Derek McAllan Posted July 23, 2010 Share Posted July 23, 2010 Well, seems it might be contagious. Emmsie gets his PC up and running, now mine has died. Vista wouldn't start tonight, spent the whole night trying to repair the boot files to no avail and I have no idea how I'm going to recover all my data Not a happy Derek. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spirit Flyer_old Posted July 23, 2010 Share Posted July 23, 2010 Oh No! I had that happen to me last month and barely survived it by doing a windows repair from the DVD and was able to reinstall from a backup. Did you try that? Stephen PS: This should be moved to the Hardware and Tech Talk Forum... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iain Emms Posted July 23, 2010 Share Posted July 23, 2010 Sorry to hear this Derek i hope you get it sorted mate and are back flying soon. cheers Iain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest J van E Posted July 23, 2010 Share Posted July 23, 2010 Well, seems it might be contagious. Emmsie gets his PC up and running, now mine has died. Vista wouldn't start tonight, spent the whole night trying to repair the boot files to no avail and I have no idea how I'm going to recover all my data Does that mean you have no backup at all...? In that case things aren't looking good indeed. You could try to plug the hard disk with the data on it into another computer and then copy whatever you need to another disk or USB or whatever. If the hard disk is the main problem and you can't open it at all, you could try a data recovery program (you will still have to plug the hard disk into a working computer to reach it, obviously). My son once had an external hard disk that suddenly was totally dead, but with Data Recovery Wizard Pro he managed to save a lot of important files! (It's not exactly freeware though... And I am sure there are many more programs who can do this (maybe even better, I don't know), but this happened to be the one he used and it work quite well. It did take quite some time to recover stuff btw!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tigerclaw Posted July 23, 2010 Share Posted July 23, 2010 I can't remember how this is done, but if it's only the boot files that are affected, then all is NOT lost. As I say I can't remember, but there is a way to repair the boot files. I think, and I only say "think" that it involves copying some files back onto the drive into the boot sector. I totally screwed up my Vista boot when I was trying to set up a dual boot system quite a while back. It took me a long time, but I found something on the net that helped me rebuild the boot up for Vista. If you have internet access on another computer, try a google search for dual boot systems, a link should lead you to some information about boot files, and how to repair them. I'm really sorry I can't remember for you, but Vista was such a headache for me I've totally wiped it from my mind. All I can tell you is, DON'T format your drive until you've explored all other means of help. Your data is safe if it's just the boot files okay. EDIT: Just did a quick search and found this http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1 It's easy BCD. I definitely used this to help repair my boot files. But can't remember how, sorry. END EDIT: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Webb Posted July 23, 2010 Share Posted July 23, 2010 My advice is to not try to fix the disk if you have data you want to keep. Take it out, put in a removable disk case and get the data you want, then try to get it booting again. Windows start-up repair could help. You can run it by booting form your OS disks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek McAllan Posted July 23, 2010 Author Share Posted July 23, 2010 G'day guys, Thanks for your concern. I've tried the Vista repair utility, it couldn't even see my installation, so I rebuilt the BCD file as Tigerclaw suggested (Yes, I've been through this before... ah Vista, what a PITA). Now the repair can see the install, but can't repair it due to an OsMisMatch error. Guess it's time to seek professional help for the first time in my 20 years of timkering... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tigerclaw Posted July 24, 2010 Share Posted July 24, 2010 Well it wasn't a very good suggestion if it didn't work WarpSpider, sorry. Never seen an OsMisMatch error, so don't know what to say. It's only TWO bloody chrissakes, who would've thought 2 files can't be repaired by the OS? I hate Microsoft, I really do Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest J van E Posted July 24, 2010 Share Posted July 24, 2010 I hate Microsoft, I really do Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tigerclaw Posted July 24, 2010 Share Posted July 24, 2010 Hi J van E, I have both, OS X on an iMac 24" and a PC with XP Pro. Both are fine. I had vista on my new PC and it was nothing but trouble from day one. I ended up scrapping it, and getting XP to go on it instead. Yeah I guess "hate" is a bit strong really, but Vista totally ruined PC's for me. The only problems I've had with my Mac are purely human error. I'm such a dickhead sometimes, and mess things up. But as an OS I prefer Apple any day Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek McAllan Posted August 10, 2010 Author Share Posted August 10, 2010 Hooray!! After 2 1/2 weeks I finally got my drive back from the data forensic guys! They managed to recover everything so I'm a very happy man (more to the point, the mrs isn't threatening me with death for losing all of our photos ). I should've gotten professional help straight away, would've saved a lot of effort and cost, but even though all my FTX budget is gone for the next few months I'm so looking forward to getting FSX back up and running. Pity I have to fly to Brisvegas in the morning lol. Will be back in the air and flooding the screenie forum with new pics on the weekend (oh yeah, I got PNW a few days before the crash, looking forward to doing some screenie work around there Cheers, Derek Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Dow Posted August 11, 2010 Share Posted August 11, 2010 My solution to the backup quandary... This works best if you have a couple of drives, one is your workhorse and one acts as a backup. I have a 1TB drive as my workhorse, a 320GB drive as my data backup, and a 20GB swappable C: drive in case of failure. Get hold of an HDD, any decent size will do, 20-40GB is more than enough. Put it into a spare drive, and use the IDE or SATA cables from your current C: drive, format then install an operating system on it, nothing else. Could be Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, as long as it will register and boot up. (You can use your current OS as you can just pretend it's a re-install.) Once you have established that the new drive is working as a replacement C: drive, simply unplug it and replace the IDE or SATA cable into your real C: drive and compute as normal. The new drive can sit there doing nothing forever, but if you have a boot sector or other irrecoverable failure (other than mechanical) you can simply swap the IDE or SATA cable to the standby and boot up. The spare C: drive allows you to configure the non-booting C: drive as a D or E drive and you can access the file structure and recover pictures, downloads etc from it and store them on the backup drive. (I'm not sure what access you would have to the My Documents folders in drives, that's why I store everything in folders I make myself and don't use My Documents folders at all). Some people prefer to use RAID or external HDDs for data safety, but the problem with them is if the primary C: drive fails it's difficult to start up and look for the data, with my system I always have a C: drive ready to go. (Note any major hardware changes have to be allowed for so that the standby C: drive doesn't hang because it isn't happy with the RAM or video card or whatever. I always confirm the standby will boot up after changing any hardware in the box.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maurice_King Posted August 11, 2010 Share Posted August 11, 2010 Sorry to hear of your woes Derek, Now after seeing this happen to a few on the forum you all may see the what I am always refering to with regard separating your OS entirely from everything else on the PC AND ALWAYS have a current Clone of your Boot drive and all your common files etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek McAllan Posted August 11, 2010 Author Share Posted August 11, 2010 Thanks for the concern guys, it's definitely been a learning experience. I've always maintained a backup before, and this shouldn't have been the problem that it was. Unfortunately, my main drive crashed about a month or so ago, and I replaced it with my backup drive temporarily. Of course I meant to buy a new backup drive but given that I've been flying all over WA the past few weeks I never got a chance. Then, as fate would have it, my temporary drive died - thus resulting in my loss of data. I blamed the iPod at first, as that was what caused the boot failure in the first place (never leave an iPod plugged in while restarting a PC!!!) but really I only have myself to blame for not maintaining a proper backup regime. It's all worked out now, but it cost me a LOT of money. My PC is now running with a 350GB drive for Windows - I've upgraded to Windows 7 64bit seeing as I had to do a full reinstall - with another 350GB drive on which FSX will be installed. All my data, ie: the documents, photos, downloads etc are all on a 1.5TB drive. In addition I've got a 2TB external eSATA drive tucked away behind my desk to which I am now backing up weekly. And also another 250GB drive on which I have an Ubuntu installation just in case I have any boot problems! Pananoid? Maybe. Being Prudent? Definitely. Given that I work in risk management, I'm definitely someone who learns from mistakes and this is one that I will never make again. Now comes the monster task of getting FSX, Condor, and all my other stuff reinstalled (when I land back in Perth anyway ) Cheers, Derek Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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