I am so dead , help please :(

[Masterx]

hello all , some thing terrible just happened to me
i was installing windows 7 ultimate that suddenly at the beginning of the installation , installer gave me an error stating check your media , and blah blah blah...
i click ok , and then pressed install (again) , this time after two or three minutes i was directed to agreement license page and then the choose the installation drive page ,!! there i was shocked!
i had 6 partitions , and now only two where usable !
and between these two only one was fine(intact) ,
the other 4 are merged !
resulting this (attached image):

before this teh partitions were set this way :
C 30G
D 40G
E 100G
F 100G
G 100G
H 106G
and now everything is messed up
im online using my second hard disk
please some one tell me how to fix this .

[EVOEx]

Hmmm... I'd suggest you get a linux boot cd (ubuntu or knoppix, whatever), and then try to mount all disks from there. If that works, back up all data immediately, try to fix it or format everything and restore the backups.
If linux can't read it... Then you'll have to resort to more advanced recovery methods, some costing thousands of dollars...

[Masterx]

Hmmm... I'd suggest you get a linux boot cd (ubuntu or knoppix, whatever), and then try to mount all disks from there. If that works, back up all data immediately, try to fix it or format everything and restore the backups.
If linux can't read it... Then you'll have to resort to more advanced recovery methods, some costing thousands of dollars...

can you suggest any program for fixing the fat ?

[Fordy]

There are tools out there to restore partitions if you haven't written any data to them (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DataRecovery), but do you know exactly how the disk was laid out?

Hopefully you took a full backup before trying to install the new os - might be easier to restore the backup if this is the case.

If you didn't take a backup, well ...!

[EVOEx]

If you didn't take a backup, well ...!

I don't always do that either. But then again, that means I install Linux, which doesn't simply randomly wreck your disks...
Unless you screw up yourself of course.

[cyberfish]

Could be a harddrive failure, too. The MBR could be damaged.

[Masterx]

partition table doctor couldnt make it right in standard scanning mode
i downloaded a demo version of "DDR - FAT Recovery(Demo)" and scanned my hard disk .
it could identify 3 partitions (E G each 97 Gigabyte and H 104 Gigabyte )but C and D were identified !166 Gigabyte! F is usable .) but the problems are :1.its demo 2.it recovers the data, it doesnt fix the FAT table!
if i fix MBR , would it help ?

[cyberfish]

First, before you do anything, get another larger harddrive, and do a bitwise dump of your current drive to it.

It's incredibly easy to make things even worse trying to fix it.

[cpjust]

Unless they changed the command between Vista & 7, you can run "bootrec /fixmbr" from the recovery command prompt. But since 7 screwed it up in the first place, you should definitely backup what's left of your HD first.

[cyberfish]

I don't think fixmbr will scan the harddrive looking for partitions. It will just write the Windows boot code, which wouldn't be terribly useful.

[cpjust]

I don't think fixmbr will scan the harddrive looking for partitions. It will just write the Windows boot code, which wouldn't be terribly useful.

Yeah, you might be right. I usually just use that command to fix my HD after I install Linux and then decide to remove Linux.

[VirtualAce]

Fixmbr might work though b/c it may allow him to boot which would then allow him to copy the drive and/or perform other operations on it that are not available if Windows can't boot up. First thing I would do is contact Microsoft about the issue. If you are worried about the cost I might be able to get you a free support session. Microsoft support has always been helpful to me and in my opinion has one of the best support staffs in the industry.

[cyberfish]

I would take the harddrive out, put it in another computer, and do it there (a full image first).

Or use a Linux Live-CD.

The MBR is small and delicate. Messing with it without backup first may not be the best idea when it's already the source of all the trouble.

[Mostly Harmless]

FYI, NTFS doesn't use a FAT, it uses a MFT.

[MK27]

The MBR is small and delicate. Messing with it without backup first may not be the best idea when it's already the source of all the trouble.

Yeah, I've pointed this out at least a few times in threads like this. Backing up the MBR, and swapping your old one back in, is dead simple. It's the first 512 bytes on the drive. Copy it into a file, if your partition table gets screwed up, copy it back.* You don't even need a rescue CD or anything, if you can boot a working partition, because the MBR is only used at boot up, so it's safe to overwrite after that.

It only takes a few seconds to do, and can save you a lot of headaches. I always backup the MBR when installing partitions, just to stay in the habit of doing so. Another good habit: create a back-up copy after you install, and keep it somewhere. Then if you forget next time, you'll have that.

* this presumes you didn't really change any of the partition sizes, etc, which is what this sounds like