Recover my documents from a crashed vista OS hard disk

Errol_Jr · 02-06-2008

My Vista Operating System Hard Disk Just crashed. It was running Vista
Home Premium. My Computer is an HP 8170in media centre PC.

I have managed to salvage most data off it from the other partitions as
well as the C:\ except the my documents which has all my user files on
them. I have already tried using an XP computer to get into the hard
disk but it doesnt allow me to change the securities from there. Have
tried changing security ownership by using articles from the forum by
goin on the security tab in XP but its not allowing me to change this
for the documents and settings. Is it located elsewhere by any chance?
Am i changing the wrong folder? At the minute it just shows the folder
grayed out with no access to it... you do not have permission message
and its disk size shown is 0mb. Assuming this is becuase of a security
issue.

I also bought a new hard disk and used the hp restore disks to re add
windows vista on that hard disk. Now on that system i cannot access my
old hard disk and i get a blue screen. If i attempt to only boot from
my old hard disk i get a 0x0000007b (0x78d2524 oxc0000034 ox00000000
0x00000000) error

Please help. Me desperate now.

Malke · 02-06-2008

Use a Linux live CD like Knoppix to retrieve your files. Linux doesn't honor
Windows' permissions. However, if you *encrypted* this directory without
exporting the key, the contents are lost. Also, if that area of the hard
drive is physically damaged, you will need to send the drive to a
professional data recovery company such as Drive Savers
(www.drivesavers.com), quite an expensive course of action.

No backups? When this is all over, put a backup strategy into place and
utilize it.

Here is some information about general data recovery and about using Knoppix
to retrieve your files:

*****
*IMPORTANT* - If there is any question that the drive is at fault - it's
making noises for instance - and the data is crucial DO NOTHING FURTHER ON
THE DRIVE. Every time you spin that drive up you may be destroying data. If
this is the case, send the drive to a professional data recovery company
like Drive Savers (my preference) or Seagate Data Recovery. General prices
run from $500USD on up. Drive Savers recovered all the data on a failed
laptop drive for one of my clients and it cost $2,700. He thought it was
worth the money; only you know what your data is worth. I understand that
some insurance companies are now covering data recovery charges so check
with yours.

Drive Savers
Seagate Data Recovery Services - https://www.seagatedatarecovery.com/

Often XP/Vista will not boot with a slaved drive that has a damaged file
system. In that case, boot the target computer with either a Bart's PE or a
Linux live cd such as Knoppix and retrieve the data that way. Here is
general information on using Knoppix for this:

You will need a computer with two cd drives, one of which is a cd/dvd-rw OR
a usb thumb drive with enough capacity to hold your data OR an external
usb/firewire hard drive formatted FAT32 (not NTFS)*. To get Knoppix, you
need a computer with a fast Internet connection and third-party burning
software. Download the Knoppix .iso and create your bootable cd. Then boot
with it and it will be able to see the Windows files. If you are using the
usb thumb drive or the external hard drive, right-click on its icon (on the
Desktop) to get its properties and uncheck the box that says "Read Only".
Then click on it to open it. Note that the default mouse action in the
window manager used by Knoppix (KDE) is a single click to open instead of
the traditional MS Windows' double-click. If you want to burn CD/DVDs, use
the K3b program.

http://www.knoppix.net
Bart's PE Builder

*My understanding is that you can now write to an NTFS partition from Linux.
If you wish to do this, Google for instructions.

3. If a Bart's PE or Knoppix won't work, you can try using data recovery
software. Here are some links to various programs. I use Easy Recovery Pro,
but it is expensive. People whom I respect have recommended R-Studio and
Restoration. YMMV.

PCInspector File Recovery -
Executive Software ?Undelete? -
R-Studio
File Scavenger
Ontrack's EasyRecovery

Vista doesn't use the My Documents folder.

Try getting into the c:\Users\your_username\documents folder instead.

**dpierce** · 17-07-2009

All I did was put the vista hard drive into another machine as the secondary hard drive and search the root for *.doc, *.xls, etc.

Gordon · 17-07-2009

With what result?
PLEASE quote the post you are replying to. The "forum" you are posting in
leaches off the Microsoft News server and so we do NOT see what you do.

nancy86 · 03-08-2009

Hey Errol_Jr,

It seems that you have encountered with very serious problem and you are very desperate to get back your data. Look it is very simple an easy you just have to use a software called Data Recovery for Vista software.

This software is very simple and easy to use. Its sophisticated and powerful algorithm will help you to get your entire data from HDD. not only that is also repairs your HDD if it finds anything like that.

So don't just wait fastly download this software and get rid of lost, corrupted, deleted and formatted data

Thanks,

Bill Daggett · 03-08-2009

He was in JUNE OF LAST YEAR, but I bet he fixed his problem by the
time you showed up.

Aside from the fact that this is a spammer who routinely shows up way late
like this to shill his recovery software. Which no one would ever use
anyway. ;-)

Jim · 03-08-2009

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