Laptop to PC data recovery

D

Digital Dreamer

New Member
Hi guys,

A friend of mine is having a few problems with his laptop. The operating system (windows vista home) has been corrupted, I think probably by some sort of malware, and is not allowing him to boot. I think it’s probably best that he reinstalls the OS, which I’ve offered to do for him. The only problem is that he has a lot of personal data that he doesn’t want to lose. I had a little look online and I’ve found an adapter that will allow me to connect his 2.5inch hard drive to my desktop in the hope that I can salvage the data.

So my question is:

Will my desktop computer running XP be allowed to access the data on a drive running vista?

I’ve never really tinkered around much with laptops; I’ve always been a desktop man. Are there any other potential complications that might be worth considering, or should it be quite straight forward?

Any advice appreciated :)
 
The adapter is a good idea and yes XP will be able to access it.

However, you can save money and use a Live Linux distro of SLAX and copy all his data to an external drive without pulling the HDD out. That's what I do at work. Plus it copies files faster than windows.
 
One major. i suspect you might want to use a usb hd to backup from. this will require but not hard to do. requires special drivers. you can query dos usb panasonic and create a boot disk to recognize the usb port.

another will be ntfs dos. reading from dos. i suspect you cant get in to windows at all. any rate look at ntfsdos.com the free will let you read it. i don't think you can copy though. ya need the pro ver.

Drivers:
another issue. you should be able to goto the site and download the drivers for the manufacture and model. if not. look for a freebie proggy called drive collector at google.

Sorry, im not using vista but suspect this may work and suggest you try 1st if ya can't start windows. worse that will happen it wont work either.
f8 to dos prompt. get to dos directory where its at in vista.
try scanreg /restore.

thats all i got. others know more than i.

something else comes to mind. ive worked on many computers from a hobby standpoint and take care of family and friends.
if you do a wipe and going to the trouble i would do a low level format.
Also if reinstalling create more than 1 profile with admin rights. you will find out why later.
a profile gets corrupted.
 
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I don't have access to an external usb hard drive, which is a shame as it seems like that is probably the best way around it. I've been thinking about investing in one for a while, just never got around to it. Slax sounds like a very interesting piece of software. I think I'm going to have to look into that.

As for the drivers, thankfully I've manged to track them down already - so that's one minor head ache avoided.

That's all I need to know, so I think I'll crack on tomorrow and give the adapter a shot and see how I get on.

Thanks for the advice :)
 
a usb hd external is a good investment. 120 gig works fine. i have a 250.
im a fanatic for backup and do it often. Pictures, email and links for firefox. every 3 months maybe. keep the last 3 or 4 backups. backup my hd with acronis image to the hd drive. thats what i do.
 
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