How to recover better from the NEXT Firewire HDD repeating..

Hi,

"How to recover better from the NEXT Firewire HDD repeating NTFS Lazy Write
Failure"

The subject is my best guess as to how the messing up of my MAXTOR Firewire
200 Gig drive occurred. I do not have proof that it was the cause, but I
have seen too many, (A single one is very bad if the file is $MFT) thus
those are the main suspects.
-------------------------------------------------------------

During normal Windows XP usage a message pop-uped reporting a problem and
suggesting that "CHKDSK" should be run on the drive.

I foolishly ran "CHKDSK" which I believe made the problem much worse (IMHO).

Now the problem reported was that 2 of the four NTFS partitions had only 1
sector per track and only 1 head. One was usable by Win XP, one was not. I
corrected the 1 Sector / Track and 1 head.

C:\Documents and Settings\Nani-Bosie>chkdsk Q:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Unable to determine volume version and state. CHKDSK aborted.

--------------------------------------------------

0x00000000: 33 C0 8E D0 BC 00 7C FB 50 07 50 1F FC BE 1B 7C
[3+Ä-+.|vP.P.n+.|]
0x00000010: BF 1B 06 50 57 B9 E5 01 F3 A4 CB BE BE 07 B1 04
[+..PW¦s.=ñ-++.¦.]
0x00000020: 38 2C 7C 09 75 15 83 C6 10 E2 F5 CD 18 8B 14 8B
[8,|.u.â¦.G)-.ï.ï]
0x00000030: EE 83 C6 10 49 74 16 38 2C 74 F6 BE 10 07 4E AC
[eâ¦.It.8,t÷+..N¼]
0x00000040: 3C 00 74 FA BB 07 00 B4 0E CD 10 EB F2 89 46 25
[<.t·+..¦.-.d=ëF%]
0x00000050: 96 8A 46 04 B4 06 3C 0E 74 11 B4 0B 3C 0C 74 05
[ûèF.¦.<.t.¦.<.t.]
0x00000060: 3A C4 75 2B 40 C6 46 25 06 75 24 BB AA 55 50 B4
[:-u+@¦F%.u$+¬UP¦]
0x00000070: 41 CD 13 58 72 16 81 FB 55 AA 75 10 F6 C1 01 74
[A-.Xr.üvU¬u.÷-.t]
0x00000080: 0B 8A E0 88 56 24 C7 06 A1 06 EB 1E 88 66 04 BF
[.èaêV$¦.í.d.êf.+]
0x00000090: 0A 00 B8 01 02 8B DC 33 C9 83 FF 05 7F 03 8B 4E
[..+..ï_3+â..¦.ïN]
0x000000A0: 25 03 4E 02 CD 13 72 29 BE 46 07 81 3E FE 7D 55
[%.N.-.r)+F.ü>.}U]
0x000000B0: AA 74 5A 83 EF 05 7F DA 85 F6 75 83 BE 27 07 EB
[¬tZân.¦+à÷uâ+'.d]
0x000000C0: 8A 98 91 52 99 03 46 08 13 56 0A E8 12 00 5A EB
[èÿæRÖ.F..V.F..Zd]
0x000000D0: D5 4F 74 E4 33 C0 CD 13 EB B8 00 00 00 00 00 00
[+OtS3+-.d+......]
0x000000E0: 56 33 F6 56 56 52 50 06 53 51 BE 10 00 56 8B F4
[V3÷VVRP.SQ+..Vï(]
0x000000F0: 50 52 B8 00 42 8A 56 24 CD 13 5A 58 8D 64 10 72
[PR+.BèV$-.ZXìd.r]
0x00000100: 0A 40 75 01 42 80 C7 02 E2 F7 F8 5E C3 EB 74 49
[.@u.BǦ.G~°^+dtI]
0x00000110: 6E 76 61 6C 69 64 20 70 61 72 74 69 74 69 6F 6E [nvalid
partition]
0x00000120: 20 74 61 62 6C 65 00 45 72 72 6F 72 20 6C 6F 61 [ table.Error
loa]
0x00000130: 64 69 6E 67 20 6F 70 65 72 61 74 69 6E 67 20 73 [ding operating
s]
0x00000140: 79 73 74 65 6D 00 4D 69 73 73 69 6E 67 20 6F 70 [ystem.Missing
op]
0x00000150: 65 72 61 74 69 6E 67 20 73 79 73 74 65 6D 00 00 [erating
system..]
0x00000160: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
[................]
0x00000170: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
[................]
0x00000180: 00 00 00 8B FC 1E 57 8B F5 CB 00 00 00 00 00 00
[...ïn.Wï)-......]
0x00000190: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
[................]
0x000001A0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
[................]
0x000001B0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 64 7D 03 00 00 00 00 01
[........d}......]
0x000001C0: 01 00 07 FE FF FF 3F 00 00 00 38 93 EF 05 00 00
[......?...8ôn...]
0x000001D0: C1 FF 07 FE FF FF 77 93 EF 05 B6 54 EF 05 00 00
[-.....wôn.¦Tn...]
0x000001E0: C1 FF 07 00 C1 FF 2D E8 DE 0B 77 93 EF 05 00 00
[-...-.-F¦.wôn...]
0x000001F0: C1 FF 07 00 C1 FF A4 7B CE 11 34 D7 EE 05 55 AA
[-...-.ñ{+.4+e.U¬]

--------------------------------------------------
Comparison with the "Windows XP ( NT5.1 )MBR ( Master Boot Record )" at:

http://www.geocities.com/thestarman3/asm/mbr/Win2kmbr.htm

Shows a huge difference!!

I found a MBR for the drive saved from a year ago which is the same.

--------------------------------------------------

First question of possibly several.

Is this MBR correct for a non bootable firewire / USB external drive?
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My goal is to restore the drive to normal use by Win XP and or understand
what occurred and how to prevent and be prepared to better recover the next
time.
--------------------------------------------------

--
Stephen H. Fischer <sfischer1.TakeThisOut@mindspring.com>