my harddrive is screwed

Post by **snarl** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 12:08 am

So anyway, my mum decided my room was getting redecorated so I had to eff off to my dads.

I come back home to my computer is bollocksed, which is brilliant. not.

It said this:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\

Anyway, I plugged in another drive from a knackered pc so I'm up and running, but I have loads of really important stuff (not just porn) on the old HD that I want to get back.

I was hoping I'd be able to just connect the old drive and be able to explore it using explorer but that isn't that case. The drive shows up in bios and under my computer but I can't get into the little [composite word including 'f*ck'].

Now, I didn't get a proper version of XP bundled with my pc, but a recovery cd instead. If I boot of that, will it automatically format the other drive?

Anybody?

Cheers.

Post by **Kaylee** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 8:51 am

The recovery CD will wipe the hard disk, yes.

When you reconnected the second hard drive so you could boot the system, did you check the jumpers at the back? They're funny things and, depending on the BIOS, it's possible that for example they're both set up as Master disks and being recognised but because they're in conflict on the same cable only one is being picked up by Windows. It shouldn't happen but I know from bitter experience how unpredictable disk jumper combinations/BIOS settings can be.

Failing that go to www.knoppix.com and download a CD version of Knoppix Linux. All you do is burn it onto a CD, then set your computer back to the way it was with the knackered drive, stick Knoppix in the CD tray and set the BIOS to boot to it.

You'll get a perfectly respectable desktop environment, be able to browse the disk like you would on Windows and if you stick a USB pen drive into your PC you can copy over anything important, or if you have a second CD-R you can burn it onto disk.

EDIT- do you have any idea what might have wiped out the CONFIG directory? It's very unusual, and not normally what I'd associate with viral behaviour. Does your hard disk seem to be making any unusual noises- tapping, rattling, that sort of thing? It's possible you've got a hamster in it... or worse a head crash. When eventually you do come to reinstalling everything, if you're given the option do a full format/wipe rather than a quick erase, just to make sure any fauly sectors are picked up.

Post by **snarl** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 10:22 am

No noises. I went away and my computer was working, I came home and it no longer was.

So if I just stick this cd in, I can then burn my old files off?

Sounds like a plan.

Post by **Kaylee** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 10:24 am

Long as you've got two CD drives- you need to be able to keep the boot CD in one and stick a CDR in the other. Or failing that stick a USB flash stick in. I haven't used Knoppix in a while, it's pretty user friendly but any problems let me know. You should be able to start a web browser on it and post here if we need to work through anything.

Post by **snarl** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 3:13 pm

I had a gut feeling the recovery cd wouldn't wipe the drive and it didn't. I was able to get into the recovery console.

Howeverm once there, everything Microsoft says to do here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545 has been met with, for want of the technical jargon "no chance you ****".

I've got the knoppix thing as well, I'd rather fix windows though because I dont have 2 drives. Besides, my cd drive also somehow developed aids whilst I was away and is now pretty unreliable.

I am almost certain my mum was involved with some droppy bangy shenaningans with my tower and just isn't saying anything.

Do I have to burn the knoppix thing as an image or a data file Carlos?

Also, I have a few spare Drives laying round now, one has a lot of MP3s + all my old Snes and Megadrive emuators - do you think it might be a better idea to just buy something like this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Allcam-Enclosur ... B000RAFFEY

I imagine then I'd be able to just plug the ****** drive into the front of my machine and explore away...

Post by **Kaylee** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 3:19 pm

External drive caddy would be an easy way to go

If the hard disk is truly buggered (and if dropping and banging was involved there's every chance it is) then you're not likely to get much off of it anyway, so at least it wouldn't be expensive and you could use it for other stuff.

Knoppix should be an ISO so it'll need to be burnt as an image using Nero or whatever flavour of CD burning software you use

It'll make a nice boot CD. Though, again, if your hard disk is up the spout it won't be able to read it

Sounds like a useful recovery CD

All the ones I've ever had to use have had two options: 1. nothing 2. wipe the lot. Bloody useless!

Post by **snarl** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 3:29 pm

I think windows on the drive is screwed, it shows up in bios and in explorer once I've booted the computer but it wont open and keeps asking me to format it.

I've read several pieces from various IT wizards saying that in all likelihood the drive has retained all the files and docs but it's just screwed in some way so it says that it's empty and needs formatting.

If it comes to the crunch I'll get pros in, I ****** must have some of the stuff on the drive!

On the subject, an old job I had once had me liaising with some forensic bods who were recovering data from completely recked drives. They said it's very very hard to delete files, even if you physically batter the drive.

They were in the process of providing evidence from a HD to bury a nonce, needless to say they got the job done.

Post by **Kaylee** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 3:35 pm

If you want to you can get a huge amount of data from a wrecked disk, sadly most of the tech is out of reach of the average user unless you want to pay a pretty penny for it.

It could just be the file allocation table on the drive, or some other top-level structure, is damaged. Which would explain why it boots fair enough to complain about not finding certain files... interesting...

Post by **Kaylee** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 3:40 pm

Tell you what- you say your recovery CD let you get into recovery console? There's a good chance you might be able to get to the 'Repair Windows XP' function too. It may well bugger-up some of the installed programs but everything in my documents/pictures/music etc. will be untouched.

I'm shooting in the dark a little here since I don't know the layout of the disk your using. Certainly as far as the XP CDs go, you stick it in the drive and choose the option 'set up windows', agree to their T&C and then there should be an option to press 'R' to repair the XP installation (separate from Recovery Console).

Worth a look?

Post by **snarl** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 4:22 pm

I had come across that as well and was considering it.

It sounded like it might bugger up Thunderbird though, which would [composite word including 'f*ck'] me right up.

It appears there are many things that might fix it up.

I wanted to see that linux thing first anyway, been opening up my pc, mucking around with cables etc too much.

If I can get the Thundrbird stuff I'd be a lt happier.

Post by **Kaylee** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 4:26 pm

I'd imagine reinstalling thunderbird would make it useable afterwards without losing any of your emails/contacts

I recall I've removed it completely and reinstalled it at a later date only to find emails from the previous version sat in the inbox

Ozz · Post by **Ozz** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 6:38 pm

By recovery Windows CD do you mean the installation CD?

If so, run it. When the installer starts, do not choose repair (console is evil). Choose install new Windows. Then select the drive on which you have Windows that was screwed up. Installer will find this Windows and ask if you want to repair it. At this point choose repair and go with it. I usually do this, cause you don't have to install all the software again and you're basically back to state Windows was before it was damaged. And I'm pretty sure the last time I did that was because of the same WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG problem. And it worked fine.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Nov 01, 2007 7:16 pm

Ozz wrote:By recovery Windows CD do you mean the installation CD?

If so, run it. When the installer starts, do not choose repair (console is evil). Choose install new Windows. Then select the drive on which you have Windows that was screwed up. Installer will find this Windows and ask if you want to repair it. At this point choose repair and go with it. I usually do this, cause you don't have to install all the software again and you're basically back to state Windows was before it was damaged. And I'm pretty sure the last time I did that was because of the same WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG problem. And it worked fine.

Actually, depending on the severity, Windows Installer Repair doesn't always see the existing installation, and if it does, the state at which it repairs to is not the most recent system restored state (that is only available by going through the console, and is mostly for restoring the registry anyway), but a default state that can involve lots of reinstallation/repairs of software particularly where DLLs have been replaced with older versions.

All of this is moot, anyway, as Pops doesn't have the Install CD.

A tool that might be useful, especially if you use the enclosure option (as I've found in the past), is GetDataBack, which can sift through damaged HDDs and find all sorts of wonderful things you never knew you'd had on your disk. Only problem is that it's blind to whether it's getting back data or garbage, that's for the user to determine.