subject: Chkdsk Tool Can Not Fix Damaged Fat32 Boot Sector Using Backup Boot Sector [print this page] In Microsoft Windows XP and 2000 operating systems, a backup of boot sector is created and stored in the last sector of partition. You can use the backup copy of boot sector for replacing damaged boot sector of the partition. But, if the FAT32 partition become inaccessible or damaged and you try to repair it using Chkdsk utility, the file system might be reported as FAT32 (or RAW, depending upon the corruption), however Chkdsk utility quits immediately without repairing the partition. In such cases, the hard drive data remains inaccessible and you need to opt for hard drive recovery solutions to get your valuable data back.
For instance, you may come across the below message when you use 'chkdsk : f' command:
The type of the file system is FAT32.
Volume Serial Number is C408-2213
When you run the Chkdsk tool again without command-line switches, it still displays the partition is corrupted. If you run 'chkdsk :' command, the below error message might be displayed:
The type of the file system is FAT32.
Volume Serial Number is C408-2213
Errors found. CHKDSK cannot continue in read-only mode.
At this point, the drive remains inaccessible. In order to access the hard drive, you need to find out the cause of this problem and perform hard drive recovery by sorting it out.
Grounds of the issue:
This problem occurs because FAT32 file system has a backup copy of boot sector. However, the Chkdsk tool does not try to use backup copy unless primary boot sector of your partition is physically stored in bad sector and the utility receives I/O error messages while attempting to read partition. Chkdsk does not attempt to use backup copy as primary copy is damaged or has invalid information.
Resolution:
You can fix corrupted primary boot sector using Dskprobe.exe tool. This tool enables you to copy the backup of boot sector over damaged boot sector.
If this method does not work, you need to use hard drive recovery software to retrieve your data and format hard drive to fix the damaged boot sector. The applications effectively scan damaged Windows hard drive and extract all lost data from it. With interactive and simple graphical user interface, the Hard Drive Recovery tools are very easy to use.
Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery is the most efficient and comprehensive tool to recover all types of lost data from Windows hard drive. The software is designed for Microsoft Windows 7, Vista, 2003, XP, and 2000. It recovers data from FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, VFAT, NTFS, and NTFS5 file system partitions.
