Document ID:19961121125443 Last Modified:07/21/2003

How to diagnose hard drive bootup problems with Disk Editor

Situation:
You are unable to start the computer from the C drive, or you suspect the drive may not have been configured correctly or may have lost its sector translation.

Solution:
In this situation, use Disk Editor to check the drive. Disk Editor is a DOS-based program that allows you to edit individual bytes on the hard drive in either hexadecimal or decimal format.

• Before beginning, determine the correct way to boot the computer in question from a floppy disk. If the computer is using drive translation software, do not insert the Emergency disk or the Rescue disk until you see a message similar to "Press spacebar to boot from floppy." To boot correctly from any other bootable floppy disk, consult your drive documentation. For detailed information on how to start the system from a floppy disk when using drive translation software, see the document How to boot from floppy disk when a DDO is installed.
• This document explains an advanced technical procedure using Disk Editor. Symantec does not provide technical support for this document. Use this information at your own risk.
• With the advent of hard drives larger than 8.4 GB, the old convention of using cylinders, sides, and sectors has been abandoned for a new drive translation approach that uses absolute sectors. The numbers remain within partition tables for backward compatibility purposes only. The only cylinder, side, and sector numbers that are still actively in use on modern systems are the beginning location of the first active partition in the Master Boot Record.

1. Start the computer.
2. Click Start, and choose Shut Down.
3. Select Restart in MS-DOS Mode, and click OK. The system will display a C: prompt.
4. Change to the Norton Utilities folder by typing the following command, then pressing Enter:
   
   CD\Program Files\Norton Utilities\
   
   

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   Note: Not all versions of Windows will display the long folder name in MS-DOS mode. If the system will not allow you to change to \Program Files\Norton Utilities, use the short version of the folder name: \PROGRA~1\NORTON~1. In addition, if you have more than one Symantec Norton product, the folder name could be \PROGRA~1\NORTON~2, \PROGRA~1\NORTON~3, and so forth.

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5. To load Disk Editor, type:
   
   DISKEDIT /M
   
   and press Enter.

1. Start the system with the Rescue Disk set.
2. When you see a message that refers to Ctrl+C, press Ctrl+C, then press Y to terminate the batch file. The system will display an A:\> prompt.
3. Determine which disk in the Rescue set has the DISKEDIT.EXE file and put that disk into the floppy drive.
4. Type:
   
   DISKEDIT /M
   
   and press Enter.

1. Start the system with the Rescue Disk set. The system will display an A:\> prompt.
2. Determine which disk in the Rescue set has the DISKEDIT.EXE file, and put that disk into the floppy drive.
3. Type:
   
   DISKEDIT /M
   
   and press Enter.

1. Start the system with Emergency Disk 1. Norton Utilities includes two disks for this (or, in later versions, you should have been instructed to create them). Booting this way displays a menu that includes the option for Disk Editor.
2. Select Disk Editor from the menu, but do not press the Enter key yet.
3. At the command line, type:
   
   /M
   
   and press Enter.
4. Insert Emergency Disk 2 when prompted.

1. Locate a bootable DOS floppy (a system disk) and start the system with it. The system will display an A:\> prompt.
2. Insert a floppy disk that contains the file Diskedit.exe. You can obtain this file from Rescue disks, Emergency Disks, or a working computer that has Norton Utilities successfully installed on it.
3. Type:
   
   DISKEDIT /M
   
   and press Enter.

To use Disk Editor:
After you have loaded Disk Editor, you will see a message regarding "Read-only mode." Follow these steps to select the drive:

1. Press the Enter key to bypass the message regarding "Read-only mode."
2. Choose 1.4 MB for the size of the floppy drive. You should now be in Disk Editor.
3. Press Alt+O to choose the Object menu.
4. Press D to choose Drives.
5. Check the Physical Disks option on the right side of the Drive Selection window.
6. On the left side of the window, select the drive with the problem. If the computer cannot boot from the hard drive, this will be Hard Disk 1. If Disk Editor does not list the hard drive at all or displays a message indicating Error 129, then the hard drive probably has physical damage. See the section "If Disk Editor does not list the hard drive."
7. Press Enter to select OK.

1. Press Alt+O to choose the Object Menu.
2. Choose Physical Sector.
3. Change the value in the Number of Sectors field to 2000.
4. Choose OK.
5. Press Alt+T to choose the Tools menu.
6. Press F to select Find.
7. In the ASCII box, type a phrase you are sure is not on the hard drive, such as "Mary had a little lamb."
8. Choose OK.
9. If Disk Editor displays the message "no matches found", then it is unlikely that the drive has physical damage in the system area. However, if Disk Editor displays a message indicating Error 129, then the hard drive probably has physical damage. See the section "If Disk Editor does not list the hard drive."

1. Press Alt+O to choose the Object menu.
2. Press P to choose Physical Sector.
3. Write down the numbers listed under Legal Values for the top three lines only. For example:
   
   Cylinder: 0-1023
   Side: 0-15
   Sector: 1-63
   
   If the number of cylinders is over 1023, the drive is not configured correctly. The drive translation software is either disabled, or is not working correctly.
4. Press Esc to exit from the Select Physical Sector Range window.
5. Press Alt+O to choose the Object menu.
6. Press T to choose Partition Table.
7. Press Alt+V to choose the View menu.
8. Press P to choose the Partition Table view.
9. Write down the numbers that you see.
10. Compare the partition table numbers in the section called Ending Location to the Legal Values you wrote down.
    • The number of sides should exactly match the number of sides from the Legal Values.
    • The number of sectors should exactly match the number of sectors from the Legal Values.
    • The highest number shown for number of cylinders should be equal to or less than the number of cylinders from Legal Values by about one to three cylinders.

• The hard drive's physical connection is not correct. This is sometimes due to a loose cable.
• The BIOS does not list a drive type.
• The computer has other physical problems.
• The hard drive is severely damaged and Disk Editor cannot fix it.

Product(s): Norton Utilities 2000 v4.5 - Win95/98, Norton Utilities 2001 v5.0 - Win9x/Me, Norton Utilities 2001 v5.0 - WinNT/2000
Operating System(s): Windows 95, Windows 98
Date Created: 11/21/1996