Help restoring daughter's hard drive.

[fritzfield]

Good morning all.

My daughter returned from college last week and I thought that I would update the computer I had built for her last year. A Foxconn P35-A mobo, Intel e6300 CPU, 2 x 2GB Adata 800 RAM, and a Seagate 500GB SATA II HD,with Vista Ultimate 64 bit as OS.

I replaced the cheap push pins with a more secure mounting using a Thermaltake backplate. I put it all together again an booted up to make sure everything worked properly, which it did.

Then, to update the software and drivers, I updated all the anti-spyware programs, anti-virus, mobo drivers, and BIOS. Everything worked fine.

After rebooting I ran all the utilities (IObit), Auslogic disk defragger, and where I think I went wrong used c-cleaner.

I was satisfied and shut it down in anticipation of my daughter picking it up.

I went online with my machine and discovered Vista SP2 was available. So, after updating my machine, I hooked up my daughter's again so I could get SP2 set up for her. However, this time, Vista would not boot, so I never got SP2 onto her machine. It still has SP1.

I tried booting with installation DVD to do a repair but no luck. I tried System Restore, but at first it would run the restore point very slow - 24 hrs - and still would not boot after that. Now when I try System Restore, I get the No restore points detected message.

I then installed her HD on my system as a second drive and it is recognized and I can retrieve some of the data and put it onto my HD. So her HD works, it's just some screw-up with the software drivers and programs that I installed. However, I don't want to re-install Vista if I can't properly get all of her important docs, pics, etc.

Of course, there is no back-up.

Any ideas as to how to rescue the Vista installation and programs/data on her drive?

 

[Tarrant64]

Have you run a chkdsk yet?

"chkdsk /R" I think is what you want. Should be able to do it from the Vista DVD...

 

[RebateMonger]

A "Repair Install" using the Install DVD is going to be tough. To repair Vista with SP2 installed, you'd need a Vista DVD sliptstreamed to SP2. Unlike XP, you can't get away with a non-slipstreamed Install CD.

As noted, start with the basics. Make sure the hard disk and the memory are solid before spending time on OS repairs.

 

[Bozo Galora]

You can use Runtime GetDataBack 3.69 from YOUR machine to get all her data on her HDD transferred
Latest vers is very fast
http://runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm
Dunno if its worth $79 to you (NTFS)

As always : Try a 1 hour min CMOS reset, with bat out and PSU unplugged.

http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/...ecovery-disc-download/

Edit: I forgot to mention try putting back in the lame push pins - original HSF install. The TT bracket make be gouging the circuit board traces, or you may have cocked the base of HS (or something like that)