Diseased HD Advice!?!?!

T

Twistedchild420

New Member
Hey guys, how's it going....long time reader, first time poster here......quite simply fellas i have serious little problem.......my Laptop caught a virus and then would not start completely ...and now won't even boot(just black screen with blinking cursor) well luckily(not really) my wife destroyed my other laptop and then bought me the same one(crazy right?) so i had another 320gb hd laying around...my previous diseased hd was basically full(of valuable things!) So i'm thinking i can buy a E-SATA to USB cable and run a scan on my old HD and try to recover some files.....my question is ...what is the best way to go about this? If i hook up my old HD will the possible infection leap onto my fresh HD? What's the best way to go about this fellas?(I should have not been lazy and stored my precious belongings on my 1TB external...my wife warned me!)

Thanks in advance fellas!
 
If it were me, and maybe I'm making this complicated, I would do the following.

Things you'll need;

Ubuntu 9.04 (699MB, .ISO)
ISORecorder or other image burning program.
2x SATA I/II 2.5" HDD Enclosure (I have this one, it's never let me down and is cheap)

Download Ubuntu 9.04, burn it to a CD (not DVD, as it's only 699MB it'll fit on a CD) using ISORecorder.

Once you get the enclosures, put a HDD in each of them, following the instructions with the case.

Put the Ubuntu CD in your computer, reboot and boot to CD/DVD (usually F12 at bootup gets you to the Boot menu).

Once you've selected CD/DVD, and Ubuntu's menu loads, select the LiveCD option ("Try Ubuntu without any change to my computer" as shown below)

Image: http://ubuntu.ly/images/tutorials/2009/ubuntu810installation-small_002.png

Once Ubuntu loads, plug in both HDD's and click the Places drop-down menu from the navigation bar in Ubuntu. Select the HDD's to mount them, then drag and drop your files from one HDD to the other.

Total cost is around $30, but you'll end up with a couple of 2.5" HDD cases lying around.. maybe buy another 2.5" HDD and use one of them to backup your important files next time? ;)

Even if you do this, there's a chance that your files are infected and could infect your new install later on.. although it's not likely, since most viruses attack system files.
 
If you have the money, you might even consider having a professional do it for you. This would likely remove the risk of being infected by files brought over from the crashed hard drive. Good luck.
 
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