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020727 - Ooops! HD in 6886 Lost its Partition Table (QaPlus/Pro)
To the News Group, Dan K. asked LLFing IDE drives in 6885 (or 6886). I
vaguely remember that there were such menu in QaPlus/Pro. Picked up some
versions of QaPlus/Pro and run it on my 6886 (active system for daily internet
mail and web browsing and other jobs). Examined each menu in QaPlus/Pro and
confirmed it has LLF menu. Funny thing is that selecting DISK Utility line with
Enter key leads you to utility page with HD information section but LLF menu
section is left blank. In order to get real LLF menu you need to do following
steps:
- Select DISK Utility line using cursor key. Do not press Enter key there but
just highlight the line.
- Press CTRL and A together when the cursor is on the HD Utility line.
Nothing will happen there.
- Press Enter key. You'll get HD Utility menu with LLF/DISK erase section
active to choose.
Well, I checked each menu and read some explanations about its function. I
rebooted the system twice or more to the reference menu (not QaPlus/Pro) to see
how the drive was reported. I even booted to DOS and checked the drive under
FDISK. Before I quite QaPlus/Pro I again entered HD Utility menu and run a
program that I can't recall exactly what it was. It seemed that the program
tried to read HD sectors or clusters so I quite the program immediately. As far
as I remember I didn't run LLFing program nor DISK Erase program. I quite the
QAPlus/Pro and reboot the system. Few second latter I got I900xxxxx error on
the screen. what happened? "No system found in the boot drive"! Well, sometime
my 6886 lost screen, CPU refused to run and needed to be reseated firmly to the
socket, SIMM contacts wanted to get cleaned with Ethanol... Did all, set SIMMs
and CPU back into the box, fired it up but I still got I900xxxx. Placed a PC
DOS floppy in FDD and checked the C drive, FDISK notified me that there was no
system partition defined on the drive. Partition table seemed to be corrupted,
erased and lost . Mails, email addresses, internet articles, program files
downloaded from various site, news group log files in Netscape local folders,
many scripts and draft works for my PS/55 information page, GIF images that I
draw with instructions by Louis and William W. and everything gathered during
my 2 year-long stay in Okinawa were Gone With the QaPlus/Pro!
I detached the hard drive from 6886. It should be kept safely without
overwriting on any sectors thus there some of files could be revived using data
recovery programs such as Norton Disk Utility... didn't know others.
Sent a email to Dan about QaPlus/Pro using my daughter's PC.
6886 without it's boot drive lost it's regular
position on my desk and was placed under the desk. It would sit there quietly
waiting for a day of joy in future.
Well, you are now reading my page. Does it mean I could I find backup
copies stored in 9595 or MO disks? No, I could not. I lost a MO disk which
should contain back up files dated around 2002 JAN. The latest back up
available was in 6885 which was backed up when I left my home to Okinawa on
Jul. 2000. Did I have to write whole text from scratch? No. To be continued
to 020819.
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