Jump to content

Welcome to Geeks to Go - Register now for FREE

Need help with your computer or device? Want to learn new tech skills? You're in the right place!
Geeks to Go is a friendly community of tech experts who can solve any problem you have. Just create a free account and post your question. Our volunteers will reply quickly and guide you through the steps. Don't let tech troubles stop you. Join Geeks to Go now and get the support you need!

How it Works Create Account
Photo

Startup Repair Offline / Lost data

Started by k7188 , Jul 13 2015 02:09 PM
system restore lost data startup repair offline

  • Please log in to reply

#1
k7188
Posted 13 July 2015 - 02:09 PM

k7188

    New Member

  • Member
  • Pip
  • 1 posts
Hi guys, new to the forums and in need of some help.
 
I was called in to look at my parents PC despite being no expert myself. Windows was unable to boot and was giving a message along the lines of it was unable to access the device?!. The given options were to try booting Windows 7 again (which brought me back to the same point) or to go to System Restore. Having already been unable to use a system repair disk after receiving the message 'startuprepairoffline', I tried System Restore.
 
Mistakenly I thought it would give me the option to set the system back to a previous date but it was actually going to reinstall the OS. I only realised this after I had started the restore so I turned the system off by holding the power button as I didn't want my files to be lost. I thought my next best bet would be to connect the PC hard drive to my laptop, copying across the files and resuming the System Restore for a fresh install. 
 
When I took out the hard drive and connected it to my laptop I couldn't find any of the files. In fact, 142GB of the 143GB drive appeared to be free! So I'm wondering what has happened to the data as all folders on the drive are empty. Could the system restore process have deleted the files (or file table) in the short time it was running? And is there a way to recover them?
 
Thanks in advance (and apologies for the long post)

  • 0

Advertisements

#2
Ztruker
Posted 13 July 2015 - 03:35 PM

Ztruker

    Member 5k

  • Technician
  • 7,091 posts

Sounds like a corrupted file system, run chkdsk /r against the drive.

 

 

For instance, is the drive is showing up as E: then  chkdsk e: /r

 

Wait for it to complete/ Can take an hour or more depending on the size of the drive.


  • 0

#3
AlicePhoebe
Posted 14 July 2015 - 01:37 AM

AlicePhoebe

    Member

  • Member
  • PipPip
  • 43 posts

Stopped using this drive the moment you discovered the loss. try this

http://ccm.net/faq/5...-system-restore

Or Try the third-party tool EaseUS

http://www.easeus.co...tem-restore.htm


  • 0
Back to Windows Vista and Windows 7 · Next Unread Topic →




Similar Topics


Also tagged with one or more of these keywords: system restore, lost data, startup repair offline

0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users

  1. Geeks to Go Community
  2. → Retired Forums
  3. → Windows Vista and Windows 7

As Featured On:

Microsoft Yahoo BBC MSN PC Magazine Washington Post HP