I am not terribly concerned about this problem - I had planned to change laptop anyway, but is there a way to get my data back ?
Thanks!
Did you change anything in the BIOS recently? If yes, change it back.
If not, it's probably File system error. Run a check disk.
chkdsk /p and /r already run. It stopped at 45%, then got "the disk has unrecoverable errors". It is also making some disquieting noise, so I figure the HD is toast, or about to be soon. Which is why I stopped fiddling with it until I could recover the data.
Boot with something like SystemRescueCd (http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page). Try to mount the ntfs volumes and copy the files you want. Once they're secure go ahead and run TestDisk (http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk) and try to restore the boot sector.
Quote from: Vricklund on March 04, 2010, 11:29:31 AM
Boot with something like SystemRescueCd (http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page). Try to mount the ntfs volumes and copy the files you want. Once they're secure go ahead and run TestDisk (http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk) and try to restore the boot sector.
Do this. Sometimes noises are not caused by physical failures, but by the drive trying to read the same sector repeatedly.
I had a unmountable boot error once, and I was able to save the data by using a Linux Live Cd. It saw the HD and the data a couple of times and I was able to get my stuff.
Boot from a BartPE disk or something, hook up an external drive and see if you can grab stuff then, assuming what Vricks said fails.
You could pay a few grand for a recovery service to get the stuff if it really is that important.
Quote from: Vricklund on March 04, 2010, 11:29:31 AM
Boot with something like SystemRescueCd (http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page). Try to mount the ntfs volumes and copy the files you want. Once they're secure go ahead and run TestDisk (http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk) and try to restore the boot sector.
Okay, I am barely computer-litterate, so you will have to explain this as if to a child. :(
Maybe you would be better off just booting from an Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/GetUbuntu/download) disk. It does most of what I'll cover below automaticly. But then you wouldn't learn anything, would you? :)
So...
Burn SystemRescueCd. Boot from it. It will tell you what to do (ENTER, fr, startx).
Now, hdd's are named somewhat differently to what you might be used to as a windows user. First disk is /dev/sda, second disk /dev/sdb and so on. If you have multiple partions on your disk they're /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2 and so on. Get it?
For the disks to be accessible they must be mounted. Assuming the disk is formated with NTFS, type ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows in the terminal and the first partion on the first disk will be available at /mnt/windows.
From here you can either burn the files onto a cd/dvd or move them to another disk (you'll have to mount the new disk, ntfs-3g /dev/sdb1 /mnt/somethingcompletelydifferent, again assuming it's a disk with NTFS).