Text-mode Displays Invalid Partitions

In Windows, a special session manger called Usetup.exe starts a mini-kernel mode phase, which is referred as text-mode phase of Setup. This phase is responsible for checking the system for basic hardware installed, creating file systems and registry and partitioning and formatting the drive for file systems. It also examines the hard disk for integrity. One of the peculiar symptoms that it shows while partition table is corrupted (specifically in Windows 2000) is when you try to upgrade your system; it displays few partitions that actually don’t exist on the hard disk. Since the partition table is damaged, you cannot access your data, thus require restoring from backup. But availability of valid and complete data backup is not must in all cases. Therefore, you should use data recovery software. to successfully scan and recover the lost information.

When you try to install Windows 2000 SP3 using Windows 2000 SP3 CD-ROM in text-mode setup, you observe that setup shows some partitions that actually don’t exist on hard disk. When you select a partition, its related options appear in its status bar at the bottom of screen. But if you select such non-existing partition, you don’t see the Delete option to delete it.

Cause

Windows 2000 setup is unable to read partition table information because it is corrupted. The similar behavior can also be seen on new hard disks that have not been partitioned yet.

Solution

To correct this issue, you need to repartition the hard disk and restore lost data from backup. You can repartition the hard disk using any of the below mentioned method:

• Use different version of Windows 2000 CD-ROM to start your system and use Delete option after selecting each of the listed partition

• You can also use Windows 2000 Setup boot floppy disk for this purpose

• Boot your system using startup disk and use Fdisk utility to repartition the hard disk

You can continue installing Windows 2000 SP3 Setup after restoring lost information using backup. This has been assumed that you have backed up all the important data to restore it later. While any violation in this case, you can simply scan your hard disk using data recovery.applications before performing any further task. data recovery software are powerful tools to recover lost data in any logical crash case.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery is the finest data recovery tool to restore lost data. It is an easy to use application with native support to Windows 7 (currently in RC 1), Vista, XP, 2003, and 2000. This non-destructive application is compatible with FAT32, VFAT, NTFS, and NTFS5 file systems.

By: k madhav

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

K madhav is a data recovery expert and doing research on data recovery and file recovery.