XP won't boot and C: drive turns empty

[zhixin_han]

Hi,

After powered down from a frozen Windows. Windows XP can't even boot to
safe mode and keeps rebooting. I used the repair console and found that
all the files and folders on the C: drive are gone (listed as empty).

I have tried using CHKDSK and FIXBOOT.

Would you help and tell me what I should do next to restore the
files/folder and Windows?

Thanks a lot.


Zhixin

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

Power the system off immediately. Remove the drive. Install it in a working
system, run data recovery tools from the other system. Everytime you try to
do something on the drive itself, you stand a chance of overwriting the lost
data. You may want to consider getting a knowledgable friend or technician
to do this for you. There are many tools available to help recover data.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Plato]

After powered down from a frozen Windows. Windows XP can't even boot to
safe mode and keeps rebooting. I used the repair console and found that
all the files and folders on the C: drive are gone (listed as empty).

Hard drive may have died. Check using another pc as the other responder
suggessted.

 

[zhixin_han]

I bought a new disk and now am trying to figure out what was wrong with
this one.

Tried to use SeaTools from Seagate (the manufacturer of the disk) to
diagnose. I can see the disk and the single partition are recognized
(partition recognized with some inconsistencies but not as failed). But
when quick and extensive self tests wouldn't go ahead. The SeaTools GUI
would just freeze after tests were started. So it seems that the disk
is really dead.

So now I am trying to recover some data if I can.

Thank you all for the help.


Zhixin

 

[zhixin_han]

Thank you all for the help.

Took it for repair and I was told that disk was bad and even data
retrieval wouldn't be easy.

Just bought a new disk and now am trying to figure out what was wrong
with
this one.

Tried to use SeaTools from Seagate (the manufacturer of the disk) to
diagnose. I can see the disk and the single NTFS partition are
recognized
(partition recognized with some inconsistencies but not as failed). But

quick and extensive self tests wouldn't go ahead. The SeaTools GUI
would just freeze after starting the tests. So it seems that the disk
is really dead. Is is possible that any misplaced data on section 0 is
preventing the tests from going forward? Or it is just a straight
hardware
failure?


Zhixin

 

[zhixin_han]

Last night I was trying to use DiskPatch from DIYDataRecovery.com to
see if I could see and do something on the boot sector and partition
table and so on. I booted it to DOS but DiskPatch won't run,
complaining "not enough memory". However, I was glad to see that the
files and folders are still there on the C: drive.

So now I can try to fix the boot sector to bring up the Windows again.
Of course I will try to backup the data first under DOS.

Regards,

Zhixin