Active@ Partition Recovery v 3.0
Copyright © 2004 Active@ Data Recovery Software
USERS MANUAL
Contents
1. PRODUCT OVERVIEW
2. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
3. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN DEMO AND COMMERCIAL VERSION
4. OPERATING PROCEDURES
4.1. Bootable floppy disk (startup disk) preparation
4.2. Program start and information display
4.3. Scan for deleted partitions and drives
4.4. Scan existing or damaged partitions and drives
4.5. Partition recovery (Professional version only)
4.6. Backup MBR, Partition Tables(s), Volume Boot Sectors
4.7. Restoring MBR, Partition Table and Boot Sectors from backup
4.8. Disk Image creation
4.9. Long file names display
4.10. Command line parameters
5. COMMON QUESTIONS
5.1 Partition is damaged after a virus attack and cannot be neither recognized
nor scanned. What to do?
5.2 How to prevent the Master Boot Record (MBR) corruption?
5.3 How to force LBA mode to access larger drives (more than 8GB size)?
5.4 Situations which Active@ Partition Recovery is unable to restore partitions
or Logical Drives in.
5.5 Why cannot FDISK and Windows 98 see a detected and recovered partition?
5.6 Why do I receive an error message while trying to save the partition
information back to the Hard disk Drive?
1. PRODUCT OVERVIEW
Active@ Partition Recovery is a very small, easy to use DOS Program
(only 150k in size) using which you can:
- Recover deleted partitions (FAT and NTFS)
- Restore deleted FAT and NTFS Logical Drives
- Scan hard drives and detect deleted FAT and NTFS partitions and/or Logical Drives
- Preview files and folders on deleted partition or drive, to recover proper data
- Backup MBR (Master Boot Record), Partition Table, Volume Boot Sectors
- Restore MBR, Partition Table and Volume Boot Sectors from backup if damaged
- Create Drive Image
It will help you when:
- Drives or partitions inadvertently deleted (using fdisk or other programs)
- Hard Disk Logical Structure has been corrupted
- Boot sector is damaged by virus
2. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Active@ Partition Recovery requires:
- AT compatible CPU with 286 or greater processor
- 640Kb of RAM
- 1.44 Mb floppy diskette drive
- EGA 640x480 or better screen resolution
- Bootable Floppy disk containing MS-DOS 6.0+, or startup disk for Windows 95/98
- HDD of type IDE/ATA/SCSI attached to be recovered.
3. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN DEMO AND PROFESSIONAL VERSIONS
Active@ Partition Recovery version DEMO COMMERCIAL
Can be placed to and run from bootable floppy Yes Yes
Displays complete physical and logical drive information Yes Yes
Supports IDE / ATA / SCSI drives Yes Yes
Supports large (more than 8GB) size drives Yes Yes
Supports FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, NTFS5 file systems Yes Yes
Supports MS-DOS, Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP partitions Yes Yes
Detects deleted primary/extended partitions and drives Yes Yes
Scans partitions damaged by virus or with damaged MBR Yes Yes
Ability to preview partition data before recovery Yes Yes
Displays long file names Yes Yes
Ability to create Disk Image as set of 1GB files Yes Yes
Creates backup for MBR, Partion Table, Boot Sectors Yes Yes
Restores MBR, Partion Table and Boot Sectors from backup - Yes
Saves detected partition information back to HDD - Yes
4. OPERATING PROCEDURES
4.1. Bootable floppy disk (startup disk) preparation
If you do not have bootable floppy, you can prepare such disk from MS-DOS,
Windows 95/98 the following ways:
- If you boot in MS-DOS or in Command Prompt mode of Windows 95/98,
insert blank floppy and type:
FORMAT A: /S
and follow the instructions on a screen.
- If you boot in Windows 95/98/ME, go to the "Control Panel" then
"Add/Remove Programs", then switch to tab "Startup Disk" and
click button "Startup Disk..." and follow the instructions
- If you boot in Windows XP, insert blank floppy, right-click A: drive,
choose "Format...", check "Create an MS-DOS startup disk" option and
click "Start" button
Copy Active@ Partition Recovery (PR.EXE) to the bootable floppy disk
4.2. Program start and information display
- Boot from the floppy in DOS mode, or in Command Prompt mode in Windows 95/98
- Run Active@ Partition Recovery by typing:
A:\> PR.EXE
At the left side you will see the list of detected Hard Disk Drives (HDD).
If HDD has partitions and logical drives, they are displayed beneath.
If partitions were deleted, or HDD has space that is not occupied by partitions,
you'll see "Unallocated" space.
Use arrows to move cursor between HDD and logical drives. When you position cursor
to the particular drive, its information is displayed at the right side.
4.3. Scan for deleted partitions and drives
- Run Active@ Partition Recovery
- Locate the HDD on the left pane that contains deleted partition
- Position the cursor on "Unallocated" under HDD containing deleted partition
and press [ENTER]. Active@ Partition will start to scan the disk
- If the deleted partition is found - it is displayed and Active@ Partition will
suggest to add it to the list of found partitions
- After adding the partition, files in the partition can be previewed.
Just position the cursor on the partition and press the [ENTER] key
- If you are satisfied with the information found you can save the partition
table while exiting the program (see paragraph 4.5)
Note:
If "Extended" partition with logical drives was deleted, you'll have to scan
two times:
- Scan "Unallocated" space and you will be suggested to add partition of
type "Extended"
- Then scan "Unallocated" space beneath "Extended" partition, and you'll detect
and add logical drives located in the "Extended" partition
4.4. Scan existing or damaged partitions and drives
When a partition is damaged, i.e. of type "Unknown", Active@ Partition Recovery
cannot handle it properly. Preview of files and folders is not possible in that
partition. However partition exists and there is no "Unallocated" space on the
screen, so we cannot scan it for detection of other partition information.
Start the program using parameter -ignoreMBR that explicitly tells to Active@
Partition Recovery to ignore default MBR and partition information, and to
scan drive like the one having all partitions deleted.
For example:
A:\> PR.EXE -ignoreMBR=80h
After program start, the "Unallocated" space will be displayed beneath HDD 80h.
Scan it by pressing [ENTER] to try to detect and recover the partitions
as it was described in paragraph 4.3.
4.5. Partition recovery (Professional version only)
- Run Active@ Partition Recovery
- Scan for deleted partitions and drives as it was described in paragraph 4.3
or
- Scan damaged partitions and drives as it was described in paragraph 4.4
- If you are satisfied with the information found you can save the partition
table while exiting the program by pressing [ESC] key.
- Press [Y] to confirm saving partition information, or [N] if you want to leave
program without saving.
- If there is no partition with "Active" status exists, you'll be asked to select
one of partitions to be active. Select one and press [ENTER]
- You will be prompted to create MBR backup for the current configuration before
found parition information is saved to HDD.
It can be helpful if later on you'll decide to go back to the configuration
that was before partition recovery.
- Press [Y] to backup current MBR, Partition Table and Volume Boot Sectors
- Press [N] to cancel backup of the current configuration.
After partition information is saved, machine re-boot is required.
4.6. Backup MBR, Partition Tables(s), Volume Boot Sectors
In some situations such as a virus attack, power surge, etc, Master Boot Record
can get damaged. Due to this damage the computer becomes un-responsive and
unbootable.
To prevent this you can backup your partition information:
- Run Active@ Partition Recovery
- Select HDD you want to backup
- Insert floppy disk and press [Ctrl]+[B]
- Information will be saved to A:\HDD80h.MBR if you backup HDD 80h
Using this floppy disk Master Boot Record can be restored (see paragraph 4.7)
IT IS STRONGLY ADVISED TO MAKE MBR AND PARTITIONS BACKUP EVERY TIME THE COMPUTER
CONFIGURATION IS CHANGED (SUCH AS ADDING/REMOVING HDDs, PARTITIONS, LOGICAL DRIVES)
4.7. Restoring Master Boot Record, Partition Table and Boot Sectors from backup
To restore partition information from backup follow the steps:
- Insert the floppy disk containing the Master Boot Record backup file
- Run Active@ Partition Recovery with parameter -restoreMBR :
A:\> PR.EXE -restoreMBR=80h
This command will restore the Master Boot Record, Partition Table(s) and Boot Sectors.
You can view paritions, logical drives and preview files.
- While exiting the program, save this information back to Hard Disk Drive
if you want to. See paragraph 4.5 for details.
Note:
DEMO version of the program allows you to load partition information from the backup
and preview partition structure and files, but does not allow you to save it when you
exit the program.
Professional version of Active@ Partition Recovery allows you to save parition
information from the backup back to the HDD.
4.8. Disk Image creation
A "Disk Image" is a copy of the drive saved in file. Disk Image is used for backup
purposes or for the analysis by other utilities like WinHex. Using Active@ Partition
Recovery "Disk Image" for the whole Hard Disk Drive or for a particular logical drive
can be created.
- Start Active@ Partition Recovery
- Select the drive (HDD or Logical) to create the "Disk Image"
- Press "Ctrl+I"
- Select the path of another logical or network drive where you wish to save "Disk Image"
- Press OK [ENTER] key
- View the progress and wait until creation of disk image is finished
- Another way (available in Professional version only) is to run software with the
parameter -image.
For example:
A:\>PR.EXE -image80h=E:\
Resulting Disk Image is saved in the following files: Drive_80h.hdd, Drive_80h.001,
Drive_80h.002... Each file (except the last one) has size 1GB. MS-DOS does not support
files more than 2GB in size. Due to this reason the files are separated in 1GB file size.
If you want the Disk Image in one file - merge them later on manually.
4.9. Long file names display
Starting from Windows 95, file name is not limited to 8.3 pattern anymore and can have
the length up to 255 characters.
Standard View displays all files and folders the same way as DOS does,
i.e. forms file name using 8.3 format and displays it.
However sometimes it is not convenient to see the only first symbols of the long file
name.
To display long filenames (up to 36 symbols):
- Boot in DOS mode and run Active@ Partition Recovery
- Scan the particular drive by pressing [ENTER]
- Press [TAB] key to switch to long filenames view
4.10. Command line parameters
Active@ Partition Recovery has the set of command line parameters.
To see them and their definition, type:
A:\> PR.EXE -?
-lba - force LBA mode for access to all detected HDDs
-lba=N - force LBA mode for access to the particular HDD,
where N=[80h,81h,82h,83h]
-restoreMBR=N - restore of MBR from the backup for the particular drive
where N=[80h,81h,82h,83h]
-ignoreMBR=N - do not load MBR information for the particular drive,
where N=[80h,81h,82h,83h]
It allows you to scan existing or damaged parition
-imageN=PATH - create image for the physical drive
(Professional version only),"\
where N=[80h,81h,82h,83h] and PATH=<drive>:\\<path\\>
5. COMMON QUESTIONS
5.1 Partition is damaged after a virus attack and cannot be neither recognized
nor scanned. What to do?
Problem:
Due to a virus attack my computer may not boot and FDISK displays partition
of unknown type. Active@ Partition Recovery also shows partition of "Unknown"
type and does not allow previewing and scanning.
Reason:
When a partition is damaged, i.e. its type is "Unknown", Active@ Partition
Recovery cannot handle partitions of the type "Unknown", so it does not allow
to preview files in that partition. However partition exists and there is
no "Unallocated" space.
Solution:
Start the program with a parameter -ignoreMBR to ignore default partitions.
See paragraph 4.4 for details
5.2 How to prevent the Master Boot Record (MBR) corruption?
Problem:
In some situations such as a virus attack, power surge, etc, Master Boot Record
can get damaged. Due to this damage the computer becomes un-responsive and
unbootable.
Solution:
If a Master Boot Record and partition information backup is available on a
floppy drive, then using Active@ Partition Recovery you can recover and
restore Master Boot Record.
Boot the machine using that floppy and run Active@ Partition Recovery
and restore Master Boot Record from the backup.
IT IS STRONGLY ADVISED TO MAKE MBR AND PARTITIONS BACKUP EVERY TIME THE
COMPUTER CONFIGURATION IS CHANGED ( SUCH AS ADDING/REMOVING HDDs, PARTITIONS,
LOGICAL DRIVES).
See paragraph 4.6 for details
5.3 How to force LBA mode to access larger drives (more than 8GB size)?
Problem:
I use Windows NT installed under VMWare. I'm trying to scan partition having
size 10GB or greater and get an error message saying "Error reading physical
sector". Is it a drive's problem or your software does not support drives
more than 8GB?
Reason:
It could be bad clusters on the drive as well as BIOS/OS that does not
support LBA mode problem.
MS-DOS versions prior to 6.0 does not support LBA mode. Some versions of BIOS
could report that LBA mode is not supported for larger drives, however actually
it does. VMWare v.3.0 is an example. Active@ Partition Recovery tries read the
drive 100 times. In case of read failure it reports this problem.
Solution:
Make sure that you boot your system using the proper version of DOS. If it is
MS-DOS then version must be 6.0+. In most cases you do NOT need to tell
Active@ Partition Recovery to force LBA mode, because if BIOS supports it,
Active@ Partition Recovery does it automatically, giving you access to larger
sized hard drives.
If BIOS reports that LBA mode is not supported, Active@ Partition Recovery uses
standard Int13h to access the drive. You could try to force LBA mode by
starting Active@ Partition Recovery with a parameter -LBA, for example:
A:\>PR.EXE -LBA
However it will not help if BIOS actually does not support LBA mode. It usually
happens with old versions of BIOS. In this case you can try to take out HDD and
plug it to another machine having newer version of BIOS.
In situation if your drive has lots of bad clusters, its advisable to save your
data onto another physical drive and to get rid of the damaged hard drive.
5.4 Situations which Active@ Partition Recovery is unable to restore partitions
or Logical Drives in.
If you have:
- Created and formatted new partition instead of deleted one
- Written some information to the sectors where partition information was located
In the above scenarios most likely Active@ Partition Recovery will not be able
to detect the deleted partition as the partition information has been overwritten.
Even in situations if the Master Boot Record and Partition Table(s) have been
detected and restored successfully, some data on the drive might have been
overwritten and can be seen as garbage data in some folders.
5.5 Why cannot FDISK and Windows 98 see a detected and recovered partition?
Problem:
I used Active@ Partition Recovery to detect and recover a deleted partition
successfully. However after reboot FDISK is not able to see the partition.
Also if I try to access the C: drive, an error message is displayed saying
that drive is not valid.
Reason:
Both Partition and Master Boot Record were damaged.
Solution:
Re-create MBR by running FDISK with parameter /MBR:
A:\>FDISK.EXE /MBR
After MBR is re-created, partitions can be detected if Active@ Partition
Recovery restored them successfully.
5.6 Why do I receive an error message while trying to save the partition
information back to the Hard disk Drive?
Problem:
While saving the partition information I receive an error message saying
"Error writing physical sector". Not able to save the partition information
to the HDD.
Reasons:
1. Boot sector is write-protected. Some BIOS allow protecting Boot sector from
write operations in order to prohibit viruses to damage it.
2. Run the software from Windows 95/98/ME "MS-DOS Prompt" console.
3. Hard Disk Drive is physically damaged (i.e. has bad clusters).
Solutions:
1. Check your BIOS settings. If you have setting like "Virus Warning",
make sure that it's been "Disabled".
2. DO NOT try to run the software from under Windows Operating System! Boot
your computer in "Command Prompt" mode (press [F8] when Windows boots) or
boot from the floppy disk.
3. If your HDD is physically damaged, it's better to copy all important data
from there and use another Hard Disk Drive or you are at risk of loosing your
data.