[GeeMale]

First of all apologies for starting a new thread where there appears to be other posts of a similar nature but I have read through them and don't see the answers to my specific problems which are.

Have for several years been running windows xp pro service pack 3 on a PC with a 250GB Maxtor HD. One of the applications I used as a utility was IoBit's Advanced System Care ver 3. A couple of days ago I upgraded to version5 and ran the scans asking it to correct errors found etc. Next morning when I turned the PC on it ran through the first bit of the boot process identifying IDE channels the HD itself etc and then did the PCI listing. Following the boot device setup it tried the floppy then the CD and finally the HD then up came the above error message ie " error loading operating system" and I can get no further - I can get into the BIOS.

I have two concerns in order of priority which are:

1. Whatever I do I don't want to lose the info/data I have on the HD. I do have much of it backed up onto a LaCie HD but haven't done a backup for months ( I know,I know how often have you heard that!)

2. I would like to get the system back up and running ASAP because I need to get some pictures of the HD which my daughter is waiting on to complete a book project ( hair - mine - falling out at a great rate of knots right now)

How should I tackle things to secure the data before starting to try and recover and if I manage that first priority how best to go about the recovery process.

I have the original Windows XP disks (pre service pack 3 ). Someone suggested connecting the HD to another PC as a "slave" but I don't know how to do that eg does it mean physically disconnecting it from existing PC ?

Finally is it more likely that the problem stems from for example registry changes made by the utility than a physical HD problem.

All advice appreciated , I can give more PC spec if required - my level of knowledge is pretty basic but I am good at following instructions so going into BIOS and making changes if necessary is something I can handle but I have no experience at all about partitions and setting up/altering HD s

I feel such a prat not having done recent backups - hopefully others will read and learn

GeeMale

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One of the applications I used as a utility was IoBit's Advanced System Care ver 3.

Personally I don't like this program because if you are not careful this exact issue can happen letting it take care of supposed errors especially in the registry.
That being said lets move on.

1. Whatever I do I don't want to lose the info/data I have on the HD. I do have much of it backed up onto a LaCie HD but haven't done a backup for months ( I know,I know how often have you heard that!)

Let's secure your data before we go any further.




Use Puppy Linux Live CD to Recover Your Data:

===================
***Required Hardware***
CD Burner (CDRW) Drive,
Blank CD,
Extra Storage Device (USB Flash Drive, External Hard Drive)
===================

1. Save these files to your Desktop/Burn Your Live CD:

• Download Latest Puppy Linux ISO (i.e.: lupu-520.iso)
  Download BurnCDCC ISO Burning Software
  
  
• Open BurnCDCC with Windows Explorer
• Extract All files to a location you can remember
• Double Click BurnCDCC
• Click Browse and navigate to the Puppy Linux ISO file you just downloaded
• Open/Double Click that file
  IMPORTANT: Adjust the speed bar to CD: 4x DVD: 1x
• Click Start
• Your CD Burner Tray will open automatically
• Insert a blank CD and close the tray
• Click OK

Puppy Linux Live CD will now be created
2. Set your boot priority in the BIOS to CD-ROM first, Hard Drive Second

• Start the computer/press the power button
• Immediately start tapping the appropriate key to enter the BIOS, aka "Setup"
  (Usually shown during the "Dell" screen, or "Gateway" Screen)
• Once in the BIOS, under Advanced BIOS Options change boot priority to:
  CD-ROM 1st, Hard Drive 2nd
• Open your ROM drive and insert the disk
• Press F10 to save and exit
• Agree with "Y" to continue
• Your computer will restart and boot from the Puppy Linux Live CD
  
  

3. Recover Your Data

• Once Puppy Linux has loaded, it is actually running in your computer's Memory (RAM). You will see a fully functioning Graphical User Interface similar to what you normally call "your computer". Internet access may or may not be available depending on your machine, so it is recommended you print these instructions before beginning. Also, double clicking is not needed in Puppy. To expand, or open folders/icons, just click once. Puppy is very light on resources, so you will quickly notice it is much speedier than you are used to. This is normal. Ready? Let's get started.
  
  3a. Mount Drives
• Click the Mount Icon located at the top left of your desktop.
• A Window will open. By default, the "drive" tab will be forward/highlighted. Click on Mount for your hard drive.
• Assuming you only have one hard drive and/or partition, there may be only one selection to mount.
• USB Flash Drives usually automatically mount upon boot, but click the "usbdrv" tab and make sure it is mounted.
• If using an external hard drive for the data recovery, do this under the "drive" tab. Mount it now.

3b. Transfer Files.

• At the bottom left of your desktop a list of all hard drives/partitions, USB Drives, and Optical Drives are listed with a familiar looking hard drive icon.
• Open your old hard drive i.e. sda1
• Next, open your USB Flash Drive or External Drive. i.e. sdc or sdb1
• If you open the wrong drive, simply X out at the top right corner of the window that opens. (Just like in Windows)
• From your old hard drive, drag and drop whatever files/folders you wish to transfer to your USB Drive's Window.

For The Novice: The common path to your pictures, music, video, and documents folders is: Documents and Settings >> All Users (or each idividual name of each user. CHECK All Names!) >> Documents >> You will now see My Music, My Pictures, and My Videos.

Remember to only click once! No double clicking! Once you drag and drop your first folder, you will notice a small menu will appear giving you the option to move or copy. Choose COPY each time you drag and drop.

YOU ARE DONE!!! Simply click Menu >> Mouse Over Shutdown >> Reboot/Turn Off Computer. Be sure to plug your USB Drive into another working windows machine to verify all data is there and transferred without corruption. Congratulations!





If you're doing this to recovery from a virus or malware infection, (or even if you're not), DO NOT copy executable files (.exe, .scr. etc...) if any of these files are infected you could be copying the corruption over to any new device/computer. just copy documents, pictures, music, or videos.

[rshaffer61]

One of the applications I used as a utility was IoBit's Advanced System Care ver 3.

Personally I don't like this program because if you are not careful this exact issue can happen letting it take care of supposed errors especially in the registry.
That being said lets move on.

1. Whatever I do I don't want to lose the info/data I have on the HD. I do have much of it backed up onto a LaCie HD but haven't done a backup for months ( I know,I know how often have you heard that!)

Let's secure your data before we go any further.




Use Puppy Linux Live CD to Recover Your Data:

===================
***Required Hardware***
CD Burner (CDRW) Drive,
Blank CD,
Extra Storage Device (USB Flash Drive, External Hard Drive)
===================

1. Save these files to your Desktop/Burn Your Live CD:

• Download Latest Puppy Linux ISO (i.e.: lupu-520.iso)
  Download BurnCDCC ISO Burning Software
  
  
• Open BurnCDCC with Windows Explorer
• Extract All files to a location you can remember
• Double Click BurnCDCC
• Click Browse and navigate to the Puppy Linux ISO file you just downloaded
• Open/Double Click that file
  IMPORTANT: Adjust the speed bar to CD: 4x DVD: 1x
• Click Start
• Your CD Burner Tray will open automatically
• Insert a blank CD and close the tray
• Click OK

Puppy Linux Live CD will now be created
2. Set your boot priority in the BIOS to CD-ROM first, Hard Drive Second

• Start the computer/press the power button
• Immediately start tapping the appropriate key to enter the BIOS, aka "Setup"
  (Usually shown during the "Dell" screen, or "Gateway" Screen)
• Once in the BIOS, under Advanced BIOS Options change boot priority to:
  CD-ROM 1st, Hard Drive 2nd
• Open your ROM drive and insert the disk
• Press F10 to save and exit
• Agree with "Y" to continue
• Your computer will restart and boot from the Puppy Linux Live CD
  
  

3. Recover Your Data

• Once Puppy Linux has loaded, it is actually running in your computer's Memory (RAM). You will see a fully functioning Graphical User Interface similar to what you normally call "your computer". Internet access may or may not be available depending on your machine, so it is recommended you print these instructions before beginning. Also, double clicking is not needed in Puppy. To expand, or open folders/icons, just click once. Puppy is very light on resources, so you will quickly notice it is much speedier than you are used to. This is normal. Ready? Let's get started.
  
  3a. Mount Drives
• Click the Mount Icon located at the top left of your desktop.
• A Window will open. By default, the "drive" tab will be forward/highlighted. Click on Mount for your hard drive.
• Assuming you only have one hard drive and/or partition, there may be only one selection to mount.
• USB Flash Drives usually automatically mount upon boot, but click the "usbdrv" tab and make sure it is mounted.
• If using an external hard drive for the data recovery, do this under the "drive" tab. Mount it now.

3b. Transfer Files.

• At the bottom left of your desktop a list of all hard drives/partitions, USB Drives, and Optical Drives are listed with a familiar looking hard drive icon.
• Open your old hard drive i.e. sda1
• Next, open your USB Flash Drive or External Drive. i.e. sdc or sdb1
• If you open the wrong drive, simply X out at the top right corner of the window that opens. (Just like in Windows)
• From your old hard drive, drag and drop whatever files/folders you wish to transfer to your USB Drive's Window.

For The Novice: The common path to your pictures, music, video, and documents folders is: Documents and Settings >> All Users (or each idividual name of each user. CHECK All Names!) >> Documents >> You will now see My Music, My Pictures, and My Videos.

Remember to only click once! No double clicking! Once you drag and drop your first folder, you will notice a small menu will appear giving you the option to move or copy. Choose COPY each time you drag and drop.

YOU ARE DONE!!! Simply click Menu >> Mouse Over Shutdown >> Reboot/Turn Off Computer. Be sure to plug your USB Drive into another working windows machine to verify all data is there and transferred without corruption. Congratulations!





If you're doing this to recovery from a virus or malware infection, (or even if you're not), DO NOT copy executable files (.exe, .scr. etc...) if any of these files are infected you could be copying the corruption over to any new device/computer. just copy documents, pictures, music, or videos.

[GeeMale]

Thanks for that very thorough and prompt response.

I followed everything and had no problem until I tried to mount the drives.

I attached a portable HD to a USB connection to use that for the data recovery and clicked the Mount icon. A screen opened up with two tabs ie Floppy and Optical under Floppy the 1m disk drive was found and under Optical one of the two CD\DVD DRIVES. I switched to "MUT" for the deeper probe and that found the other cd\dvd drive as well but neither found either the portable HD on the USB port or the Maxtor HD which stores all the data. No matter whether MUT or Probe is used two icons only appear at the bottom neither of which are the internal or external HDs.

I haven't mounted the 3 drives found as I will wait for further instruction from you.

Many thanks for your excellent guidance so far.

[rshaffer61]

Did you have the USB drive connected when you started puppy? If not make sure it is connected before restarting puppy or it will not identify it correctly.

[GeeMale]

I did have the USB external drive connected before I started Puppy but I will go through the process again - the drive tabs you refer to do not show

[rshaffer61]

Try this picture:

[attachment=57317:PuppyLinux528screenshot.png]

[GeeMale]

Re the USB linked external drive. It was straight out the box this afternoon and had not been on the PC before .May be a stupid question but could it be that there are no drivers on the PC for it yet as it has never been mounted before ?

Re booted the PC and ran through all the processes but still no sign of USB or internal HDs

[GeeMale]

Re the picture. The one I get is similar but without the USB stick or HD icons at bottom left

[GeeMale]

Not sure if you are still around to help me but as I heard no more yesterday I had a look for help elsewhere in the hope I could take things on a stage. Someone else suggested going to the console icon and typing fdisk -l to see if that found the HD and it did .

I have set out below what it came up with in the hope that someone on here can help me take this to the next step and tell me if the fact that this info has been found means the disk is still operable and should be able to be mounted somehow.

Device boots Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 15257 122551821 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 15258 30515 122559885 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 a5258 30515 122559853 7 HPFS/NTFS

It also correctly identified the Drive as being 250Gb

Appreciate any additional help.

PS I tried Mount and a search after this but still no HD icon has turned up.

[GeeMale]

Sorry for fat finger typo the entry on the last line of the HD data should of course read "15258" and not "a5258"

[rshaffer61]

Is the hd in question still in the system or have you put it in a external enclosure?
Sorry I'm a little confused as to what you are missing now.
On the puppy desktop you should have a hard drive icon that represents sda1
That should be your main drive..

[GeeMale]

The HD is still in the original PC and while the command fdisk -l seemed to find the disk and provide the information I listed above there is no icon showing at all on the Puppy desktop and when I hit the Mount icon and ask it to search it still only comes up with the floppy and the two optical drives. Neither the PCs HD or the external HD I have attached via a USB port in the hope of copying data on the internal HD when found are showing as icons.

[rshaffer61]

This is not a good sign then.
It is looking like though the hd is identified it is not accessible.
Even using the XP installation disk it cannot find the hard drive correct?

[GeeMale]

I have not tried the Windows Xp installation disk because I did not want to do anything which would jeopardize the data on the HD ie put it at risk of loss and I didn't know where to start hence my original question on here. I do however have the Original disk and if you think that is the next step please point me to the procedure I should use and I will follow it through.

Can you tell me this. If the fdisk command found the disk and identified the cylinders, sectors etc how can it do that if the HD isn't working does it read that from somewhere else ?

[rshaffer61]

Can you tell me this. If the fdisk command found the disk and identified the cylinders, sectors etc how can it do that if the HD isn't working does it read that from somewhere else ?

Identifying the hd is one thing but the hd being mechanically useable is another problem.
Lets try a repair installation because that will keep your data and programs safe.






Repair Installation Instructions

· Insert your Windows XP CD in your CD-ROM and then Restart your computer.

· At the first post screen start tapping the Del key to enter System Bios
· Find the Advance Options or Boot Sequence screen.
· You will need to change the boot sequence so that the CDrom is first and the HD is second.
· Press F10 to Save and Exit and then press Enter to accept.
· The system will now reboot
· When the "Press any key to boot from CD" message is displayed on your screen, press a key to start your computer from the Windows XP CD.
· When you see the following message displayed on the Welcome to Setup screen, press ENTER
· To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.
· At this point an option to press R to enter the Recovery Console is displayed. DO NOT SELECT THIS OPTION.

· On the Windows XP Licensing Agreement screen, press F8 to agree to the license agreement.
· Make sure that your current installation of Windows XP is selected and highlighted in the box, and then press the R key to repair Windows XP.
· Follow the instructions on the screen to complete Setup.

You can also go HERE
to read a step by step tutorial with screenshots.