Computer partially dead, need help reviving

[digital_blue]

If I'm not mis-reading, your Ubuntu distro is running fine still. Why not copy off your data using this instead, then wipe everything and do a clean reinstall?

If the computer was "uncleanly" shut down, you cannot access the main drive; I can't boot windows to "cleanly" shut down so I don't have too many options... As for wiping everything out, I've considered that but I also loose the recovery partition(aka reinstall windows utility); I'm not about to pay HP $15 for some stupid recovery disks that should have been included...

 

[GreenMachine]

i think you can force mount the drive.. i dont have the exact syntax , but i know its possible

 

[schmag]

hp will generally if you get froggy with them in the event of an hdd failure being that they didn't ship recovery cds with the notebook you can pressure them into sending the disks to you.
use the reasoning that you purchased this copy of windows with the notebook, and now that the hdd has failed you have no way to install your purchased copy of windows because they never sent you discs.

 

[roddenberry]

My suggestion to really see if your HD is toast is to get this device:

DealExtreme: $1.85 2.5in to 3.5in Harddisk Convertor

And then remove your hard disk from your laptop, plug it in on a free IDE connector in a desktop PC (making sure to respect the master/slave settings of the drives on that IDE chain) and boot from the desktop's HD. If the "faulty" drive mounts and is accessible, you can then retrieve your data from it. And if it looks okay, you can then format it and run it through tests with a HD utility.

From that point on, you can try to reinstall the disk in your laptop and reinstall WinDo'h!

But if the disk gives you a hard time in the desktop, chuck it as far as you can and invest in a new HDD.

Robert

 

[HIMNL9]

Well, if you need to recover data from a damaged disk, also FileScavenger works good enough ..... just, need to connect the disk on another pc, cause, as any decent data recovery program, it don't allow you to write on the same disk where you're reading .....

But for phisically damaged disks, there's nothing too much to do .....

 

[digital_blue]

Thanks for all the advice guys. As for the HD itself, I have a gut feeling that it's physically damaged. The fact that the Ubuntu partition still runs kinda convinces me that the HD is still salvageable. I am still trying to get ubuntu to mount the drive...

 

[maurits150]

Okay, so after nearly 2 years of constant abuse(slamming keyboard/trackpad, throwing, dropping, rough handling, etc) my laptop finally decided to conk out. I was typing up a report when the computer decided to "act up"; in a rushed and pissed off state, I slammed the trackpad pretty hard. At that point, things started going downhill, the mouse and screen still worked but nothing would open when clicked. I left it for about 20 minutes and nothing had changed so I attempted to restart it by holding down the power button. Since then, I have not been able to boot windows; I am running dual boot(ubuntu and vista). For some reason, Ubuntu seems to be running perfectly fine; it's Vista that doesn't boot. Any attempts to boot vista is met with a black screen. I have a feeling that I may have caused the HD to crash/corrupt files when I hit the computer.

The main problem now is backing up some files. I know enough DOS commands to transfer my stuff to an external but I can't seem to get a DOS window. Upon startup, there are no options to boot windows in safe mode, DOS, etc. Anyone have any suggestions on how to get a DOS command prompt? BTW, my laptop is a HP pavilion DV2500(Got it back in late 07).

thanks

I doubt that you can recover all your data after a headcrash occurred. Good luck though.

:undecided:

 

[jamiphar]

I would give this program a try: PhotoRec. It's simple, free, and does a very good job of recovering files.

I was recently working on a damaged drive that wouldn't even mount (in Windows or Linux) until I sealed it in a bag and submerged it in ice water. Using PhotoRec, I was able to recovery quite a bit of the data.

I'd be glad to help you if you have any questions, just send me a PM.