Mega Urgent Help Needed

[digicol]

My mate is getting married on Sat at the SOL and all his wedding plans are on his computer. His computer has just packed in, the windows load in screen keeps getting to a certain point and rebooting to the safe mode option screen, no matter what I try it just reboots.

I have put the drive in my computer as a slave hoping to copy over the stuff he needs to my hard drive, but I can't access the drive, it shows up in my computer but when I try to use it is says "Cannot read drive, inpage error." Or something like that.

Any ideas on how I can get into the drive?

Also if I were to put the drive back in his PC and try a Windows repair would I lose any data on the drive?

This is mega urgent, he is up shit creek without his wedding stuff off this drive.

 

[stevemac40]

A windows repair or even a reinstall of windows shouldn't remove his data so long as you don't format or re-partition the drive.

 

[digicol]

Cheers mate, I am currently running chkdsk to fix any errors first. Hopefully this will work and I can save his data.

I will then have a go at booting it up again, if it does not work I will just reinstall windows as you said.

Cheers.

Hopefully the drive will ast long enough to get his important data off it.

Truth be told, I fixed this same problem a few months ago for him, I told him then that he needed a new hard drive as this one is going. But at least then I could access the drive from my own PC, this time it won't let me, ugh!!

But hopefully chkdsk will sort it.

And I will then force him to buy a new hard drive, lol. This one is over 10 years old and only 15gb, it was one of my old ones, I gave it to him just so he could use his PC, as he reckoned his own had died, but he never gave it to me to look at,he kept fobbing me off, I think he had some dodgy stuff on there, lol.

 

[Curious123]

I am sure that if you re-install Windows it will delete the 'My Documents' directory. You might want to try one of these discs where you can boot to windows with a just a CD drive.

http://www.ubcd4win.com/

 

[oneman]

Make sure he buys an external drive as well and does a weekly backup.

I would not re-install the current drive, you are just asking for problems. Once you get the data off then leave the disk alone.

 

[digicol]

I have had another thought, I may be able to access the drive via the DOS command instead of Windows.

Then I can just copy files over to my C:.

But that is only if it recognises the drive in DOS.

Yeah one of those BOOT cd's seem to be another good idea. A good member from here linked me to the Hirens boot CD ages ago but I never downloaded it, can anyone point mne to that one again? Obviously for free, lol.

Cheers.

 

[jaffa]

Hirens disc is on newsgroups if thats any use to use. Bartpe is similar and you can download what you need to make one at link below.

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

Re installing windows over the top of windows now will not affect "my documents" already there, it just creates another set of "my documents".

 

[digicol]

All sorted now guys, ChkDsk sorted it for me, I can now access it, so will just save his data to my drive.

Cheers for the quick response guys, and I must donwload one of those boot cd's you guys linked to while I remember.
:banana:

 

[jaffa]

I must donwload one of those boot cd's you guys linked to while I remember.
:banana:

If you can get Hirens because it has so much useful stuff on it...one day you may need it. Have a look at what is on it.

http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd

 

[Seedy_r0m]

Glad you got it sorted.

Another option could have been to slave the drive to another computer.

You may not have been able to boot off it, but it may have given you access to reclaim the data.

 

[digicol]

Glad you got it sorted.

Another option could have been to slave the drive to another computer.

You may not have been able to boot off it, but it may have given you access to reclaim the data.

Yeah I tried that mate, was my first port of call, I knew what was wrong with the dirive from the last time and his explanation. So I just ripped it out of his PC and put it as a slave in mine, which it found no problem, but would not access. I now know this was due to the errors on the drive, which was the fault in the first place as it would not boot on his PC, it kept rebooting half way through windows install.

The drive is old and knackered, but what does not help, he has now told me, is that the kids keep turning the thing off any which they can, be it the plug, pushing in the power button, etc, which is not good and will eventually corrupt some file somewhere, which it has now done this twice this year.

But running chkdsk in dos for the affected drive fixed all errors, so I was able to save his data on my drive just to be safe and then whip the drive back into his PC and boot it as normal. It's now up to him to get a new drive and sort his kids out, oh and enjoy his wedding at the SOL on Saturday.

And yes I checked his docs and the muppet had all his wedding plans on there (no backup at all), he is clueless with computers, when I told him he needs a new drive he replied but I never uise the fucker!!!! How can it be fucked?? I had to explain to him that a hard drive is different to a DVD drive, lmao!!!

God bless him, he is a nice lad really.