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Urgent computer reformat question...

Eric Perry

Eric Perry

Jun 16, 2002
12,630
692
the depths of fiery hell, I mean Phoenix
www.facebook.com
#1
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.
 
#5
Chunk-O-Funk said:
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.
Click to expand...
It's an option, but one I'd prefer to avoid. I'm thinking that the drive wouldn't even be recognized anyway. :hmm:

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. :hmm:
 
#6
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...
 
#7
Trevor.A said:
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...
Click to expand...
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...
 
#9
tplyons said:
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.
Click to expand...
It's worth a try.


....And this one just said piss off! :D

IMG_1081small.jpg
 
#10
Eric618 said:
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...
Click to expand...
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.
 
#11
Trevor.A said:
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.
Click to expand...
The drive is actually showing up as almost full, not empty. I have NO idea why that is. :hmm:
 
#12
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.
 

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