Data Recovery

Quote from FredBloggs:

cheers nononsense.

the c: i can get is after loading up the dell utilities disk. god knows what i am seeing!!

i can do a dir comand and see a few files only.

i have tried to reinstall xp and use the recovery option but it askes for the admin password. any idea what this may be or should i call dell? i tried my computer password but no joy.

may burn myself that cd.....

thanx.
More...

Just an aside, but from my experience there is typically no admin password set on that recovery process and you just press Enter without any password set to proceed. Typically this recovery console process is a last ditch effort to repair odd system files and doesn't always work that well.

Keep in mind that in the root of your C:> you may not really see a whole lot. Also keep in mind that long folder names that Windows can read may need to be entered in their "short form" for DOS to be able to navigate to them. I've attached a screenshot which kind of shows what I mean. Typically when trying to use CD command to navigate to a long folder, you can type in the first 6 letters of the folder, followed by the tilde ~1 keys and Enter to browse to it.

My example basically shows in DOS how to navigate to the Program Files folder and the Documents and Settings folder using progra~1 and docume~1 respectively. These are going to be your primary starting points for locating your files.
 

Attachments

if the HD crash, the re-install process might overwrite the data you want to recover, the safest way is get your hand on a second machine and have it look into the damage drive.
 
Quote from nkhoi:

if the HD crash, the re-install process might overwrite the data you want to recover, the safest way is get your hand on a second machine and have it look into the damage drive.
More...
You are the 3rd person to suggest this in this thread and I never understood why he resisted this easy solution - I also pointed out that writing to a damaged drive (such as doing an OS reinstall) is not a good idea if you care about the missing files.

I don't want to be harsh but I don't think that Fred is savvy enough to be taking this task on. Perhaps he should contact a friend who is a little more knowledgable about PC's.

Installing the hard drive as a secondary drive in an existing working PC is the first step. If the files are not visible on the damaged drive at that point then you are going to need recovery software to work on it.

If you tried doing an OS reinstall on the damaged drive you may have already reduced or ruined your chances of recovering files. Good luck.
 
Quote from nononsense:

Fred,

There is no way NT(XP) can start without these few files that I indicated above. They are either gone, or you are looking at another partition altogether. Remember, DOS will call anytrhing C: but this may not necessarily correspond to the letter in XP.
The knoppix linux cd should show you all partitions (left?) on your HD. If knoppix sees these XP partitions, it should be able to access these without any passwords.
More...

could explain why xp wont load!!

all dell told me was my hrd drive is fubar. maybe that is why i cant see the files??

dell told me to take the old hd out and put it into my new pc as a secondary drive. that sounds quick and simple so i will do this first before doing knoppix.

ive been told reinstalling xp wont do a damn thing - only recovers lost xp files.

thanks again
 
Quote from morph:

Just an aside, but from my experience there is typically no admin password set on that recovery process and you just press Enter without any password set to proceed. Typically this recovery console process is a last ditch effort to repair odd system files and doesn't always work that well.

Keep in mind that in the root of your C:> you may not really see a whole lot. Also keep in mind that long folder names that Windows can read may need to be entered in their "short form" for DOS to be able to navigate to them. I've attached a screenshot which kind of shows what I mean. Typically when trying to use CD command to navigate to a long folder, you can type in the first 6 letters of the folder, followed by the tilde ~1 keys and Enter to browse to it.

My example basically shows in DOS how to navigate to the Program Files folder and the Documents and Settings folder using progra~1 and docume~1 respectively. These are going to be your primary starting points for locating your files.
More...

cheers morp - thats a big help. i'll try that before ripping out the hard drive (becoming quite a todo list!!)

i did try hitting return on the admin password promt (as dell also suggested) but no joy.
 
Quote from winter:

You are the 3rd person to suggest this in this thread and I never understood why he resisted this easy solution - I also pointed out that writing to a damaged drive (such as doing an OS reinstall) is not a good idea if you care about the missing files.

I don't want to be harsh but I don't think that Fred is savvy enough to be taking this task on. Perhaps he should contact a friend who is a little more knowledgable about PC's.

Installing the hard drive as a secondary drive in an existing working PC is the first step. If the files are not visible on the damaged drive at that point then you are going to need recovery software to work on it.

If you tried doing an OS reinstall on the damaged drive you may have already reduced or ruined your chances of recovering files. Good luck.
More...

lol - no worries!!

i just didnt want to start ripping my new pc apart and putting stuff in - youre right - im no pc technician!!

thats why im so grateful to you guys.

im going to try the other stuff mentioned by morph, if that dont work put the old drive in. if that dont work then its linux & the cd time (nononsense)!!
 
Hello,

It might happen so that some vital system file is gone. In this situation I suppose you using data recvery tool to restore it. An Uneraser can be launched from a bootable CD Boot Disk, a powerful DOS data recovery utility. The disk itself also posses some other useful tools for data backup and erase.
http://www.ntfs.com/boot-disk.htm
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top