StarDestroyer.Net BBS

When attempting to install Empire at War I managed to muck up my computer. (Not this one obviously, it's my parent's) Anyhow, it seems to have happened when I tried to install DirectX 9. I had to restart and when I did, all I got was the "Start in Safe Mode?" screen, which only brought me right back to the same screen. I tried to go through system setup and system recover (F1 and F10 at the blue HP startup screen IIRC) but setup got me nowhere.

System recovery (which is hardwired into the hard drive) however, brought me to a screen saying that a particular .dll file was missing or corrupt.

Here's my question. Presuming that tech support can't fix the problem without wiping my harddrive, is there a way for me to recover some or all of the data that has not been backed up? (Yeah, I know. I should know better. No lectures please. )

What I was thinking was, if I can hook my hard drive up to my parents computer, I can use their hard drive to start up mine and recover the data to theirs, or a perhaps to an external hard drive.

Is that even possible? Is there some other way that might work better?

Damn! I was about to post the same thing.

I recently moved all my important stuff to my secondary HDD, then removed the primary boot HDD and replaced it with a 160 GB blank HDD; and then installed Win XP Pro.

However, now, the drive is seen as "unformatted"

WTF??!?!?!?!?

If you have an external drive, you can throw Damn Small Linux on it and boot from that, then copy over to the external. If it won't boot from the external, burn it to a CD.

Shep, I had a similar problem a while back, but it was do to my uninstall of linux. Double check your jumper settings, and if they're right, try booting the system with only the boot drive connected, then with both connected. Beyond that, I've got nothing save trying it in another computer.

Data recovery is going surprisingly well thanks to me spending $80 on GetBackData for NTFS

It has an easy UI, and it's worth every penny, due to me being able to recover unbacked up family photos which are irreplaceable.

Shep, this software, does it work by installing in the borked computer and allowing you access to the hard drive without having to go through Windows' bullshit?

Braedley, I've never done this before so I'm not entirely sure how to do that. I know how to get the Linux from this computer to an external (that I can buy, no problem). But I don't know how to use that to boot another harddrive. Is it as simple as just plugging the two together?

I have to admit, I don't really know how to do what I suggested, I was just asking if it was possible; and since apparently it is, now I'm asking how to do this. Or where I can find out.

The Spartan wrote:Here's my question. Presuming that tech support can't fix the problem without wiping my harddrive, is there a way for me to recover some or all of the data that has not been backed up? (Yeah, I know. I should know better. No lectures please. )

What I was thinking was, if I can hook my hard drive up to my parents computer, I can use their hard drive to start up mine and recover the data to theirs, or a perhaps to an external hard drive.

Is that even possible? Is there some other way that might work better?

Yes, that's possible, just plug the drive in and it will show up for you to grab your files. Also possible would be booting from a Windows XP CD and performing a repair installation.

After that, go back into setup on your computer and find the IDE DPS selftest option. All HPs have it. If it fails, get the hard drive replaced. If it passes, call HP and get a set of system discs to reinstall, if the system recovery has missing files, there's a possibility you're suffering drive failure, as nothing should be able to write or change to that partition.

Vendetta wrote:Yes, that's possible, just plug the drive in and it will show up for you to grab your files. Also possible would be booting from a Windows XP CD and performing a repair installation.

Okay this is the part where I get lost. I understand what you're saying, but the problem is that I can't get into Windows period, it always brings me back to the "Do you want to start in Safe Mode?" screen. So how does the USB drive show up? In system setup? Which is apparently separate from Windows.

I was referring to plugging the drive into your parents' computer. All you need to do is connect the cables and boot the machine, and it will detect the drive as a second drive and let you copy files from it. (plug it in using the cables from the CD drive, if you don't want to muck about with master/slave settings)

Oh, you meant plug my hard drive into my parent's computer! Gotcha! That I know how to do.

Sorry, I thought you were refering to the External plugging into mine.

Cross your fingers. Pray the Blue Smoke Demons will not come to smite me.

New fun... my parents computer isn't detecting my computers hard drive. I plugged it into the motherboard where the cd drive was connected, but I'm getting nothing out of it.

This is a life saver.

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid ... cpc=CBLbsc

it comes with a power supply for 5.25 and 3.5" drives and works on laptop drives as well.

What I was suggesting is that you load DSL on an external drive from your parents computer. Then set your BIOS settings to boot from external first. Once booted, mount both the external and internal drives into DSL (a simple click of the button). If you don't already have an external drive, and weren't looking to get on anyways, this might not be the best solution.

However, if your harddrive is totally hosed (which it doesn't sound like, since you can stiill boot into safe mode) then you're fucked.

Ah, but that's the problem. I can't boot into safe mode. I can only boot into the screen that tells me that Windows didn't shut down properly and do I want to boot into safe mode? If I say yes it brings me back to that screen over and over again.

And yes I was going to get an external harddrive anyways, bought one today in fact, because I've learned my lesson and it's not going to happen again. I'm just hoping to salvage my old computer, or some of the data, if nothing else.

Am I to take the silence as meaning that I'm fucked?

1) Check your jumpers, make sure the drive is set to single when you hook it up as the secondary master in your parents' computer.

2) Check to see if the drive shows up in the BIOS on your parents' computer.

3) If it doesn't show up in My Computer there, go to Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Computer Management - Storage - Disk Management (Local) and see if the drive shows up there.

No, I was just contemplating how to install DSL onto an external harddrive, seeing as how I failed in my admittadly straight forward attempt. Apparently the drive has to be reformatted, and I don't want to do that right now. It should still work though.

Well, I got a new error message after trying to start up my computer to see which .dll file was screwed up.

I ended up taking it into tech support; my hard drive is dead.

I have two options regarding my data: 1. Let it go. 2. Send it off to a clean room data recovery service.

There's nothing *that* important on there so I'm gonna let it go rather than spend the money on the service.

I also have two options regarding my computer: 1. Replace the hard drive. 2. Buy a new computer.

My computer is 4 years old, so, time to start looking for a new system.

depending on which drive is newer it might require being master on yuor folks system

Bump for my own issues, also occuring in [url=http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/viewtopic.php?t=97895]this[/url thread.

300GB maxtor Diamondmax3, formally of two partitions with a further 100GB unpartitioned. As per that thread, the computer can now recongise only one out of those two, the other shows up as part of empty space.

I'm considering Sheps solution, but is there any other?

EDIT: Sheps solution is fine, just need to purchese it.