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| Someone sent me a computer to work on.
Custom built, 512RAM, 2.6Ghz, XP Home, 80GB HD First thing, I opened it up and blew the dust out. Then I hooked it up and started it up. All was fine. I have some utilities on a flash drive that I use when I work on a computer, so I plugged in the flash drive. It recognized it, but there was an error loading the driver. Something like "driver was corrupted and unable to be installed." I went into Device Manager, uninstalled it, and tried again. Same thing. Tried a few more times. Same thing. Ok, so I can't use my flash drive, so I tried an external CD/DVD drive. Same exact problem as the flash drive. I restarted the computer. Disk Error: Insert System Disk to Continue. I restarted the computer again. Same thing. and again. Same thing. I restarted the computer again, POST passed, and a screen showing the settings came up showing the hard drive, but it hangs at "Verifying DMI Pool Data...." I looked this up online but so far nothing has worked. It won't boot from a system floppy, it still hangs. I put my XP disk in it and tried to do a Repair on it.
I pulled the hard drive out and hooked it up to my computer
The old drive was recognized at POST as 13.xx GB,
All I need to do is somehow get the data off of this drive.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. Pooh Bear |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| You wouldnt have a linux machine handy Pooh,,,sometimes Linux can read what windows cant...If you dont, maybe get a bootable linux distro on a cd and just use that |
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| Computer First Aid Using Knoppix "Windows just crashed. The computer won't boot back up. Those "System Recovery Disks" that came with your computer will erase all of your data. In most cases, when Windows breaks and will not start up again, none of your data has been lost, you just don't have a way to get to it. These instructions are a way of getting to your data when Windows won't work." See link please and good luck!
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Here is a link that might be useful: Computer First Aid Using Knoppix
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| With custom builds I have always found it needs the original operating system CD to any chore. Strange that we can use a different CD on factory builds but not custom boxes. Apart from Gene's suggestion I think I might download either a Kaspersky or Bitdender rescue CD. These need to be burned to a CD and the BIOS set to seek the DC/DVD player as first in boot sequence, then follow along to set it up, seek latest updates and scan the computer before Windows even starts. |
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- Posted by mike_kaiser (My Page) on Fri, Aug 12, 11 at 21:10
| You might consider using the driver manufacturer's diagnostic software. At least that would let you know if the drive is failing. |
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- Posted by poohbear2767 (My Page) on Fri, Aug 12, 11 at 21:14
| I have a Knoppix v6.2 CD. I booted into that. But it didn't look anything like at that link so I had no idea what to do with it from there. I also have a Knoppix v3.2 CD. I booted into that |
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- Posted by poohbear2767 (My Page) on Fri, Aug 12, 11 at 22:31
| I put the Knoppix v3.2 CD in and booted from that. I got the Knoppix desktop. But there were no hard drives listed. I shut it down and took the hard drive out. I don't know what to tell this nice lady about her computer. |
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- Posted by poohbear2767 (My Page) on Sat, Aug 13, 11 at 3:22
| I downloaded Hiren's Boot CD v14 and ran Tiny XP from it. Then I downloaded the diagnostic utility from Western Digital. This was the result:
The diagnostic utility recognizes that there is a drive there. |
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| Well at least you have a test report you can print to show the good lady. I suppose the date stamped on it is outside the warranty period? |
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| Probably too late to save anything from the drive. Don't know if this works, but you could try removing the HDD and putting it in the freezer for several hours. Then re-install and see if it is recognized. That might allow you to save information from it. |
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- Posted by ravencajun (My Page) on Sat, Aug 13, 11 at 13:44
| depending on how the drive has failed using the freeze method does work in some cases. However you need to be very fast and be ready to copy the data off to an external drive or flash drive it will now last long when it starts to thaw which is instantly. You need to put it in a zip lock bag in the freezer and leave it normally over night to get a good solid freeze. Then if you have those blue ice frozen things as soon as you take the HD out of the freezer keep that blue ice on it to keep it cold (some people actually use dry ice). Some people keep the HD out of the pc so they can keep it iced and last longer, if you have room to do that I would. try googling freeze a hard drive this is one of the many results |
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| PB, After taking the HD from the freezer, install it and initiate a cold boot? Sorry just couldn't pass that one up at my old friend's expense. |
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- Posted by ravencajun (My Page) on Sun, Aug 14, 11 at 12:30
| hahahaaa DA yes a VERY cold boot LOL |
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| Ahhhhhh!!! |
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- Posted by poohbear2767 (My Page) on Sun, Aug 14, 11 at 16:26
| I could try freezing the drive, but it would still take several hours to move the data off of it. The computer only has USB v1.1 ports. Couldn't move data fast enough. I'm just gonna have to tell her about the hard drive. Pooh Bear |
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| Hey PB I could have sworn I saw you driving down the highway by Ann Arbor Friday. At least the license plate on the Honda said it was you. When I pulled up along side the bleach blonde hair, the deep red lipstick, the dangling ear-rings, the cigarette, and the cellphone activity assured me it wasn't you. :-) DA |
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