Corrupt files after power failure - and Half life 2 is coming tomorrow ARGGH!!:-(

[IcEY]

Hey guys,

I'm writing here to see if I can get some advice from you clever
people here!As I think i'm about to cry, and am not too knowledgable
on drive issues like this..

I was going to try and fix things after I get home from work but
thought it would be good to get a bit of advice/suggestions from here
first.

Just last week I was using the computer while on the net. I was moving
my computer and while doing this the power cable fell out(NEVER A
PROBLEM BEFORE!!)!

First boot up after this windows comes on complaining that it cannot
locate the local profile, then has an exception and continues to
inform me windows will be shut down in one minute and I should save
and close and programs (thought it never booted far enough for me to
load anything anyway)

Didn't think it would be much of an issue but it seems to have totally
knackered things. Now, if windows manages to boot up at all. it
crashes very quickly.

It appears on my desktop some of my shortcuts are still there, however
my background picture and all files that were situated on the desktop
have dissapeared. I cannot access any files on my main windows drive
(d as it says windows is unable to locate file or some of it's
components. However I can still browse through all the folders and
files as I would normally. It even (if having booted up fully)
connects to the internet and activates internet sharing correctly so
my other computer can browse without problems.

Typically at this point if I try loading anything it either doesn't
load, attempts to load then freezes, or gives me a blue screen fatal
exception and/or then proceeds to do a memory dump (which can also
happen randomly).

It doesn't boot to safe mode either, or rather it half loads up safe
mode then dies. I bit the bullet and tried to re-install windows
(windows 2000) but it cannot repair/re-install as while scanning the
disk it says the drive is corrupt and cannot continue.

Now this is the point where I start to shit myself! As I have alot of
stuff on drive D, that while not really valuable in monetary terms
would be a right royal complete bastard pain in the arse if I were to
lose(Backups? Who are they???)!!!:-(

My main question, after assuming that a power failure won't physically
damage the disk but rather just damage the files, is do I really need
to format the whole of drive D and re-install windows to sort this
mess out? Or is there any way I can get away with just the windows
directory, or any way I could possibly try to nab some files off the
disk before formatting or run a scandisk to see if it is recoverable,
as I'm really not experienced in setting up drives and generally
dealing with stuff such as this.

What would be my first port of call in this situation? I do have
another working computer available if that would be of any use(can I
hook the disk up to this one as a slave or something and try and
access the files off this??).

I have a general enough knowledge of computers and kind of know what I
would need to do. It is the actual specifics and ways of going about
it that I am unsure of, e.g. what I would need to do first, what
programs I would need etc.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated as half life 2 is out tomorrow
and I wan't it up and running for then

Thank's in advance guys


Andy R

 

[Guest]

boot to safe mode(press F8 during boot to get menu)
and try check disk on C drive.

 

[Mark]

boot to safe mode(press F8 during boot to get menu)
and try check disk on C drive.

Hmm, I did mention that even safe mode won't boot:-(

 

[CJT]

Hey guys,

I'm writing here to see if I can get some advice from you clever
people here!As I think i'm about to cry, and am not too knowledgable
on drive issues like this..

I was going to try and fix things after I get home from work but
thought it would be good to get a bit of advice/suggestions from here
first.

Just last week I was using the computer while on the net. I was moving
my computer and while doing this the power cable fell out(NEVER A
PROBLEM BEFORE!!)!

First boot up after this windows comes on complaining that it cannot
locate the local profile, then has an exception and continues to
inform me windows will be shut down in one minute and I should save
and close and programs (thought it never booted far enough for me to
load anything anyway)

Didn't think it would be much of an issue but it seems to have totally
knackered things. Now, if windows manages to boot up at all. it
crashes very quickly.

It appears on my desktop some of my shortcuts are still there, however
my background picture and all files that were situated on the desktop
have dissapeared. I cannot access any files on my main windows drive
(d as it says windows is unable to locate file or some of it's
components. However I can still browse through all the folders and
files as I would normally. It even (if having booted up fully)
connects to the internet and activates internet sharing correctly so
my other computer can browse without problems.

Typically at this point if I try loading anything it either doesn't
load, attempts to load then freezes, or gives me a blue screen fatal
exception and/or then proceeds to do a memory dump (which can also
happen randomly).

It doesn't boot to safe mode either, or rather it half loads up safe
mode then dies. I bit the bullet and tried to re-install windows
(windows 2000) but it cannot repair/re-install as while scanning the
disk it says the drive is corrupt and cannot continue.

Now this is the point where I start to shit myself! As I have alot of
stuff on drive D, that while not really valuable in monetary terms
would be a right royal complete bastard pain in the arse if I were to
lose(Backups? Who are they???)!!!:-(

My main question, after assuming that a power failure won't physically
damage the disk but rather just damage the files, is do I really need
to format the whole of drive D and re-install windows to sort this
mess out? Or is there any way I can get away with just the windows
directory, or any way I could possibly try to nab some files off the
disk before formatting or run a scandisk to see if it is recoverable,
as I'm really not experienced in setting up drives and generally
dealing with stuff such as this.

What would be my first port of call in this situation? I do have
another working computer available if that would be of any use(can I
hook the disk up to this one as a slave or something and try and
access the files off this??).

I'd probably give that a try if it were mine.

 

[Guest]

sorry, boot to recovery console and do chkdsk c: