Retrieving data

[MattW]

Right, got a PC problem!

Need to retrieve some data from a Hard drive. The PC has XP MCE, and at best the windows installation is dead, at worst, the HD is dead. Tried to repair installation, no luck. Tried the recovery partition, can't make it work. Now the bootldr is dead - so can't even get into sage mode. Even when i could get in safe, Blue screen was never far away.

So, anyone got any good ideas?? to get the data off. Then i can try to format the HD and see what happens. Still not convinced i'll be able to get it's own recovery of MCE to work, but we'll see i guess.

[DaSloth]

You can try putting the hard drive in another PC as a "slave" hardrive and you might be able to read the files(which means the windows install if corrupt, but probably would have been fixed with a repair!). If that doesnt work, then you'll need to download software which can recover data from ntfs partitions. Normally They'll let you see if it finds anything, but you have to pay before you can recover the files, so it depends how desperate you are for the files.

A word of warning, when you put it in another machine as slave, it may say you need to format the disk, obviously don't do that, it just means part of the harddrive (the exact name escapes me) has become corrupt.

Once you've got you're data back, you may find the hdd works after a format, but i wouldn't trust it tbh, i'd start with a fresh HDD, but thats me

Sloth.

[Southwell]

You'll have to use it as a slave. Have you got another hard drive?

[markwilliamson2001]

Possibly a drive caddy, or special 4 way cable SATA/PATA/Laptop PATA with USB connector at the other end.

HTH
Mark

[telboy]

This sounds like the virus that I had the other week.
Mine did the exact same, but I managed to retreive all the important files before it did too much damage. Then I ended up using a fresh boot disk to re-install the system.

Can't you start the pc off a boot up disk?

I had a problem years ago, with a pc hard drive, I took it to a local shop and they just ued their spare HD to boot off, and got any files that I wanted off my existing HD, so it is poss.

Just make sure there no dodgy porn on there Matt.

[Southwell]

Originally Posted by telboy

Just make sure there no dodgy porn on there Matt.

Isn't that the most important thing to save on a mans pc?

[MattW]

Ha, lol, it's not technically mine! It's a guy's who i work with, so not guilty there! If it were mine i wouldn't be so worried. He's got some pics of his young son on there i think that he wants to save - one of those things you can't replace - and yes should have backed up! He didn't actually tell me that he needed to keep this, otherwise i would have done it while i could get in safe mode. It was stable ish in safe mode before i started, just in normal mode it re-booted as soon as it got started.

I did think about the slave HD idea, i have done it before. Trouble is, had a good clear out of my room just this past weekend - guess what i threw out! I'll have a good look around for another one, time consuming as i haven't got a drive i don't care about with an OS running.

Hd caddy, yeah thought about that as well, but i'm certainly not buying one to get someone else's data off!

Like i say, i think HD is probably dead tbh, it blue screened on me a couple of times while i was trying to run XP setup from CD.

[DaSloth]

Matt, if you do find a way of hooking it up, try http://www.datarecoveryntfs.com/demo-downloads.html and see if it finds anything. if it does then it be worth the money

(we use this at work and did the job!)

Ian

[SlowOne]

Tell him to commit a crime, get arrested, and tell the police that his master plan for world domination is on his disc drive as microdots in a picture of his son. Police IT Forensics will have that data recovered in five minutes flat!!

[Southwell]

Originally Posted by MattW

Ha, lol, it's not technically mine! It's a guy's who i work with, so not guilty there! If it were mine i wouldn't be so worried. He's got some pics of his young son on there i think that he wants to save - one of those things you can't replace - and yes should have backed up! He didn't actually tell me that he needed to keep this, otherwise i would have done it while i could get in safe mode. It was stable ish in safe mode before i started, just in normal mode it re-booted as soon as it got started.

I did think about the slave HD idea, i have done it before. Trouble is, had a good clear out of my room just this past weekend - guess what i threw out! I'll have a good look around for another one, time consuming as i haven't got a drive i don't care about with an OS running.

Hd caddy, yeah thought about that as well, but i'm certainly not buying one to get someone else's data off!

Like i say, i think HD is probably dead tbh, it blue screened on me a couple of times while i was trying to run XP setup from CD.

If it half boots it's not dead. If you want i can try and find an old hard drive from our server room/dumping ground that you can have at EPR? I take it, it's 3.5"?

[rowanp25]

if you can get access to a 4/8 gig flash drive, a win xp cd/dvd and an another pc get unetbootin n you can make a bootable flash drive for these situations

[MattW]

Thought i'd got it cracked! remembered last night where i'd seen a USB caddy knocking around at work, so been down and it's now sitting on my desk! So caddy apart, it's previous occupent removed, all ready for action to hook up to another machine and drag data off.

Only slight floor in the plan is that the caddy is for IDE drives, and this one in the PC is bloody SATA. Back to the drawing board!

Cheers for the offer Ian, i'll get back to you. Although i won't be personally at EPR, I could easily get it from someone that will.

[MattW]

Well, got the data off he wanted, so that's all good.

Now trying to make a usable windows installation - not happening atm.

The recovery process, with Advent recovery partition isn't happening. Errors out very early on, then Blue screen's.

Using a XP disk, formats ok (takes an age, but that's normal), but during the initial copy it errors out. Allows you to accept and ignor - does this a couple of times.

however, then goes into setup and seems ok, but then locks and blue screens.

I'm lost, can't help thinking there is something dodgy in the HD, but not really sure. Any ideas??