Disk Corruption on Windows Cluster Disks
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Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server and Datacenter Server operating systems support relatively advanced clustering service, when compared to its earlier Windows versions supporting the same service. Using cluster service allows you to connect to multiple servers that are a part of server clusters and hence you can easily manage the data and programs operating within the particular cluster. In such clusters, the individual computers are termed as nodes. Resources of these clusters could be physical components like hard disk, network cards etc. and also the logical components like applications, databases etc. At times, you observe file system corruption on shared cluster disk, specifically when the disk contains a non-NTFS partition. This might lead you to delete such partitions and restore lost data from backup. However, the unavailability of valid data backup calls for using powerful data recovery applications.
You might receive the below error messages with your Windows 2000 (Advanced Server and Datacenter center editions) system that is configured to use Windows Cluster service:
“The file or directory X:$Mft is corrupt and unreadable. Please run the Chkdsk utility”
Alternatively, you might encounter the similar error with event ID 26:
“System Process – Lost Delayed-Write Data”
Cause
Above stated errors signify file system corruption. This occurs when the cluster disk is online on a single cluster node and at the same time, other nodes access the same disk. Shared cluster disk could get corrupted in such situations if contains a non-NTFS hard disk partition.
Solution
Consider these steps to resolve the above issue:
The latest service pack of Windows 2000 has a fix of this problem You can identify a NTFS partition by ID 0×07. You can use Diskmap tool to determine the exact IDs of your disk partitions. If it is other than ID 0×07, you should delete that partition and restore lost data from backup. However, to fix disk corruption, you should run chkdsk or reformat the disk as the last resort.
If backup seems to exist in invalid state or you don’t have any backup, use disk recovery applications to locate and restore the missing information. Such tools prove effective Data Recovery utilities to recover lost files, folders and partitions.
Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery is an advanced and the most trusted utility to recover lost data from Windows 7 RC1, Vista, XP, 2003 and 2000 based systems. This Disk Recovery application employs high end scanning algorithms and provides advanced set of recovery features. It supports FAT32, VFAT, NTFS and NTFS5 file system drives.
Jacob Luis is a student of Mass Communication doing research on NTFS data recovery. He is also a photo recovery Specialist.
