[J_A]

hey guys

I'm new here, I have this problem and hoped you could help.

I've tried not to be one of the naive ppl not backin up their files, but as it turned out, I haven't backupped in 4 months so now I have a big problem, because my laptop won't start and I'm afraid the only way to get it to work is to punch in the recovery cd. so I'm gonna hope you guys can help.

I was running a zonalarm scan and when I came back I had a black screen with an error message that something with the ethernet was wrong and to check the cable. when I restarted, it said invalid boot.ini file and now the comp is caught in an everlasting loop. it gets to the very first screen (the one where you can press F2 or F12) and then gets to the error message with the boot.ini file. and that's it. then it starts over.

I really hope one of you ppl out there can help. I really need my data back, obviously.

from what I've heard it's possible to use the laptop as an external harddisk and secure the files somewhere else. can someone give me guidance as to how that would work?

any other ideas will be much appreciated

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Check out this MS article.

[darth_ash]

Check out this MS article.

[J_A]

hey thanks for that.
I do get the invalid boot.ini file msg, but not the rest.
I will try and check if this might work, though. hopefully it will

[J_A]

looks like there's nothing to be done, the comp doesn't recognise the hard disk drive. tried recovery software but it didn't work. the only thing is to build it out and see if data can be pulled off, right? any other suggestions?

[makai]

Hold on there! Try not to rush as there might be something you can do. Please read my signature and list your system specs.

makai

Edited by makai, 19 July 2005 - 11:21 AM.

[makai]

This was taken of Google groups...'

Boot with the WinXP CD, load the Recovery
Console. From the prompt, run:

attrib -h -s -r C:\boot.init
del C:\boot.ini
bootcfg /rebuild


It fixed someone else's boot problems and would be worth a try. You have nothing to lose!

There is also another option to try to save your data, but try the above first.

makai

[darth_ash]

Thats what the MS article in Post#2 says.

[J_A]

yeah I read that, but when I tried the XP cd I couldn't find the repair option. where is it? it looks like it wants to format automatically. all I have is the XP recovery cd.

[J_A]

it's a fujitsu siemens laptop, XP home, bought 13 months ago, store bought, I have it locked in someone else's office for tonight though I can look up the specs tomorrow. should be an intel pentium III if I'm not mistaken, hdd is about 40GB. but since I'm definitely not a techie, you might have to tell me more specifically where to find the very crucial information you really need to know.

today, when I used recovery software, the drive couldn't be recognized, it showed the external drive I plugged in via firewire and tried to select source drive and target drive but it always only showed one drive. so since the warranty has expired my IT ppl built out the hdd and hooked it up to another comp, looks like it can't be recovered.

[makai]

Sorry, I must have missed it in the article.

makai

[makai]

Wait a minute... the article doesn't change the attributes of the original boot.init file. This needs to be changed so it can be deleted/overwitten.

makai

[makai]

I'm getting confused here as you're jumping ahead very quickly working with IT and with Geeks to Go.

Your data can be recovered as long as the drive can spin up. There is a program called Bartpe that boots from a cd you burn and allows access to data on your drive. Tell your IT people not to destroy your drive or overwrite it.

You will need IT to connect your hard drive to another laptop/computer, run BartPe from the cd and then move your data over to the host drive.

EDITED... here is the link to BartPe: http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

makai

Edited by makai, 19 July 2005 - 12:14 PM.

[makai]

By the way, when you tried the recovery, am I to understand you also had another hard drive connected via Firewire?

You need to disconnect any/all drives when running a recovery as they may confuse the recovery process.

makai

[matt_fleming]

Or you could try knopix (sp?).



-Matt

Edited by matt_fleming, 19 July 2005 - 12:21 PM.

[J_A]

ok I was working with the IT all day today, cause there were no replies apart from the first one here. and I just wanted to get my data back. so sorry if I'm confusing anyone.

ok, the main problem sems to be that the harddrive cannot be recognized. what I know they did is they connected the drive to another comp as an external harddrive and tried accessing the data, which didn't work. they said they had one other option they could try tomorrow, another tool, and if that won't work, they don't know anything else they could try. I will ask what software they used tomorrow and post it here.

I've been given the idea with knoppix and downloaded it. however, I have no idea about linux and tried opening that cd I burned, but nothing happened. can someone explain how to get that disk to work?

what I did today, I did with the IT ppl. they gave me an external harddisk drive to select as target drive for the files once the internal hdd was accessed, but the program only showed one harddisk. the external one.

makai, are you saying that I should try this again, without plugging in the external harddrive first? if we can build the hdd back in that is