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Laptop crash


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#16
makai

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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


Yes.

Disconnect any peripheral devices so the recovery program doesn't get confused.

And, try both fixes posted by darth_ash, and myself.

good luck,
makai
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#17
J_A

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ok, guys, nothing worked. my IT guy said that when he'd hooked up the hd to his computer as a secondary drive, the drive itself showed but contained no data, that is no system, no home directory, nothing. he mentioned something about the data tree having been completely disrupted, if not to say destroyed. meaning he wasn't able to see any contents and thus not recover anything.

he said he thinks the comp must have caught a virus that destroyed the binary structure and the comp can't put the 1s and the 0s together. in his opinion the only thing to do is to format the drive, the data are lost.

I'm hoping that a trusted tech out there can tell me he's wrong.
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#18
makai

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Sorry to hear that, but I wouldn't take his word unless I saw it myself! (my opinion, of course!)

I really cannot stess enough that you give BartPE a chance to see if it can recognize the drive contents. I have used the program many times and it was specifically written for just this kind of situation.

BartPE will allow you to scan and move the contents of the subject drive to the host computer drive. You have nothing to lose by trying it.

The only other option I know of, (rather heard of as I never used it) is using Linux to access the drive.

Don't let your tech support proceed until you are absolutely convinced everything has been tried. Your data is too important!!!!!

makai
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#19
J_A

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I want to try the linux option, so I tried downloading knoppix and burning a bootable cd. I don't know what is wrong but 2 disks that I burned both simply won't boot. I know the programs have to be burned as an iso image, not an added file, but how do I specify that during the burning process?

on the computers that I have access to there is no nero burning rom nor is there clonedisk. on the macs there's just that default mac burning software that has no name and that's what I burned knoppix and killdisk with. haven't used killdisk yet though. like you're saying I wanna be absolutely sure there's nothing that can be done.

because it seems I can't get the discs to work I haven't tried BartPE yet. please advise. I'm losing hope here.
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#20
makai

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Sorry, I am not familiar with the linux stuff.

As far as why your cds aren't working, I can't answer that either.

The only advice I can give you is to try BartPE. The BartPE builder has the plugins for nero. In fact, you don't even need a burning program to make the BartPE disk, as the plugins are already included with the program.

Please try it, all you have to lose is another blank CD. I don't know if there will be any difference whether burning on a mac or pc, but don't complicate things by trying. Just burn on a PC if possible.

Sorry, this is the best I can offer.

makai
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#21
J_A

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that's alright, thanks for even taking the time. :tazz:
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#22
J_A

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I guess you may close this topic now. nothing worked, not even BartPE :tazz:. formatting the harddisk today...
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