After the mini-port drivers, class drivers and SCSI disk are initialized during Windows boot process, the system queries the BIOS for drive translation. The general value returned by most of the SCSI devices is 255 heads and 63 sectors for each track. Windows 2000 uses this value as default when the SCSI adapter BIOS is turned off. Windows NT also performs similar kind of computation while such situations, but uses smaller values. For this reason, you might encounter several issues after you upgrade your system to Windows 2000, when the drive translation feature is turned off. The partition table might get corrupt if you try to alter it anyway, for example when attempting to create or delete a disk partition. However, to restore such partitions, it is suggested to apply a valid data backup or use Partition Recovery Software to extract them.

To exemplify, consider an instance when you try to use Disk Management to delete or create a new logical drive in extended partition of your Windows 2000 based computer. The operation might fail with the below error message:

“The Server Threw an Exception”

You cannot access the logical drives of the extended partition after this error message occurs. The drives are either lost or damaged.

Cause

The error primarily occurs when you use a Windows 2000 system that has been upgraded from Windows NT 4.0. If the drive translation feature is turned off or the drive has been moved to a controller position where no drive translation is performed, the differences in ways Windows 2000 and NT handle drive translation can cause the drives to render inaccessible. This happens because Disk Management needs to perform few modifications in disk partition table.

Solution

• To prevent such situations from occurring, it is suggested that you install all the latest updates available for your operating system.

• For already lost and damaged logical drives, you should check your backup to achieve recovery. If no suitable backup is present or its proves invalid for any reason, you need to opt for a Partition Recovery utility. Partition Recovery Software come with advanced scanning algorithms, graphically rich user interface and powerful features that allow for complete recovery results.

Data Recovery Software is a professional and reliable Partition Recovery tool with advanced options and features. It is a safe utility that supports Windows 7 RC1, Vista, XP, 2003 and 2000 based systems. The tool provides you advanced features like Append Header, RAW File Recovery, Save Scan and more.

Windows Server 2003 doesn’t support all FTDisk (fault-tolerant) volumes that have ever existed in Windows NT Server 4.0 installed computer system. For this reason, when you upgrade your computer to Windows Server 2003, some of dynamic volumes might remain inaccessible. Along with other symptoms, you cannot access the data stored in these volumes. To restore them, Microsoft suggests using FTonline utility that allows you to temporarily mount the volumes and hence, backup data from. If due to any cause backup fails or you find it unfeasible using the tool, it is recommended to use Windows Partition Recovery products that allow recovering inaccessibile and lost disk partitions.

For example, consider you use a Windows NT Server 4.0 based computer system and create spanned, mirrored, striped or striped volumes with RAID 5 parity. You upgrade to Windows Server 2003, but when you try to access any of previously created volumes, you fail to do so. Additionally, when you view the Disk Management, these volumes are visible with ‘Healthy (Unknown Partition)’ status. The listing shows these volumes with no associated drive letter.

The similar behavior is observed when you move disks containing previously created NTDisk volumes on a basic disk of a Windows 2000-based computer system to a Windows Server 2003 installed computer

Cause

By design, Windows Server 2003 doesn’t support previously created Windows NT 4.0 FTDisk volumes.

Solution

Following sequence of steps can help you recovering from the existing issue:

Use FTonline utility that allows temporary data access to the inaccessibile FTDisk volumes. You can then take a full data backup of the volumes

After the backup process is done, you should delete those volumes

Convert the volumes to Dynamic disks and restore data from backup

If using FTonline is not possible or the backup comes out to be invalid when you try to restore, you need a Partition Recovery Software. Built with powerful partition recovery technology, these Windows Partition Recovery utilities prove highly-competent tools to recover and restore inaccessibile, damaged, missing or lost Windows partitions. You can use these products in any instance of Windows partition loss.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery is a professional and completely reliable partition recovery tool with advanced options and features. It is a safe Partition Recovery Software that supports Windows 7 RC1, Vista, XP, 2003 and 2000 based systems. The tool provides you features like Append Header, RAW File Recovery, Save Scan and more.