windows vista home premium won't boot.(NBR staff note: Now includes issues in Ubuntu)

Hello,

ahhh... I am so annoyed by this at the moment...

today before leaving rhe house for a few hours I decided to run the windows disk defragmentation tool... so I came back and it ran succesfully, but the computer was working a little bit weird (like the internet didn't really work) so I decided to restart my dell inspiron 1420.



UNFORTUNATELY... now IT DOESN'T BOOT...

I start the system, bios loads successfully (I tried to put the BIOS on default settings), then the Microsoft logo doesn't show... the green bar in the mid bottom of the screen goes from left to right and under it is the "Microsoft Corporation" logo... the problem is that that's it... it does this for an hour and nothing happens... it is just loading and loading... but it never loads... GOSH!!!



I tried all the 3 different safe modes of course, unfortunately, they get stuck while loading the \windows\system32\drivers\crcdisk.sys file and then , after some time it starts rebooting again... so I am at the same problem...



I tried, as well, to use "the last working configuration" but that just does the same as if I would press run system normally... it gets stuck on the loading bar... ( I do not think I have any restore points)



I also tried to boot it from my windows vista CD, so that I could go on the option "repair my system" where the screen with the different safe modes and so on advises me, but it gets stuck on a screen with like a typical vista backround and a cursor but that's it...



I tried media direct and that works kind of weird also...

I also tried my boot cd for Mandrake Linux that works well... I just cannot get into windows...



I didn't do any hardware changes or anything like that...



I am really desperate about this and I will be happy to give reputation points if someone would help me or share his ideas...



I do not even have how to reformat the drive and I would really love to not do that because really do not want to lose my data !!! I do not know how to reformat it anyways when the windows cd doesn't even give me an option to install the system again...



is there a way how to back up all my data at least in mandrake linux ? I could really find like an file explorer in there... doesn't it have an dvd burning software anyways???



please help and thank you very much !!!

 

Try pressing F8 at startup and choose System Repair (or something like that) from the menu. When that comes up, choose System Restore.

Also, when trying the CD, make sure it's actually booting from the CD and not the hard drive. Press F12 for the boot menu and choose CD/DVD.

 

it doesn't say system repair and not even something like that and I tried all the options that i says...

I am not booting from the HDD but from the CD (I pressed F12) and tried also all the boot options...

 

I am not familiar enough with the file systems in Linux to direct you, but if you have a 2.25 inch housing for your Hard drive - you could hook it up to another computer and access the files on it if you are using a similar windows OS. If this fails maybe consider BartPE. It is a program that lets you run a seeries of tests if you wish and I believe it lets you have basic access to your HD. If this does not help, i am sure I could walk you through a format of your system in a worse case scenario should it come to that.

 

now, when I try to usually boot it goes somehow into dell media direct, but doesn't load it anywas... it is really weird

 

The link for BartPE is here. I hope this helps.

 

I am a night owl so I will be on for a while

 

You have not flashed your BIOS reciently have you?

 

oh well is there nothing else I can do???
and how to reformat it, jst to know? maybe I'll figure out how to back up with the linux...

 

no, my bios is not recently flashed, it was never flashed

 

oh yes I found the BartPE but I do not really have a way how to burn at the moment... I might tomorrow though, but it would be easier if I wouldn;t have to burn of course...
so the BartPE let's me browse files and then has a dvd burning program so that i can back them up ??/

and how to format then ?

 

Just asking..
Now you stated that your Vista OS CD loads and gives you the option to repair. Instead press enter for installing over and you will come to a screen that will display

C: Windows suchsandsuchMBs
you will have to delete this partition to aid in formatting( at least with my experience) You will then press "d" and you will be asked to confirm this and you will then have to read the text towards the top of the page to learn how to set up your partition.
Set up your partition and press enter and Windows setup will begin to install the windows files to your HD. Setup for Vista can take up to an hour. These are simplified instructions. If your computer has a floppy, then I can take you through it in MSDOS, which i personally prefer.

 

I should state that you will lose all your data on the HD.

 

Should you delete the partition, you can create two in the place of one so you will always be able to recover files should you need to install Windows again.

 

Regarding BartPE, it can let you have access to your HD but you might be better off moving those files to another HD or a large flash drive. IMHO

 

Have you tried MSDOS?

 

I do not get to his screen, unfortunately !!! that is the problem... it shows just the cursos and a vista background... nothing else... nothing to click on... it just doesn't work

 

Ok... Here is what I would do:

Download the 'Ultimate Boot CD' here:

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

There are several hard drive diagnostic tools on the disc. That will determine if your drive is on its way out, as it sound may be the case.

To get the old files you have a few options. I personally use a program called Midnight Commander which is a simpler file explorer which you can get on the System Rescue CD. This will only be an option if you have an external USB hard drive or thumb drive.

Download the System Rescue CD here:

http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page

An easier option would be the Ubuntu Live CD: (bolded because I think you should go with that )

http://www.ubuntu.com/GetUbuntu/download

It is an entire operating system that will load into the system RAM. You can connect to the internet via an ethernet cable while using it, so if you need any assistance while using it, you're all set!

Ubuntu is probably the easiest solution, as the other tools I was going to recommend are troublesome to some...

After you have the data off the drive, you can format it from within Ubuntu using a program called GParted.

 

Great advice Greg

 

well.., i have mandrake ... but that probably won't do its job like ubuntu right?
So I guess I have to burn ubuntu tomorrow and then do it over that... it has a dvd burning software? and access to the hdd as well, right...
and well formatting it from there emasn that i will just run the Gparted ???

 

I forgot all about the Ultimate boot disk - thanks for the Link

 

Isn't GParted a separate cd?

 

I've never used Mandrake, so I can't say sorry .

Ubuntu will read the drive yes. It has NTFS support. I can't remember if burning software is preloaded, but you will have access to the internet while using it, so you should be able to acquire some while using it. (I am fairly certain it does in fact have burning software preloaded though.)

GParted is included in Ubuntu. You can run it after you backed up your data.

EDIT:

Thanks man

 

What I do know is that mandrake has a live cd that has burning capabilities if that is any help at all. 10.1 i believe.

 

I thoroughly suggest you use Ubuntu instead of Mandrake because Mandrake is very old, it has been renamed to Mandriva in the newest versions which tells me you use the old version which is no good. Download and burn Ubuntu, it has burning software included in the LiveCD.

 

ok thanks guys.
I am going to try ubuntu now and I'll soon let you know about my progress...

 

oh no..
so I am running ubuntu now but it cannot mount my hard drive... it says something like that it is in use by windows

i am including a screen shot of the error... i tried to do what it says (the command in terminal, but it didn't help)

please help !

 

Did you by mistake defrag the Internet?

 

I do t know, might be... how does that work ?
what shall I do now???

how can I access my hdd in ubuntu now to back up my data???

 

That happens because Windows made a notation that the drive was improperly shut down... You said that you did try to force it to mount as prescribed in the error message? The: mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda2 /media/disk -o force

It is important that you type it exactly as it is written with the spaces and slashes and hyphens.

If that doesn't work then we will need someone from the Linux forum to help you.

 

oh well i didn't put the command in fully (duh) now I can access my data

but I can not really burn anything. because when I press the button on my dvd drive it doesn't go out... it is like if there wouldn't be no power to it or I do not know...

but when I open "Computer" it is there between the harddrives ... even when I press the eject button, it doesn't eject it... I do not know why that is

 

Okay, now that you have that issue resolved... When you're installing Ubuntu to the hard drive the setup process will guide you through a partitioning process. This is setting up where to create the Ubuntu partition. Make sure you don't have the Ubuntu setup erase your old partitions!

Once this is set up, you will have full access to the NTFS drive (you may need to do the force command though I think). After you have the data burned you can get GParted as described in this page:

http://www.ubuntux.org/how-to-install-partition-editor-gparted

 

sorry I've scanned this briefly....do you have a separate /home partition with your linux install?

 

oh gosh darn it..

so i figured out that the problem is that i was booting from the live cd...

so i installed ubuntu on the hdd but it formatted my hdd... where I wanted to recover my files... so I lost all of them now gosh...

is there a way how to recover them from the hdd ??? (even though ubuntu formatted it now?)

 

I guess you read my post too late?

Okay...I'm not sure of a linux program to recover lost files. I use a Windows program called TestDisk.

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

I'll hunt around and see if I can find a linux program for it. Unfortunately now some of the data is overwritten (with Ubuntu) and will be harder to recover.

Any Linux gurus know of good software for this?

 

too late now I guess, but that's why I asked if you had separate /home....you could have recovered with a new install. Recuva is the only program I can think of right now, but that windows only I think.

 

is there no recovery application for linux ???

 

Read through this page: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DataRecovery

It references many recovery methods. All of which will be hindered stince some of the data is overwritten... But this is the best shot.

Chances are that the Windows Master File Table got overwritten... So when you recover the data it may assign new file names to everything . If that is the case then you will need to hunt through everything by looking at the file type and size.

 

oh that seems kind of complicated... does anyone know what I should use in my case???

when I installed ubuntu on my hard drive and it formatted it?

like steps on what to do ?

thanks

 

so i managed to run testdisk and it is scanning at the moment 38913 cylinders... iot is a little bit slow but I am curious if it will recover something....

I hope it will

 

My 60GB hard drive took over an hour to scan in TestDisk... So yes it will take a while.

If it doesn't have success make sure to try the programs listed in section 4 of that page.

In reference to your PM, I wouldn't suggest writing a new copy of Windows to the hard drive until after you have recovered your data. If you do, it will just write over even more of the data making it even harder to recover.

If you do chose to install Windows before recovering anyways, I would recommend you create a partition at the end of the disk (a place where data was least likely to be stored). You can create that partition via GParted. Make sure it it at the right-most portion of the bar. However, you will want to move that partition to the beginning of the drive after recovering your data (or giving up ).

You can use the link I gave in an earlier post to install GParted:

If you have any more questions just send a PM or post back. I have no life so I'll be around for a while!

 

Ubuntu's default option is to resize your existing partition and install it in the empty space, i probably should have noted that you not install anything yet because you would need some help with it, installing an OS is easy, but it's also quite easy to make mistakes for beginners.

 

oh well so I ran testdisk and it found the partitions but I didn't know to do then with the test disk program to recover them ... could someone give me steps how to recover the files as it finishes the scan ?

 

I haven't used/don't recall how to use TestDisk, another member should be able to help you. Maybe we could get a screenshot of your partition table? Don't edit your partitions any more by any means at all, just take a screenshot of GParted so we know what your partitions are.

 

It's been a while since I've used it, so I'll need to get into the program and refresh my knowledge. It may take a little while as I might as well do it from Ubuntu (so that we're on the same page), which I don't currently have installed. I'll edit this post and send you a PM and let you know when I have some instructions for you. I'm just about to grab some dinner so I'm sorry I can't have it ready for you quicker. Expect it to be an hour or so?

EDIT: It's going to take me longer than I thought to make a guide. In the mean time read through these:

TeskDisk:

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step

PhotoRec:

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec_Step_By_Step

 

this is what gparted shows:


i am scanning it again with testdisk... i do not know what to do after the scan finishes though...

 

ok, so this is what test disk analysed... can someone please give me steps on what to do now ??? vhow to recover the data all at once so that I do not have to analyse it all the time (it takes quite a long time )

 

I'm no expert at this, but GParted isn't showing your Windows install. Test Disk is showing NTFS which is most likely whatever remains of Windows. Hopefully Gregory or perhaps Calvin will be able to give instruction on how in extract your remaining data. I don't think you should do much else until someone with knowledge of the Test Disk app posts. Good luck.

 

At this screen: (for you, scroll down to the 3rd item: HPFS -NTFS)



Type 'P' to list the files on the partition: the next screen:



Now scroll down to 'Documents and Settings' and press 'c'. Then you will be at this screen:



Now type 'Y'. It will say "copying files" then it will change to "files copied". That that point look in your /home/greg (your name) directory and the folder will be there:



If you press 'q' you will be brought back to the first screen I gave a picture of. Go through the process for any folder you need (for example 'Program files')

Let me know if this works. If not then you will need to use PhotoRec. I'll give you screen shots for that too a.s.a.p.

 

greg, you're awesome... thanks a lot, really...
I have to run the analysis again, though...
so I started it now, it will be probably ready in an hour and then I'll go through the awesome steps you gave me...

I tried photo rec also and it recovered something and it did it pretty fast, unfortunately, when I look at the directories that it recovered it says: "You do not have permissions necessary to view the contents of "recup_dir.1" ... so I do not how to make it so that I can open it...

another thing i do not understand with photo rec is that it was actually scanning really fast and recovering a lot of files, but then it suddenly stopped and said that there is not enough room, which I do not understand, because I still have like 260gb free space on my HDD...
I chose to save the recovered files under /home/ubuntu/