scattycat69

Ive reconnected the hard drive and ran parted magic again as the instructions, but my pc is still not showing the hard drive? When the windows sp2 disk was installed and a repair asked for it didn't get through the whole process and ends at a c:/ with no windows folder. Could this be the reason that ultimateboot cd is unable to locate the hard drive as it is 'does not exist' because windows is not loaded properley? What else can I try? TESTDISK and PHOTOREC ? Thanks in aadvance for any help.

Hmm it always helps if you reconnect the hard drive back to the pc durrrr! Let's see if that works.

Hi. I finally worked out how to get the ubccd onto a disk and inserted into my 'old' pc. As suggested in one of the recommended posts I used the partedmagic to look for the hard drive, but the only drives showing are the two cd rom and rw drives and my external hard drive that I attached. Is there anything else I can do, or does it look lilke I have lost ther information on the drive?

I have to agree I don't know WHERE I got that file . I tried tried to trace my steps from using the link you supplied but can't find the download icon now! I'm glad I asked or I would have been in a complete mess! Thanks again for the advice and I will have a look tomorrow as a couple of glasses of wine have been downed and I don't want to get it wrong. Thanks again

I wonder WHERE you got that file. You want this one CALLED UBCD511.ISO: http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html The page lists a number of mirrors, a few ones: http://ubcd.mirror.fusa.be/ubcd511.iso http://ftp.gr.vim.org/mirrors/linux/ubcd/ubcd511.iso http://pharry.org/data/ubcd511.iso And yes, if you don't have a suitable program, get IMGBURN: http://www.imgburn.com/ http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=download You want to get a file that is called SetupImgBurn_2.5.6.0.exe jaclaz

Go the Freeware route (unless you already have a commercial burning software). Google those package names, download, install on the good PC (where you should have downloaded the ISO Image), and burn the Image (which is an IMAGE of a CD) to a CD. Another relatively good Freeware is ImgBurn.ImgBurn example - Select Mode (tab at top) - Write Select File->Browse (browse to the ISO image and select it) Select your Burner (be sure a blank CD is in it) Click on the bottom "Write" With commercial burning software, usually you just have to have a blank CD in the burner and double-click on the downloaded ISO (software figures out it's an Image).

Thanks submix8c. It was much appreciated your fast reply. I was getting rather confused !

Go the Freeware route (unless you already have a commercial burning software). Google those package names, download, install on the good PC (where you should have downloaded the ISO Image), and burn the Image (which is an IMAGE of a CD) to a CD. Another relatively good Freeware is ImgBurn.ImgBurn example - Select Mode (tab at top) - Write Select File->Browse (browse to the ISO image and select it) Select your Burner (be sure a blank CD is in it) Click on the bottom "Write" With commercial burning software, usually you just have to have a blank CD in the burner and double-click on the downloaded ISO (software figures out it's an Image).

Hi Jaclaz Thanks for the link to ultimate boot cd. I've downloaded the file iLividsetupv1. Should I run this file on my laptop and then burn the folder and files from it or burn this actual downloaded file to a cd and then insert in the cd drive of my 'old' poorly pc? Thanks

Thanks for all your advice. I will take this step by step and start with making a boot disk. Let you know how I get on.

This was my original post in OS Hi I searched the internet using google and came across a post from 2005 on this forum which discussed the problem I am having, although it didn't seem to have a conclusion, the assistance given was very good. I have a fujitsu-siemens scaleo t desktop which from the posts I have read seems like my hard drive is on it's last legs. Which is ok because I recently bought a seagate external hard drive so that I could backup and copy all the files from my pc (which I had been using mainly for storage) as I have a laptop. I had an idea that as the make of the pc is not all that good I may start to have problems and was trying to pre-empt ...... unfortunately it seems the pc has beaten me to it and started to die before I could get all the files off the hard drive onto the seagate. I got to 'm' in the folders and am really desperate to recover the rest of the files, especially one of 'photos'. Sorry to be so long winded, but thought the more information I can give to my situation the better it is. I have rebooted from the cd and the windows xp disk which did not complete I have done a chkdsk /r whcih came up with this message I rebooted with the windows disk in and started the process again and got the message 'the following list shows the exiasting partitions etc etc' Unknow Disk (there is no disk in this drive) Options given ENTER Install D Delete Partition F3 Quit I haven't gone any further as I didn't want to possibly jeopardise retriving my files. What can I do? All help greatly appreciated Thanks in advance! This was the much appreciated reply from jaclaz Basically you are stuck (IF the idea is to recover the filesystem) with a probability of 30 to 80 % . IF you are looking to recover files (namely photos/Images) AND IF the disk is detected in BIOS AND IF the disk had been defragged recently (before the filesystem issues began to show) THEN you have good probabilities, nearing 90% or more to recover them as files. How big is the failed/failing hard disk? How big is the new USB disk? How much free space you have on it? What you need is enough free space on a disk to contain TWICE the whole size of the "failing disk" (or two disks each one with enough space to hold the full contents of the old disk). Doing *anything* without this requirement fulfilled FIRST is STRONGLY NOT advised. Please start a new thread in the appropriate area: http://www.msfn.org/...e-media-issues/ and detail as much as you can the hardware you have available and what you remember of how the disk was partitioned, if it was recently defragged, etc. etc. Please take note that no matter the (completely fake ) probabilities of failure of success, IF a filesystem recovery is possible the result will be essentially the files just as you had them before, whilst if this is not possible a file based recovery will - IF succesful - a number of "good" images BUT withouut their original names and paths. jaclaz So here's my post: The 'old' pc is a Fujitsu Siemens scaleo T. I think the hard drive was possibly 320gb, but can't be certain. I have no idea how it was partitioned. It was defragged a few weeks before, but nothing had been added since. How big is the failed/failing hard disk? I can't remember but it was the largest at the time, which was 2003, possibly 160gb 0r 320gb. Can I maybe see this on the outer cover? How big is the new USB disk? 1TB - Seagate Freeagent GoFlex drive How much free space you have on it? 909 gb free I am really wanting to just retrieve the files/folders from the hard drive so that I can open them on my new laptop or store on the external hard drive. The 'old' pc is just a bag of bones now, lol!

Basically you are stuck (IF the idea is to recover the filesystem) with a probability of 30 to 80 % . IF you are looking to recover files (namely photos/Images) AND IF the disk is detected in BIOS AND IF the disk had been defragged recently (before the filesystem issues began to show) THEN you have good probabilities, nearing 90% or more to recover them as files. How big is the failed/failing hard disk? How big is the new USB disk? How much free space you have on it? What you need is enough free space on a disk to contain TWICE the whole size of the "failing disk" (or two disks each one with enough space to hold the full contents of the old disk). Doing *anything* without this requirement fulfilled FIRST is STRONGLY NOT advised. Please start a new thread in the appropriate area: http://www.msfn.org/board/forum/169-hard-drive-and-removable-media-issues/ and detail as much as you can the hardware you have available and what you remember of how the disk was partitioned, if it was recently defragged, etc. etc. Please take note that no matter the (completely fake ) probabilities of failure of success, IF a filesystem recovery is possible the result will be essentially the files just as you had them before, whilst if this is not possible a file based recovery will - IF succesful - a number of "good" images BUT withouut their original names and paths. jaclaz

Hi I searched the internet using google and came across a post from 2005 on this forum which discussed the problem I am having, although it didn't seem to have a conclusion, the assistance given was very good. I have a fujitsu-siemens scaleo t desktop which from the posts I have read seems like my hard drive is on it's last legs. Which is ok because I recently bought a seagate external hard drive so that I could backup and copy all the files from my pc (which I had been using mainly for storage) as I have a laptop. I had an idea that as the make of the pc is not all that good I may start to have problems and was trying to pre-empt ...... unfortunately it seems the pc has beaten me to it and started to die before I could get all the files off the hard drive onto the seagate. I got to 'm' in the folders and am really desperate to recover the rest of the files, especially one of 'photos'. Sorry to be so long winded, but thought the more information I can give to my situation the better it is. I have rebooted from the cd and the windows xp disk which did not complete I have done a chkdsk /r whcih came up with this message I rebooted with the windows disk in and started the process again and got the message 'the following list shows the exiasting partitions etc etc' Unknow Disk (there is no disk in this drive) Options given ENTER Install D Delete Partition F3 Quit I haven't gone any further as I didn't want to possibly jeopardise retriving my files. What can I do? All help greatly appreciated Thanks in advance!