[rk88flyers]

Ok, my comp started running very slowly, (taking 3-4 min for internet explorer to load), right after I installed a critical update for windows xp pro. I restarted and first it told me there was no operating system found; now everytime i boot up it says "720 hard drive detects imminent failure". I'd like to be able to get into my hard drive because I have important files, but it doesn't load.

When I boot with the xp pro cd:

If I choose "enter", I don't get the option to repair the existing installation, it says i have one MB free of 57,000, and says "unknown"...meaning I guess it isn't detecting an operating system.

I've also chosen, R first, and run "chkdsk /p and chkdsk /r" many times. It gets to exactly 50% and says "the volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems".

I have not tried "fixmbr" because i wasn't sure if it would delete anything, but I did do fixboot and that appeared to do nothing.
Also, if i type "dir" when it's on C: drive, it says "An error ocurred during directory enumeration".

Before I ran chkdsk a bunch, it would give me the option of running in safe mode or starting normally, but would never actually load, and just restart; now if i don't boot off the cd it says windows could not load because the following file is missing or corrupt (windows root/system 32/hal.dll) and says this file needs to be reinstalled.

I've also hooked up my hard drive to another computer as a slave to see if i could access any files, and it said I needed to format the disk.

I'm just wondering if there is anything else I can do to try and access files of the computer, even temporarily, to get the important files I need off before I reformat the entire drive.

I had 6-7 gigs free before it stopped working, so I don't know why it tells me I only have 1 mb free.

Thanks for any tips or help you can give me.

Rick

 

[SPEEDO]

Welcome to Tech Support Forums rk88flyers.............

Take a look here I don't know if it will help much if you can't boot to the CD tho.

 

[johnwill]

If you have data that's really important, the first thing you should do is STOP trying to boot the system!

You can only do damage by booting, since that will attempt to write an obviously already corrupted drive.

My move here would be to remove the drive and install it into a fully working system so I could use all the drive tools I have available to attempt data recovery.

 

[SPEEDO]

Another perfect example of (Why we should backup our valuable files)................................Uh Huh..............:sigh:

Some people may not have the luxury of owning multiple computers to be swapping parts in...............

 

[SPEEDO]

Was the update you installed 811493 ? If so this update has been known to cause slowdowns of the system.

 

[rk88flyers]

i think so...i hooked it up as a slave to another computer, and it said i needed to format it, and wouldn't let me access anything...I guess I messed it up by running chkdsk /p a lot.

 

[SPEEDO]

What brand of hard drive is it? And which file system are you using, NTFS or FAT32..?

 

[rk88flyers]

maxtor,ntfs

 

[SPEEDO]

Go here and download PowerMax, Follow the instructions for how to use.

 

[johnwill]

Another perfect example of (Why we should backup our valuable files)................................Uh Huh..............:sigh:

Some people may not have the luxury of owning multiple computers to be swapping parts in...............

For folks that don't have a second (and third and forth ) computer, and they don't have backup, it's time to find a friend that knows about computers. The simple fact is, if you muck around with a corrupted disk without being real careful, you usually just make a further mess of your data.

 

[SPEEDO]

If it's that important then people should be going to see experts not messin' with it themselves. At least that way if something goes awry you have someone else to blame besides yourself.......