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PCs fried in flood - help booting HDDs

K

Kaiser__Sose

Golden Member
Hi,

Does anyone know where I can get (preferably download but will buy) a windows xp home edition dvd?

I have a couple (2) comps that got fried in a flood that I need to recover data from.

When I took out the hard drives and tried to boot them in a working pc I got a BSOD and stop: 0x0000007B error (on both drives from seperate fried pcs).

When I attached the drives via usb exteral box (to working pc) I was able to browse/copy the files etc, which means the drives are still working but somehow I think the boot is messed up on them.

I'm hoping if I use a windows dvd and boot into recovery I can repair windows and the drives can be used again in new computers (There are a lot of programs etc installed that are older but still used so I don't want to have to re-install an OS again).

any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
 
These are SATA hard drives? Going by the Bsod error it looks like it to me as I've seen this one when trying to boot something like BartPE or UBCD4windows on sata drives.

On working computer you may just be able to change the sata to ide mode to make them boot up.

Depending on the age of the hardware of the fried vs the working you may not be able to boot them up at all.

Did you try booting into safe mode?
 
Kenmitch said:
These are SATA hard drives? Going by the Bsod error it looks like it to me as I've seen this one when trying to boot something like BartPE or UBCD4windows on sata drives.

On working computer you may just be able to change the sata to ide mode to make them boot up.

Depending on the age of the hardware of the fried vs the working you may not be able to boot them up at all.

Did you try booting into safe mode?
Click to expand...

they are IDE drives.

There are 3 identical Dell Dimension 3000 pcs. 2 got fried 1 lived and works fine. Took the 2 dead drives and tried to boot from the living (1 at a time) and got the error.

then I took the 2 living drives and tried to boot from a totally different pc - got the same error.

seems weird to me that the drives work (i'm able to copy /read /write) to and from them but I can't boot from them.

edit: I tried booting into safe mode - same error 🙁

thanks for the help
 
Try asking friends and family. Seriously, if they have a Dell Dimension from 2003-ish, chances are they'll have bootable XP home CDs. I still have mine. Otherwise, you can try to search notebookreview forums. They have a thread with legal links to download Vista/7 ISOs from MS. You can cross your fingers and hope they it for XP.
 
Kenmitch said:
Very strange....Hmm

You could look at this Microsoft support page maybe it'll help or not but guess it's worth a look at least. For what it's worth it is geared moving a XP hard drive from one machine to another and getting the bsod you get.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314082
Click to expand...

Hi,

Thanks so much for the link.. it says to resolve use identical hardware (or registry merge which I can't do because I can't boot from the drives).
I've tried what I think is identical hardware but got the error.

Guess I'll just have to try to find a winXP and hope recovery works.
- which leads me back to the hunt for an xp home iso.
 
I don't own TrueImage 2011, but my understanding is that it may do the trick for you.

Clone the OS partition with True Image from a working machine.

Install the disk into the machine you want it to run on

Restore the image using the "dissimilar Hardware" option.

Again, I'm not sure this will work, but if it doesn't, than there is no advantage, that I can see, to paying for True Image over the free alternatives.
 
Booting from an Ultimate Boot CD for Windows and running the registry tool "Fix HDC" should get you up and running without the blue screen.

But you'd need an XP CD to create the UBCDforWin disk...
Dog chasing his tail problem
 
running even a repair from a windows disc may fix it. works for me sometimes. this of course doesn't help the fact you need a windows xp disc. do your or anyone you know have an MSDN subscription for OS'? best investment i ever made. i have access to every windows os disc at my disposal provided i have an internet connection 🙂
 
You can download a "RAW" untouched CD image of most windows installations through BitTorrent. I do that with OEM CDs, and then use my own CD-Key. I have no idea if Dell computers will require a CD-Key or not.
 
kmmatney said:
You can download a "RAW" untouched CD image of most windows installations through BitTorrent. I do that with OEM CDs, and then use my own CD-Key. I have no idea if Dell computers will require a CD-Key or not.
Click to expand...

they have dell install discs that don't require any serial. just reads the bios to see if it's a dell.
 
usually dells require a cd key just the same. should be on the side of the computer, if it is still intact. if you can borrow a cd, or even dl an image, that should be legal to my understanding as long as you are licensed to use it (have your own legit keys)
 
Shmee said:
usually dells require a cd key just the same. should be on the side of the computer, if it is still intact. if you can borrow a cd, or even dl an image, that should be legal to my understanding as long as you are licensed to use it (have your own legit keys)
Click to expand...

they do not. they have dell xp discs that do not require any key. i've reinstalled lots of older dells and never required a cd key when using the dell disc.
 
Stop 0x0000007B errors, when the drive is not damaged, are usually just disc controller driver errors. The advice above for using an Ultimate Boot CD for Windows is by far the fastest method to get you up and running here and very significantly better than repair install. Repair installs frequently have consequences for software you don't wish to reinstall. PM me and I can give you more info on how to make this work.
 
consequences? that's the way i saved installs that i did not want to reinstall programs. repairs reinstall all the crucial files leaving your programs in tact (just make sure if you're sp3, you use an sp3 disc). please elaborate on said consequences.
 
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