subject: How To Handle Partition Table Corruption Using Partition Recovery Software? [print this page] Microsoft Windows operating system enables you to divide your computer hard drive into various partitions. These partitions work as separate disks and can be used to install operating system(s) and store data. This arrangement helps you to minimize the risks of data loss in case of operating system malfunction and system crash. Every primary partition has an entry in the partition table, which is a data structure that is read by operating system to access the partitions. Under some circumstances, this data structure gets damaged or becomes inaccessible. In such situations, all your hard drive partitions become inaccessible and you encounter partition loss. At this point, you need to deploy Windows Partition Recovery solutions to get your lost partitions recovered.
Partition Table is a significant 64-byte data structure, which contains information about all the primary partitions. It is located at the same disk sector in which MBR (Master Boot Record) is stored. The data structure conforms to standard layout, which is independent of operating system. Every partition entry is 16-byte. Last two byes of the sector has partition signature.
Partition table corruption is a horrifying reality that may take place due to numerous reasons, such as virus infection, improper system shutdown, and even hardware problems. Windows gives you various symptoms to identify partition table corruption, like boot failure, boot time errors, and BSOD (Blue Screen of Death). Some of the common error messages that indicate partition table corruption are:
Unable to read partition table
Invalid Partition Table
Error loading operating system
Missing operating system
After this behavior of Microsoft Windows operating system, your computer refuses to boot up and all your partitions become unusable.
In order to work around this problem, you need to replace the damaged partition table with a new one. This can be done by formatting the hard drive and reinstalling operating system.
However, this process can help you fix the problem, but also removes all the partition and stored data, causing serious partition loss. At this point, Partition Recovery Software come to your rescue.
These applications enable you to Recover Partition in an easy way. These Windows Partition Recovery tools do not alter original data as they have read-only and non-destructive conduct.
Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery software uses advanced scanning algorithms to insure absolute recovery of lost data. It recovers NTFS5, NTFS, FAT32, FAT16, and FAT12 file system partitions. The recovery software with interactive and self-descriptive user interface works well with Microsoft Windows 7, Vista, 2003, XP, and 2000.
