Shoutbox

Hello.

My laptop has a Hitachi DK23FB-40 HDD.

After seeing that on the event log "disk" errors saying that my HDD "has a bad block" and after UltimateDefrag says that it can't defrag my disk because it was corrupted, I decided to run chkdsk via the recovery console.

So, I booted from a Windows XP cd, got into the recovery console, and typed "chkdsk c: /r" (/r to fix the bad sectors).
When it finished, it said that it made corrections to the HDD.
So, I typed "exit" to restart the computer.

After getting past the GoBack screen, I only got a black screen.
So, I used GoBack to revert my drive.

After reverting it, when I tried to boot into windows, it said:

quote:

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Originally posted by Windows
A disk read error has occurred.
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart.

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The same thing kept happening.

So, I used HDD Regenerator. It found & recovered about 15 bad sectors.
I still couldn't boot.

I though about trying to repair windows, but, Windows does not prompt me to repair it.
That's either because:
a) The Windows installation is corrupted, and can't be seen by Windows Setup (but the recovery console can see it)
b) Because I used another Windows cd, than the one I used to install windows (the one I used to install didn't have any SP, but the one I'm currently using has SP2 + some updates slipstreamed)

Is there any way to get back into windows?
Looks like I will have to re-install windows on the same partion?



I can still see & interact with my files using NTFS4DOS, so it means that I will be able to get some of my stuff back.

I tried to copy the my files to a network drive using DOS, but due to DOS using only 640KB of memory, I can't have the three programs required to do this open (NTFS4DOS + TCP/IP Network for DOS + A commander)
Using loadhigh also doesn't seem to do anything.

I'm thinking about using a Ubuntu Live disk to try to transfer all of my files to another computer, and then format that drive...
But I'm not sure about NTFS support...

I can also put the HDD into another computer and then copy the files, but I don't really want to do this...

I knew that this would have happened sooner or later, because, of other things (windows would not boot (BSOD) or windows saying that my profile is corrupted (both things happened sometimes, not always)

Another thing is, that before running chkdsk, I had about 3GB free, and after running it, I had about 5GB free...



Thanks

If you go and use Ubuntu to transfer files, Ubuntu can provide read-only access to NTFS partitions. If you still want to access the files after getting windows working (or reinstalled) later, be sure to copy the files onto a FAT32 partition. Linux can support FAT partitions, but not NTFS ones. The other option is to find a second CD (or DVD) drive, and just burn everything to disk for your backup.

Another suggestion is to get your hands on another version of Windows(XP Pro or MCE, or I can send you a link for an eval copy of Server 2003 R2) and install it on a second partition/disk. This will not install over your existing OS, instead it will modify your boot.ini to make a dual boot (if you accept the default options). A new OS install will keep all of the files on the old drive, assuming you have a second disk.

If you have no access to a second disk or OS, you can also try re-installing your own copy of Windows, but to a different directory. As I have never actually done this, I don't know how reliable it may be.

Your best option would be to install a new OS to a second disk, then copy all your data to it.

quote:

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Originally posted by MeEtc
The other option is to find a second CD (or DVD) drive, and just burn everything to disk for your backup.

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Hmmm, I can't do that since it is a laptop, and I will have to use an external drive, and the laptop has only USB 1.1 hubs (do external cd/dvd rw drives come to a firewire edition too?)

quote:

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Originally posted by MeEtc
Another suggestion is to get your hands on another version of Windows(XP Pro or MCE, or I can send you a link for an eval copy of Server 2003 R2) and install it on a second partition/disk.

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I can't do that, since the laptop supports only 5GB, and I'm not sure if 5GB are fine for WinXP to run...

quote:

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Originally posted by MeEtc
If you have no access to a second disk or OS, you can also try re-installing your own copy of Windows, but to a different directory. As I have never actually done this, I don't know how reliable it may be.

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I have done this some years ago, and it has worked, but I want to use this as a last resort (don't have a particular reason, just don't really like it)

quote:

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Originally posted by MeEtc
Your best option would be to install a new OS to a second disk, then copy all your data to it.

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Yeah, probably...

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Here's what I've done so far:

I have booted from a Ubuntu live CD (It is really slow, but I don't blame Ubuntu, since I only have 256mb of ram, and a swap file can't be used, and everything is loaded from a cd).
I mounted my NTFS drive as read only with help from #banana at IRC.
Then, I installed Samba to enable file sharing between Windows/Linux OSes.
So far, so good, but when I try to access the drive I shared via Linux, I'm asked to provide a username/pass
I tried things such "ubuntu" and "root" (with the password left out empty) and they don't seem to work.
I have found this, but I haven't tried it yet...

quote:

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Originally posted by Mike
So far, so good, but when I try to access the drive I shared via Linux, I'm asked to provide a username/pass (Smilie)
I tried things such "ubuntu" and "root" (with the password left out empty) and they don't seem to work.
I have found this, but I haven't tried it yet...

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The shared drive as in the network shared drive on your Windows computer from within Linux?

You need to enter a username/password that is valid on the other computer.

Alternatively on the other computer you need to set Guest security permissions to "FULL" and make sure that on the sharing permissions page either "Allow users to change my network files" is checked or if you have advanced file sharing turned off, the Guest account also has permission.

[edit] If you mean access a drive you have shared via Samba on a Windows machine, replace your Samba configuration file with the following:

code:

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[global]
    netbios name = name_of_server
    workgroup = WORKGROUP
    security = share
    encrypt passwords = yes
    os level = 17

[myshare]
    path = /
    create mask = 0700
    read only = no
    guest ok = yes
    browseable = yes

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Restart Samba and it should hopefully work then.

quote:

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Originally posted by Chris Boulton
If you mean access a drive you have shared via Samba on a Windows machine, replace your Samba configuration file with the following:

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Yeah, that's what I meant

Thanks for your help..
But before I tried to do what you suggested, I tried what the url I posted on my previous post, and it seems to work fine

I'm currently copying the files to from the laptop to another computer.
If that fails for some reason, then I might just take out the HDD and install it on an external drive and copy the files using that...