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Etymon
Advanced Member
United States
2385 Posts |
 Posted - 25 August 2005 : 21:42:28
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I recently had some weird type of crash happen on my PC. I'm not sure if it was something that just went wrong with my hard drive or something external like a virus.
I turned off my PC as normal, and the next day, upon booting up, a message came up stating that no operating system could be found. I used my emergency startup disk to boot up. Then I took a look in Windows. Yup, I had just a few files and no subdirectories (if I remember correctly).
Upon reinstalling windows, I received a message from Scan Disk that I had some errors (can't remember if they were cross-linked files or what). I made an undo disk and continued. Upon a surface scan of drive D:\ it was detected that I had one bad (B) cluster.
After reinstalling windows, I went to look at D: drive where I have my Snitz files stored and the particular directory where my MODs were stored was, well, not wiped clean, but inaccessible. The directories had been turned into machine language, and the parent directory had become a system file.
I ran the undo disk (SCANDISK /UNDO a:), and it did what it was supposed to do. However, this did nothing for that directory that contained machine code.
So, while in Windows I went into a DOS window to see what I could do. I could do nothing. It was still in machine language. Then I rebooted and went directly to the C:\ prompt. From there, I went to D:\ to look at my Snitz MOD's directory contents.
I had to use an eight character directory name since I was in DOS. I typed it in, and to my surprise, there were all of the MODs in the directories as they were supposed to be (except for the short file name extensions).
The next thing I did was create a new directory on C:\, and then I went back to D:\ and did XCOPY /S/E/V D:\ to copy all of the files (where S = occupied subdirectories, E = empty subdirectories, V = verify the file has been copied by displaying it on the screen).
I did this and it copied the files over. I then went into the new directory on C:\ to look at the files. They were there and still in eight charcter format because of DOS.
Finally, I rebooted and went into Windows. I opened up Windows Explorer, looked into the new directory, and found the newly copied files there. BUT, they were in eight character DOS format! 
How do I work around this problem? First, I know I need to figure out what happened. Is this the result of having a bad spot on the hard drive? Can a virus do this? How do I rescue the files back to how they once were?
Thanks!
Cheers,
Etymon
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AnonJr
Moderator
United States
5768 Posts |
Posted - 25 August 2005 : 22:04:19
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Two things:
1. Get a copy of Knoppix. It is a version of Linux that boots off of a CD. Boot from the CD and you should be able to read the secondary drive and copy your files to a Flash Drive (or some other external storage).
2. Get a copy of SpinRite from www.grc.com . It sounds like a hard drive problem. This program will diagnose it, and 90% of the time be able to fix it - and maybe even recover your files... the only catch is that SpinRite is not free. There may be a free one that is just as good out there, but I am unaware of it.
I've had to recover from disk failures before and with only one exception (that grinding noise really came close to making a grown man cry) this has worked for me.
Oh, and before I forget, make a copy of what you have already recovered before you do any of this!  |
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Nathan
Help Moderator
USA
7664 Posts |
Posted - 26 August 2005 : 00:31:07
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First, if your still running 9X/ME you should upgrade to NT/2K/XP/VI when you get the chanse. If your already running an NT based Windows system, then use NTFS and you wont have long filename problems in the future.
As long as your drives are FAT16 or FAT32, then the Knoppix option sounds like a good one. |
 Nathan Bales
CoreBoard | Active Users Download |
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Etymon
Advanced Member
United States
2385 Posts |
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pdrg
Support Moderator
United Kingdom
2897 Posts |
Posted - 26 August 2005 : 05:21:01
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you'd also need an ISO-writing program as these disks are all bootstrapped, so XP will not copy them natively to be bootable.
Also - hard disks are a bit like lovers, once they've been unfaithful, you can never fully trust them again. Get a new disk.
hth |
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AnonJr
Moderator
United States
5768 Posts |
Posted - 26 August 2005 : 12:42:50
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quote:
Originally posted by Nathan
As long as your drives are FAT16 or FAT32, then the Knoppix option sounds like a good one.
Knoppix can read NTFS partitions. It can't write to them, but it can read. (the voice of experience - and painc )
I remember the first time I downloaded Knoppix. I got 18 hrs into the download and the power went out... I ordered it from one of the distro sites for $5 the very next day. |
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Etymon
Advanced Member
United States
2385 Posts |
Posted - 28 August 2005 : 22:20:10
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Well,
I found some of the files still in tack, so that is hopeful.
Thanks for all of the advice!
Cheers,
Etymon
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ruirib
Snitz Forums Admin
Portugal
26364 Posts |
Posted - 29 August 2005 : 06:07:47
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If what you need is to get an environment that will enable you to boot your computer and copy your files, I would recommend this: http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/
You can build in some other computer and use it to boot the one you're having problems with. Works quite well and does not require a 700 MB download. |
Snitz 3.4 Readme | Like the support? Support Snitz too |
Edited by - ruirib on 29 August 2005 06:08:17 |
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AnonJr
Moderator
United States
5768 Posts |
Posted - 29 August 2005 : 08:17:25
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For future work you could also build a BartPE disk. I've heard lots of good things so far... I just haven't had the time to put one together.
(that lack of sleep really will make the keys jump around... ) |
Edited by - AnonJr on 29 August 2005 08:19:08 |
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ruirib
Snitz Forums Admin
Portugal
26364 Posts |
Posted - 29 August 2005 : 08:46:31
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quote:
Originally posted by AnonJr
For future work you could also build a BartPE disk. I've heard lots of good things so far... I just haven't had the time to put one together.
(that lack of sleep really will make the keys jump around...)
You didn't read my previous post, did you? |
Snitz 3.4 Readme | Like the support? Support Snitz too |
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AnonJr
Moderator
United States
5768 Posts |
Posted - 29 August 2005 : 11:02:28
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Sorry, I did .... I just wasn't reading as closely as I should have .
Cronic insomnia is a bugger...
(edited for spelling) |
Edited by - AnonJr on 29 August 2005 11:03:51 |
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