Hey all

[Disturbedguy]

At the gfs.

Just been told that their family PC HD has died.

Right what happen is, when the system boots up, it gets to the windows screen and then just restarts again, I was wondering if there is anyway they can get the data back from the disk?

The disk has loads of family pictures on there, which they would like to get back if possible.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Bleak]

You could always try putting the HDD in a different computer and see if it reads the drive. Or maybe find a Live Linux CD to boot the PC up and maybe the data can be read then.

If it's getting to the Windows screen and the restarting again it could be that the Windows install is corrupt rather than the HDD being dead.

[Disturbedguy]

Question, if its just that the boot sector isnt being found, is there an easy fix?

[Bleak]

I think there might be but I'm not entirely sure what it is. Could always try a repair install of Windows, which would keep all the previous data on it.

[Disturbedguy]

Apparently, when this happened on my girlfriends PC, it wouldnt let her do a repair format, it said the disk had to be formatted completely.

[Agent]

Question, if its just that the boot sector isnt being found, is there an easy fix?

Sure, you can just boot the Windows CD, go into recovery mode and run "fixmbr" (IIRC, it'll be close to that anyway and fairly obvious)

*BUT*, its highly unlikely the boot sector has just vanished. There is probably another issue somewhere else if its just a normal system.

[Disturbedguy]

ahh ok, so boot the cd the same way you would as if formatting but go into the recovery section?

Ill let the gfs dad know.

[CrazyMonkey]

ahh ok, so boot the cd the same way you would as if formatting but go into the recovery section?

Ill let the gfs dad know.

Bingo just as if you were formatting, boot the cd and go into recovery console.

I doubt the command will fix it but we can hope !

[Disturbedguy]

Cheers will try that..

[Stringent]

fixmbr is a hit and miss really. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt. Best bet to pull of their stuff is to run a Linux CD and stick the stuff onto a USB pen or something, or stick the drive in another PC.

[Disturbedguy]

Update: - Her dad managed to get the drive working again/ get the data back.

I dont know how, as i didnt see him before he went and messed about.

Thanks to all for the help.

[Agent]

fixmbr is a hit and miss really. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt. Best bet to pull of their stuff is to run a Linux CD and stick the stuff onto a USB pen or something, or stick the drive in another PC.

fixmbr only fixes the MBR, its peoples misunderstanding of what it does that makes it 'hit and miss', not the program itself.

[Disturbedguy]

Cheers he isnt 100% if what he has done is working, hes going for the stick a new HD in with windows on and hope that he can see the other disk.