help? invalid system disk after using testdisk and partition table doctor

O

okok

New Member
hi, i messed up my dell laptop and been using my phone for now:(

this is what i did...
1. downloaded the testdisk program because i wanted to repair my external hard drive that i just moved to a new enclosure.
2. accidentally ran the program on my laptop c drive instead...i did the normal steps like analyze, and i think it was repairing/writing the mbr when i realized it was the wrong drive and stopped it half way.
3. after i shutdown my laptop, it only would boot to the dell hardware diagnostics. those tests didnt help, so i found the partition table doctor bootable cd.
4. when i ran that, it immediately said partition 1 and 3 sectors should start at 0 instead of 249 or smthng. i clicked ok, and PTD shows me this:
partition / system / MB space
c: / fat16 / 78
d: / fat32 / 32773
/ free / 81619

i was able to rebuild partition tables and mbr on all, but could only fixboot on that tiny c drive. i think its just totally messed up bcuz my laptop originally had a huge c drive and the small d partition just for my dell factory image. finally, i learned that i should have tried to boot from my operating system cd and try to repair the system, but that option cant find my os...now. when i boot normally it says invalid system disk...i know this is long but thx if you have any input!!
 

My Computer

System One

Hello OkOk and welcome to the forum

WoW I am going to send you some info for you to try and lets hope that one of them works. Before you do any of the foloowing lets have you do a safe boot, if you can get into the safe mode you can do a system restore from there, and here is the info for doing a safe mode.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/123496-safe-mode.html

First this is what should be done on a start up repair..

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/91467-startup-repair.html

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/141820-create-recovery-disc.html

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/194765-system-recovery-options.html

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/66971-system-restore.html

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/76905-system-restore-how.html
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    a6530f Desktop
    CPU
    HP-PAVILION
    Motherboard
    M2N68-LA (Narra3)
    Memory
    8 Gigs of Ram/DDR2 PC2-6400 MB/sec
    Graphics card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430
    Sound Card
    Intergrated Realtex ALC888S Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG W40 series widescreen
    Screen Resolution
    1600 X 900
    Hard Drives
    1 640 GB Sata transfer rating: 3.0 Gb/sec speed: 7200 RPM
    PSU
    300W
    Case
    Mid-Size ATX
    Mouse
    Microsoft Wireless Mouse 5000
    Keyboard
    HP Multimedia Keyboard
    Other Info
    Processor: AMD Phenom X3 8450 Operating speed: Up to 2.1 GHz, Number of cores: 3, Socket: AM2+, Bus speed: 3600 MHz HT3 (clocked down to 2000 MHz) Modem: 56K WinModem/ Supermulti: 16X DVD(+/-)R/RW 12X Ram (+/-)R DL Lightscribe SATA Drive Menory Card Reader: 15-in-1 Multimedia Card Reader Media Drive
It sounds like you know your way around a computer so some of these things should be kind of easy for you, if you get hung up and don't know about something come here a post us first and we will walk you through the process.

Thanks

americancritic
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    a6530f Desktop
    CPU
    HP-PAVILION
    Motherboard
    M2N68-LA (Narra3)
    Memory
    8 Gigs of Ram/DDR2 PC2-6400 MB/sec
    Graphics card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430
    Sound Card
    Intergrated Realtex ALC888S Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG W40 series widescreen
    Screen Resolution
    1600 X 900
    Hard Drives
    1 640 GB Sata transfer rating: 3.0 Gb/sec speed: 7200 RPM
    PSU
    300W
    Case
    Mid-Size ATX
    Mouse
    Microsoft Wireless Mouse 5000
    Keyboard
    HP Multimedia Keyboard
    Other Info
    Processor: AMD Phenom X3 8450 Operating speed: Up to 2.1 GHz, Number of cores: 3, Socket: AM2+, Bus speed: 3600 MHz HT3 (clocked down to 2000 MHz) Modem: 56K WinModem/ Supermulti: 16X DVD(+/-)R/RW 12X Ram (+/-)R DL Lightscribe SATA Drive Menory Card Reader: 15-in-1 Multimedia Card Reader Media Drive
hi amerciancritic,

thx for ur support! i tried to safe boot but it gets invalid system disk. i think i royally messed up my hard drive with partition table doctor...
 

My Computer

System One

Hello

Can you tell me if you have the full version of vista or do you have the factory recovery disk's.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    a6530f Desktop
    CPU
    HP-PAVILION
    Motherboard
    M2N68-LA (Narra3)
    Memory
    8 Gigs of Ram/DDR2 PC2-6400 MB/sec
    Graphics card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430
    Sound Card
    Intergrated Realtex ALC888S Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG W40 series widescreen
    Screen Resolution
    1600 X 900
    Hard Drives
    1 640 GB Sata transfer rating: 3.0 Gb/sec speed: 7200 RPM
    PSU
    300W
    Case
    Mid-Size ATX
    Mouse
    Microsoft Wireless Mouse 5000
    Keyboard
    HP Multimedia Keyboard
    Other Info
    Processor: AMD Phenom X3 8450 Operating speed: Up to 2.1 GHz, Number of cores: 3, Socket: AM2+, Bus speed: 3600 MHz HT3 (clocked down to 2000 MHz) Modem: 56K WinModem/ Supermulti: 16X DVD(+/-)R/RW 12X Ram (+/-)R DL Lightscribe SATA Drive Menory Card Reader: 15-in-1 Multimedia Card Reader Media Drive
Do you have a friend or a family member close by, it so you can make a recovery disk and a bootable disk for vista, you can burn it or safe it to a flash drive then upload to your system. This will work for you as long as you can get into someones computer long enough to make one. In the meantime you might want to read up a little bit fom these tutorials.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/205005-boot-priority-change.html

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/82664-boot-partition-default.html

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/71216-boot-information.html

This will help you while we research to find a way to repair your system..LOL
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    a6530f Desktop
    CPU
    HP-PAVILION
    Motherboard
    M2N68-LA (Narra3)
    Memory
    8 Gigs of Ram/DDR2 PC2-6400 MB/sec
    Graphics card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430
    Sound Card
    Intergrated Realtex ALC888S Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG W40 series widescreen
    Screen Resolution
    1600 X 900
    Hard Drives
    1 640 GB Sata transfer rating: 3.0 Gb/sec speed: 7200 RPM
    PSU
    300W
    Case
    Mid-Size ATX
    Mouse
    Microsoft Wireless Mouse 5000
    Keyboard
    HP Multimedia Keyboard
    Other Info
    Processor: AMD Phenom X3 8450 Operating speed: Up to 2.1 GHz, Number of cores: 3, Socket: AM2+, Bus speed: 3600 MHz HT3 (clocked down to 2000 MHz) Modem: 56K WinModem/ Supermulti: 16X DVD(+/-)R/RW 12X Ram (+/-)R DL Lightscribe SATA Drive Menory Card Reader: 15-in-1 Multimedia Card Reader Media Drive
This might come down to doing a factory restore, justs FYI and yes it is a pain...

Tom
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    a6530f Desktop
    CPU
    HP-PAVILION
    Motherboard
    M2N68-LA (Narra3)
    Memory
    8 Gigs of Ram/DDR2 PC2-6400 MB/sec
    Graphics card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430
    Sound Card
    Intergrated Realtex ALC888S Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LG W40 series widescreen
    Screen Resolution
    1600 X 900
    Hard Drives
    1 640 GB Sata transfer rating: 3.0 Gb/sec speed: 7200 RPM
    PSU
    300W
    Case
    Mid-Size ATX
    Mouse
    Microsoft Wireless Mouse 5000
    Keyboard
    HP Multimedia Keyboard
    Other Info
    Processor: AMD Phenom X3 8450 Operating speed: Up to 2.1 GHz, Number of cores: 3, Socket: AM2+, Bus speed: 3600 MHz HT3 (clocked down to 2000 MHz) Modem: 56K WinModem/ Supermulti: 16X DVD(+/-)R/RW 12X Ram (+/-)R DL Lightscribe SATA Drive Menory Card Reader: 15-in-1 Multimedia Card Reader Media Drive
Thx will do! At least ive gotten the need for tinkering behind me lol.

Well not totally...im thinking would it work for me to swap out the laptop hd n make it an external so i can retrieve my files without worrying abt the operating system? And then i'd just reinstall the os on the brand new hd in the laptop.
 

My Computer

System One

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