Vista Tutorial - Rescue documents using Repair disk and command prompt

Hello!

I have a Dell Latitude D630 with 64-bit Vista Business installed. When I start the computer wants to make chkdsk on the file system. If I do that it ends up with the following behaviour:

Chkdsk is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)…
161472 file records processed.
File verification completed.
150 lrage file records processed.
0 bad file records processed.
2 EA records processed.
76 reparse records processed.
Chkdsk is verifying index (stage 2 of 3)…
20 percent complete. (78222 of 615387 index entries processed
After this it stops. Doesnot matter how long I wait (couple of hours). The screen is all black, no mousearrow.

I have also tried F8 after reboot and selected ""Repair your computer". I´ll be prompted for user-ID. If I select "Administrator" I get the following answer:
“your account has been disabled”. If I select user johbjo, which is an administrator, it works fine and I can login. Then I select "command prompt" and now I can see my missed files that I would like to save. But to what place can they be saved? I restarted the same way and connected an external USB-disk. But I cannot find any device letter for that one. I have tried d:, a:, b:, e: and so on. I would really like to save my files.

If I start the PC in Safe mode it goes to crcdisk.sys and hangs.


I have also teaken out the hard drive and connected it to a desktop as a secondary HD. The desktop stops after trying to c"chkdsk verifying index" for 4-5 hours.

I do not really dare to do any command on the disk now when I can see my files but to rescue them.


Any piece of advices is appreciated.

Best reg. Magnus

Have you tried saving them to a USB Flash Drive/Memory Stick?
Right-click on the files>Send To

http://www.knoppix.net/
If that won't work, make a Bootable Live CD from the ISO file you can
download from the above link.
Reboot with it. It does not install on your Hard Drive, but will read it,
and will allow you to copy your Data to a Flash Drive, once you remove the
read only permissions on the FD.

--
Mick Murphy - Qld - Australia


"magmos_019" wrote:

I have seen your described action when a HD is beyond normal repair. Chkdsk
will just hang.

Backups created "prior" to the occurrence are what is needed and has been
preached since computers came into general use. Before I learned I lost
irreplaceable photos of my children during their younger years.

Guess who backs up daily now?

You may be able to send the drive to Drive Savers or a similar company. Be
prepared to spend a lot.

--

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP
Windows Desktop Experience


"magmos_019" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:ab74e579a6205ac9b70affe3185e6c26@xxxxxx-gateway.com...

Mick Murphy! You made my day. Problem solved.

I burned a Knoppix v 5.3.1 DVD and started up the PC on that one. I did not manage to connect to a USB-drive but I connected to a server and could save the most part of my files via the network.

Anyway I still wonder how to connect a USB-hard drive or memory to Knoppix OS and save files that way. I also wonder how to access the files in a folder i can list from the "F8-Rescue disk-command prompt" manner. The dir-command stops at the letter C something so files after C seem to be corrypted. From Knoppix I cant even enter the folder.

Best reg and thanks!

Magnus

magmos_019 wrote:
General information about using Knoppix (some of which you already know):

You will need a computer with two cd drives, one of which is a cd/dvd-rw OR
a usb thumb drive with enough capacity to hold your data OR an external
usb/firewire hard drive formatted FAT32 (not NTFS)*. To get Knoppix, you
need a computer with a fast Internet connection and third-party burning
software. Download the Knoppix .iso and create your bootable cd. Then boot
with it and it will be able to see the Windows files. If you are using the
usb thumb drive or the external hard drive, right-click on its icon (on the
Desktop) to get its properties and uncheck the box that says "Read Only".
Then click on it to open it. Note that the default mouse action in the
window manager used by Knoppix (KDE) is a single click to open instead of
the traditional MS Windows' double-click. If you want to burn CD/DVDs, use
the K3b program.

*My understanding is that you can now write to an NTFS partition from Linux.
If you wish to do this, Google for instructions.

http://www.knoppix.net

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
FAQ - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

Thanks Malke for the additional info.

Reg MAgnus