HP Pavillion DV4t-1400 Help with Boot manager

pjoseph · Oct 16, 2011

I have that above computer that will not startup it goes to blank screen and says
its missting some kind of boot file.

I do not have a copy of vista on cd

any help would be appreciated thanks

richc46 · Oct 16, 2011

Welcome
See if this helps
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/91467-startup-repair.html

If it does not post and we will do a restoration from you restore partlition. Your stuff will be lost, so tell me and we will back up first.

pjoseph · Oct 16, 2011

Ok yes i tried that many times with no luck

thanks again

richc46 · Oct 16, 2011

Make and model of Computer please
Do you have stuff to back up?

pjoseph · Oct 16, 2011

Here is some more information,
I have no vista CD's or backups
I tried using one of those USB-SATA cables to pull the data
The computer that works has windows 7 when I look at the HD using the above cable,
It shows that it is partitioned with one side reading recovery.
The recovery side says 14GB total and about 12GB used, but when I open the files there are only two I believe text files.
The other side of the HD says something like 138GB total OGB used so that looks like there is nothing there not sure why, there are a lot of folders on this side but all are empty.
I tried the same thing but using a different computer which had XP, this time on the recovery side instead of showing only two folders like it did before there are a lot of folders showing.
Other side still has a lot of folders but seem to be empty.
I have spent all weekend with trying to get this data or something to work, picked up two of the above cables from Fry's and after 4 hours determined it was broken and when I brought it back they tested it and it was broken did that twice third time I was able to read what I explained above.

Any help at all would be greatly appreciate thanks again.

pjoseph · Oct 16, 2011

HP Pavilion dv4T-1400

richc46 · Oct 16, 2011

Have any stuff that you dont want to lose?

pjoseph · Oct 16, 2011

Yes I do

richc46 · Oct 16, 2011

Save your stuff first
Use Ubuntu Live CD to Backup Files from Your Dead Windows Computer - How-To Geek

richc46 · Oct 16, 2011

After your stuff is saved, follow the directions for the recovery manager.
Recover Windows Vista Operating System Using HP Recovery - HP technical support (United Kingdom - English)

pjoseph · Oct 17, 2011

any way i can find out if I had 32 or 64bit version\

Do i need to use imgburn?
thanks

richc46 · Oct 17, 2011

YOu will need img burn. I dont know how to find out 32 or 64 on a computer that does not boot. If you open it up and see how much ram, that may tell you. 2 or less probably 32.

townsbg · Oct 17, 2011

For temporarily using linux to recover files 32 bit will do. Any computer made in the last decade can use it. Only specific modern computers with 64-bit processors can use 64-bit so if you are worried about compatibility go with the 32-bit.

pjoseph · Oct 17, 2011

thanks again for the replies I really appreciate it, I will give it a shot sometime tonight and let you know how it goes.

pjoseph · Oct 18, 2011

So i downloaded the imgburn and Ubuntu Live cd
The ubuntu live cd was a compressed file so i extracted it and there are a lot of files inside, directions say to pick the downloaded ISO file
Which one is that ?

pjoseph · Oct 18, 2011

OK I actually was able to get the Ubuntu to run on the computer that I am trying to get the data from, I was very surprised.
Anyway, I was able to click on the hard disk which shows "320GB Hard Disk" and under that says "305GB Filesystem"
I clicked on the hard disk and it just has a lot of folders but as I open them they look to be empty? Or am I just not able to see them for some reason?
I figured I would copy everything to an external HD but that seemed to fill up because I starting getting a message that it was full which i thought was strange since its a 500GB external, and I have very little on it,
I decided to stop for now since its getting late. I will start again in the AM.

Thanks again for all the help, also any input on what I explained above would be appreciated

Thanks again!

townsbg · Oct 18, 2011

To enable write on your external drive try this: HOWTO: NTFS with read/write support using ntfs-3g (easy method) - Ubuntu Forums

As for your data if windows 7 can't access it (you did say that you put it in another computer correct?) and linux can't see it then it is probably corrupted.

From the the windows system you can try recuva. It is the only free file recovery software that I know of. Most file recovery software is expensive and not guaranteed to recover anything. There are also pricey recovery services but with file recovery but there are no guarantees.

pjoseph · Oct 18, 2011

Thanks for the replay,

I only tried opening the files on the broken computer using Ubuntu, but all the files are empty, I tried moving all of them to my external HD but it filled it up and I was getting an error that there was no more room I am not sure how empty files can use up so much disk space?

pjoseph · Oct 18, 2011

Just want to make sure Im clear on this,
I am going to transfer a few files onto my external HD, and I will hook up my working computer with Windows 7 and try to read them from the External HD.
So even though the broken computer is running Vista, I should be able to read the transfered files using my working computer which is running Windows 7

thanks again

townsbg · Oct 18, 2011

pjoseph said:
Just want to make sure Im clear on this,
I am going to transfer a few files onto my external HD, and I will hook up my working computer with Windows 7 and try to read them from the External HD.
So even though the broken computer is running Vista, I should be able to read the transfered files using my working computer which is running Windows 7

thanks again

Good idea and as to your question, you should be able to unless the files are corrupted in which case you will get errors. As for recuva, I'm not entirely sure that it'll work. I've only used it for restoring files after deletion which is, as far as I know, what it is designed for. I'm not sure that it's designed for restoring corrupt files. Good luck.

HP Pavillion DV4t-1400 Help with Boot manager

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