Recovering from a corrupt hard drive?

yambabe · World Chat Champion Joined: 12 Jul 2004 Karma :

Can you do it?

My laptop has finally died on me. Sad

Chckdsk found loads of bad sectors and files just before it went completely, and obviously some of them contained elements of my OS (XP home) cos it won't boot now.

I have a "recover" drive on it (part of the factory settings) but have no idea how to use it, or even how to access it now that windows won't boot. Can I use F2 on startup and then DOS commands (if I can remember any?)

I've probably got the XP installation disk somewhere - can I boot from that if I can find it? Without losing the files that are on the drive? Although I backup fairly regularly there is stuff on there that hasn't been backed up and would cause me a major headache to lose completely...... Sad

Any ideas gratefully received, #1 option at the moment is to take it to the people that suport our hardware at work and ask them if they can sort it for me, but that'll cost a fair bit so if there's anything I can do myself first I'd be willing to give it a try.......
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0ddball · World Chat Champion Joined: 15 Jul 2005 Karma :

Does the drive still spin up? And is it recognised in the bios?

Paddy Blake · World Chat Champion Joined: 29 Jun 2006 Karma :

If you have the installation disk then you can reinstall windows but not
in the same location as the one that is already on there and when you
start it up you will have two windows directorys so lone as you do not
format the hard drive.You will then be able to read anything on the drive.

Or type in c:\windows\win
Might work.

bob a · World Chat Champion Joined: 18 Aug 2006 Karma :

Go to your local pc shop, mine done the same and they took £30 to sort it out and load in updated software.

No issues now, especially if i dont have limewire etc on it.

Bigeds · Borekit Bruiser Joined: 07 Apr 2006 Karma :

If you have your original XP disks you can boot from those and attempt to recover your installation without losing your files.

As an alternative I have found 'Hirems Boot CD' handy on occassions. Contains loads of useful apps including tools to check disks and recover lost files etc. Have mainly used it to access systems where the login passwords have been forgotten Very Happy

. Downloaded it from a torrent site.
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(Feb06) Honda CG125 - (Jun06) Suzuki SV650S K1 - (Apr11) Moto Guzzi Griso 1100

Milo · World Chat Champion Joined: 08 Feb 2002 Karma :

SpinRite is meant to work wonders. I have it laying around somewhere -
PM me your mail addy if you want me to send it over.

Adam
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Shaft drives rule. Razz