Black screen w/cursor only in Vista

[Tullphan]

A friend left me his PC to work on.
When it boots up, all that comes up is a black screen w/cursor arrow. There's no icons, no taskbar...nothing. Ctrl-alt-del does nothing. Ctrl-shift-esc does nothing. Nothing when I right-click on the black "desktop".
I hooked it to another PC & when I attempted to access it, I got an "Access denied" message. (The hdd in question is an SATA as was the one in the PC I attempted to access it with.)
I've tried booting into safe mode, safe mode with command prompt...to no avail.
I tried a startup repair & it stated no OS files.
My friend has alot of important (to him) data on this drive that he doesn't wish to lose. I'll make sure I give him the "backup your data" speech later.
Ideas? Suggestions?

 

[SimMike2]

So you pulled the hard drive and tried to read it in another computer?

 

[Tullphan]

So you pulled the hard drive and tried to read it in another computer?

Yes, and I got an "Access Denied" message.
It's an HP. Is there a way to do an OS repair without losing personal data?

*Edit* There's no recovery disc. I tried a copy of Vista Ultimate I had, but I assume this PC had Vista Home & it stated my copy of Windows wasn't compatible.
If I tried doing an upgrade to Win7, would the user data be lost?

 

[bankster55]

Are you sure the HDD wands are actually working at all - seek noises, vibration? If its dead, you could try the ol' freezer trick

I have used 3 sw's in the past and one or the other always seems to work to retrieve data
GetDataBack ntfs 4.01
http://www.runtime.org/
RecoverMyFiles 4.6.6.935
http://www.recovermyfiles.com/or file tables
Zero Assumption recovery (ZAR) 8.5
http://www.z-a-recovery.com/

Recov utilities must always be used while within another HDD to import the files from the target to the recoverer
You should use RAW mode - which is just the data itself - no O/S or filetables. RAW mode helps avoid any access probs like OEM locked/hidden partitions
You MUST run apps in admin mode
All sw have trial downoads with varying functionality - at least you will know if the data is avail

 

[Tullphan]

Are you sure the HDD wands are actually working at all - seek noises, vibration? If its dead, you could try the ol' freezer trick

I have used 3 sw's in the past and one or the other always seems to work to retrieve data
GetDataBack ntfs 4.01
http://www.runtime.org/
RecoverMyFiles 4.6.6.935
http://www.recovermyfiles.com/or file tables
Zero Assumption recovery (ZAR) 8.5
http://www.z-a-recovery.com/

Recov utilities must always be used while within another HDD to import the files from the target to the recoverer
You should use RAW mode - which is just the data itself - no O/S or filetables. RAW mode helps avoid any access probs like OEM locked/hidden partitions
You MUST run apps in admin mode
All sw have trial downoads with varying functionality - at least you will know if the data is avail

Yes, it's working. It's going through the whole process of booting into Windows like normal...just no desktop or anything.

 

[RebateMonger]

You didn't give information on your OSes, but the basic workaround for the "Access Denied" error is likely here. Unless the disk is badly messed up:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421

 

[bankster55]

well, recov sw in raw mode dont need no O/S or MBR or partition table
why dont you just try it

 

[Tullphan]

well, recov sw in raw mode dont need no O/S or MBR or partition table
why dont you just try it

I ran ZAR & what shows up is jibberish. I really can't make heads or tails out of it.

You didn't give information on your OSes, but the basic workaround for the "Access Denied" error is likely here. Unless the disk is badly messed up:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421

The OS on the PC in question is Vista. I'm running & attempting to access it with Win7.