# HDD Crash



## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

So we had a number of power outages yesterday that crashed my hard drive, (Dell with Win7).Tried all the usual things: safe mode, load last known good configuration, startup repair, chk desk, etc, its not going to start, it gets to the "Starting Windows" splash and stops. Of course Dell hasn't shipped an OS disk in quite a while.

Of course no recent backup done. Nothing serious only a few important things and I do have most of those copied to my DW's computer even if they are not up to date.

I know I can slave this hdd to another and probably get some of my files back, but didn't I read here I could boot a flavor of Linux and get to my file system?
How does that work? and which flavor of Linux?


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## Harry Chickpea (Dec 19, 2008)

The operating system appears to have crashed, not the hard drive. If the drive had crashed, you wouldn't get as far into the boot as you have.

You load Linux or whatever operating system onto a thumb drive or a CD from a good computer, then go into the BIOS and change the boot order of the Dell to start with the CD or USB, insert the thumb drive or CD, wait for it to boot up and then copy off files.


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

Thats what I needed. I made an Ubuntu flash drive to boot my computer and I'm copying my files now
Thanks


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## Harry Chickpea (Dec 19, 2008)

Happy to help. Before totally trashing the info on the HDD, with some versions of Windows you can do an overwrite of the operating system files. It has been ages since I've had to resort to that, and you do need a good Windows disk or partition, so that might not be an option for you.


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## Kung (Jan 19, 2004)

The other thing you can do (assuming you have other hard drives around) is to get a SATA to USB adapter. Then take the drive out of the system, connect it to the adapter, and connect said adapter to a working system. Then drag and drop files before you reload it if needed.


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

I got all the files I wanted/needed using the Ubuntu flash drive set up, and decided I'd explore Ubuntu as my OS for a while. Not sure I'll keep it permanently.

A guy from work is getting me a Win 7 Pro disk and I have my Key for it so if I decide to go back I can
.
I did spend quite a bit of time organizing my files more logically and getting rid of duplicates - a bit of housekeeping (Something you don't usually worry about in this age of 1TB HDD's but nice to do occasionally)- all in all I got 18 GB of files that I put on a flash drive, like I said everything I wanted /needed). 

Now if I can load my apps I'll keep Linux a while. Downloading WINE for it now (what you use to mimic windows to use windows apps)


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## Harry Chickpea (Dec 19, 2008)

Please let us know how you like the new setup. It is always good to have unbiased experiences of different systems. Glad you got all your files.


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## backwoodsman7 (Mar 22, 2007)

mnn2501 said:


> decided I'd explore Ubuntu as my OS for a while. Not sure I'll keep it permanently.


If you got the standard Ubuntu with their standard Mate interface, keep in mind there are other interfaces you might want to try if Mate doesn't work for you. Clearly someone must like it, but a lot of people (me, for instance) really don't. If you want an interface with a more standard, less bling-y configuration, I'd suggest XFCE for one you can install from Ubuntu's repository, or Trinity if you're up to installing something from elsewhere.


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

Ubuntu Day 1 (Friday) glad to find that I can load Ubuntu onto a flash drive and boot from it to save my Windows files to a flash drive. Spent til after midnight pulling off everything I needed. I had tried doing repairs, etc to Win7 but no go. Looked for Win7 Disk in stuff that came with computer originally, but it appears Dell no longer supplies an OS disk - jerks! The repair disk they supply is just not up to the task, kept freezing as one certain point.

Day 2 (Sat) I had brought my work laptop home (Win 7) I took all my files on the flash drive and went through them organizing them and getting rid of stuff I did not need, Decided I would try Ubuntu as my OS so loaded that as my only OS (Since Win7 was fried anyway) So while going through files on work computer I loaded Ubuntu on the home computer.
Day 2 Sat Evening - hmm a bit of a learning curve, How do you make desktop icons? Can you load disks that ran on Windows (games, productivity tools, etc) Googled tutorial for Ubuntu, spent much of evening looking at it. Appears much is command line driven, - my UNIX knowledge (what little I had) is 15 years ago. Do I really want to keep this?

Downloaded WINE (windows emulator) to allow my to load windows disks and use them.
Tried my favorite game the one I literally spend hours playing, splash screen started up but would not play. I'll figure it out tomorrow, getting late.


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

Ubuntu Day 3
Didn't get a chance to do anything until this afternoon, looked up all the WINE settings, they say its possible but I have changed the settings as they said and tried playing the game and still no go. Tried loading Photoshop (old version 7 I own) again brings up splash screen then stops, will not install. 
Must admit, Win7 is looking better to me. I'll decide later today or tomorrow.


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## ||Downhome|| (Jan 12, 2009)

give this a go mnn2501 

http://madmod.com/FxWinReg.txt



madmod said:


> "Use a Windows Restore Point for Windows Repair Using an Ubuntu Live-CD ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 1. Boot into your Ubuntu LiveCD on the offending machine. See Note 2 at the bottom for Windows Vista
> 
> 2. Navigate to the Windows drive and open the Windows Folder
> ...


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

Day 5 Ubuntu
Found an ISO online for Win 7 (the guy at work forgot his disk) downloaded it and made a dvd, will be reloading Win 7 Pro tonight.

I just don't have time to fiddle with a new OS that doesn't do what I want it to when I want it. Life's too short as is.
Ubuntu is interesting and if I had unlimited time to learn it, it would probably be worthwhile. I still have it loaded on the 64 GB flash drive so may as time permits I may play with it, heck with 64 GB that's more memory than my first 6 computers had combined. More than enough for a Unix based system.


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## ||Downhome|| (Jan 12, 2009)

awful lot of hassle to reinstall the do then
method above to repair you current installation, take about 5-10 mins to do and you get your system back as was before the crash.

worst case and it does not work then you do a repair install , just takes longer.

I got my system so tweaked it would take weeks redoing every thing. nope I will not be doing a install unless absolutely necessary.

thinking I may be on ignore?


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

Nope, not on ignore. I already had the issue fixed by the time you posted. At that point there was no windows drive, I had formatted the drive and put linux on the whole thing.

I did not have a Windows disk at the time it happened and could not boot the machine. I saved everything I needed/wanted using an Ubuntu Linux flash drive and decided to wipe the HDD and load Linux. Tried that for a few days, and didn't like it.
I am now back to a fresh install of Win7 and reloaded everything I had saved from my flash drive


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## ||Downhome|| (Jan 12, 2009)

you went the hard road, now your back up make yourself a boot cd 

http://www.hirensbootcd.org/files/Hirens.BootCD.15.2.zip

Use regedit back up your registry , and back up the C:\Windows\System32\config\RegBack folder. put in a safe place. 

And do like the above suggestion says, except boot up hirens.

super simple and you'll be back to new in a flash.


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

Already handled. Appreciate the suggestions but you were a few days too late. Everything was handled before last weekend except for reloading windows which was done last night.


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## ||Downhome|| (Jan 12, 2009)

Your right I suppose you'll never have to deal with that ever again....

Whats the old saying ounce of prevention worth a pound of cure? 

My advice above is intended for the future. 

I've grounded my system several times in the last year with bad software installs,virus what have you... its so nice to be up and running in less then
10 mins rather then take the time to reinstall, and reset up all my stuff...

Which would take weeks.... so I shared that not just for you but anyone else that might be reading this at some point. 

glad you got it handled.


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