Defrag fragged my PC!!

Please tell me what is going on! I was running defrag Tuneup utilities when there was a power surge that shut down my computer. After turning it on again Windows wouldn't load!

The computer loads up to the bar that fills from left to right saying that windows is booting up, but doesn't move from there!

I've tried booting windows from safe mode but no anvail. It says that a system32/config file is ruined or lost, and to insert Windows CD. What is going on, did I ruin my hard drive? Please help!!!


I am using Windows XP sp 2.

 

Do you have the CD? If so insert it when prompted.

 

you can try Partition Table Doctor to fix your PC.

 

This should not usually happen. The Microsoft-Diskeeper defrag API that governs the defrag process in XP and higher, is generally quite robust. Even in case of a power failure midway through the defrag process, it should not do permanent damage. Once, my friend accidently unplugged his desktop when Diskeeper was running. When he restarted the PC, it ran chkdsk, after finishing chkdsk, it booted into Windows normally.

I suggest if you are able to, just boot into Safe mode with Command Prompt and run chkdsk /r on the drive. It may help fix the problem. (Not 100% guaranteed). Otherwise, you'll have to do a repair install using your XP CD.

Good luck.

PS: Dump Tune Up utilities; clearly it's not a well written program. Any defragger that uses the MS-DK defrag API should be safe.

 

Okay, I'll try booting up the Windows CD... whenever I find it. Thanks for the help, people! I really hope it was only Windows that got screwed up and not my hard drive/data within it, because I haven't done a backup disk in quite a while

 

Keep us posted as to how you get on.

 

Well... in the end I wound up reformatting HDD/reinstalling Windows, rather than just repairing Windows... :cry

I was able to extract a lot of important files (but not all files!), by placing the problematic HDD as a slave drive, before "this"* happened, but naturally I lost all my settings and programs. Worst of all is that I have a feeling that I overlooked a important file somewhere. :cry

God, I keep listening people say that once you reformat your HDD all is as good as gone, is this so? What is this of partitioning I hear and how can it help me recover data? Or what can I do to perform a data recovery?



*In the end, and even though I had found the CD, I was all fidgety and unsure to carry-on a Windows repair myself, that I ended having someone else check on the machine, with this not entirely wanted result happening (the reformatting, instead of repair). Oh well, on the bright side the machine is operational, right? *sigh*



MORAL OF THE STORY: BACK-UP BACK-UP BACK-UP! And don't be afraid to cross-question whoever you've given temporal custody of your machine to when trying to figure out what is going on -_-

 

Here is a simple bat(ch) file that will back up your important files that are sub-Folders under your C:\Documents and Settings Folder to another drive or partition.
=========================
@echo off
echo Copying latest docs from C:\Hard drive to W:\ drive
rem Substitute your Drive letter, for my "W" drive.
xcopy "C:\Documents and Settings\*.*" "W:\Documents and Settings\*.*" /ekidcy
echo File Transfers finished
pause
exit
=============================
Watch out for 4 sets of " (double quotes), 2 spaces, 2 sets of ".", and backward and forward slashes. :-D No space between / and ekidcy, although it probably wouldn't matter.

Save is as batdocs.bat, or whatever. Make sure it is saved as a *.bat file, not a *.txt file. Thanks to M_M for the original inspiration.

The first time you run it will probably take a long time, after that it will only copy newer files so is a hell of a lot quicker. I use it as a safety second backup of my important files, as an extra, over my Acronis True Image backups.

See also Tip #77, go to "From today's MajorGeeks front page--Oct 2008" at http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=170775 for info on Backups.

Hope this helps. Bazza

 

Partitioning. Partitioning a drive will not help you find lost files- its a preventative step. Basically, it splits your hard drive into multiple drives. Think of it as turning 1 big folder into 2-4 smaller ones. I personally keep all my files, media, music, etc... on a separate partition from windows. If for some reason I had to reinstall windows, then my files would all be safe. Windows has some partitioning abilities built into it, but it is limited. If windows cannot do what you'd like it to, I'd recommend checking out Acronis.

 

Partitioning a drive into two and backing up files onto the second partition is not very helpful since you lose everything if there is a hardware drive failure.

Booting into DOS mode and copying files with the xcopy command is one of the easiest ways to recover files from a non-functional XP install. It's helped me on more than one occasion when having to retrieve files for my friends from their crashed systems.

 

Thanks guys for all the information, I can only hope that you continue to be just as eager to help me as you were at the start... because I have few more questions Here's the scenario:

I downloaded the trial version of File Recoverer, and used it to analyze the whole machine, and boy did it turn up with tons of files.... .jpg .doc, xml, .cab, .xls, .ppt, and well, I was wondering if xcopy would help make the recovery process faster?


Well, anyways, I thank you guys because your constant feedback helped me keep insisting on the issue rather than leaving it as defunct and irreparable. Even though I still can't believe the computer tech guy translated "It is imperative that all files and programs, in this hard drive, aren't deleted and try to fix Windows without reinstalling it" into doing what he did. Oh well, can't keep on crying over spilt milk, now I have to concentrate on recovering any files I missed.


Thanks to all of you!

 

The xcopy batch file is ONLY for copying files from disk to another disk / partition / Folder. It is NOT for recovering files, if this is what you are referring to. I have never tried File Recoverer so cannot comment on it.

Bazza

===

 

And DON'T install any recovery software on the drive you are trying to recover data from. You will only, probably, overwrite some more files you are trying to recover. :cry Bazza

 

Well, I did use Recuva and it shows great promise. I mean, the program appears to have scanned through the hard drive for deleted files, but I am at a loss as to how thorough the search is. This is because after every search at the bottom it says "x number of items found/ y number of items ignored", and the list of ignored items is far, far, far greater than those found. Like 4,000 to 20,000, if someone can explain why this is the case I'd appreciate it, because I was under the impression that selecting show 0 byte files would atleast make a difference on items found, it did not have a significant effect. Recuva, however, is much friendly than FileRecoverer, because you indeed need to purchase it to "restore" items... even though I was left with the impression that the search was deeper thus ending with more results.


Anyway, thanks for all the help and excuse the slow response.