Hard Drive Problem

[Phenocain]

I have a Compaq Presario 6470 NX computer something happened to it and now whenever I try to boot it up this message comes up A read Disk Error occured. Press control alt Delete to reboot. I have done this and the same error keeps coming up. I tried to do use the system recovery on my computer and even tried the recovery cd's and diskettes that came with it to get my computer running again. They don't work and I get Error Codes. I think the Hard Drive is messed up and I probably need to get a new one. That not a problem but I would like to recover some files from my original hardrive. What should I do?

 

[JackMDS]

You can try to boot from one of those Boot CDs (Like Bart CD) it boots from the CD and include a File Browser, if it is a Boot sector problem you might be able to repair or and read files and copy them to a Flash Drive.

If you have two computers Networked you can get Acronis Disk director ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16832200002 ).

Make a Boot CD and boot it on the Laptop, it might be able to repair the disk and or copy files through the Network to a second computer.

If the drive cannot be read at all you are probably out of luck, and would need a new drive and ?mourn? the loss of the files.

 

[montag451]

Get in to the BIOS and check that HDD is set to boot first.
If you can, then clear CMOS if that doesn't work. (If you are lucky, there should be a small roundish plastic piece on the bottom of the laptop that you can undo to get at the battery - disconnect battery and AC first though, won't you?

 

[jackschmittusa]

Your machine is a desktop right? If so, remove the old drive, install a new one, and reload Windows.

Then install the old drive as a slave (if IDE), boot to Windows and see if the drive is accessible. If so, you will likely be able to recover the files.

Remember, there are 2 kinds of people in the world, those that backup, and those that wish they did.