PC took a fall, need some help with data recovery from HD

[Tasandmnm]

My hard drive while still in my PC took a 3 foot fall from my desk, the PC fell face first breaking the front of my case. I am not sure what all damage it did as I just decided it was time to upgrade anyway instead of doing too much investigating, but it would not load my OS nor would it even post.

I brought my hard drive in to work and hooked it up to an older PC that had no hard drive to see if it would load up. Well it will recognize the hard drive on boot and tell me some info about it (size, sectors, etc), but it will not get past the boot screen.

There is some info on there I really need to have and I was hoping I could use whatever utility comes with my new Western Digital hard drive to copy the entire disk + OS onto my new hard drive. Do you guys think this will be possible?

 

[Harvey]

Even if your hard drive isn't damaged, it won't boot up to Windows well unless the other machine has the same motherboard. Windows systems are set up to be specific to the hardware. Trying to boot a working installation on a different motherboard could cause the system to overwrite your registry and make it non-functional on any machine.

To see what's on your drive, connect it as a slave to a working machine. If the OS on your drive is an NT based OS (XP, Vista, 2K, etc.), you'll need another NT based machine. If the other machine is running an older DOS based OS (Win 98, etc.), you'll need a utility to read NTFS drives from DOS.

If your drive isn't damaged, and your motherboard still works, they will probably work when you install them in whatever setup you build to replace the broken parts. If you change vid cards or anything else that requires a driver, you'll have to uninstall the old drivers and replace them with appropriate new ones.

DON'T PUSH IT! If you succeed in getting it to boot on another machine, it may screw up your installation when you reconnect it to your original motherboard.

Where you go from there will be determined by what you have to replace. If you have to use a new motherboard, your best bet is to re-install Windows from the ground up.

There are lots of things you can do to minimize the work of rebuilding your personal setup. If you start on a new drive, you'll be able to copy all your files. I'd have to dig for the names and locations of the hidden files you'd need to save all your address book, bookmarks, etc. in Windows, IE, Outlook, etc., but it can be done without booting to your old drive and exporting them.

Start by determining whether your current mobo and drive are still good.

Good luck.

 

[Tarrant64]

Originally posted by: Harvey
Even if your hard drive isn't damaged, it won't boot up to Windows well unless the other machine has the same motherboard. Windows systems are set up to be specific to the hardware. Trying to boot a working installation on a different motherboard could cause the system to overwrite your registry and make it non-functional on any machine.

To see what's on your drive, connect it as a slave to a working machine. If the OS on your drive is an NT based OS (XP, Vista, 2K, etc.), you'll need another NT based machine. If the other machine is running an older DOS based OS (Win 98, etc.), you'll need a utility to read NTFS drives from DOS.

If your drive isn't damaged, and your motherboard still works, they will probably work when you install them in whatever setup you build to replace the broken parts. If you change vid cards or anything else that requires a driver, you'll have to uninstall the old drivers and replace them with appropriate new ones.

DON'T PUSH IT! If you succeed in getting it to boot on another machine, it may screw up your installation when you reconnect it to your original motherboard.

Where you go from there will be determined by what you have to replace. If you have to use a new motherboard, your best bet is to re-install Windows from the ground up.

There are lots of things you can do to minimize the work of rebuilding your personal setup. If you start on a new drive, you'll be able to copy all your files. I'd have to dig for the names and locations of the hidden files you'd need to save all your address book, bookmarks, etc. in Windows, IE, Outlook, etc., but it can be done without booting to your old drive and exporting them.

Start by determining whether your current mobo and drive are still good.

Good luck.

If you do get it hooked up into another computer and you can see everything you need, just back it up then. You can even use a built-in copy utility in DOS(xcopy). Use "xcopy /?" to find out more information on this. A simple C:\ xcopy *.* (source) (destination) should get everything you need, with some switch commands as well. Not too complicated.

C:\Documents and Settings\Your user name\
That's where you will find most all your documents, including any items you may have put on your desktop. Be sure to enable hidden files through your Folder Options.

:thumbsup:

 

[SparkyJJO]

That is why you put your PC squarely on the desk and not hanging off the edge

 

[Tarrant64]

Maybe he threw it on the floor...for an excuse to upgrade.

 

[Tasandmnm]

Heh, actually my dogs knocked it off....I probably *could* have played around with it and only replaced one or two parts but I wanted an upgrade (and was way past due anyway) and this one was easy to get by the wife

Anyway, I am replacing everything, I will only be using my old DVD-RW drive and a few case fans. I got an Asus M2N32 SLI Deluxe mobo, 4600+ cpu, 250GB Western Digital SATA HD, EVGA Geforce 8800 GTS 320mb, and 2 gigs of Corsair XMS. Yeehaww!! This is replacing an Abit IS7 system with a clunky old socket 478 P4 2.53 with a Geforce 6600.

And yeah I know doing a fresh install of Windows is the way to go...I just don't have that in me right now if you know what I mean. I do plan on doing this fairly soon anyway when I go to Vista, but I won't be going to Vista until either the price drops some or I can get my hands on a free copy.

So I really want to just copy everything, OS included, over to my new and improved SATA hard drive. Since this old PC here at work at least recognized the hard drive, I should be able to copy it all over no problem...right? And thanks for all the useful posts for a noobie here I am not a complete computer retard but I certainly have plenty to learn and in the coming days hope this sight will be a valuable tool for me, it certainly has been so far

 

[SparkyJJO]

Well if you copy it over like that it probably won't work since it would be a new mobo, chipset, graphics card.... You'd be lucky if it even booted. Just bite the bullet and reinstall everything.

Don't be surprised if people scream at you to get C2D and not the AMD chip. But I don't think you'll really be disappointed, it'll definitely be a big upgrade. Also, you could probably test and sell that 6600 btw, and the ram. Don't know if anyone would want that old netburst CPU though

 

[Harvey]

Originally posted by: Tasandmnm
So I really want to just copy everything, OS included, over to my new and improved SATA hard drive. Since this old PC here at work at least recognized the hard drive, I should be able to copy it all over no problem...right?

You should be able to copy almost everything, but don't expect it to boot up and run your old setup.

Before you start copying, in Windows Explorer, click Tools - Folder Options - View. Then, under Hidden files and folders, click Show hidden files and folders. That will allow the system to display all of the hidden files you'll want, including your address book, bookmarks, etc.

As I said, earlier, it's not as easy as exporting them from a working system, but the files are there to be found. Note their locations, copy them to a separate folder and locate the same files on your new setup. Then, back up the originals before you overwrite them with the old ones in case something goes wrong.

 

[Tasandmnm]

Thanks for all the help guys, I can't wait to get my new stuff up and running! I feel like a kid on Xmas!