Hard-drive is basically fired - how to get files out?
After 5.5 years of service and 3 HDD's my laptop just can't take it anymore and the third one crashed.
I'd be fine with that had I ever bothered to back-up my important files. However, all I back-up is my music and videos, none of my documents (I know, stupid me).
I have been trying to re-instal Windows XP (not fresh install, the one where it only re-installs Windows and keeps my files), but it keeps freezing at "Installing Start Up Items". From google I think that it is because of the disc (I don't have a proper one, I am using torrents + burning the image).
As of right now I have no idea what to do.
I can't enter safe mode because it crashes at mup.sys, re-installing windows doesn't work. Before that it would just loop trying to boot up.
Anything I can do to get some of my files off the hard-drive? Or should I take it to a computer tech, (what would they do to get back the files)?
If it hasn't repartitioned the drive (and it probably hasn't if you've been choosing the reinstall), then you can probably just connect the drive to a working computer (via a USB enclosure for example) and browse the drive and copy the files.
Hopefully the drive is only bad in a small area and the rest you can read from.
If it's worse than that (i.e. you can't read from any portion of the drive), then you might be looking at a much more complex and expensive process.
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If it hasn't repartitioned the drive (and it probably hasn't if you've been choosing the reinstall), then you can probably just connect the drive to a working computer (via a USB enclosure for example) and browse the drive and copy the files.
Hopefully the drive is only bad in a small area and the rest you can read from.
If it's worse than that (i.e. you can't read from any portion of the drive), then you might be looking at a much more complex and expensive process.
How would I do this?
It is a laptop HDD and my moms computer is a normal HDD.
Why do you think your harddrive is fried? Your computer has more likely stopped working due to windows rot (which will never happen if you properly manage your computer) and there is likely some malware and some bad sectors which can be fixed.
If the drive actually initializes, you should be fine. A harddrive is not dead and files are not usually lost until the drive refuses to initialize and you have something like the click of death, etc. from a head crash or some other mechanical failure.
You just need to take the drive out and plug it into another system or install an operating system on a USB drive or SD card and run chkdsk /r and then a proper antivirus.
Last edited by Hack&Lube; 04-02-2011 at 03:54 PM.
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If your drive crashes at mup.sys (common), your drive is not dead at all. You just have harddrive errors or a corrupt windows install. Your files should all be fine as long as you did not select the option that wipes and repartitions the drive but tried to do a repair install.
A windows install can also freeze because of bad ram but I would first run chkdsk /r
It can also be that the burnt disc is bad or your optical drive laser is dying but these are less likely.
When you put in the XP CD, can you goto recovery console instead of initiating the repair install? Goto the recovery console via booting with the XP CD and type chkdsk /r at the command prompt.
At the end of this video is when you should type chkdsk /r and hit enter.
This is a pretty easy fix and your files are more than likely perfectly fine. If your laptop is 5.5 years old, I'm guessing it's an old IDE PATA drive and you just need an old laptop drive enclosure or an adapter to hook it up to another system. You can save yourself the problem of buying an adapter by using an OS on a USB device and booting from that on your laptop though.
Run it off the CD or install it into unused partition space. Then boot up Ubuntu as your primary OS (it should install GNU Grub bootloader automatically which is a menu you can choose your OS from) and then you should be able to navigate to the old partition and it will automatically mount and you will be able to access your files and back them up to something (USB stick, external harddrive, etc.).
Last edited by Hack&Lube; 04-02-2011 at 04:16 PM.
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^ Ive got one of those adapter cables that you can borrow if you need
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I’m always amazed these sportscasters and announcers can call the game with McDavid’s **** in their mouths all the time.
Yeah, I shouldnt have said fried, it isn't. I have been running chkdsk /r for like 2 hours now and it is at 65%. I ran chkdsk /p and it found some errors so hopefully /r fixes them. I'll post my results when it finishes.
Thanks for putting your time into helping me hack&lube I appreciate it.
That's good. The full check scans every sector of your drive so it does take some time but often, that's all it takes to fix a booting into Windows problem.
BTW, just buy a new PC so you can play BF3 with 64 players.
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Yeah I'm buying a new one this summer. Just wanted to use this to finish out the semester which would take me to the end of April. Now I just wan my files back. School stuff, songs I wrote, etc.
Now that it finished I re-booted the computer and tried to get into safe mode and it says "\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM" is missing or corrupt. It never did that before.
I'll try this Ubuntu thing.
Last edited by 3 Justin 3; 04-02-2011 at 06:54 PM.
__________________ https://www.reddit.com/r/CalgaryFlames/
I’m always amazed these sportscasters and announcers can call the game with McDavid’s **** in their mouths all the time.
I got it to work!! Using Ubuntu I was able to launch it and then look into the harddrive, find the files and I am in the process of transferring everything to my external harddrive.
Thank you a million times Hack&Lube for the Ubuntu suggestion. What a life saver!
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Now that it finished I re-booted the computer and tried to get into safe mode and it says "\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM" is missing or corrupt. It never did that before.
I'll try this Ubuntu thing.
YES!!
I got it to work!! Using Ubuntu I was able to launch it and then look into the harddrive, find the files and I am in the process of transferring everything to my external harddrive.
Thank you a million times Hack&Lube for the Ubuntu suggestion. What a life saver!
This just means one of your registry hives is damaged. This was actually an easy fix from the recovery console like ricosuave's link showed.
But I am glad you got your files and you have now joined the many people who have used Linux! Ubuntu is a full operating system with all the programs you might need available, most free and open source. You could even just stick with that for awhile (except when you want to play PC games, you need Windows unfortunately).
I got it to work!! Using Ubuntu I was able to launch it and then look into the harddrive, find the files and I am in the process of transferring everything to my external harddrive.
Linux. Is there anything it can't do? Congrats on recovering your files.
For anyone else that runs into hard drive problems, if you are trying to recover files, resist the urge to repair the drive using Windows checks or various utilities. It is possible that these repair procedures could zap some or all of your important stuff. Best way is to just access the drive as it is using a Linux boot disc or when connected to another system.
I was able to fix the start up problem, but the computer still had the virus and when I tried repairing it it had to restart to update. It wouldn't restartbrcause the virus just changed all the registry again. At least I got my files, but had to reformat it.
Not used to Linux at all, way different from Windows. Much more "technical" an I can't get my music to go into amarok.
Oh well, when I get my new computer I'll get Windows 7 and Ubuntu.
If your drive crashes at mup.sys (common), your drive is not dead at all. You just have harddrive errors or a corrupt windows install. Your files should all be fine as long as you did not select the option that wipes and repartitions the drive but tried to do a repair install.
A windows install can also freeze because of bad ram but I would first run chkdsk /r
It can also be that the burnt disc is bad or your optical drive laser is dying but these are less likely.
When you put in the XP CD, can you goto recovery console instead of initiating the repair install? Goto the recovery console via booting with the XP CD and type chkdsk /r at the command prompt.
At the end of this video is when you should type chkdsk /r and hit enter.
This is a pretty easy fix and your files are more than likely perfectly fine. If your laptop is 5.5 years old, I'm guessing it's an old IDE PATA drive and you just need an old laptop drive enclosure or an adapter to hook it up to another system. You can save yourself the problem of buying an adapter by using an OS on a USB device and booting from that on your laptop though.
An external hard drive case will also work. External hard drives are usually just lap top hard drives. Just unscrew the case and insert the hard drove from the laptop.
Hard-drive is basically fired - how to get files out?
Congrats on recovering your files.
