How to Recover files on trashed hard drive

[greenlie]

I have a Dell Inspiron 8600 notebook running Win XP SP2 with four user
profiles. First my profile went bad with a message indicating corrupt
registry files and then the whole thing went. While booting up it
first goes to a black screen with many options; safe mode etc. No
matter what option is selected, it ends up on a blue screen of death
indicating unmountable boot volume.

After two chats with Dell (guys in Bombay, eh?) they will replace my
hard drive but will not assist in recovering any data. We have digital
family photos, tax files etc. that we would like to try to recover.

Can this be done through a slave drive setup? We have some files
stored under our password protected logins (My Documents) but many are
in shared, non-password protected folders. There are software install
w/passwrord on the root c-drive. We have a Dell desktop also running
WinXP SP2 - can this be used? A rethere any options for recovering
files stored under user profiles? If we try this ourselves do we riun
any chance of using a data recovery service?

Thanks

 

[FreeComputerConsultant.com]

If the drive is going bad, I would be hesitant to try anything with that
drive other than something that will immediately attempt to save off the
data, or yes, you may make your chances of recovery worse.

A competent technician can take the drive out of the laptop (as long as
that doesn't void the warranty), and using an adapter can install in
another PC that he has or your 2nd PC to backup all data, no matter what
user it's under. - that's an option, and yes you would have to pay him
for that work.

If you have a USB hard drive, you (or someone you hire) could use drive
imaging software. Boot from the Image software's recovery CD and save
all of the data to the USB drive. I like Acronis True image.

read about it here:
http://www.freecomputerconsultant.com/computer-backup-success-1.html

There are likely other utilities and options as well. There is no need
to lose your data.

But PLEASE, backup next time BEFORE disaster strikes.

http://www.freecomputerconsultant.com/computer-backup.html

 

[greenlie]

OK, so if I had a USB hard drive how would I use the imaging software
to recover files that I never backed up to begin with?

 

[FreeComputerConsultant.com]

If the drive is accessible but not bootable, you boot from a recovery CD
(that will have to be made on another PC, with Acronis you want to
choose "full" version for making recovery CD).

Boot with the recovery CD and see if the image software will "see" the
data on the drive and back it up. Acronis recovery CD will allow backup
as well as restore.

www.FreeComputerConsultant.com