In need of data recovery

[Zoogies]

Hey,

I was using my computer, and it was working nicely and normally when it freezed for no apparent reason. I had one program running at the time...the mouse was working alright, all its functions were still there; same with the keyboard; except the mouse was invisible. The pointer was frozen at one spot on the screen while I tried to use the invisible mouse to x out of the program...eventually gave up and shut down the computer by holding the power button for ten seconds.

Now it won't turn on - at first, the blue screen saying "Unmountable boot error." I tried looking that up and was advised to boot from the CD-ROM, use recovery console, and chkdsk /r, chkdsk /p, and fixboot c:. Did that. On both r and p, it stopped at 50% and said one or more problems may be unrecoverable. Fixboot C: worked...sort of, except it still wouldn't start. Eventually it came to the point where it said, can't find hard drive. I also got a different kind of blue screen, something about partmgr.exe, or something like that. But I've been advised now to not turn it on, because the HD can't be harmed while it's off...

Alright. Half the software on my computer is non-critical. Couldn't care less about MS Office XP or Adobe Photoshop because I can just reinstall them from my CD. The other half - Terragen, WindowBlinds, Desktop X - I can just redownload. But the entire contents of My Documents (and my wallpaper folder, and C:\Programs\Terragen, would be nice too...) HAVE to be recovered...it is absolutely critical that the files in my Documents be recovered in some way.

Help, anyone? Thank you in advance.

[Zoogies]

Please?

[Zoogies]

Help!

[TallCool1]

..the entire contents of My Documents (and my wallpaper folder, and C:\Programs\Terragen, would be nice too...) HAVE to be recovered...it is absolutely critical that the files in my Documents be recovered in some way

http://www.ntfs.com/boot-disk.htm has a free-download floppy disk image that, when expanded to a floppy, creates a bootable disk that will allow you to copy files from an NTFS partition to a FAT32 partition (or another hard drive) or a network. The Knoppix CD will allow you to do the same thing, if you're able to boot from a CD.

[rasputinj]

http://www.ntfs.com/boot-disk.htm has a free-download floppy disk image that, when expanded to a floppy, creates a bootable disk that will allow you to copy files from an NTFS partition to a FAT32 partition (or another hard drive) or a network. The Knoppix CD will allow you to do the same thing, if you're able to boot from a CD.

I have used this before and it works great.

[Zoogies]

Problem is, I'm not able to boot at all.

[TallCool1]

Problem is, I'm not able to boot at all.

Then move the drive to another machine and access it from there. If you can't boot from a floppy, you have bigger problems than just data recovery...

[sittas87]

hey Zoogies
you can install a new OS system within the current OS by creating a new Windows file eg name it windows1. your system will be dual boot you,boot up with the new one. when in windows you can copy your old data from documents and settings (old user name)
OR
If you have access to another machine put your drive in that machine as a slave drive and start the windows.you can copy your data that way from your slave to the master hard drive.

Theres a possibility that your hard drive might be running towards its end of days but the above two options will give you an answer
??

[sittas87]

http://www.ntfs.com/boot-disk.htm has a free-download floppy disk image that, when expanded to a floppy, creates a bootable disk that will allow you to copy files from an NTFS partition to a FAT32 partition (or another hard drive) or a network. The Knoppix CD will allow you to do the same thing, if you're able to boot from a CD.

is the ink for xp ass well??