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I have read through all of this and I was wondering if you know what to do in a situation where you can't start up windows, can't get to a DOS prompt, etc.... How can I get to my files to back them up now? I have an external hard drive and I want to do a full system recovery but I can't bring myself to do it until I have copied all my pictures, music files and documents over tot he external hd. Please help if you can. The manufacturer suggested going to someplace which services my brand of laptop, but that just reeks $$$$$. I'm fairly good at figuring things out myself and would rather give myself a headache fixing this instead of paying someone else to do something as simple as backing up a file. I just need to know if there is some way to get these files out of harms way.. . . Thanks, Lisa
All this assumes that the drive is actually working, by the way. If not then it's probably time for a technician's advice on the specific failure.
Finally, I have to point out that regular backups would prevent this crisis, so once you're set up again be sure to start backing up.
26-Oct-2008
In a case like Lisa's, SpinRite could very well be the solution. It fixes or relocates bad sectors and can often restore the usability of drives that have become so corrupt that windows cannot load or where the file system is unrecognizable. It saved my data last week, even if I did have to force mount my drive afterwards with a linux live cd to copy the files.
Posted by: Michael at October 28, 2008 9:12 AMI think Knoppix is a good solution.
http://www.shockfamily.net/cedric/knoppix/
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