Multiple unexpected MFT files

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RobertWichert
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Jan 14, 2010 6:31 pm

Multiple unexpected MFT files

Post by RobertWichert » Thu Jan 14, 2010 6:46 pm

First post from me. I apologize in advance for my ignorance.

I have had R-Tools for many years, and I have used it sucessfully several times to recover files. I have also used it unsucessfully, but that's another story. My current situation involves "inaccessible boot device" blue screen errors on W2K. I can boot the same computer (it's dual boot) onto Windows XP and run R-tools on the boot drive for W2K. It finds "multiple unexpected MFT files". It also finds quite a few unexpected recognized partitions. Some red, some orange, some green. I'd basically like to delete them all and see if that helps. Will <right click> <delete> actually delete these particitions? Is this a good idea? Got any other ideas? Please let me know.

Thanks in advance,

Robert Wichert

Alt
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Re: Multiple unexpected MFT files

Post by Alt » Fri Jan 15, 2010 5:08 am

Most likely there were many partition previously. R-Studio found them and showed them as Recognized1, Recognized2, etc.
Their color means what R-Studio found for them.
Green: Both boot records and file entries are found for this partition
Yellow: Only file entries are found for this partition
Red: Only boot records are found for this partition
If you are going to recover files from a disk with a damaged file system, most likely the right recognized partition will be a green one. If you are going to recover files from a previously deleted or re-formatted partition, most likely the right recognized partition will be a yellow one.
Deleting recognized partitions is quite useless, as they are purely virtual objects and that won't change anything on the disk.

RobertWichert
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Jan 14, 2010 6:31 pm

Re: Multiple unexpected MFT files

Post by RobertWichert » Fri Jan 15, 2010 9:44 am

Thank you very much for your help. I understand the red/yellow/green partitions much better now. Do you have any thoughts on how to rectify the "Multiple unexpected MFT" situation?

Alt
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Re: Multiple unexpected MFT files

Post by Alt » Fri Jan 15, 2010 1:33 pm

It's hard to say anything without seeing the data.

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