Can I save my data?
October 12, 2005 9:36 AM Subscribe
Can I save my data?
My computer had some kind of huge software clusterfuck and now Windows doesn't load. Whenever I turn on the computer the BIOS? or something loads but instead of getting the Windows logo after that the computer says "please insert boot disk and press any key." Now I have a restore disk so I can probably get the computer running again. But when you run the restore disk it wipes your hard drive and I'd like to find out what my options are for saving the files. There isn't anything terribly important on it but I have a ton of mp3's that I'd hate to lose. Also, I have two 60 gig hard drives. The C one has all the software on it and I was using the D solely as storage for mp3s and what not. When I run the restore disk will it wipe both drives or just the C one? FYI, everything I learned about computers I learned from tv. Thanks.
My computer had some kind of huge software clusterfuck and now Windows doesn't load. Whenever I turn on the computer the BIOS? or something loads but instead of getting the Windows logo after that the computer says "please insert boot disk and press any key." Now I have a restore disk so I can probably get the computer running again. But when you run the restore disk it wipes your hard drive and I'd like to find out what my options are for saving the files. There isn't anything terribly important on it but I have a ton of mp3's that I'd hate to lose. Also, I have two 60 gig hard drives. The C one has all the software on it and I was using the D solely as storage for mp3s and what not. When I run the restore disk will it wipe both drives or just the C one? FYI, everything I learned about computers I learned from tv. Thanks.
You should mount the disk on another computer and copy the data over to a spare drive. Don't reinstall windows or do a windows restore until the data you want is safe.
posted by null terminated at 9:40 AM on October 12, 2005
posted by null terminated at 9:40 AM on October 12, 2005
Ah, if all the data you want isn't on your C drive, do what jacquilynne suggests.
posted by null terminated at 9:41 AM on October 12, 2005
posted by null terminated at 9:41 AM on October 12, 2005
Response by poster: just physically remove it from the computer before you start.
Is that difficult? I don't want to mess up my computer more than it already is.
You should mount the disk on another computer and copy the data over to a spare drive.
Dude, I've never mounted anything in my life. But if I figure out how to disconnect and reconnect if to another computer, how will that make the data accessible? The problem with the C drive is that it doesn't boot up so that I can see any of the data.
posted by nooneyouknow at 10:09 AM on October 12, 2005
Is that difficult? I don't want to mess up my computer more than it already is.
You should mount the disk on another computer and copy the data over to a spare drive.
Dude, I've never mounted anything in my life. But if I figure out how to disconnect and reconnect if to another computer, how will that make the data accessible? The problem with the C drive is that it doesn't boot up so that I can see any of the data.
posted by nooneyouknow at 10:09 AM on October 12, 2005
But if I figure out how to disconnect and reconnect if to another computer, how will that make the data accessible? The problem with the C drive is that it doesn't boot up so that I can see any of the data.
That's why you hook it up to another computer that has a working C drive. Your illin' hard disk then becomes the D or E or F or Q or Z drive and you can copy stuff off it.
It's really easy, there are two cables (one for power and one for data) and they're held in by friction and just pull out. Different cases have different ways of physically getting the drive out (the case I use, an Antec, has a little lever you pull that frees a "cage" that holds all the hard disks, which then slides out) but the drives themselves are mounted to the cage (or whatever mounting system your case uses) with small Philips screws.
posted by kindall at 10:17 AM on October 12, 2005
That's why you hook it up to another computer that has a working C drive. Your illin' hard disk then becomes the D or E or F or Q or Z drive and you can copy stuff off it.
It's really easy, there are two cables (one for power and one for data) and they're held in by friction and just pull out. Different cases have different ways of physically getting the drive out (the case I use, an Antec, has a little lever you pull that frees a "cage" that holds all the hard disks, which then slides out) but the drives themselves are mounted to the cage (or whatever mounting system your case uses) with small Philips screws.
posted by kindall at 10:17 AM on October 12, 2005
Oh yeah. There are probably a set of pins on the back of the drive that tell the drive whether to be the master or the slave. You cover pairs of pins with little plastic doohickeys called "jumpers" to configure this. Each drive is a little different and so there is usually a diagram printed somewhere that tells you how to put on the jumpers.
If you're lucky your drives are both set to Cable Select (which tells the drive to figure out whether it should be the master or the slave based on which connector it's hooked up to on the cable; there are two). If your drive doesn't have this feature then your C drive is set to Master and your D drive is set to Slave. When you put your C drive in the other PC you'll need to set it to Slave because the other PC's C drive is already the master.
posted by kindall at 10:21 AM on October 12, 2005
If you're lucky your drives are both set to Cable Select (which tells the drive to figure out whether it should be the master or the slave based on which connector it's hooked up to on the cable; there are two). If your drive doesn't have this feature then your C drive is set to Master and your D drive is set to Slave. When you put your C drive in the other PC you'll need to set it to Slave because the other PC's C drive is already the master.
posted by kindall at 10:21 AM on October 12, 2005
Oooh, I've had something similar happen (and I've never mounted anything in my life either!). Has it been unplugged for a period of time recently? Here's what worked for me, after I determined that the silly computer was looking for the operating system in the A drive and then quitting when it didn't find anything (which sounds similar to your problem).
There should be some settings in your BIOS that allows you to change your boot configuration. Check this, and make sure it looks in the Hard Drive as the primary. That's what you want to happen. If that doesn't work (or if you can't find that setting) I found some BIOS setting that enabled clearning some boot memory settings and enabled that too. Restarted and worked like a charm.
This may be happening because your CMOS battery is dead or dying - if you've had the computer for awhile you probably need a new one. They look like watch batteries, only bigger, and are easy to replace. As I understand it, this is where your BIOS settings are stored, so if the battery is low the BIOS may have gotten screwy.
Hope that helps; might not be the problem at all, but it sounds very similar to an issue I just resolved.
posted by tr33hggr at 11:02 AM on October 12, 2005
There should be some settings in your BIOS that allows you to change your boot configuration. Check this, and make sure it looks in the Hard Drive as the primary. That's what you want to happen. If that doesn't work (or if you can't find that setting) I found some BIOS setting that enabled clearning some boot memory settings and enabled that too. Restarted and worked like a charm.
This may be happening because your CMOS battery is dead or dying - if you've had the computer for awhile you probably need a new one. They look like watch batteries, only bigger, and are easy to replace. As I understand it, this is where your BIOS settings are stored, so if the battery is low the BIOS may have gotten screwy.
Hope that helps; might not be the problem at all, but it sounds very similar to an issue I just resolved.
posted by tr33hggr at 11:02 AM on October 12, 2005
Actualy, several diffrent things could have happened. Anyone of us could probably help you out *if* we were local.
If you know *anyone* who knows how to put together a PC they can probably help you out. My advice is to try to find someone who can actualy come over to your place and help you out.
posted by delmoi at 11:17 AM on October 12, 2005
If you know *anyone* who knows how to put together a PC they can probably help you out. My advice is to try to find someone who can actualy come over to your place and help you out.
posted by delmoi at 11:17 AM on October 12, 2005
First of all, are you sure there's not a floppy disk in the A: drive? If there is the BIOS will try to boot from it and most are not bootable, thus the error. It's a long shot, but I've seen it happen before where people totally forget about that disk in there and freak out. :-)
If that's not it, it sounds like the boot sector was simply erased. You may be able to recover it by booting from a floppy or cdrom and running "fdisk /mbr" or something similar. Unfortunately I don't have links or details, but try starting at bootdisk.com. Google with some key phrases (like "boot sector" or "mbr" or "recover") might get you some guides.
Another option you could take would be to boot a liveCD (either linux [e.g. knoppix] or windows [e.g. bart's]) and then copy your data files to another computer over the network, or burn them to DVDR / CDR. If that's not possible, then you can go the route suggested above and mount the drive in another computer.
posted by Rhomboid at 4:55 PM on October 12, 2005
If that's not it, it sounds like the boot sector was simply erased. You may be able to recover it by booting from a floppy or cdrom and running "fdisk /mbr" or something similar. Unfortunately I don't have links or details, but try starting at bootdisk.com. Google with some key phrases (like "boot sector" or "mbr" or "recover") might get you some guides.
Another option you could take would be to boot a liveCD (either linux [e.g. knoppix] or windows [e.g. bart's]) and then copy your data files to another computer over the network, or burn them to DVDR / CDR. If that's not possible, then you can go the route suggested above and mount the drive in another computer.
posted by Rhomboid at 4:55 PM on October 12, 2005
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:38 AM on October 12, 2005