Re: W/XP PC HD Crashed
- From: "John Wallace" <johnwallace4@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 17:16:47 -0000
"David J Dachtera" <djesys@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:47489CFC.7BEB9F63@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Apologies for the OT post. I know a lot of folks here use WhineBloze;
so, I'm hoping some one has some suggestions.
Came down here on Wednesday evening to find my WhineBloze PC complaining
that the hard drive seems to have disappeared.
Skipping the details for now, I'm looking for suggestions on disk data
recovery. I'm most interested in recovering my LookOut! file (.PSTs, and
such).
David J Dachtera
DJE Systems
Good luck. All is by no means lost yet, but more detail will be helpful.
0) How much is the data worth?
It seems the data wasn't backed up. Does this indicate the data is largely
worthless? If so, you won't be interested in a low hassle, high cost
solution such as a commercial data recovery outfit, correct? Sometimes these
folks can do remote data recovery so you don't even need to take (or post)
anything to them. If your data is largely worthless, working on the original
can simplify the recovery process somewhat but is obviously higher risk.
Otherwise you will need a block for block copy to work on, which can be done
using something like the unix/Linux dd utility (now would be a good time to
learn some Linux, if you didn't already).
1) What are the symptoms?
1a)What error messages are reported?
1b) Is the disk visible from the BIOS, and does the config look sensible? If
it's not, you may wish to try it from another PC.
1c) What partitions/filesystems were you expecting on the disk? Next steps
may depend on that. Eg if no NTFS, a W98 boot disk *might* be an interesting
next step. Let's assume there is NTFS, so a W98 boot disk isn't really
helpful.
1d) Can you get hold of something like a GHOST boot floppy/CD and use GDISK
to see if the partitions and filesystems are as you would expect?
What happens next depends on whether the partitions and filesystems are as
you would expect. If they are, you're most of the way there. Get something
bootable that will read the filesystem and allow you to save all the
readable bits somewhere else. If the bits you know you need are all
readable, the job is mostly done (apart from replacing the old system). A
Linux "Live CD" may be readily available, if not, now would be a good time
to get one. Boot it, and if the files you need are readable, store them
somewhere safe (a USB stick, a SAMBA share, etc - probably not relevant to
you, but maplin.co.uk are currently selling LAN-ready disk enclosures for
GBP30, part number a61fy, just add your own IDE drive and off you go)
If the partitions and filesystems are not as you would expect, life is more
complicated, especially if you want a DIY solution. I have found Active@
Partition Recovery (DOS version, US$30) to be helpful. Other
prettier-looking ones are available, some from vendors with bigger names.
Some of the big names have failed me where the folks at
www.partition-recovery.com have succeeded. Your choice. I'm not going into
more detail here as we don't know if it would be relevant to your
circumstances.
Assuming you can find your PST files and whatnot, what were you planning to
do next? Build a new system, take a backup, import the saved data, take
another backup, and continue from there would be one option.
Or maybe you could just connect the broken drive to a VMS box and write a
TECO macro or two to get the required data out...
Good luck
John Wallace
.
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