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12-22-2008, 08:02 PM
|  | I fling carrots | | Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Make a left at the Taco Bell | | | Urgent computer reformat question...
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Hey guys,
My step-sis got a wicked virus on her system. The system is about 3 years old. Because of the age, and the number of viruses and trojans and crap on there, I suggested to just reformat with a fresh install of XP. I asked her to get all of her files that she wanted collected and burned to DVDs.
Well, tonight I started to work. She had told me prior that she had everything saved, so I went ahead with the format / reinstall. At around 3% of formatting, I ask where her disks were, and she said she never burned them! Everything is saved in one folder on the desktop, but because I was into the format, I cannot get into windows anymore. I tried a DOS fixboot and fixmbr, but no luck. I'm getting a "missing nltdr" error now. I'm sure it's more than that, however.
All I want to do is salvage her pics, which I'm fairly confident are intact on the drive. ANY suggestions at all????
THANKS in advance.
__________________ Quote:
Originally Posted by MatticusMania  Strange to say it... but Perry is a man who understands. | Quote:
Originally Posted by macaroni tony Back in the day, I thought I was hard. I think we all know I was pretty much lying to myself  | |
12-22-2008, 08:09 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Ohio | | | I would try booting from the CD, press "R" for repair, then run chkdsk. If that completes successfully do a repair install of Windows. |
12-22-2008, 08:17 PM
| | I fling carrots | | Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Make a left at the Taco Bell | | Quote:
Originally Posted by the mojo hobo I would try booting from the CD, press "R" for repair, then run chkdsk. If that completes successfully do a repair install of Windows. | Tried that. No luck.
__________________ Quote:
Originally Posted by MatticusMania Strange to say it... but Perry is a man who understands. | Quote:
Originally Posted by macaroni tony Back in the day, I thought I was hard. I think we all know I was pretty much lying to myself | |
12-22-2008, 08:31 PM
|  | Funkify your Life | | Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: The Bucket, RI. | | | Is it possible to take her drive and put it in another computer?
Just guessing you may be able to access the HD with a computer that has a functioning OS. |
12-22-2008, 08:37 PM
| | I fling carrots | | Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Make a left at the Taco Bell | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Chunk-O-Funk Is it possible to take her drive and put it in another computer?
Just guessing you may be able to access the HD with a computer that has a functioning OS. | It's an option, but one I'd prefer to avoid. I'm thinking that the drive wouldn't even be recognized anyway. 
I tried to restore the ntldr files, which semed successful, but when I try to restore the boot.ini, I hit a brick wall, and I get an error, which I forget what it is.
__________________ Quote:
Originally Posted by MatticusMania Strange to say it... but Perry is a man who understands. | Quote:
Originally Posted by macaroni tony Back in the day, I thought I was hard. I think we all know I was pretty much lying to myself | |
12-22-2008, 10:22 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Lubbock, TX | | | eek
Do NOT save anything else on the drive or you'll risk overwriting the information. No disk check is going to do anything for you, you need to recover the MFT which has to be done with a data recovery program such as GetDataBack or something. You'll have to pay for it, I don't think there's a free solution.
If you haven't touched the drive since formatting you'll be able to get everything back no problem, but if you kept going with the OS install it might not be pretty...
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12-22-2008, 10:31 PM
| | I fling carrots | | Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Make a left at the Taco Bell | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Trevor.A eek
Do NOT save anything else on the drive or you'll risk overwriting the information. No disk check is going to do anything for you, you need to recover the MFT which has to be done with a data recovery program such as GetDataBack or something. You'll have to pay for it, I don't think there's a free solution.
If you haven't touched the drive since formatting you'll be able to get everything back no problem, but if you kept going with the OS install it might not be pretty... | Thanks Trevor! I didn't get anywhere near the OS install. I was only at 3% formatting when she told me she never burned the files 
Is there any way to access that data with the system in one piece? I really don't feel like ripping apart hers and my system for drive swaps. If I use a live boot Linux OS like Ubuntu, can I track down the files and save them to my flash drive? I know I have a live Kubuntu disc around here somewhere...
__________________ Quote:
Originally Posted by MatticusMania Strange to say it... but Perry is a man who understands. | Quote:
Originally Posted by macaroni tony Back in the day, I thought I was hard. I think we all know I was pretty much lying to myself | |
12-22-2008, 10:41 PM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Madison, NJ | | | That might work, the live boot. I'm trying to recall my Linux days.
It also helps if you take the guinea pigs out of the CD ROM drive.
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12-22-2008, 10:45 PM
| | I fling carrots | | Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Make a left at the Taco Bell | | Quote:
Originally Posted by tplyons That might work, the live boot. I'm trying to recall my Linux days.
It also helps if you take the guinea pigs out of the CD ROM drive. | It's worth a try.
....And this one just said piss off! 
__________________ Quote:
Originally Posted by MatticusMania Strange to say it... but Perry is a man who understands. | Quote:
Originally Posted by macaroni tony Back in the day, I thought I was hard. I think we all know I was pretty much lying to myself | |
12-22-2008, 10:49 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Lubbock, TX | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric618 Thanks Trevor! I didn't get anywhere near the OS install. I was only at 3% formatting when she told me she never burned the files
Is there any way to access that data with the system in one piece? I really don't feel like ripping apart hers and my system for drive swaps. If I use a live boot Linux OS like Ubuntu, can I track down the files and save them to my flash drive? I know I have a live Kubuntu disc around here somewhere... | I don't think any OS is going to be able to see any of the files, the MFT is a list of all the files stored on the drive and where they are located, and it's one of the first things to go when you reformat. Without it, the drive sees everything as empty space.
I've always used GetDataBack at work, it's pretty reliable. They make a plugin for WinPE that I was testing this week that works pretty well, you could boot that from a CD or USB flash drive and at least see if it could find the data.
__________________
There's a uh, big machine in the sky, some kind of, I dunno, electric snake, coming straight at us!
|
12-22-2008, 10:51 PM
| | I fling carrots | | Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Make a left at the Taco Bell | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Trevor.A I don't think any OS is going to be able to see any of the files, the MFT is a list of all the files stored on the drive and where they are located, and it's one of the first things to go when you reformat. Without it, the drive sees everything as empty space.
I've always used GetDataBack at work, it's pretty reliable. They make a plugin for WinPE that I was testing this week that works pretty well, you could boot that from a CD or USB flash drive and at least see if it could find the data. | The drive is actually showing up as almost full, not empty. I have NO idea why that is.
__________________ Quote:
Originally Posted by MatticusMania Strange to say it... but Perry is a man who understands. | Quote:
Originally Posted by macaroni tony Back in the day, I thought I was hard. I think we all know I was pretty much lying to myself | |
12-22-2008, 10:58 PM
|  | I took the one less traveled by | | Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Reims, Champagne, France | | | Several file recovery programs should be able to help you but there is not way you can boot from this drive. You need to plug it into another computer as a slave.
Additional note : unless you also killed partitions, reformating doesn't get you rid of all viruses. Many can reside in the boot sectors. |
12-22-2008, 10:59 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Lubbock, TX | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric618 The drive is actually showing up as almost full, not empty. I have NO idea why that is. | Well hell yea, you might still have everything  I guess the format didn't get far enough.
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There's a uh, big machine in the sky, some kind of, I dunno, electric snake, coming straight at us!
|
12-22-2008, 11:02 PM
| | I took the one less traveled by | | Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Reims, Champagne, France | | | Format doesn't erase data anyway. It ignores it. |
12-23-2008, 07:22 AM
| | I fling carrots | | Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Make a left at the Taco Bell | | | Bump... Any other advice?
__________________ Quote:
Originally Posted by MatticusMania Strange to say it... but Perry is a man who understands. | Quote:
Originally Posted by macaroni tony Back in the day, I thought I was hard. I think we all know I was pretty much lying to myself | |
12-23-2008, 07:40 AM
| | | | I think this was suggested however, I would put the drive in another XP machine and see what the other machine sees on the drive. |
12-23-2008, 07:50 AM
| | I fling carrots | | Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Make a left at the Taco Bell | | Quote:
Originally Posted by RWP I think this was suggested however, I would put the drive in another XP machine and see what the other machine sees on the drive. | If the MFT was wiped out, as Trevor suggested, would anything show up?
__________________ Quote:
Originally Posted by MatticusMania Strange to say it... but Perry is a man who understands. | Quote:
Originally Posted by macaroni tony Back in the day, I thought I was hard. I think we all know I was pretty much lying to myself | |
12-23-2008, 09:15 AM
| | Banned | | Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Lincolnshire, UK | | | +1 to the Ubuntu thing.
Worked for my friend when his windows went tits up. |
12-23-2008, 10:11 AM
| | I fling carrots | | Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Make a left at the Taco Bell | | | Thanks! I'll be giving that a try when I get home later...
__________________ Quote:
Originally Posted by MatticusMania Strange to say it... but Perry is a man who understands. | Quote:
Originally Posted by macaroni tony Back in the day, I thought I was hard. I think we all know I was pretty much lying to myself | | | Thread Tools | Search this Thread | | | | 
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