Zar doesn't appear when loading, tried compatibility modes

[WiseOldTroll]

I have the same problem that "Timereaver" had, but setting Zar to run in compatibilty mode (tried all available modes) does not work. I also see two entries in Task Manager, but the program's main window never appears. The initial "Zar 8.2" splash windows appears, but not the "virus warning" or program's main window (as seen on my laptop, when I launch the program) The PC that I'm trying to use Zar on has several (21) hard drives of both IDE and SCSI flavors, and I'm hoping to recover from XP's Disk Management LDM "meltdown" that broke two spanned volumes (one 7 disk, one 2 disk) by locating/recovering backup/rewriting the LDM's on the affected volumes.

[Alexey V. Gubin]

1. I assume the operating system is XP, correct?

2. Does it create the log file? The startup seqence is recorded into the log,
c:\program files\zar\logfile.txt - could you please copy its contents here?

3. Could you please try loading in Safe Mode to see if it loads or not (press F8 when booting, select Safe Mode).

[WiseOldTroll]

Hello Alexey,

Thank you for your time and response!

I sent you a more detailed (private) message earlier today that contained info on my particular setup (Drives, controllers, OS, etc).

The OS is indeed Windows XP. The logfile.txt file appears to be the same one that came with the installed program as it is dated April 22, 2007 and is only 5K in size (unless this is as it should be)

I was able to launch the program fully in Safe Mode. I'm now slightly confused about which method and/or tutorial I should follow to attempt recovery. I tried following the "Recovering a NTFS backup boot sector but I feel that I may be using the wrong method, so I backed out.

I have two spanned volumes that (I believe) have suffered from LDM corruption. This all started when I was attempting to add in 4 additional SCSI drives and Disk Manager "burped" leaving me with 3 inaccessible volumes. One volume is a spanned volume of 900 gigabyes on 7 disks (IDE) with 4 drives on a Raid controller, 2 drives connected to Onboard ATA100 controller, and 1 drive connected to a SATA controller. The next volume is 2 drives connected to the onboard ATA100 controller for a total of 450 gigabytes. The last is a simple volume (lowest priority).

I decided to start with the 2 disk/450GB volume reasoning that it would be easier dealing with only 2 disks at first. In following the tutorial, I found the boot sector to be okay on one volume, but Raw/Invalid on the other. Should I expect to find valid entries on both disks of the 2 disk/450GB volume and all 7 disks of the 900GB volume or only on the last disk/volume on each set?

Is there a tutorial and/or help section that I can follow for this? Also, is there a way in Zar to determine the original order of disks in a spanned volume/set?

Thank you,
Edward

[Alexey V. Gubin]

Your setup is quite complex, I'd say. With 9 to 13 drives some screenshots would be of help, could you please provide:

1. Screenshot of the Disk Manager as it is now.
2. Screenshot of ZAR with a physical drive list. Pick "Recover a simple volume" mode, press "Next" and it will prompt you for a physical disk. Take a screenshot listing the disks.
3. Screenshot of ZAR with a volume list. From the above (physical disk list), pick an arbitrary physical disk, click "Next". This will bring up a volume list. LDM database is parsed for all disks no matter what physical disk you select, so all the LDM-based volumes available should be listed. Take a screenshot of this list as well.

Without this info I do not think my understanding of what the original setup was, what is damaged and to what extent is sufficient.

The original "does not start" issue is most likely associated with some antivirus or firewall product. We have issues with "Black ICE Defender" firewall in the past, and also have a report of incompatibility with a System Mechanic (which we cannot reproduce). If there is a firewall problem, disabling ZAR autoupdate will most likely get rid of it.

1. Click "Advanced Configuration" on the first screen (while in Safe Mode),
2. clear "Check for an updated version on startup"
3. click "OK" to close configuration.

I expect it will start normally then.