Atheist Network

So my Brother-in-law came over the other day and his frankenlaptop has been giving him trouble (running slow, etc). I disabled unnecessary (according to him) items from starting up when the computer starts and I ran a defrag. After defrag I restarted. It tells me that a windows file is missing or corrupt and it won't start up. He's got like 3 gigs of precious photos on the laptop and (even though all I did was defrag) I feel responsible. He's got no recovery disk, he had taken it to "some guy" when his Windows broke, who partitioned off that copy of windows and installed a new copy. What I need to know is if it's possible to somehow extract the photos from the HD and start over.

Please tell me it's possible and cheaper than replacing the laptop.

It is possible. Assuming it is now functional, windows explorer should allow you to copy files off the partition.

No, a Windows file is missing or corrupt and he doesn't have a recovery disk, therefore no working Windows.

Then I would try to use an external hardrive with Windows to recover the files.

How would I go about that?

before you go that far, try starting it in safe mode.
When you first turn the computer on push ( i beleve it is ) F10 when the before the windows logo comes up.
This will take you to the dos menu and you might be able to start it in safe mode.
If you can, you should be able to access the photos.
I had to do this a few months ago when I got a nasty hijack virus just to get to the recovery program.

It's F8. I tried it already. Many times. Using several different options. Same missing/corrupt error.

Based on my limited knowledge of these things, you can try http://www.allbootdisks.com/ or similar sites to download and burn a boot disc on another/your comp.

Otherwise what KS said, or, call a comp tech. If you can find an independent (as opposed to, say, Geek Squad), the charge should be minimal. I had more or less the same problem years ago and the tech came right to the house and charged $35 to get the comp up and running again, which he did in about... 35 seconds.

Love you guys!

...unless/until none of this works...

Also, theres this little cable you can get from your local computer store that will allow you to take the hard drive and plug it into another pc's usb port to rescue the files. Cant remember for the life of me what it's called though.

USB chassis

Probably a little late for this response, but what you can do is take a Windows disc and run an OS recovery. It will (re)install all of the missing/corrupt files while leaving the original files intact.

Yeah... didn't have a Windows disc though...

Here is a method I used for the same thing....a laptop with a dead OS. I was able to copy 7 CD's worth of data off it, before consigning it to doorstophood.

Requirements for this to work:

* Find some friend with a CD for the same OS
* Network cable the laptop to a router, with a good computer on the same network to copy the files to
* Set the laptop with the dead OS to boot from the C

This requires that you find some friend that has a CD for the OS, Windows XP Home for example. Then go to this website (http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/), and follow the instructions to make a BartPE CD. It is amazing. Once created, take it to the dead laptop, set the laptop to boot from the CD (If you can't get to the CD, then you can't use this method). Then boot from the BartPE CD. Specify "Networking" to be active. With a bit of looking around on the good computer, you can find all the files on the dead laptop in the "network neighborhood", and copy them over the network from the bad laptop to the good computer. Then burn CD's, etc. It works like magic, and only requires a bit of futzing around .

Wow, appreciate it! However, we ended up wiping it & installing Ubuntu. It's running off minimal non-damaged sectors currently. It will need a new hard drive eventually, but it goes online and everything. Yay Ubuntu!