Hard drive data recovery HELP Please!!!!

My neighbor brought me his computer to work on and when I started it up it would not boot it just goes through the whole windows loading thing then stops I put in an XP disc and tried to do a repair of the OS and it went through all of that then re-booted and still does the same thing stops and freezes and now shuts down and re-boots on its own. I have tried everything I can think of and cannot get it to boot there was one time I was able to get a boot and when I looked at his files they were all ghosted but when I tried to do anything the computer would shut down and freeze.

Any ideas? Can his data be recovered? there are two partitions on the hard drive can I salvage any of his files? and how do I do this since now it will not boot to anything? He has photos and company invoices that he really needs. Can I do anything and how?

 

It will not go into safe mode, I tried that - it will not go into anything but this screen that pops up stating that the hard drive is non detectable- I did just finally get it to boot and it stops at the windows XP loading screen and never goes anywhere just freezes locks up and then automatically re-boots itself. I did remove the hard drive and put in one of my own and the computer works fine all hardware works fans etc it worked perfectly. So I will put his drive in and slave it and see what happens.

Thanks for your reply

 

OK, last resort option to save his files.... Be sure you let him know your going to try this.

Remove the drive from the system. Place in an anti-static bag & seal it airtight. Make sure you get as much air out of the bag as possible before sealing.
Place inside another air tight bag (preferably a second anti-static bag if possible) & seal that shut as well.
(Be advised that sellotape or similar is no good but duct tape is fine. Failing that, fold the top of the bag over several times & staple shut)
Place drive in freezer for 24 hours.

After 24hrs you can remove from freezer. You must perform the remaining steps as quickly as possible so make sure you have the computer turned off & open up the case ready to re-install the drive BEFORE removing from freezer.
Remove drive from bags, connect it up & power on system.

You may, or may not, be able to access the drive. If you can, then obviously transfer your data as quickly as possible on to another drive. You may find that the drive starts to fail again before you can finish backing everything up. If so, then just repeat the freezing procedure until everything has been recovered.


There is a lot of debate about this method in regards to whether or not it works etc. All I can say is - it has worked for me in the past. You must make sure that in the freezing process the drive only gets cold, NOT damp or wet! (Hence the double bagging & sealing).

Let me know how you get on.

 

Your situation does not merit using this "trick". TimW has the right idea. Also read http://www.iswamp.com/data-recovery/essential-steps-for-do-it-yourself-data-recovery-3.php before you go any further.

 

I'm reading this and am just slightly curious....

is there any possibility that he attempted an Overclock on his computer and it might be overheating?

 

The freezer teatment is only appropriate for a dying hard drive. If the system will repeatedly find and try to start Windows the problem is more likely a corrupt file.

Either boot the pc to the Recovery Console or slave the drive in another computer and run Check Disk.

You may be out of luck since you have already tried a repair install by the sound of your first post.

If that is the case your install a second copy windows somewhere on the hard drive if you have room. Do not allow windows setup to format. then copy off any data and drivers information. Then you will have to reinstall windows as a clean install.

If you need help with this post again.

 

Thanks superstar!

I completely forgot about this method. I know there is a lot of debate about it but I know people who have done it and it worked. I will try it. I have tried everything else. I will try it and post my results.

Thanks,

 

No he knows nothing of computers, I checked for overheating and nothing seems to be. I installed a brand new hard drive and put on the OS and the computer runs beautifully. His old hard drive whines in my test computer too. I am going to try the freezer method for one last attempt then dump it.

 

To the two who said the freezing method I recommended was out of the question...

He plainly wants to recover files for his friend, and as I mentioned this would be a "LAST RESORT" option. His drive may be dying from the signs he's giving. But than again as I said this is a last resort option. A dying drive can do many a weird things, so if he doesn't mind cooling a $50 drive to get his friends precious data off than he's stuck with a problem.


Let me know how it goes. I'd love to hear a success story.

 

I have a question. How old is the hard drive in question? confused

I have used SpinRite before in these instances to get data, but it is not free. I wonder if there is anything like SpinRite out there that is free?

If you can slave it in your machine, can you run a Check Disk on it?

 

Solving a problem is about cooperation, not proving a particular point of view.

Now that pc Geek has a new hard drive and OS there is nothing to stop him simply slaving the old drive and reading any data file which is not corrupt. There is no need for specialist recovery software or mechanical treatments.

 

please confirm that you used a Full Retail version of XP,
(NOT an OEM version)
ignored the first recovery console, and selected install,
then accepted the prompt regarding reinstall or format and chose reinstall.
(which overwrites the windows native files but remembers your settings and keeps your data)
This capability does NOT exist on an OEM version.

We can only assume the bios is seeing the drive, thus the logic board is still reporting,
(it did "try" to boot after all)
If you made the drive a slave and still cannot see the drive from the OS NOR from a Command Line boot,
THEN try freezing/chilling the drive.

 

Oh, sorry.

I didn't see anything about him being able to get data off of the drive. All I saw was that,

confused

 

Hi Mickey, this is a confusing toilet, sorry thread.

I presume from PCgeek's silence we are waiting while the offending drive is in the cooler.

 

LOL:drink:grouphug

 

i am a little worried about the continuing silence,
i only hope pcgeek took the drive OUT of his computer before freezing...

 

The freezing method does work for me awhile back and I managed to recover some gig's of data when my hard drive died so it does actually work I was fairly suprised. I hope pcgeek updates us on his progress.

 

I am sure you meant that as a JOKE! of course I did and just and FYI to you all I am female also I was able to recover most of the files from the hard drive and I did put it in the freezer and it worked beautifully. I got what was necessary and have a very happy friend and he now has a computer that runs beautifully w/ new hard drive more RAM and a few tweaks here and there all set to go! Thanks for you help and advice. Just a note I also tried to slave the drive and it gave me an error saying and I quote "WARNING failure is imminent" and nothing would happen or work so in the freezer it went and success.

 

Glad it all turned out well.

:major

 

The freezer trick has it's doubters, but it does work SOMETIMES, if you are lucky.

 

It's never worked for me. But has for friends. I don't use that technique anymore since I've obtained SpinRite, though. rolleyes

Then again, SpinRite hasn't always come through either. :cry