Need help with Harddrive data recover (PC not gaming related)

So last year my laptops HD crapped out on me, basically whenever I turn it on no matter what I try it goes to a blue screen (It's an HP something laptop that I got in 2009) and it just keeps going through the system recovery on a loop, I can't even boot into safe mode, the problem is I want to recover that data and even if I could get into the files for like 10 minutes to put all that crap on an external harddrive that would be a godsend.

Does anyone know any way I can recover it? It may not even be a HD problem, I basically don't know anything about them so it's kind of all a crapshoot, I'm turning to the Giantbomb community for help now and If I did an inadequate job of explaining anything just let me know and i'll try and go into more detail.

Orrr.. am I royally fucked?

A few things you can do:

Use a bootable USB drive that has a linux operating system in it:

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/usb-knoppix-510/

Run the knoppix installer, point it at a USB stick, plug it into your busted computer and boot it. You can get in and view files on the local hard drive while in a linux OS, probably not a great idea if you don't know how to use linux.

Use a USB hard drive adapter:

http://amzn.com/B000HJ99DI

Take the hard drive out, pug it into one of the many ports on this thing, and plug the USB end into a working PC. Your old hard drive will appear as a USB drive.

edit: changed the amazon link to an adapter with a 2.5 in IDE connector, in case the laptop drive isn't SATA

@psylah said:

A few things you can do:

Use a bootable USB drive that has a linux operating system in it:

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/usb-knoppix-510/

Run the knoppix installer, point it at a USB stick, plug it into your busted computer and boot it. You can get in and view files on the local hard drive while in a linux OS, probably not a great idea if you don't know how to use linux.

Use a USB hard drive adapter:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000UO6C5S/

Take the hard drive out, pug it into one of the many ports on this thing, and plug the USB end into a working PC. Your old hard drive will appear as a USB drive.

Thanks both those links look really useful, but I'm curious is Linux hard to use? Does it looks like windows? If so I won't mess with it and just buy that USB adapter, it's only 20 bones, which surprised me.

@WolfHazard: There are a lot of different versions of linux with different interfaces. The one he linked to has a GUI that looks a lot like windows, but i have never used linux so i don't know how similar they really are. If you have a 1gig USB drive sitting around it is worth a try. You will probably only have to install linux to the USB and change the BIOS to boot from the USB port rather then the busted hard drive, and all of that info on how to do that is on the site he posted, and there are a lot of guides on how to use linux if you run into problems.

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i have a similar problem with my old hard drive as well, it crashed a few times and was making a clicking sound so i tried to back everything up, but it would crash within an hour so i didn't get everything, now i get a black screen telling me there was a problem on the last boot up, then a blue screen telling me that (i think) WIN32.EXE is corrupted/cant be read or something along those lines. I haven't really tried to mess with it since, so i was wondering if anyone can tell based on how far it booted if the hard drive is able to be read and is just corrupted or if it was a hardware failure and there is no way of getting anything off it now.

I am going to do what psylah said but i would just like some advice if possible.

@Lego_My_Eggo said:

@WolfHazard: There are a lot of different versions of linux with different interfaces. The one he linked to has a GUI that looks a lot like windows, but i have never used linux so i don't know how similar they really are. If you have a 1gig USB drive sitting around it is worth a try. You will probably only have to install linux to the USB and change the BIOS to boot from the USB port rather then the busted hard drive, and all of that info on how to do that is on the site he posted, and there are a lot of guides on how to use linux if you run into problems.

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i have a similar problem with my old hard drive as well, it crashed a few times and was making a clicking sound so i tried to back everything up, but it would crash within an hour so i didn't get everything, now i get a black screen telling me there was a problem on the last boot up, then a blue screen telling me that (i think) WIN32.EXE is corrupted/cant be read or something along those lines. I haven't really tried to mess with it since, so i was wondering if anyone can tell based on how far it booted if the hard drive is able to be read and is just corrupted or if it was a hardware failure and there is no way of getting anything off it now.

I am going to do what psylah said but i would just like some advice if possible.

Im going to try this now I found a USB to put the program on but do you by chance know how to get to my bios on the busted laptop and from there how to get it to boot from the USB stick by chance?

Damn the download on that site is broken, any help now :/

Is your laptop not even posting when it boots? It should tell you which key to mash to get into the BIOS or get into the boot device selection. Most likely it's Delete, F11, or F12. Maybe F2? Most laptops I've worked on in the past few years have all defaulted to USB -> CD -> Hard Drive for their boot order.

Linux is pretty easy to use. There's a ton of Linux distros that work on live cds. My experience has been with Red Hat (back in like.. 2003), and OpenSuse and Ubuntu for the past year or so. I'd recommend Ubuntu if you're nervous about a new operating system. You can either burn it to a disc or use a utility to install it to a USB drive.

The file system in Linux is a tad different from Windows. What would be called "C" in Windows, your system drive, is called root (Noted by "/"). To get to the drive you'd have to go into the file system and look for a file called "/mnt" or "/mount", something to that effect. If it's a storage device that's not the system drive, it mounts them there. Hopefully you can retrieve what you need from there.

Also, how old is this laptop? It's possible that you might be able to remove the hard drive and connect it to a desktop if it's new enough that it uses SATA.

@WolfHazard said:

@psylah said:

A few things you can do:

Use a bootable USB drive that has a linux operating system in it:

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/usb-knoppix-510/

Run the knoppix installer, point it at a USB stick, plug it into your busted computer and boot it. You can get in and view files on the local hard drive while in a linux OS, probably not a great idea if you don't know how to use linux.

Use a USB hard drive adapter:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000UO6C5S/

Take the hard drive out, pug it into one of the many ports on this thing, and plug the USB end into a working PC. Your old hard drive will appear as a USB drive.

Thanks both those links look really useful, but I'm curious is Linux hard to use? Does it looks like windows? If so I won't mess with it and just buy that USB adapter, it's only 20 bones, which surprised me.

If all you are trying to do is back up files and you are at least a little bit computer savvy (i.e. you can find the files you want) then no, Knoppix shouldn't be hard to use at all. Boot it up, double click the hard drive, then search through and find your stuff, then copy and paste it to a flash drive or external hard drive.

EDIT: Worth mentioning that there are many different forms of Linux. Knoppix is just one, and it will do what you need it to.

@Toxeia said:

Is your laptop not even posting when it boots? It should tell you which key to mash to get into the BIOS or get into the boot device selection. Most likely it's Delete, F11, or F12. Maybe F2? Most laptops I've worked on in the past few years have all defaulted to USB -> CD -> Hard Drive for their boot order.

Linux is pretty easy to use. There's a ton of Linux distros that work on live cds. My experience has been with Red Hat (back in like.. 2003), and OpenSuse and Ubuntu for the past year or so. I'd recommend Ubuntu if you're nervous about a new operating system. You can either burn it to a disc or use a utility to install it to a USB drive.

The file system in Linux is a tad different from Windows. What would be called "C" in Windows, your system drive, is called root (Noted by "/"). To get to the drive you'd have to go into the file system and look for a file called "/mnt" or "/mount", something to that effect. If it's a storage device that's not the system drive, it mounts them there. Hopefully you can retrieve what you need from there.

Also, how old is this laptop? It's possible that you might be able to remove the hard drive and connect it to a desktop if it's new enough that it uses SATA.

Thanks for all the help, I was able to find a Ubuntu desktop before you even posted so after reading you say it outloud I feel comfortable with it, and yeah I changed it so it will boot from a USB drive, now i'm just waiting for the installer to download the ISO to my USB. I'll use your advice when going through the files (If i can get to them) and post my results. As for the date, I got the laptop in 2009, I dont know what a "SATA" is, however if this fails I'll see if I can plug it into my friends Desktop, I dont actually have a desktop. Can you explain (or post a pic) of a SATA drive so I can compare it to mine? Sorry Im a computer moron >_>

@believer258 said:

@WolfHazard said:

@psylah said:

A few things you can do:

Use a bootable USB drive that has a linux operating system in it:

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/usb-knoppix-510/

Run the knoppix installer, point it at a USB stick, plug it into your busted computer and boot it. You can get in and view files on the local hard drive while in a linux OS, probably not a great idea if you don't know how to use linux.

Use a USB hard drive adapter:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000UO6C5S/

Take the hard drive out, pug it into one of the many ports on this thing, and plug the USB end into a working PC. Your old hard drive will appear as a USB drive.

Thanks both those links look really useful, but I'm curious is Linux hard to use? Does it looks like windows? If so I won't mess with it and just buy that USB adapter, it's only 20 bones, which surprised me.

If all you are trying to do is back up files and you are at least a little bit computer savvy (i.e. you can find the files you want) then no, Knoppix shouldn't be hard to use at all. Boot it up, double click the hard drive, then search through and find your stuff, then copy and paste it to a flash drive or external hard drive.

EDIT: Worth mentioning that there are many different forms of Linux. Knoppix is just one, and it will do what you need it to.

Yeah everythings starting to go as planned I think, I'm hoping this works.

SATA as opposed to the older PATA/IDE. In 2009 you're probably dealing with SATA but they look quite a bit different so it should be easy to tell.

It's good to hear you're on your way to getting a bootable Ubuntu USB stick which will help you get to the data. You'll still need something to transfer that data to like another USB drive or a network target. If you use computers regularly I'd suggest getting a USB adapter like @psylah mentioned. Having one of those has come in handy more times than I can count.

Thank you all so much, I'm currently in the process of copying all my data over to my external harddrive! Seriously, this means a lot to me getting this data back and I didn't think I would. For anyone else here's what I ended up doing.

1. http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/ The site @psylah posted had a link to this page, download the installer and run it.

2. When you open the program go to the drop down menu and select "ubuntu-12.04.1 Desktop" and check the box to download the ISO.

3. Download the ISO

4. Choose it from the browse menu than pick your USB drive, format the USB and let the program install it for you then plug that usb into the busted laptop, turn it on and let it boot from the USB

5. Just go into the files and you'll see your harddrive, the Ubuntu desktop was actually simple to use and I'm in the process of copying over 300gs of data to my external harddrive.

I can't thank you all enough. I really do love it here at the GB community, I'm glad I joined.

@WolfHazard: Glad to have helped, cheers!