Recover the system

[Scott]

I have a compaq notebook computer and cannot boot the system up. I suspect
the HDD broken-down and replace with a new HDD. I connect the old HDD with
USB hub with my desktop pc and can read all files of old HDD and
successfully copy the contents of the recovery partition. Is there any way
to use that partition to recover the whole system with the new HDD? It is
quite challenge work for me and seeking advice/guidance to do the next step.
Any one can help?

Thanks,

Scott

 

[Mark Adams]

I have a compaq notebook computer and cannot boot the system up. I suspect
the HDD broken-down and replace with a new HDD. I connect the old HDD with
USB hub with my desktop pc and can read all files of old HDD and
successfully copy the contents of the recovery partition. Is there any way
to use that partition to recover the whole system with the new HDD? It is
quite challenge work for me and seeking advice/guidance to do the next step.
Any one can help?

Thanks,

Scott

If you can read all of the files on the old hard drive, it sounds like it is
functioning. Why do you think it's "broken-down"? Because it won't boot? Put
the drive back in the machine and restore Windows from the recovery partition
using the instructions that came with the machine.

 

[Rich Barry]

Scott, Compaq which is now HP probably has there own software to use in
conjunction with the Recovery Partition. The RP is usually just a image of
the OS as it came from the factory. You will not be able to restore your
system the way it was before you had the breakdown. You can retrieve
important data but software that you had installed yourself will
have to be reinstalled.

 

[David]

Why do you say that?

You can copy all the files from one HD to another and it will work. I have
done it many times after having 3 HD fail on me and an upgrade process to a
larger HD.

One problem you may encounter though is if the HD you transfer to was a
slave drive to the one you are copying from. If that is the case, you need
to remove the drive that was a slave from your registry, else it will boot
but you won't get the sign-on screen.

What you might not be able to copy though is the recovery partition.
--
Best regards,
Dave Colliver.
http://www.AshfieldFOCUS.com
~~
http://www.FOCUSPortals.com - Local franchises available

 

[Mark Adams]

Why do you say that?

You can copy all the files from one HD to another and it will work. I have
done it many times after having 3 HD fail on me and an upgrade process to a
larger HD.

One problem you may encounter though is if the HD you transfer to was a
slave drive to the one you are copying from. If that is the case, you need
to remove the drive that was a slave from your registry, else it will boot
but you won't get the sign-on screen.

What you might not be able to copy though is the recovery partition.
--
Best regards,
Dave Colliver.
http://www.AshfieldFOCUS.com
~~
http://www.FOCUSPortals.com - Local franchises available

Depends on how "failed" the drive is. The OP said that he can read all of
the files by connecting to his desktop with a "USB hub". I assume that is a
USB enclosure. He said Windows won't boot. Well, Windows won't boot for a lot
of reasons not related to the condition of the drive. He hasn't given any
indication that the drive has truly failed. Since he can "read all his files"
including the recovery partition, he could clone the old drive to the new one
using the cloning software available for free from either hard drive's
manufacturer. Windows still won't boot though, if the boot issue was with
Windows and not the drive. He could recover the machine from the recovery
partition by using the procedure provided by the manufacturer; but he could
have done that on the old drive. He should also run the hard drive diagnostic
utilities that the manufacturer of the laptop or the hard drive provide.

I have a feeling we'll never hear back from the OP, so we will probably
never know.

 

[Scott]

If you can read all of the files on the old hard drive, it sounds like it
is
functioning. Why do you think it's "broken-down"? Because it won't boot?
Put
the drive back in the machine and restore Windows from the recovery
partition
using the instructions that came with the machine.

Yes, simply because it won't boot. I tried to press F11 and the pc change
to a screen. Then the screen becomes blank and stuck there until I press
the power on button till shut-off again. Obviously, I cannot recover the
system.

Scott

 

[Scott]

Scott, Compaq which is now HP probably has there own software to use in
conjunction with the Recovery Partition. The RP is usually just a image
of the OS as it came from the factory. You will not be able to restore
your system the way it was before you had the breakdown. You can retrieve
important data but software that you had installed yourself will
have to be reinstalled.

If I can restore the OS, it will be fine. However, I stuck to accomplish
it.

Scott

 

[Scott]

Why do you say that?

You can copy all the files from one HD to another and it will work. I have
done it many times after having 3 HD fail on me and an upgrade process to
a larger HD.

One problem you may encounter though is if the HD you transfer to was a
slave drive to the one you are copying from. If that is the case, you need
to remove the drive that was a slave from your registry, else it will boot
but you won't get the sign-on screen.

What you might not be able to copy though is the recovery partition.
--
Best regards,
Dave Colliver.
http://www.AshfieldFOCUS.com
~~
http://www.FOCUSPortals.com - Local franchises available

Do you mean to copy the partition C to the new HAD? It will work? So
basically the hard disk is broken-down but the data is still fine. Or I
misinterpret your meaning?

Scott

 

[Twayne]

Why do you say that?

You can copy all the files from one HD to another and it will work. I
have done it many times after having 3 HD fail on me and an upgrade
process to a larger HD.

You can NOT copy an operating system's files; Copy does not use Shadow
Copy or any other method of backing up files that are "in use" so those
files cannot/will not be transferred, effectively breaking the entire
thing. Neither can Xcopy.exe accomplish it. You need a cloning,
imaging or other type of backup program to get all of the files so the
operating system will function.

One problem you may encounter though is if the HD you transfer to was
a slave drive to the one you are copying from. If that is the case,
you need to remove the drive that was a slave from your registry,
else it will boot but you won't get the sign-on screen.

Whatever; pretty poor explanation IMO. If a Slave drive is made
bootable, it must be jumpered to be Master and the other drive jumpered
to be Slave.

What you might not be able to copy though is the recovery partition.

The recovery partition can be backed up using the aforementioned tools.
It should always be part of a backup. You can also simply "unhide" the
recovery partition in Disk Management. Disk Management will show ALL
partitions, hidden or not.
The recovery partition is very important to have on the bootable
drive. It should be copied to a DVD set and kept for later use just
incase a format ever trashes it/deletes it.

Manufacturer's of drives nearly all have a cloning program available
online that you can download. It allows you to make a clone of your
drive to another drive and of course is also free. If you can't find
it, ask them for it.

HTH,

Twayne`

 

[Twayne]

Do you mean to copy the partition C to the new HAD? It will work? So
basically the hard disk is broken-down but the data is still fine. Or
I misinterpret your meaning?

Scott

If it won't boot, that means someting has indeed gone wrong with the
drive. Files are missing or corrupted, the MBR has been damaged, etc..
That's somethign that will have to be figured out. Drives are cheap
enough these days it'd probably be better to get a new one and make a
data storage out of the old one if it's still OK for holding data.
Have you run chkdsk on the drive? Try it.
You could also try running fixmbr and bootcfg from the Recover
Console. Since the drive won't boot, try booting from one of the
bootable CDs that came iwth your system, or read through the
documentation for what to do. It should be there.

Twayne`

 

[Twayne]

If I can restore the OS, it will be fine. However, I stuck to
accomplish it.

Scott

Have you looked at Comaq's web site? They likely have articles on how
to recover your machine.

 

[Scott]

Have you looked at Comaq's web site? They likely have articles on how to
recover your machine.

Yes, I did. HP provides two methods to recover the system. If I am in
Windows, I can create recovery disks. If I can't, press F11 while booting
up the system. Obviously, both are not workable on my case.

Scott

 

[Mark Adams]

Yes, I did. HP provides two methods to recover the system. If I am in
Windows, I can create recovery disks. If I can't, press F11 while booting
up the system. Obviously, both are not workable on my case.

Scott

Scott, download the system checking utilities for your laptop and run them.
You may have some hardware failure other than the hard drive. If the utility
says the drive is bad, then that is likely the problem. If something else is
wrong, replacing the hard drive won't make any difference. We still don't
know if your hard drive is bad or not.

 

[Scott]

Scott, download the system checking utilities for your laptop and run
them.
You may have some hardware failure other than the hard drive. If the
utility
says the drive is bad, then that is likely the problem. If something else
is
wrong, replacing the hard drive won't make any difference. We still don't
know if your hard drive is bad or not.

Thanks for your suggestion. Could you please advise how I can run the
system checking utilities program if I can find it from HP website?

Scott

 

[Scott]

If it won't boot, that means someting has indeed gone wrong with the
drive. Files are missing or corrupted, the MBR has been damaged, etc..
That's somethign that will have to be figured out. Drives are cheap
enough these days it'd probably be better to get a new one and make a data
storage out of the old one if it's still OK for holding data.
Have you run chkdsk on the drive? Try it.
You could also try running fixmbr and bootcfg from the Recover Console.
Since the drive won't boot, try booting from one of the bootable CDs that
came iwth your system, or read through the documentation for what to do.
It should be there.

Twayne`

I ran a Windows XP installation disk and tried to repair the Windows as
suggested. The laptop executed "Setup is loading files." successfully but
stopped once changed to "Setup is starting Windows." I pressed the power
switch once and showed a blue screen saying DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL.
Does it mean there is hardware issue in the laptop and needs to go to HP for
repair?

Scott

 

[David]

Let me explain my sitation and why I absolutely know it works.

I am on my 5th hard disk and I have never done a recovery. Two of the hard
disks failed in identical ways... just wouldn't boot and nothing I did would
boot them, however, my files were still totally available. (The first HD was
failing and was replaced by Dell, the second hard disk was upgraded to my
third... and my third and fourth disk just failed in the identical way)

If the HD is in a caddy, then the files are just files. You can copy
everything. Copy, xcopy or even robocopy do not use shadow copy, so how have
I got my original system when I am on my 5th disk and I am supposed to not
be able to copy?

However, I booted up of a windows boot cd prior to the copy. Search for
ubcd4win to create your own windows boot cd.

I then robocopied everything. Nothing special. The drive had to be formatted
and made active prior to this.


The problem I had when I recoved my whole system was that the drive I used
had been used as a slave before (in a caddy, no jumper settings required),
ok, slave might have been the wrong word... a second disk. Because of this,
the drive ID was known to my copied OS. Have a look in
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices and rename the ex slave drive
letter to C.

The problem above manifested itself as windows booting fine, but no logon
screen... or booted right up to the logon screen WITH the failed HD in the
caddy.


However, I have had problems with robocopy in vista, due to the damn linked
paths (can't remember what the are called, like a shortcut) and one of the
linked paths linking to its parent, thereby creating a recursive tree.

--
Best regards,
Dave Colliver.
http://www.AshfieldFOCUS.com
~~
http://www.FOCUSPortals.com - Local franchises available

 

[Mark Adams]

Thanks for your suggestion. Could you please advise how I can run the
system checking utilities program if I can find it from HP website?

Scott

The utilities that I have used, run from CD. Download the utilities from
Compaq (HP) if there are any, to your desktop and burn them to CD. If there
are no utilities available, try the maker of the hard drive. Set the laptop
to boot from CD and put the utility disk you just made into the CD drive,
boot the machine from the disk and follow the instructions. If the disk won't
boot, you have deeper hardware issues like RAM or motherboard. Another test
you can make is with a Knoppix CD. Download from www.knopper.com and burn to
CD. Boot with it, you should be able to see and copy your files to a USB hard
drive.

Test the hard drive first; we need to confirm whether or not it is good
before we can do much else.

 

[Bill Sharpe]

Let me explain my sitation and why I absolutely know it works.

I am on my 5th hard disk and I have never done a recovery. Two of the hard
disks failed in identical ways... just wouldn't boot and nothing I did would
boot them, however, my files were still totally available. (The first HD was
failing and was replaced by Dell, the second hard disk was upgraded to my
third... and my third and fourth disk just failed in the identical way)

Something is very fishy with your Dell computer if you have gone through
four hard disk failures. I'm not disputing that you were able to get
your system back, but that's a lot of HD failures unless this is an old
laptop that may have been dropped several times, <g>

Bill
(who would brag about not having any HD failures in over 25 years except
that that would be the kiss of death. And my first computer didn't even
have a hard drive). And yes, I have an Acronis True Image disk in the
event of failure.

 

[Rich Barry]

David, if you are still out there the secret to copying OS to
another drive or partition is to first boot up with a windows boot cd prior
to the copy. Search for
ubcd4win to create your own windows boot cd.
I then robocopied everything. Nothing special. The drive had to be formatted
and made active prior to this. I will have to try this myself.

 

[Mark Adams]

I ran a Windows XP installation disk and tried to repair the Windows as
suggested. The laptop executed "Setup is loading files." successfully but
stopped once changed to "Setup is starting Windows." I pressed the power
switch once and showed a blue screen saying DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL.
Does it mean there is hardware issue in the laptop and needs to go to HP for
repair?

Scott

Scott, what type of XP disk and Service Pack level did you use to attempt
the repair? Be very specific; OEM (branded or unbranded), retail upgrade, or
full retail? The Service Pack level?