HDD Problems

I've got a friends laptop that gets past the bios, but then on the "flashing underscore" does not go any further. He said the last thing he did was attempt to illegally download music for the first time (he didnt really know wat he was doing), so he probably obtained some sorta virus from that.

Hes got some stuf he needs backing up but im not sure i can get to them. I've tried reading the disc from windows and linux but does not allow to mount the disc in linux. I assume this is because of the windows protection on the hdd.

Does anybody know of anyway i can view the hdd? Probs just guna have to reinstall windows and he'll have to loose all his stuff, but serves him right for illegally downloading...

asked Sep 04 '11 at 08:15

dareskog
30●3●4●6

One Answer:

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If it is possible, connect the broken hard drive to a windows computer that will boot properly. Then copy all/some of the files from the broken hard drive to the working hard drive. Make sure to create a separate folder to keep them isolated from everything else. If you want to be safe, do a virus scan before you copy them. Or, you could do it afterwards. Then put the broken hard drive back into the broken computer, and reinstall windows. Then you can copy files between hard drives, I would recommend doing it through the network, instead of physically plugging in the HD again.

Also, I might change the question to Windows corruption or something of that sort. This most likely isn't a problem with the hard drive itself, rather the information inside of it.

answered Sep 04 '11 at 09:19

KylePolansky
2.0k●4●8●39

Wen i mount it in windows it just has 2 folders on it with single log files. Im guessing all the contents is protected. anyway around this?

(Sep 04 '11 at 18:01) dareskog

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