Norton Disk Doctor Error on Hard Disk 2: Master Partition Table Is Unreadable
The last thing you want to see when you're running computer diagnostic and repair software is an ominous-sounding error message about the health of your hard drive. Symantec's Norton Disk Doctor (NDD) can report "Error on hard disk 2" (or another numeric value) under several circumstances, depending on your computer configuration.
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Internal Zip Drive
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Iomega Zip drives were storage devices that used removable cartridges capable of holding 100MB or more of data. If you're still using an older computer that includes one of these drives, you may see this NDD error message if your Zip drive wasn't installed correctly in your computer's BIOS.
Hidden Recovery Partition
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Some modern PCs include a recovery partition, a hidden area on the internal hard drive on which the manufacturer has placed the data you need to restore your operating system to its default configuration. Some versions of NDD incorrectly report the master partition table error message when they try to scan this hidden partition.
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Hard Drive Malfunction
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It's possible you've received this error message because your hard drive actually has problems. If you suspect you have hardware problems, make sure you back up your data before you attempt NDD repairs. However, if allowing NDD to perform the repair procedure it recommends when it displays this error message doesn't solve the problem, contact your computer manufacturer for warranty service if you qualify for it or seek advice from an independent technician you trust.
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References
- Symantec: Error: "Error on hard disk 2: Master Partition Table is unreadable..." when running Norton Disk Doctor with internal Zip drive
- Goodells.com; "Inside the Dell PC Restore Partition"; Dan Goodell, Mar. 2009
- Norton Disk Doctor Won't Fix Errors
- Nortron Systemworks 2009 - Disk Doctor - Error on Hard Disk 3 - Master Partition Table is Unreadable
- Recovery Software Review: Fix Partition Table Errors
Resources
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