Windows won't boot, need to save some data...

dobbsy

dobbsy

dobbsy

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Hi Team,

Basically my mates PC won't boot into windows. Got one of those 000007 blue screen errors. Now, i'm not really interested about the error code, more the data recovery as he has a lot of data he needs to save (typically no backup)

I have an external hard drive I can use, I can get into the recovery console. Is there a piece of software that will help me locate and copy the files over easily? Or anything else you can suggest?

Thanks a lot,

EDIT:

Using Windows XP!!
 
Take the drive out, fit it to an external caddy then connect to another (working) PC, you should be able to access the files unless there is a fault with the drive.
 
This.

I have found this far easier in the past than messing around with the recovery console. Having said that, I always have a spare PC and such lying around to recover data! :p

Whichever method you choose once you are done kick your mate in the giblets and tell him to stop being such a tard and backup his crap! :)
 
Thanks for the replies chaps, problem is I don't have a spare PC lying around!

Is there a way of doing it through software???
 
Knoppix!

Or any other Linux Live disc. You can run the standard Ubuntu install CD as a Live CD too. Boot from the CD, choose the Live option then you have a working desktop environment.

Browse to the HDD and then copy the files over to your USB HDD or wherever. You won't need any Linux knowledge really as it has a very good GUI. I have done this a few times too with great success.
 
SiriusB said:
Knoppix!

Or any other Linux Live disc. You can run the standard Ubuntu install CD as a Live CD too. Boot from the CD, choose the Live option then you have a working desktop environment.

Browse to the HDD and then copy the files over to your USB HDD or wherever. You won't need any Linux knowledge really as it has a very good GUI. I have done this a few times too with great success.
Click to expand...

You my friend, are a star! I'll get it downloaded now! Thanks very much mate !
 
Just out of interest Sirius...

Could I try a repair install? will that keep in place all the 'my documents' and such like?
 
As I said on MSN, it shouldn't touch your data, but not worth taking a chance if you can use something like Knoppix or Ubuntu.
 
I'd use the Mint 8 live CD as that version of Linux has everything needed to run a fully functioning PC right off the live CD. Shouldn't have any issues then as everything just "works" straight out of the box. A repair install won't touch your data though if you have the XP disc, but if you burn a live CD you can lift the files off it to a USB drive if the repair doesn't work.
 
Knoppix and Ubuntu Live have all worked out the box for me too in the past, never had a problem. I usually have one or the other lying around. I think I have a version 3 of Knoppix in a drawer too :D
 
bledd. said:
On a working pc

install imgburn http://www.imgburn.com/
download either Slax http://www.slax.org/get_slax.php?download=iso or Linux Mint http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php

(I prefer to use Slax for this, as it's only 200 mb and boots up quicker)

Burn the ISO using imgburn

Boot from this cd in the broken computer



It'll run from the cd and you'll be able to copy files to an external drive etc :)
Click to expand...

Are you still using Mint 8 these days or have you gone back to Windows? I remember yonders back you mentioning Mint 8 and I moved to Linux for a while and enjoyed tinkering, but I'm back on windows again now! Couldn't do without the gaming :D
 
I would never drop windows as my main os, games and winamp lite = <3 <3 <3 :)

I use Mint on my laptop, mint 8 is awesome :)
 
Personally I always keep a linux live disk to hand to solve these kinds of issues, which reminds me I need to make a USB version.
 
Linux live cds are great, I've used knoppix in the past just the same as your doing to get data off a drive.
Defo worth having a copy handy.
 
Another problem now !!!

Can't get XP to detect my external hard drive!

It detected in slax to originally to backup all the data from the existing hard drive but now even when I go back into slax it's not visible.

In xp it looks like it's not being assigned a drive letter, however is showing up in the taskbar 'can safely remove hardware option is there'

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

It's an Iomega prestige - one of those 320gb portable jobbies!


edit: by the way hard drive is definately ok as it works on my mac.... it is formatted in 'ms dos fat'
 
Last edited:
Still struggling with this last issue. Tried to go into disk management but there is no option to change the drive letter or even allocate it one :confused:
 
I take it you've reinstalled windows and now trying to copy the data back?

should be formatted as fat32 or perhaps ntfs

if you can't see it in windows, just boot into slax to copy the files back


check it's at least XPSP2. Install SP3
 
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