lost hard drive?

[réjean]

Hi all!

My wife's computer was loosing her "p" and her "e" from her keyboard so I suggested replacing it with another one that has a USB connector.

She has an old computer with an old motherboard which has only 2 USB plug ins which are used by the mouse and the 3-1 printer/scanner.

I have a few USB/PS2 connectors so I tried them plugged into the PS2 but it didn't work.

I then remembered I had an old USB card which I was going to try.

I turned her machine off and maybe it wasn't turned off completely when I turned the tower around and started unscrewing the cover when a large noise started and the only quick way to stop the noise was to turn the UPS off ( My wife had gone to bed not too long before and I didn't to wake her up ).

I then installed the USB card and rebooted the machine but I got a blue screen of death.

I restarted and this time I had the option to reboot into safe boot and I chose it thinking that I might have to do a system restore.

Windows started coming back but I got a new blue screen.

So now all I get is a blue screen.

I tried using the Windows XP install CD and did a Repair but now I still get a blue screen.

Now if I turn her computer off there is a green and a yellow light both flashing simultaneously.

What should I do to get her machine working again?

Forgot to say that I checked the BIOS and the hard drive is being seen.

[Guest LilBambi]

réjean, three things seem odd to me.

 

1. you initially didn't see the hard drive but now you are?

2. You turned off her computer, starting removing screws, and the UPS started making noise?

3. The BSOD didn't occur till you put the USB card into the computer? Is the USB card still in the computer?

 

If the USB card is still in the computer, have you tried removing the USB card to see if it still gets the BSOD? Maybe you don't have the driver for it installed right?

 

Usually, when you install a USB card, you don't install the card until you install the driver, and shutdown normally, THEN install the card.

 

Especially with Windows XP, you always or almost always install their driver first, shutdown, then install card physically into the computer. The only case where you don't is if their instructions tell you otherwise.

 

If you didn't do it like that, I strongly suggest you do the following:

 

1. remove the driver that Windows tried to use for it if you can figure it out (otherwise don't worry about that right now)

2. shutdown the computer

3. remove the card

4. restart the computer

5. install the driver for that USB card from the driver disk or downloaded from manufacturer's website

6. shutdown normally

7. install the USB card

8. boot up and wait for Windows to find the card and install the newly installed drivers

 

That could at least solve whether the issue is the USB card or something else (like something fried on the motherboard) that is causing issues.

Edited April 29, 2012 by LilBambi

[burninbush]

What should I do to get her machine working again?

Forgot to say that I checked the BIOS and the hard drive is being seen. >rejean

 

+++++++++++++

 

You must have a linux livecd of some sort available? Boot with that, see if you get all the way up to a prompt. See if you can see the files on her disk. Maybe you can copy her personal stuff off to a usbstick or other external storage, or maybe network copy them to a different computer. Then you can wipe it and start over.

 

If you had ever taken my earlier advice, you could then just reload it from an image. But worst case, you just recover her files and reload it from scratch.

 

I don't understand your comment about noise from the UPS? You didn't even unplug the power cord before opening the case? Bad move.

[Corrine]

My wife's computer was loosing her "p" and her "e" from her keyboard

Fortunately, I learned typing many years ago so know where the keys are. Otherwise, I'd be in trouble since the e, r, i, o, k, l, m, and . characters are worn off my keyboard.

 

Silly as it may sound to some people, my choice would have been to locate a white permanent marker to replace the worn off identification. Alternatively, I'd use something like Avery labels -- I know they carry (or used to carry) small white "dots".

[réjean]

Ok! Bad news first. I think her hd is gone. It should would be nice to recover some data because she uses her computer as manager for our local farmer's market and for our own fruits/vegetables farm besides her personal uses.

@Fran Sorry for being so vague last night. It was getting late, I was tired and I couldn't understand what was going on.

Being refreshed this morning I tried booting her machine several times and all I get is a blue screen of death. I tried her hd into an older computer and I got the same thing. Then I tried her hd into my computer, same old same old.

When I tried her machine into my computer something went wrong and I lost the Grub so much so that even the Super Grub Disk couldn't restore the MBR nor boot into any of the partitions that it could see, no PCLinuxOS (Zen or Phoenix), no OpenSUSE, no Mandriva, no CentOS and no Windows XP.

I tried for 2 hours with no luck. Then we went to do some work at the museum garden that we are looking after and when I got home I tried her hd into my computer once more with still a blue screen. But after I took her hd out and rebooted the MBR was fixed and Grub was there so my own machine is back.

I then tried an old hd with an old version of PCLinuxOS on it with Win XP into her machine and it is working fine.

So her problem is definitely her hd.

Like I said it would be nice to recuperate some of her data.

@burningbush. I tried several times to make an image of her hd but it never worked. I could tell you in a PM what I think the reason is but for now all I have is what was in her My Documents and on her desktop (she saves a lot there. Don't ask me why. She says it is quicker to access even if she has files and folders all over the screen.

@Corrine. It is not so much the letters on the keys that are worned out but when she presses on her "p" and her "e" quite often nothins shows. So she will right my name properly but it will end up as "rjean" for example.

[Guest LilBambi]

OK, so you did try (with her hard drive installed on her computer) to boot to a LiveCD like burningbush suggested?

[réjean]

No Fran I haven't. I installed another hd which had an old version of PCLinux and one of XP. At least for now she can go online.

I also replaced her desktop with a copy from 2 or 3 weeks ago (almost 1.3 GB of stuff) but I want to see if I can delete the Linux partition and make her XP used the whole 40 GB instead of the 10 GB she has right now.

About her broken hd I'll either put it into my computer and see qif I can do what burningbush suggested or else take it to a friend who repairs computers and knows more about Windows than I do ( using Linux all the time ).

[Guest LilBambi]

I would suggest not putting it in your computer again. That didn't work out so well the last time.

 

I would suggest if you can, to put it in a hard drive enclosure and mount it from a liveCD on your computer (like burningbush suggested).

 

It really sounds like Windows is totally pooched and/or infected with some sort of boot level malware, or Windows itself, ... but if you can boot this drive in a hard drive enclousure, the drive may be fine if you can wipe the drive AFTER getting anything she needs data wise from a safe boot of a LiveCD.

[réjean]

Wow! Fran you are really starting to reassure me now because I couldn't understand that it could be a physical problem. Moving the tower around a little I doubt would destroy a drive but this is an old one.

Your explanation would describe what happened to my own computer this morning and vice-versa the behaviour of my machine after I used the hd would demonstrate what is happening to the infected drive.

I have an extra computer into which I can put the drive and a cd drive and run a Live CD ( which I have tons of ). It probably doesn't matter what Linux flavour I will use.

Then I will retrieve the data and install something else on, something that I don't mind if I loose it.

Thanks for the spirit lifting. Greatly appreciated.

[Guest LilBambi]

You are very welcome! Always good to keep our hopes up until/if that is not possible. Sounds to me like the data could be recovered. I do it all the time from Linux LiveCD when Windows is badly infected and/or pooched entirely like that.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

I think the drive failure was coincidental to your activities, R. I don't think you caused it. By the way, if it's a mechanical/electronic failure within the hdd, you won't be recovering any data, I'm afraid.

 

There are companies that will disasseble your drive and remove the platters and install them in jigs on their bench to recover your data. However, those services start at about $300 and go up from there. I tell my customers, "Do you really have any data on that drive worth that kind of money?" So far, 100% of the people I've asked that have said no.

[réjean]

I just finishd booting Salix Live CD with the sick hd on a Penthium II ( 633 Mhz ) with not a whole lot of memory either. It is a slow process but I did managed to mount /dev/sda1 into /mnt/xp.

I was logged in as a non-root user (next time I'll log in as root) and after doing "su" and doing a "chmod -R 777 /mnt/xp" I can see that all her files seem to be there.

So it is mostly a matter of getting access to them (because /mnt/xp was still set as read-only) networking the machine and transferring the files.

I still have to format the linux partition which is on her new-eeer hd because right now she has access to only 10 of the 40 GB and resize her xp, then find all the drivers and reinstall her peripherals but at least her old data is still safe and somwhat usable.

Thank you so much everyone for your help and suggestions and moral support. I will have more questions but they will be of Linux type.

[Guest LilBambi]

Awesome! Now, do you have an external hard drive that you can use to copy her files to while you are booted from the Linux LiveCD? That is what you want to do to snag her files.

 

Please don't move those files while booted from a Windows computer.

[réjean]

I have a few partitions which I use for storage. There is even one at the beginning of my new Sata 1 TB (40 GB) where I was planning to install xp and then delete the one on my old hd (250 GB) unused actually.

I have a 8-Port Network Mini switch with a few ethernet cables.

So I could mount the bad XP drive on Linux Salix (on its own computer) then do the transfer of data from my computer onto a storage or empty partition and then move it to my wife's own computer.

Or else I have about 20 blank DVD-R and a DVD burner.

I will not be working on anything until this evening.

Edited April 30, 2012 by réjean

[Guest LilBambi]

I have a few partitions which I use for storage. There is even one at the beginning of my new Sata 1 TB (40 GB) where I was planning to install xp and then delete the one on my old hd (250 GB) unused actually.

I have a 8-Port Network Mini switch with a few ethernet cables.

So I could mount the bad XP drive on Linux Salix (on its own computer) then do the transfer of data from my computer onto a storage or empty partition and then move it to my wife's own computer.

Or else I have about 20 blank DVD-R and a DVD burner.

I will not be working on anything until this evening.

As long as the data is copied from a Linux computer to a partition, you should be fine. Then could copy it over the network from that partition to your wife's computer.

 

What we are trying to make sure of is that the misbehaving Windows partition is only loaded via Linux.

 

After you copy the data, then it's time to remove the misbehaving Windows partition, create a Linux partition and format, then if you want, you can remove/create a partition type of your choice.

[réjean]

Thanks everyone!

It feels so good to have professional support. If you ever come this way the drink or the site-seeing is on me.

It is also comforting that I wasn't totally responsible for what happened ( at least physically ). I admit having neglected her computer but it is so easy when using Linux all the time and not having to do with any kind of malwares.

Thanks again!

[Guest LilBambi]

Yep, for the future, keep her Windows updated, her browsers, plugins and all Internet facing programs updated.

 

If you want a free antivirus, you can use Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) Microsoft's antivirus/antimalware program. Works very well.

 

But back that up with the following free tools:

 

CCleaner (run daily and as needed for when things act odd)

SpywareBlaster (update and apply updates weekly)

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware free (update and run weekly, and as needed for when things act odd)

 

Never bad to get a second opinion, especially when things are weird or odd. Some great online second opinion one-off types of virus scans from some great companies and below is just one:

 

ESET Online Virus Scanner

[Guest LilBambi]

Our pleasure, réjean! So glad it all worked out!

 

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Well, that's good news! If you can mount the drive, then it's still functioning; meaning this was an MS Windows issue. Still, I wonder what the noise you described actually was.

[réjean]

eric wrote:

Well, that's good news! If you can mount the drive, then it's still functioning; meaning this was an MS Windows issue. Still, I wonder what the noise you described actually was.

Since the noise has not come back I will ignore it. There are so many mysteries in life that I can't explain that one more won't kill me.

[Guest LilBambi]

I thought, maybe mistakenly, that the noise was from the UPS? Not so?

 

Either way, if it comes back, you can maybe identify it then.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Ear muffs... or do like I used to in my old car, turn the radio up louder.

[Guest LilBambi]