recover lost data

[wtp]

Heres the problem I have. On one of my work computers we were running windows me (Bad Idea) and we wanted to up grade it to winxp, It got half way through the install and errored out. Now it does nothing. Can't go back to me and can't finish xp. While I was gone the boss put in the me recovery disk, got half way done with that and it crashed. Now it really does nothing. I need my $$ reports off of there and inventory documents. Is there anything I can run to get them back? I'm sure it is going to have to be something ran dos because that is the only thing that runs. The drive has not been formated.

[smilingjack]

Put the hard drive in another computer as a D: drive
As long as the MBR or file allacation table is not damaged you can read / copy the data files off to another drive.
The drive is still good, it just can not be used as a boot disk anymore until it is re-formatted.

[wtp]

Thanks, I'll try that

[tbelisle]

If your boss insserted the recovery disk as you state... it likely formated the drive before attempting to re-install the files.

Upgrading from Me to Xp was also a huge jump and should not have been attempted.

As well... if your machine came with ME, upgrading the ram would be advisable before going any further as Xp requires MINIMUM 128mg but 256 is highly recomended.

[rob24_365]

I would still definitely try putting the hard drive as the second hard drive in a now-working machine. Be sure you set the jumpers for either CS (cable select) or SL (slave) so it doesn't try to boot the damaged drive.

256MB will barely run Windows XP, much less any programs. Memory is so cheap that 512MB is considered a minimum for XP now.

Also, Windows ME is a weird hybrid upgrade from Windows 98. Windows XP is Windows NT 5.1. The original release of NT was written by Digital Equipment Corporation programmers, who really know their stuff when it comes to operating systems. That's why Windows works so much better now. The stuff that messes up was added by Microsoft programmers with the expected results.

Good luck!

Rob24_365

[wtp]

well I hooked it up as a slave and pulled all the info off that was needed. The computer was able to run xp. I loaded it on there today. It has 398mb and 1.2g processor. It runs fine now. Thanks for all the help. I was lost for words when they told me what they did.

[tigert422]

well I hooked it up as a slave and pulled all the info off that was needed. The computer was able to run xp. I loaded it on there today. It has 398mb and 1.2g processor. It runs fine now. Thanks for all the help. I was lost for words when they told me what they did.
I am happy for you and you can out much cheaper than what I had to go thru . Listed below is what I had to go thru for your future edification. I am presently using another computer now!!


Quote:
Originally Posted by Stocko
If the data is worth the cost to you then look at this product.
http://www.runtime.org/
I've never had to recover lost data in the fashion that your talking about but, if it was primo stuff, this could be worth a look.

Stocko
Thanks for referring me to this site. With every one's help here and other places I was to recovery the data needed . the following were deleted off of our network (HACKER'S PARADISE,REMOTE GRAB,HAPPY HACKER'S FLOODER,ADORN WORM,WINGATATING ON MIRC,BLAZER 5, BLA along with some other trojans which did alot of damage but we were able to recovery. My daughter has a chatserver which ususal says open about 12 hours per day and then when I started using the torrent , but I believe the culpit came from my daughter's end, but no big deal now. To cover both formats a got the FAT and the NTFS programs from runtime, called GetDataBack. thru trial and error and not knowing really what I was doing we got the job done. Stocko I used other programs but they were not as good as the one's at runtime that you referred me to . Thanks alot !! Have A Great Day!!

[Stocko]

I'm very glad you and wtp have your data back. It sounds like you had a hell of a mess (Trojans, worms, etc) to deal with, not to mention the cost. Anyway, I'm just hear to help out when I can like so many other peeps. It was good of you to post the results of the recovery software as I had not used it. Thanks, and you have yourself a great day. :)

Stocko :cool: