HD boot crash

OK my WD crashed as soon as it tries to get passed the windows xp screen. I had a spare 1TB drive laying around so I did a fresh install of XP and tried hooking the old Drive up to get some files of it. The comp recognized the drive and all my files are there. GREAT News. So my next question is can I get all my drivers off and get all my hardware working? If so how? Shot ion the dark but if it works it saves me eye strain and a new mouse.

I have tried coping the driver folder from win32 and the driver cahe fold and that did not work.

Thanks in advance,

Tayler

 

Try this:

http://majorgeeks.com/DiskGetor_Data_Recovery_Free_d6441.html

I've used it to recover data from a few HDDs. It seems to work fine with the exception of MS-Office (Word, Excel, etc) files which Office sometimes states are corrupted when I attempt to open the rescued file.

Hope this helps.

 

Ok. Initial thoughts were a HD crash. But after connecting my old HD and trying to retreive files off of it I get the same blue screen crash with the new drive and the old drive connected. So I disconnected my old drive and still continue to get the crash with just the new drive on it. The windows splash screen distorts and then blue screen. I think there is a virus. I wiped the new drive 5 times then reinstalled XP and everything is fine. I ge the windows splash screen and it does not distort. At this point I have not reconnected the old HD. Is there any way to scan the old drive before it corrupts my new drive? Is this just a bad drive corrupting my boot sector? I did the FIXBOOT, CHKDSK c: /r and FIXMBR and none of those options worked on the old drive when it was hooked up in single configuration. The checkdisk said my old drive was ok did the "r/" command and it only had 1 bad sector and it was repaired. I need my old files desperalty. Is there any way to get them and not screw the new install up.

Thanks,

Tayler

 

To scan the old (possibly infected) HDD, download and use Malware Bytes:

http://majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=5756

As noted in the malware removal section, rename the file before extracting and installing it on your new drive (some viruses will recognize the original file name). When prompted, do a full scan on both the old drive and the new one. If this doesn't solve the issue go to http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407 for the complete malware removal guide.

Once you are sure all malware has been removed, try a data recovery program such as http://majorgeeks.com/DiskGetor_Data_Recovery_d6092.html. I have used this program to recover data; its only glitch seems to be with some MS-Office (Word, Excel, etc.) files that show up as corrupted when you try to open the restored copy. Depending on the size of the old drive, CPU speed and # of files the restore process may take up to 12 hours; you will not be able to use the PC for other apps while the recovery is in progress. Once you've cleaned the old drive, I would set this up to run before you head off to bed for the night.

Finally, after you are sure you've successfully saved as many of the files as possible, I would download WD's Data Lifeguard and run a deep/full scan of the questionable drive before reformatting or reusing it. Long tests put more stress on the drive and often show problems chkdsk or short tests don't.

Good luck on getting your files back. If anyone out there has tips on how to avoid corrupted Office files during the restore, please share.

 

Yea I installed the whole suite of malware removal tools. I'm just nervous about hooking the old drive back up and ruining my fresh install. Is there a way to remove any malware in the recovery console without corrupting the good drive? I guess I was not clear on my concerns. The last time I hooked the old drive up as a slave, within ten minutes I got the blue screen.

Thanks,

Tayler

 

Have you tried running your old HD in safe mode? Maybe disconnect the new HD put the old one in as Master and start in safe mode (F8 at start up). If it runs in safe mode you could try running some malware scans or the WD diagnostic tool.

 

Although nothing is foolproof (since the fools who write malware can be so ingenious), this is why you should scan both the old and new drives at one time.

Malware Bytes scans active items first then moves on to the HDDs. In theory, it should catch and quarantine any creepy stuff before it has a chance to jump from the old HDD to the new one. Also, almost all malware installs itself by either opening or running an infected file. Since it only scans the old drive without opening the files or programs it's unlikely you'll have any issues.

 

ok.....tried booting with both drives and it wiped any info from my fresh install. I tried recovery and typed "fixboot" and it said that it did not recognize the drive. Any other commands I typed said the same thing. It showed "C:" but apparently flashed all info upon first boot attempt. Crazy cheet man. Any advice? I am begining to think that there is no way that I can safley retreive any info from the old drive.

Gman It wont boot to windows to allow for a scan. It did the first time and now it won't do it at all. If I try to boot with the old drive it wipes all partitions off the new drive.

:confused

 

If you can remove the old drive and connect it to another PC (using a USB drive enclosure), you may be able to run the file restore program to copy the data over to the connected PC, so long as it recognizes the drive.

The WD Data Lifeguard can be burned to a CD. It will do a limited (DOS) boot to scan the drive; however I would attempt to back the data up first using another PC. If the drive is hanging by a thread, a long test may send it over the edge to the point you won't be able to recover anything.

If you cannot do a fresh install of Windows with only the new drive hooked up, it either means the new drive is also defective or there is a problem with the motherboard (such as the HDD controller or your BIOS got nuked by malware).

 

Hi

My suggestion is to do the following:

Download and burn a Linux live CD (Mint is my favorite distro, another good distro is Ubuntu).

Mint download

Ubuntu download

Disconnect the new hard drive, reconnect the old (likely infected) hard drive.

Boot into Linux using the bootable CD.

Navigate to the hard drive's contents to ensure the hard drive is mounted.

Open the internet browser in Linux (Firefox), and run the following online virus scans:

http://www.eset.com/online-scanner

http://housecall.trendmicro.com