[ststeveo]

My pc last week started shutting down. i ran Malware and kapersky but found nothing. Tried trend housecall but said error in hard drive run chck disc. I ran check disc and could not get vista to boot anymore. I ran the operating system repair and can't get it to load. Safe mode loaded once and now won't load. Repair no longer finds the operating system to fix anymore. Is my only option to do a clean reload and lose everything? Was this a virus?

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I have not heard back on anything so spent this week running chckdisc and windows repair all week. It seems to have done the trick and I was able to get a boot today. i am backing up everything and created a new restorre point. I am scanning with Housecall right now. Hope everything stabilizes now.

[ststeveo]

I have not heard back on anything so spent this week running chckdisc and windows repair all week. It seems to have done the trick and I was able to get a boot today. i am backing up everything and created a new restorre point. I am scanning with Housecall right now. Hope everything stabilizes now.

[rshaffer61]

Sorry for the delay, but for future reference you may want to get a Linux Live CD to boot your system. This will allow you to gain access to your files for backup as long as the HD itself is mechanically working. I use Puppy Linux and I'm including the instructions for it below. You may want to copy the instructions also for future reference and put them with your Puppy Linux cd if you ever need it in the future.

Get Puppy Linux from my signature below...Get puppy-2.16-seamonkey-fulldrivers.iso download it and burn it to cd
..
if you don't have a burning program that will burn .ISO files get Burncdcc from my signature...it is a small FAST no frills iso burning program...

NOTE...do not put a blank cd in until burncdcc opens the tray for you
1. Start BurnCDCC
2. Browse to the ISO file you want to burn on cd/dvd ....in this case its puppy-2.16-seamonkey-fulldrivers.iso
3. Select the ISO file
4. click on Start

make sure in the bios the cd drive is the first boot device....

put the cd in the cd drive..boot your computer....puppy will boot and run totally in ram...if your hardware is is good working order you will know...
after you get it running and your at the desktop...you take the puppy linux cd out and then you can use the burner to copy all your data to cd/dvds
you can also use it to backup your data to a external usb harddrive..just have it hooked to the computer when you boot up with puppy...

==========================
quick guide for saving data...music..files on a system that will not boot using puppy Linux..


after you get to puppy desktop..
click on the drives icon...looks like a flash drive...top row..it will list all the drives connected to

your computer...

click on the red icon for the drive you want to mount...in this case its a flash drive ...puppy will

mount the drive..the drive icon turns green when its mounted...
minimize the drives mounter window..you will need it again in a few minutes..
drag the right edge of it sideways to shrink it to its narrowest size...about half the width of the screen...then drag the window to the right edge of the screen...

now click on the icon that looks like a filing cabinet (kind of yellow) on the main drive...it should
already be green..
you will see a list of all the folders on the main drive Usually your C: drive..shrink that window to
the narrowest you can..about half the width of the screen...drag that window to the left side of the screen...
at this point you should have 2 windows open on your desktop..the flash drive on the right side..
go back to the folders on the C: drive...click on the documents and settings folder...then your user
name or all users..find the folders that has your data..
drag and drop the folder with the data you want to make copies of to the flash drive window...

your options are to move ..copy ect...JUST COPY..if its to big you will have to open the folder and
drag and drop individual files until the flash drive is full...(I have a 120 GB external USB drive for
big data recovery jobs and a 4 GB flash drive for the smaller jobs)..after you get the files copied to
the flash drive...
Click on the drives mounter you minimized earlier
UNMOUNT THE FLASH DRIVE by clicking on the green icon..you will once in awhile get error messages when
unmouting the drive..ignore them..when the flash drive icon turns red again its safe to remove the
flash drive..trot on over (stroll if you want to look cool) to another computer and plug in the flash

drive and copy all the data files ( I drag and drop) to the other computer..
make sure the other computer can read them...

now delete the data on the flash drive...take it back to the misbehaving computer and plug it in

again..click on the drives icon again and repeat until you have all your data transferred to the working
system..

Thanks to happyrock

[ststeveo]

ok thanks. i will get to a pc with a driver. My pc is down again. What if the hard drive is bad? any way to sve files?

[rshaffer61]

If puppy linux can't get to it then you can try slaving it in a known working system and see if you can backup your data that way.
If the drive dies then without a professional data recovery company it is highly doubtful.
They are very expensive and can run anywhere from a couple of hundred to a thousand or better and they don't guarantee how much data that they save.

[ststeveo]

I was not able to get the drive fixed so i installed a new hard drive and slaved the old one. I don't see the files there. No pics or documents. I tried puppylinux but don't see them there either. I can access program file etc. but don't see any of my files?

[rshaffer61]

Are you sure you are looking at the right hd?
Using puppy the main drive should be labeled as HDO or HDA
The other HD should be labled something like HDB

[ststeveo]

i looked at both.

[rshaffer61]

Sounds like the data is lost then.

[ststeveo]

but i see program files and everything else there simply are no pics or docs

[rshaffer61]

Unless they somehow got hidden or moved I can't tell you how to find them besides doing a search on that drive for a name of one of the pics or docs.
If it is on the hd at all a search should find them.