Disk Crash Recovery

I have a PC that was upgraded last month from Windows ME to Windows XP Professional and I was running both McAfee Firewall and Virus Scan. Last week the hard drive seemed to crash and I could not boot up. When I try it tells me that my System file is missing. So the problem as I see it is that either some nasty virus got through my protection or the disk actually crashed. The hard drive is/was partitioned into C: and D: and from the so-called Recovery console I can do a Dir of D: but not of C:.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to recover?

1. First of all I doubt that it is a virus.

2. Which system file are you missing? Is it mmsystem.dll? There are alot of "system" files.

3. Did you use Partition Magic to create that 2nd partition?

4. What is it showing on your d:\ and is there anything important on your d:\?

Thanks for the reply.

2. Which system file are you missing? Is it mmsystem.dll? There are alot of "system" files. This may not be exact but I believe the error message said I'm missing Windows\System32\Config\System. It's hard to tell if that's a file or a folder.

3. Did you use Partition Magic to create that 2nd partition? No, The PC came with the hard drive partitioned with the D: partition intended for backup files.

4. What is it showing on your d:\ and is there anything important on your d:\? There's nothing important there. If you're going to suggest that I load NT there I believe it's too small.

That system file is a file not a directory the best thing to do would take your hard drive out set it as slave and put it in another computer copy the files over that are needed(I think that all systems might all have different info in that file)but its worth a try. If that doesnt work you can always back up everything that you want to keep on the other hard drive and format it.


Tell me if that was clear...Ill reply again later I have to go to class.

Thanks but I don't think that I can get at the files on C: to copy them because as I said, I can't even do a Dir on that drive.

Martin,

Have you tried to boot from the XP CD, let the drivers all load then try the "repair" option? There are a few repair options even if you didnt make an erd. (and keep it updated :rolleyes: )

Yes I did. It tells me to press "r" to get to the repair console. When I do that it puts me in what looks like DOS but it gives no help from that point and I don't see what I can do since I can't look at/copy/or run any of the files on the C: partition.

The recovery console is NOT DOS. It has virtually completely different functionality. About the only thing you can do is copy and delete files from it (as far as DOS functionality).

You can also disable startup services etc, and copy backed up registrys (which most people don't have anyways).

You can try and copy the system file over to the harddrive from another system by dropping the HD into the other PC.

However, I really doubt that will do anything. About your only option if you don't have a backup or recovery disk (in order to make a recovery disk, you have to do it BEFORE you have a problem, its custom to the system).

You'll probably have to reinstall Windows. If you do, DONT upgrade Windows ME. Even if all you ahve is the upgrade, its worth going out and buying the full copy.

Upgrading ANY MS OS is problematic, and even Microsoft themselves don't really recommend it, always start over.

Try to go to the "r" option and choose that you have a repair disk (even though you dont) And if my memory serves me right, you will have more options there, one that does not require an erd. and one that does. Try the one that does not require the erd. This should "repair" the sys files to a bootable condition. That is if your situation is O/S related.

After I press "r" I get a message which says

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The Recovery Console provides system repair and recovery functionality. Type EXIT to quit the Recovery Console and restart the computer.

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It then gives me a C:\> prompt.

Oh good you got the C:\ prompt...Now did it load any CDROM drivers?? If it did and you can...run C:\> sfc[space] /scannow with the XP CD in the tray, otherwise see if you can stear clear of the recovery console to use the "repair" option for the emergency repair disk. There is another option to repair without using the recovery console. Then once you get in there, you should find 2 options 1 for using the emergency repair disk and 1 for letting the CD repair it for you..all you have to do [on this option] is point to where the O/S is installed, then choose automatic or manually.

I do disk recovery quite often in work for customers.
The easiest approach I have found is as follows :

Take the offending hard-drive and fit it to a working computer.
Boot up the machine, and enter into "R-Studio"
Use it to recover the data off your machine

There's an eval edition of R-Studio available so I'd suggest you take a look at that....

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Originally posted by papacorn
Oh good you got the C:\ prompt...Now did it load any CDROM drivers?? If it did and you can...run C:\> sfc[space] /scannow with the XP CD in the tray, otherwise see if you can stear clear of the recovery console to use the "repair" option for the emergency repair disk. There is another option to repair without using the recovery console. Then once you get in there, you should find 2 options 1 for using the emergency repair disk and 1 for letting the CD repair it for you..all you have to do [on this option] is point to where the O/S is installed, then choose automatic or manually.

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It did load the drivers however when I type sfc /scannow or just sfc it says "the command is not recognized...". I'll try the other approach later.

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Originally posted by plenderj
I do disk recovery quite often in work for customers.
The easiest approach I have found is as follows :

Take the offending hard-drive and fit it to a working computer.
Boot up the machine, and enter into "R-Studio"
Use it to recover the data off your machine

There's an eval edition of R-Studio available so I'd suggest you take a look at that....

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I'll keep that in mind but I'd like to try the software approach before I get out my hammer and chisel.

AHHHHH.....

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It did load the drivers however when I type sfc /scannow or just sfc it says "the command is not recognized...". I'll try the other approach later.

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.....guess that only works with the system booted.....

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Originally posted by MartinLiss
Yes I did. It tells me to press "r" to get to the repair console. When I do that it puts me in what looks like DOS but it gives no help from that point and I don't see what I can do since I can't look at/copy/or run any of the files on the C: partition.

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Try this: Put the CD and boot up, skip the first Recovery option and go for installing Windows XP, there it searches for any available installation of XP on your hard disk. If you were lucky and it find one, then repair that installation. If not there are some probabilities. Check your hard disk with another PC, see if the file format is still NTFS or whatever it was and its not changed to RAW or something. Try hard disk checking programs, for example MaxtorPowerDiag, and see if something is wrong with your hard disk physically. There are other ways to go, but first try these and let me know the results.

Hey Martin, about my last post. If you put it in another PC then you can back everything up using windows.

Not all commands that you can use in Windows are available in the recovery console. Only basic administration tasks like copying files etc. Don't expect fancy commands like xcopy, only copy and there are a lot of other commands that are unavailable. Check Help and Support for the list, it's there somewhere.

Can someone explain something to me? If this was a disk crash and not a virus, how is it that the D: partition is readable but not the C: partition?

hey ideas man, I was just saying that he could back up the files that he wanted to keep and then format it.

Martin, when you get to the recovery C prompt, type "dir" for a list of all the utilities it allows....several (although I can't remember off the top of my head) should come in useful. It isn't normal DOS, it's a slimmed down version wi' nowt but a bunch of recovery utilities.

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Originally posted by IntelSucks
hey ideas man, I was just saying that he could back up the files that he wanted to keep and then format it.

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I didn't say he couldn't do that, I was just saying what he could to in the recovery console.