how to recover data from laptop (does not boot) 4

[mazinger]

Hello,

My Laptop, an year old compaq is going in circles and nopt booting up. i was running XP Home and it goes upto windows loading screen, (where the bar goes from left to right) and then it reboots.

I gives an error regarding system32/config/system. i have tried the response from MS but does not work. i had it once chkdsk to the third level but then it stopped there.

it does not boot in safe mode or to dos prompt.

i would appreciate if anyone has any solutions or someway how to extract my info as i have an years worth of prsonal photos that i need to extract.

thank you.

 

[love4bina]

try to remove the hard drive from the laptop .. then you need an adapter that supports from laptop hdd to ide .conected to a computer download your data and that it

 

[crisc]

Have you tried using disk imaging software, such as Ghost? Even if large areas of your drive are corrupt, there is a change you can recover your files from the image, rather than directly from the drive.

 

[Raid5]

Use a windows PE cd and boot to it. Copy your data out over the network.

 

[MilwTD]

Here are a few thing you can try, that have worked for me

XP Boot Floppy????
Simply format a floppy on an XP system (this is a must for the floppy to work)then copy NTDETECT.COM, ntldr and boot.ini (if you have one)onto the floppy

You should try the Windows Ultimate Boot CD

http://www.windowsubcd.com/

Knoppix is a complete Linux System that run from your CD drive and memory. Which means you can boot up with it and then move files and do repairs. BTW, if your intrested in it download it soon as it may not be availble much longer. The link is:

http://www.knoppix.org/

LinuxDefender_Live!
LinuxDefender_Live! CD - it is a bootable CD that can scan, remove and repair viruses on Windows systems and you also have a wide range of tools available on the CD. The CD is based on Knoppix so it works on just about any current system. The link is:

http://www.bitdefender.com/bd/site/products.php?p_id=40

Or buy one of the pc board adapters that allow you to plug your laptop drive into a PC. I think mine cost $6.50.




--
"If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves."
Thomas Edison

 

[bithead9]

I've corrected this problem before. The reboot is due to (probably) a spy/malware/adware junk or virus. If you have a WinXP install CD just install and select the REPAIR option. Or do a complete install and skip the formatting of the hard drive. This should preserve MOST data and permit recovery.

 

[mazinger]

thank you for your post bithead, but when trying to install, it would ask for a partition to install in. should i choose the partition that already has windows installed?.

thanks again.

 

[bithead9]

YES. If it is a RESTORE disk you will loose all data
like MyDocuments, etc. If it is a WINXP install CD then you can select the REPAIR option during install.
If you wanted to save everything you could remove the HD from the unit and connect to another computer with a 2.5" to IDE ribbon cable adapter.

http://www.compgeeks.com

carries them and are very cheap. This will allow you to connetc the HD to another PC and copy anything you like before obliterating it. Good luke and let us know how it goes...

 

[mazinger]

bithead,

i already did try cpnnecting to another pc but even though it sounded as if the drive started, the pc could not see or browse the new drive. i did try to repair but it gets stuck at certain percentage so that did not work. so now as per your instruction i am going to install it on the same partition where the windows was already installed.

thanks.

 

[bithead9]

Only other thing you can try is to install on same partition and use a DIFFERENT install directoy name. This will preserve the old data and put a FRESH copy of XP on your machine. Then you cna manually access the old files. Its a bit of a pain. Not sure its worth the trouble. Really depends on how much you are trying to save and now important the data is. Good luck.

PS- When you do install in a new partuition make sure you have XP do the DELETE partition (must reply "L" to verity) and CREATE a new one. The FULL format the as NTFS. This will guarantee the drive is clean and any error clusters will be marked as BAD and not used in the future.

 

[dbData]

Sounds kinda like the drive may have a physical problem. The more you mess with it the worse it'll get. You really need to image the drive sector for sector to another one. Then use an extraction to to recover the data.

More info and help can be found at

http://www.data-recovery-hub.com.

Rick

 

[bithead9]

One final comment on this one. If you used a USB/Firewire to attach the HDD to another computer, there might be a delay in the spinup time and cause the "not recognized" condition. If you power up the external adaper FIRST and then plug the device in (like a minute later) it usually works. Of course if you directly connected INTERNALLY on the IDE ribbon cable the above info does not matter...