Power Cut

[AndrewSchofield]

Hi guys,

We had a power cut last night with one of our PCs switched on. This morning when I've tried to turn it back on, it just keeps saying A DISK READ ERROR OCCURED Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart, and then same thing happens again...

Is there anything I can do, or is the Hard Disk goosed?

If its a gonna - is there any way I can get information off it, of have a lost it forever?

 

[gblades]

Did windows start to boot? If it did then you might be able to get a new drive, reinstall windows and then put the old disk in as a second one and copy some data off it. If windows didn't even start booting then most likely the whole drive has failed.

 

[warmadmax]

Try as above,
i'd disconnect your current hard drive when you install your new replacement "just in case" as you don't want to inadvertently format the old one and lose all your pictures / documents.

if it is really goosed, there are data recovery firms, they charge a lot though!

 

[Monsterminty]

try it in another computer first (or put it in a usb caddy), if it works there then let me know.

 

[MarkTravis]

You could try going to a DOS prompt and type: chkdsk /f (hit return)
or run this from the recovery console

another would be: fdisk /mbr - which rewrites the masterboot record - sometimes when starting up during a power failure the masterboot reocrd can become corrupted, this command line should fix it.

Much will depend also on which version of Windows you have, a good safe bet is to start with the recovery console - place the Windows CD/DVD in your drive, ensure the BIOS is set to boot from the CD/DVD drive then switch off, and re-start with the Windows disk in the drive and select recovery console. chkdsk and masterboot record fixes are the first to try

 

[Astra99]

Continuing from MarkTravis's suggestion to use the Recovery Console to re-write the Master Boot Record, I would also suggest running CHKDSK /R This will carry out an in-depth check of the hard drive, and mark any bad sectors so they are not used. It will also attempt recovery of data in any bad sectors.

If this is not successful, then the only thing left is to install a second copy of Windows on the disk (call the installation directory Winrepair or something like that, definitely NOT Windows or WINNT). This may allow you to recover any data you need to get off the machine before doing a full re-partition, format and reinstall of the OS.

Edit: Also, don't forget FDISK /FIXBOOT

 

[Monsterminty]

that won't work if he's getting a disk read error. if you put it in a caddy and it reads then it may be fixable through those routes, then replacing the sata cable and trying another slot on the motherboard.

 

[Igorian]

that won't work if he's getting a disk read error. if you put it in a caddy and it reads then it may be fixable through those routes, then replacing the sata cable and trying another slot on the motherboard.

If he has the original media it would be worth a try. it would also be useful to know which O/S.

 

[Astra99]

To avoid any ambiguity and thus misunderstanding, the Recovery Console is a means of repairing (or attempting to repair) a Windows installation that will not boot, or will boot, but not load. It it run directly from the CD, and contains a subset of the "dos-style" commands. In most cases, if the Recovery Console cannot repair the boot files and/or the Windows installation, then either the hard disk has had it, or all existing partitions need to be removed from the hard drive, new partitions created and Windows reinstalled from scratch, which of course, means losing everthing currently on the hard drive.

As previously suggested, removing the hard drive and slaving it to another computer, (either directly or using a USB caddy), provided that the file allocation tables are intact, may permit data to be salvaged. If no other PC is available, then installing a second copy of Windows on the same partition may also allow data to be salvaged.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Whether they would be of any use here I can't say, but I can't recommend too highly everybody having 2 bootable CDs to hand:

1) Spinrite. Not free, but dirt cheap.

2) Knoppix (or a.n.o. memory-only Linux distribution)

 

[acerf1]

Your OS has corrupt, You have to restore PC using recovery disc or install a fresh copy of the OS. You can use Linux live CD to recovery files before you restore/Re install.

 

[Monsterminty]

^ that is nonsense

 

[joinerjohn]

You could always try downloading Ubuntu ISO to a usb stick and use this to boot your computer (have to go into bios and change the boot order first so it will boot off the usb stick) Once loaded, you can then go into terminal (a lot like MS Dos prompt) and run commands from there to see if you can access the HDD

You can download ubuntu here,,, http://www.ubuntu.com/
Loads of info on linux OS here,,,
www.ubuntuforums.org