PLEASE HELP!!! Extracting informaiton...

[HitmanAngel2k3]

Well, my laptop went down...won't boot into Windows...what happens is WIndows XP screen appears, running bars below the logo and then BOOM! BSOD!!! Keeps saying that can't boot and all that other crap, but won't tell me which driver or what exactly is wrong...I found UltimateBoot CD 3.3 and want to know if its possible to copy all of the information out of the drive in my laptop to some external one or somehow hook it up to desktop and clone/transfer data like that. Can anyone help me out? I used to use my laptop for everything and it has a lot of vital information for business, but now can't even load

My laptop is Dell Inspiron 1150 with 60GB HDD (HTS548060M9AT00, 60GB, 5400 RPM, interface is ATA-6)

On UBCD, I found PC Inspector Clone Maxx, is it possible to hook it all up somehow to get information out?

I just need to get information out, then i'll wipe it clean and re-install Windows.

Thank you very much in advance.

 

[LookinAround]

If you boot from CD, you should be able to access your hard drive unless you had a problem with the drive preventing you from reading it.

Once you boot from CD you should be able to copy anything you want as normal from the hard drive. But before you try copying files from the drive, i would guess there a disk tests on the boot CD which you can use to first verify the integrity of the disk surface, etc.

Are you actually booting when you put the CD in the removable drive?

 

[HitmanAngel2k3]

If you boot from CD, you should be able to access your hard drive unless you had a problem with the drive preventing you from reading it.

Once you boot from CD you should be able to copy anything you want as normal from the hard drive. But before you try copying files from the drive, i would guess there a disk tests on the boot CD which you can use to first verify the integrity of the disk surface, etc.

Are you actually booting when you put the CD in the removable drive?

I'll try to use some DOS filing system, but it says that "drive c: is not accessible" last time I tried, what does that mean? THank you in advance for your help

 

[LookinAround]

c: happened to be the device letter of your hard drive

c: not accessible means it can't read that drive at all

On the one hand, we know that the drive CAN be read because your normal boot up starts reading from drive c:. It finally crashes when it finds bad data or the like in a file it uses for the boot process.

Booting from CD means everything needed for your computer to start from the CD must be contained on the CD, included the drivers needed to read your hard drive if they're not standard.

I'd guess that's exactly the problem here. The CD doesn't include the drivers needed to read from the harddrive. But there's usually a method provided by the cd boot to provide the drivers needed.

Do you know what kind of hard drive you have? what is the boot CD name and version? To be certain about the hard drives get your system information

Control Panel -> System
Click Hardware Tab. Click Device Manager button.

You;ll see a hierarchical tree displayed. Look for Disk Drives and click the + to expand. There may be a handful of entries. It's probably the first one. And it won't have USB in the line entry u may see some that do.

Right click on the hard drive entry, select Properties. Click Driver. Write down the drive string name (at top of Driver tab window) along with the Driver Provider, Date and version... I'm guessing the provider u see isn't Microsoft as i'd think standard drivers from MS would be on the CD (unless it was a custom CD you found someone built)

 

[DelJo63]

boot into Safe Mode using F8

 

[HitmanAngel2k3]

c: happened to be the device letter of your hard drive

c: not accessible means it can't read that drive at all

On the one hand, we know that the drive CAN be read because your normal boot up starts reading from drive c:. It finally crashes when it finds bad data or the like in a file it uses for the boot process.

Booting from CD means everything needed for your computer to start from the CD must be contained on the CD, included the drivers needed to read your hard drive if they're not standard.

I'd guess that's exactly the problem here. The CD doesn't include the drivers needed to read from the harddrive. But there's usually a method provided by the cd boot to provide the drivers needed.

Do you know what kind of hard drive you have? what is the boot CD name and version? To be certain about the hard drives get your system information

Control Panel -> System
Click Hardware Tab. Click Device Manager button.

You;ll see a hierarchical tree displayed. Look for Disk Drives and click the + to expand. There may be a handful of entries. It's probably the first one. And it won't have USB in the line entry u may see some that do.

Right click on the hard drive entry, select Properties. Click Driver. Write down the drive string name (at top of Driver tab window) along with the Driver Provider, Date and version... I'm guessing the provider u see isn't Microsoft as i'd think standard drivers from MS would be on the CD (unless it was a custom CD you found someone built)

I've posted it earlier, its a Hitachi 60GB HD (HTS548060M9AT00, 60GB, 5400 RPM, interface is ATA-6), as for Ultimate Boot CD it is versioin 3.3

boot into Safe Mode using F8

It does same thing for safe mode also

 

[HitmanAngel2k3]

Would it work if i hooked up external HDD through USB, to copy all of the information from HDD of laptop?

 

[DelJo63]

I bought Knoppix 5.* bootable Linux CD for just this purpose.

It runs without any install directly from the CD and it mounts your HD
(if it's still a viable partition) in read-only.

I can point you to a thread that describes how to get an external USB HD
mounted in write mode so you can use the GUI system to copy off the files
you need.

 

[HitmanAngel2k3]

I bought Knoppix 5.* bootable Linux CD for just this purpose.

It runs without any install directly from the CD and it mounts your HD
(if it's still a viable partition) in read-only.

I can point you to a thread that describes how to get an external USB HD
mounted in write mode so you can use the GUI system to copy off the files
you need.

If you could show me the way, I'd be glad to try it out. Thank you in advance for your help.

 

[DelJo63]

see this post for Linux access to Win/xp HD

 

[LookinAround]

1. OK. I looked and it doesn't appear any special drivers are required for that hard drive. The necessary driver is included with XP so i'd assume available on the boot cd as well
2. Instead of booting into safe mood have you tried selecting Last Known Good Configuration from the list of options you see after hitting F8?
3. If your normal boot gets as far as the Windows logo and then you get BSOD your computer is accesssing the hard drive during normal bootup. is just not UBCD it would seem
4. Exactly what sequence of menus are you using in UBCD v3.3?
5. fyi... I've built my own UBCD4Win (is different from UBCD) bootable CD in the past, have used it often and it works without problem (I have a Hitachi, tho different model Hitachi hard drive). I see a prebuilt generalized version is availalbe on download. com. Here's a link if you want to try that instead.

 

[HitmanAngel2k3]

1. OK. I looked and it doesn't appear any special drivers are required for that hard drive. The necessary driver is included with XP so i'd assume available on the boot cd as well
2. Instead of booting into safe mood have you tried selecting Last Known Good Configuration from the list of options you see after hitting F8?
3. If your normal boot gets as far as the Windows logo and then you get BSOD your computer is accesssing the hard drive during normal bootup. is just not UBCD it would seem
4. Exactly what sequence of menus are you using in UBCD v3.3?
5. fyi... I've built my own UBCD4Win (is different from UBCD) bootable CD in the past, have used it often and it works without problem (I have a Hitachi, tho different model Hitachi hard drive). I see a prebuilt generalized version is availalbe on download. com. Here's a link if you want to try that instead.

1. Yes, when I boot from CD, it recognizes the HDD.
2. Last know configuration does the same thing, WinXP logo shows up, little bars on the bottom run and then BSOD.
3. I'll have to check again and get back to you
4. I'll give it a try also, the other I downloaded UBCD4Win, we'll see if it works out.

Thank you for your help so far.

 

[HitmanAngel2k3]

I bought Knoppix 5.* bootable Linux CD for just this purpose.

It runs without any install directly from the CD and it mounts your HD
(if it's still a viable partition) in read-only.

I can point you to a thread that describes how to get an external USB HD
mounted in write mode so you can use the GUI system to copy off the files
you need.

I found this Knoppix, if i burn it, or make bootable disk out of it, will it work?

 

[LookinAround]

1. Apologies in that i thought the link i gave u in previous post went to a finished UBCD4Win .iso but now see it goes to the build setup.. (tho don't recall it as difficult when i did it back when)
2. If you are going to buy something, i'd suggest just making your life easy and buying a backup/recover/disk cloning application developed for Windows. I suggest Acronis True Image Home v10. It provides backup/recovery/and bootable CD recovery functions. You can also use it to clone the image of your hard drive so you always can restore a copy of your current disk image then work on whatever you want work on any time in the future. Be advised: You need the recovery CD in your case (which is a bootable CD for just your problem).
   • If you buy the CDs, you have 'em (just find a retailer near you)
   • If you downlooad and buy online, you have to use their application to build the recovery CD and burn it
   I use this product and find it very worthwhile. I bought the CDs so will only guess their process of building your own can't be hard

 

[HitmanAngel2k3]

Its all good. I made Knoppix CD and booted up the laptop, going to get the information out of it and then re-format it all.

Thank you for pinting me to the right direction.

Thanks y'all for your help.

 

[LookinAround]

Glad you got the information back but ummmm... maybe this experience provides a good reason to go buy good backup/recovery software anyway.. and use it


(and invest in an external hard drive to backup to so it's on different media then the original. the external hdd helps make the backups easy as well)

 

[HitmanAngel2k3]

Thank you all who helped out Greatly appreciated Learned a lot from this and got a cool software, i.e. Knoppix Thanks once again

 

[Hexon]

Linux's 'Damn Small' is also a good one for situations such as this. An OS that can fit on a USB key (as its only 50mb large).

 

[DelJo63]

you're wellcome. If you need help with Knoppix, use a private message to me