Format of NTFS HD's

[big frog]

Where can I find the format of NTFS drives by sector number, specifically the location of file directory tables?

you cannot format harddisk by sector number.

you should format whole driver or partition.

[big frog]

I don't want to format the drive - it's already formatted. I want to know what the format is. I can search the drive by sector number, but I can't possibly look at all 700million + sectors to find directories. I believe there is at least one directory entry with bad data, but I don't know where to look.

[caperjack]

I don't want to format the drive - it's already formatted. I want to know what the format is. I can search the drive by sector number, but I can't possibly look at all 700million + sectors to find directories. I believe there is at least one directory entry with bad data, but I don't know where to look.

over and over i read this and have to say i've never heard this ? before ,as to the format of NTFS ,to my knowledge its NTFS, NT file System,dose this hdd run,is it on a working computer .
chkdsk info ..
CHKDSK
chkdsk drive /p /r
The chkdsk command checks the specified drive and repairs or recovers the drive if the drive requires it.The command also marks any bad sectors and it recovers readable information.

You can use the following options:
/p : Does an exhaustive check of the drive and corrects any errors.
/r : Locates bad sectors and recovers readable information.

Note If you specify the /r option, the /p option is implied. When you specify the chkdsk command without arguments, the command checks the current drive with no options in effect.

When you run the chkdsk command, you are required to use the Autochk.exe file. CHKDSK automatically locates this file in the startup folder. If the Command Console was preinstalled, the startup folder is typically the Cmdcons folder. If CHKDSK cannot find Autochk.exe in the startup folder, CHKDSK tries to locate the Windows CD-ROM installation media. If it cannot find the installation media, CHKDSK prompts you for the location of the Autochk.exe file.

[big frog]

over and over i read this and have to say i've never heard this ? before ,as to the format of NTFS ,to my knowledge its NTFS, NT file System,dose this hdd run,is it on a working computer .

the problem now is I don't have a bootable floppy that recognizes ntfs. windows xp goes into a loop any time the drive is attached and accessed. the only way to break the loop is to turn off the computer.

uneraser so far is the only program that can access the drive without looping, but it also loops under some conditions (trying to access the 65th entry when searching by file name <*> for instance). Searching by sectore number i can get a screen dump for (i think) every sector.

[caperjack]

go here to get ntfs floppy /cdrom ,boot disk.
http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

[big frog]

some progress - created cd and booted - received error [4] trying to access drive for sector 33559872 from all utilities except ntfs reader which simply looped w/ no escape.

booted from floppy with v. 2.1.1 and used <cntl>s to search by sector number and went to that sector at which point uneraser went into usual loop.

rebooted from floppy, went to sector 33559871, no problem - <page down> to next sector, loop.

rebooted, tried sector 33559876, ok - <page up> to previous sector, loop.

loop is described in thread "hard drive loops"

where to look next?