Computer help

[Justyntym]

My daughters dell laptop wont load user profile correctly and all her
files, pictures, and schoolwork we can't get to.

What is a good harddrive/windows scan, repair, and recovery tool?

She's using Vista...

any help would be greatly appreciated.

I did system restore already...that never works and this was no exception.

 

[TruWrecks]

Do you have another Vista computer handy?

 

[Justyntym]

yes, I got another laptop with vista

 

[TruWrecks]

You can pull the hard-drive and put it in a USB case and do file recovery and disk repair from the other laptop. Make sure that her laptop doesn't have an encrypted volume before you take the hard disk out.

I sent you a PM. Call if you need to.

 

[NickSully]

You have a couple options:

1. If you have a vista disk you can install windows again. This can be risky though if you're not familiar with the setup process. You don't want to format the hard drive or install the new vista in the same location as the old vista install. So you would want to do a custom setup and have vista installed to c:\win instead of c:\windows and choose not to format the hard drive.

2. and the much easier thing to do is take the hard drive out and put it in a USB carrier that you can get for less than 50 from just about any computer store. This will allow you to plug the drive into another computer and then you can browse the drive to get the information off of it.

3. You could find a bootable DVD image of windows Vista that would allow you to run windows from your dvd drive. Once booted up you could move all her files to a usb flash drive.

Option two is going to be the easiest though. Good luck.

 

[Busacure]

get a HDD docking bay
Thermaltake - Dual Bay Docking Station for Most Internal SATA Hard Drives - ST0014U
something like this. hook it up thru usb conn. You will need a working computer. Turn on working computer and let it boot. turn on the HDD dock and let the HDD spin up. plug it in using usb connection. find the HDD through "computer" or "my computer". Find directory named "user". within there find directory with the name of her user account. that should get you close to the info that you need to retrieve. Vista is a mofo when u r trying to access a drive from a computer with its own os loaded. you may get access denied bs depending where the desired data is buried.

Once you get the data that you want on another computer, you may want to just boot and nuke the drive and reinstall the os and then the drivers. might want to see if you can download vistas service pack 2 and burn it to a data disk. good luck

 

[Spectre]

Another option would be to download Puppy Linux. It can be put it on a USB thumb drive or burned to a CD. Then boot the computer from Puppy Linux.

Puppy is small and will load into RAM. You can get some blank CD/DVDs to use with the computers' own burner to transfer your data or plug in a USB drive and copy the files over that way.

Puppy Linux

 

[BusaWizard]

Wow, my head hurts.

 

[†WÃ￾§†ëD]

My daughters dell laptop wont load user profile correctly and all her
files, pictures, and schoolwork we can't get to.

What is a good harddrive/windows scan, repair, and recovery tool?

She's using Vista...

any help would be greatly appreciated.

I did system restore already...that never works and this was no exception.

for system restore to work properly you have to create a restore point somewhere right after a clean install, something the factory never does...

if the laptop has a restore partition on the drive vista will reinstall the environment and save your data, just be sure to choose the install and save current data, dont do a clean install, do not format..

or log on as Admin, Logon Windows Vista as Administrator — MAXIMUMpcguides – Windows Vista tips, tricks, help, and how-to guides then see if you can't go to her user profile and access the files, be sure UAC is enabled UAC - Windows Vista Run As Administrator Feature

 

[Strife]

Have you tried to log in "Safe Mode"? Simply power down the lap top completely. Then turn it back on. While it is booting up... Hit the "F8" key repeatedly. This will bring up a screen that will allow you to pick how you want windows to boot. Pick "Safe Mode". While there try a system restore.

Try that and post up what happened.

 

[Justyntym]

* UPDATE *

Back up and running...

Logging on as the Admin worked. I was able to access all files and backed up
the pics, documents, etc. on my stand alone hard drive.

Then I downloaded webroot security (free trial) and ran antivirus (my other
antiviruses woundn't work and shut down). It picked up a virus and cleaned it.

I was the able to log on the original account is safe mode only.

So I did a system restore at that point and...for first time in my life it worked.

Laptop is back to full function and I've got the backup on the additional hard drive.



Thanks for everyones help, my daughter will be ELATED

She lives on her cell phone, computer, and with camera in hand.

 

[Spectre]

excellent! that's good news.

 

[NickSully]

 

[TruWrecks]

Great, now go download ZoneAlarm Basic, AVG 8.5 Free, and Spyware Search & Destroy. Get them installed and updated. Disable the Window Firewall.

 

[Cookie]

She's using Vista...

I found the problem!

 

[Zoinks!]

Great, now go download ZoneAlarm Basic, AVG 8.5 Free, and Spyware Search & Destroy. Get them installed and updated. Disable the Window Firewall.

Spybot search and destroy, not spyware search and destroy.

 

[TruWrecks]

Good catch. My meds are kicking in and it's getting difficult to focus and type.

Thanks gmmech07