How to recover data from crashed laptop

B

Bobby

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Any suggestions on where/how to recover the contents of the hard disk of a laptop which will not start up. It is corrupted somehow, and all attempts at alternative startup routines using F8 have the same result; just before being prompted to login, it restarts again (Windows XP home edition). I'm guessing that reinstalling windows somehow will get the laptop functioning again, but a bigger concern is the contents of the HD which I cannot loose.
 
Hi Bobby - When faced with a similar situation, I had to remove the laptop hard drive, put it in a USB caddy, and then read the data via another PC. See for more details.
 
See . If you decide to buy a new laptop (2.5 inch form factor) hard disk and install that you may be able to recover data files from the old one using it as a second drive perhaps connected to the laptop with something like a USB external housing for a 2.5 inch disk drive. [broken link removed] sell them for €25 for example. Another option might be to download and burn a bootable live CD version of GNU/Linux such as [broken link removed] or Knoppix, boot that and then see what you can recover from the Windows hard drive.

Post crossed with Rainyday's.
 
Thanks lads, a couple of ideas to work on there. At least it's not a case of "you're f****d, all is lost"!
 
..

A similar idea to Knoppix but based on windows
Bart PE

www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

Between this and Knoppix almost anything can be recovered from a disk (as long as its not a complete hardware failure).
 
Re: ..

On a related note, can anybody recommend a reliable (online or otherwise) supplier for laptop HD's?

Best I've seen is €85 for a 40GB on Komplett.
 
Re: ..

[broken link removed] were doing a special on a 40GB (I think) 2.5 inch drive plus an external USB 2.0 housing for €100 a few weeks ago. Maybe if you ask nicely the might have some left and offer them at the special price...? No harm in asking.

Good point on the BartPE stuff machalla. Once thing to bear in mind is that Knoppix/Kanotix can bypass Windows NTFS security settings even if another Windows installation cannot! But that may not be an issue here.
 
If you are still stuck, I know of a guy in Dublin who specializes in recovering data from banjaxed hard drives, I think he charges about €300 for the job on a no-foal-no-fee basis. If you are interested, add a note here & I will track him down for you.
 
Steady on folks! I'm awaiting delivery of an external housing and 2.5" HD from Marx (cheers again Clubman) to give this a try myself. €300 is abit steep, as is €250 (sorry Clubman!), though I admit I'll stop at nothing to recover the family album, or else I'm in big trouble. I'll post when I make some progress.
Anyone got another bid in the meantime??
 
I'll keep it in mind Clubman!
What'll I do for free advice now if I don't manage it myself!!??
 
Just a follow up to my plight. Those jolly nice chaps in IT Direct on Parliament Street supplied me with a 40GB 2.5" HD for €94. It's a Hitachi Travelstar and it's pure silent. Can't hear it at all. I had gotten as far as piece-mealing my previous 20GB HD into 2 x 3GB partitions at either end of the drive with the intervening 14GB left unused.
 
I had gotten as far as piece-mealing my previous 20GB HD into 2 x 3GB partitions at either end of the drive with the intervening 14GB left unused.

Why? Because the "middle" 14GB is dodgy or something? If the disk was dodgy then I'd be inclined to bin it altogether once data had been recovered - unless you find low level format/test/analysis utilities for it that can screen out bad sectors etc. better than a standard format can. If it's not dodgy and you want to use it then you could use something like PartitionMagic (not free) or [broken link removed] (free/open source) to rearrange/resize the partitions (even FAT/NTFS ones).
 
Thanks ClubMan.

I've been using Partition Magic for many years. Hard to beat. As a student I learned to work around the dodgy sectors on a hard disk because I couldn't afford a new HD :) So my initial strategy has always been to work around them like this. I keep my 'stuff' on another machine on my network. I was ready to buy a HD last week but the person I was talking to in Maplin gave me prices for 3.5" over the phone so I had a bit of a shock when I was quoted double the price when I arrived in the shop! I was reluctant to buy online so I eventually had time to ring around yesterday and IT Direct came up trumps.
 
OK - be careful with that hard disk though if it's dodgy! ;) If you search for your specific hard disk make and model you may find that there are vendor's low level format/test/analysis tools available which may help get it into a more reliable state. Must drop up to IT Direct or the place I passed in Capel Street this morning to see if either has a USB 2.0/Firewire card for less than what are looking for. Any recommendations welcome...
 
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