XP Problem - help !

[Grant]

Right.
A friend of mine has an elderly windows laptop. (XP Pro)

The thing keep rebooting.
So we tried to do a "repair". (booting from install disc)
However, when we get to the partition to select where the operating system resides, windows shows 120GB of 120GB (however it is usually measured) free.

So windows is stating the drive is empty.

The only option from that point is to format the partition.


So I hauled the drive out & connected it to my mac.
Using "Whatsize", i took a look to see if the drive has somehow been wiped clean or not.
This is what "Whatsize" revealed:

Evidently, windows is a liar !

Any recommendations on how to repair the OS (i'd really rather not be stuck having to recover / backup everything, format, reinstall os & then restore all the files etc)



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help!

 

[agentrfr]

Get an external drive, copy everything, reinstall. Just do it once and properly.

 

[Hectic]

A working copy of Hdd Regenerator might work.

 

[Grant]

i've got all the files off it

will probably just be quicker to format & reinstall

 

[Rickster]

Have you tried to fix/rebuild the MBR.


Id really like to see whats inside the 20GB Documents folder.

 

[Grasmuis]

you need to boot into dos and just run chkdsk /F to fix the partition, windows should boot fine after the scan disk.

 

[shez]

Have you tried to fix/rebuild the MBR.


Id really like to see whats inside the 20GB Documents folder.

Its the good old collection of vids and pics that they are trying to salvage. I wouldn't trust that hdd it seems to be on its way out...

 

[Random717]

Could try running ntfsfix on an Ubuntu livecd before plugging it into another Windows system and doing a proper chkdsk.

 

[Grant]

Have you tried to fix/rebuild the MBR.


Id really like to see whats inside the 20GB Documents folder.

nothing really interesting
but there are a few pics of my friend - most here would be licking their lips

 

[Rickster]

nothing really interesting
but there are a few pics of my friend - most here would be licking their lips

Share or get out

 

[ponder]

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

TestDisk could potentially recover the partition.

 

[The_Unbeliever]

Nah. I would install a new HDD, reinstall from scratch, and copy the data back.

The drive probably remapped a hard drive sector, and something got lost, hence windows not knowing what to do.

Best to use a new drive and not an old drive, it may fail completely soon.

 

[Grant]

i got it up and running.
I am going to give her my old macbook pro - her machine has been through the mill once or twice & i always get the "help me" call