Recovery from a Fujitsu Lifebook

Case Study: Recovery from a Fujitsu Lifebook A Series Following a Failed Firmware Update and Bootloader Corruption

Client Profile: User of a Fujitsu Siemens Lifebook A Series laptop.
Presenting Issue: Complete boot failure with “OS not found” error following a motherboard-related software/firmware update. The system passes POST and BIOS initialization but fails to locate a bootable operating system.

The Fault Analysis

The client’s actions and the resulting symptom profile point to a critical corruption of the system’s boot sequence. The “OS not found” error after a successful POST indicates that the system firmware (BIOS/UEFI) cannot find a valid bootloader on the designated boot device.

The most probable cause is that the downloaded “motherboard software” was a BIOS/UEFI firmware update or an SATA controller driver/ROM update. An incomplete, incorrect, or corrupted flash of this firmware can have two direct consequences:

  1. Boot Order Corruption: The firmware’s non-volatile RAM (NVRAM), which stores the boot priority list, may have been reset or corrupted. The system is now looking for an OS on an empty DVD drive or a non-bootable USB port instead of the internal HDD.

  2. Storage Controller Configuration Change: The update may have altered the SATA controller’s operational mode (e.g., switching from AHCI to RAID or Compatibility/IDE mode). The existing Windows installation, configured with AHCI drivers, becomes unbootable as it cannot communicate with the storage controller under the new mode.

  3. Master Boot Record (MBR) Damage: The update process itself may have inadvertently overwritten the first sector of the hard drive, which contains the Master Boot Record—the small piece of code that the BIOS executes to start the Windows boot process.

The Professional Data Recovery Laboratory Process

The lab’s approach is to bypass the laptop’s potentially corrupted firmware entirely and communicate directly with the hard drive.

Phase 1: Physical Drive Extraction and Stabilised Imaging

  1. Drive Removal and Isolation: The internal HDD is removed from the Fujitsu Lifebook. This is the first critical step to isolate the patient (the drive) from the unstable host (the laptop with corrupted firmware).

  2. Hardware-Based Interface: The drive is connected directly to our PC-3000 system or DeepSpar Disk Imager via a native SATA port, powered by our lab-grade stable power supply. This setup allows us to issue low-level ATA commands to the drive, completely independent of the laptop’s motherboard and BIOS settings.

  3. Sector-Level Forensic Imaging: We perform a full, sector-by-sector clone of the source drive onto a sterile destination drive in our secure array. This process creates a perfect binary replica, capturing every byte of data, including the potentially damaged boot sectors. The original drive is then preserved as evidence.

Phase 2: Boot Sector and Partition Table Analysis

With a secure image, we perform a deep analysis of the drive’s logical structures.

  • Sector 0 Interrogation (MBR Analysis): We examine the very first sector (LBA 0) of the disk image. A valid MBR contains a Boot Strap Code area, a Disk Signature, and the Partition Table. We check for invalid signatures, a nulled-out partition table, or corrupted bootstrap code, any of which would cause the “OS not found” error.

  • Partition Boot Record (PBR) Inspection: If the MBR is valid and points to an active partition, we navigate to the start of that partition to examine its PBR. For an NTFS volume, we look for the signature EB 52 90 4E 54 46 53 (which spells out “NTFS”). Corruption here would also prevent booting.

  • GUID Partition Table (GPT) Check: If the drive is more modern and uses a GPT, we would check the Protective MBR in sector 0 and the primary GPT Header in sector 1 for integrity.

Phase 3: File System Reconstruction and Data Extraction

Even if the boot sectors are damaged, the user’s file system and data are almost always fully intact.

  1. MFT Carving and Volume Mounting: We perform a raw scan of the disk image to locate the $MFT (Master File Table). Using the $MFT, our software can reconstruct the entire NTFS volume’s directory tree and file metadata, bypassing the need for a functional boot sector or partition table.

  2. Virtual Drive Assembly: The recovered file system structure is mounted as a virtual drive in our secure environment. The client’s data (typically located in C:\Users\[Username] or C:\Documents and Settings\[Username] for older systems) becomes fully accessible.

  3. Data Extraction and Verification: The required data is extracted. We perform checksum verification on the recovered files against their $MFT records to guarantee a bit-for-bit accurate recovery. All data is transferred to a new, stable storage device for the client.

Conclusion

The client’s data loss was caused by a low-level logical corruption, most likely a damaged Master Boot Record or a compromised partition table, triggered by an aborted or incompatible motherboard firmware update. The laptop’s BIOS, while functional, could no longer locate a valid operating system because the “map” on the hard drive’s first sectors was destroyed. A professional lab succeeds by physically removing the drive from the faulty environment and using forensic tools to directly access and reconstruct the file system from its core metadata ($MFT), rendering the boot failure irrelevant for data recovery purposes.

The recovery was executed with 100% success. All of the client’s critical data was recovered with its original folder structure and file integrity fully intact.

Bracknell Data Recovery – 25 Years of Technical Excellence
When a firmware update or bootloader corruption renders your system unbootable, trust the UK’s No.1 HDD and SSD recovery specialists. We bypass the failed boot environment entirely, using direct sector-level access and file system forensics to recover your data, regardless of the state of the host computer’s BIOS or OS.