I'm trying to help my parents with their computer. It keeps freezing.
Can you override the windows boot (F8) and get a full file directory at the dos prompt? I believe there is also a way to run scandisk from dos, though haven't done this myself. If you can get to the dos prompt, even using a windows startup disk, maybe you can make backups on floppy of the important files, or write to a cd.
I tried putting the hard drive in another computer. I get past the notification that it has been upgraded to NTFS, then I get the blue screen of death. If I try to use it as a slave, I get a message that it is unformatted.
To see if the drive is usable at all I think you have to reformat; and first repartition. So trying to back up before this is a good thought.
Nothing was backed up of course.
With all due respect Diane how much data is on there that they can't live w/o?
Is there anything I can do to save the data?
You can try PC File Inspector - http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/uk/welcome.htm. I used this once myself and it did a good job under the circumstances. Your situation sounds different, I think you're going to have to first install it as a non-bootable ide on a working system, then install this app on that system and see if it can find any data for you on there.
The problem may become that it finds tons and tons of data. You need somewhere to put it, and if for example the file system's been trashed you may have to scan through lots of stuff to find e.g. a one page letter they wrote and want to keep. You may also be able to make an image copy of the disk - I'd think this would be possible although I'm not experienced with that either. I don't know much, do I? :)
There are also co's that specialize in this kind of thing. The program I used was free, these companies afaik are expensive so it depends on the how important the data is.
hth,
Marty
Marty Landman, Face 2 Interface Inc. 845-679-9387 Search & Sort Easily: http://face2interface.com/Products/FormATable.shtml Web Installed Formmail: http://face2interface.com/formINSTal
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