Weird booting problem on converted hard drive 2

[vop]

Something to keep in mind - possibly a good validation step for verifying the integrity of your converted disk.

I recently used MaxBlast (disk conversion utility from Maxtor) to convert a 30GB Maxtor to a Western Digital 120GB using 3 x 40GB partitions (Win98SE).

All was well for several days until I scanned one file with my Norton virus checker. It said that the Master Boot Record (MBR) had changed. Was I expecting this and did I wish to allow the change? As I suspected the downloaded file to contain a potential virus, I answered no. Next boot, the system just hung and Scandisk (from a diskette) found major disk corruption.

On my second attempt to convert, one of my first steps was to run a complete virus scan. The same MBR problem was flagged. This time I allowed the change. Everything has worked fine since.

Possibly the Master Boot Record (MBR) on the older drive was different or incompatible with a valid MBR on the new Disk. AS shown above, the incompatibility could result in major corruption. Fortunately, Norton AV detects this discrepency and allows necessary changes to the MBR requirements for the new hard drive. If the MBR is not right, anything could go wrong at any time. Seemingly, all that was needed was a triggering event which could involve the passage of many days before the issue might come to light.

 

[TekTippy4U]

You wrote;
Possibly the Master Boot Record (MBR) on the older drive was different or incompatible with a valid MBR on the new Disk

This is probably true,,,,,,however....would you please tell us what "Kind" of file was downloaded that it would need to alter the MBR......?

 

[vop]

A text file had been downloaded from a possibly untrustworthy site after the first conversion. That file did not exist on the second conversion. Therefore the suspect file in question was not a causal issue. The use of Norton Antivirus 2002 found a problem with the MBR under either scenario.

It would appear that the conversion of a 'clean' source hard drive can create MBR issues as determinable from an AV scan. User beware. The MBR requirements on drive 1 is unlikely to be the same as for drive 2.

 

[TekTippy4U]

Oh....absolutely......Especially considering different manufacturers.....and how they each have Unique LLF codes...

The MBR usually gets it's instructions from the BIOS.....yet diff manu.'s will mark certain sectors at production as "Bad" and unwritable......
If the Bios is used to having a certain instruction set for a particular drive....which is unique even among diff Models from the same Manu.
then what's bad on one drive from inception will NOT be what's bad on the new drive....as far as Cyl/Hd/sectors go...

And especially when your Anti-virus has the ability to scan the MBR area...

 

[vop]

An almost exact word-for-word situation (occuring over 3 years ago) was found in the following link:

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/Q_10332829.html

If your AV tool is going to corrupt your conversion it is best to find out early. Thankfully, Norton seems to have learned to more appropriately handle such situations since the noted result of almost three (3) years ago. Fixing the MBR did no corruption of files this time.

See also: "View Accepted Answer" link

Also a more likely possible consideration:

http://groups.google.ca/groups?q="b...lsch7il05eg76vlhit3ovf0tpvdl1f@4ax.com&rnum=4

'... had you changed the volume label of the hard drive
or repartitioned it? [I had changed the volume label on both tries]

Norton will give a message that the master boot record has changed if you have renamed the disk partition or repartitioned the drive. Having it "repair" this results in it reloading a potentially obsolete partition table.
If you know you made a change, you would want to tell it to update its information (reinoculate).'

I didn't allow update on first conversion (wrong choice - corruption resulted) but immediately did the Norton AV check and allowed update on second conversion (apparently necessary to avoid corruption when a volume label has changed).

 

[TekTippy4U]

Your last paragraph point is well-taken here.....and I'll remember now...........I hope....

Thx for the info...