell and took the 1.6 GIG from it Wink




ok... for u... try really hard to find the setting changer for LBA etc... try it on a different setting (preferably LBA) and see how that does..

ur partitions look perf..,.... the reason fdisk cant see ur full HD space.... tis cuz fdisk was around wen 1 GIG was like OMG that is HUGE!.... let alone a 180 GIG!... so ... thats that...

Author:  Martin [ Mon May 03, 2004 5:53 pm ]
Post subject: 

Maybe you got rooted?

Speaking of which, I think we should start a petition to get windows's default error message changed to:

'You got pwn3d. Please reinstall Windows.'

Author:  GreenTiger [ Mon May 03, 2004 8:45 pm ]
Post subject: 

I don't know. In any case, Backup has been my saving grace. I suggest everyone backs up anything they consider important. It really is worth it to save you that one error that costs you months and months and months...
especially because Data Recovery software seems to pick and choose the times when it wants to work.

Author:  the_short1 [ Tue May 04, 2004 4:26 pm ]
Post subject: 

yea...i have a CD will all the important sh1t.... and most important is the SC maps i MAKE.... and my save games and stuff like dat...
plus of course all me and my families personal folders...

best thing is prob a second hd about 1gig that way u dont have to reburn and its more solid... cuz sometimes burning corruts files .. Sad


: