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Thread: Recover Files from C drive?

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    Default Recover Files from C drive?

    Hi guys, long story short.
    My 2 TB C: drive failed, wouldn't repair well enough to boot into W10.
    So I figure it's close to being toast with too many bad sectors.

    I've restored a system image to a new HD, system all running well.

    I want to locate a couple of recent files on the old drive, that weren't in the system image, however when I plug it in windows Disk management sees the old drive but in MY PC the drive isn't visible. I suppose that is due to it being a duplicate system drive with the same partition drive letters.

    So can I just use a bootable partition manager & change the drive letters on the old drive so they don't match the new one & change the status of what was C: to not bootable so I can access the files?
    Or is there a simpler or better way to view files on the drive.
    Cheers, Tiny
    "You can lead a person to knowledge, but you can't make them think? If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.
    The information is out there; you just have to let it in."



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    i use Active.File.Recovery.Enterprise

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    Quote Originally Posted by fandtm666 View Post
    i use Active.File.Recovery.Enterprise
    The problem with that is it needs to scan the drive for recoverable files & then lists them, that's not necessary. 1TB of files on this drive.
    I have other data recovery software, but I'm trying to avoid a clash of drive letters.
    The drive is readable & I know where the files I want are stored, I just need to access them by turning C: drive into something else without losing the data.

    I'm not willing to spend too much time & certainly not $$ to recover a couple of recent emails that I don't really need.
    I'm going to give changing the drive letters with my partition manager a go & see what happens.
    Cheers, Tiny
    "You can lead a person to knowledge, but you can't make them think? If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.
    The information is out there; you just have to let it in."

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    i got the shit for you tiny
    cant upload till tomoz but
    leg bag just sprung a leak, piss everywhere
    https://www.facebook.com/philquad68

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    Tiny (14-05-19)

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    make your drive a external usb drive and do what you like with it

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    If changing drive letter doesn't work you could try running a live Linux distro from a USB.
    You'll get full access to the drive and it's files.

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    Tiny (14-05-19)

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    Might have to try the Linux USB as the Partition manager won't change the drive letter of C:??
    Even if I unplug the new drive & boot to Partition manager CD. It sees the old drive & could copy it, delete it, format it or many other nasty things, but Change Drive Letter is greyed out. I assume Windows has the drive ID locked.

    Ran my recovery program in Windows but it can't see the drive as the drive is marked as off line due to Identity conflict with primary drive.

    Or maybe Phil has a magic trick for me.

    EDIT: going to try Hirens Boot CD & some of the recovery programs on there, looks like I'm going the time consuming way.
    Last edited by Tiny; 14-05-19 at 11:33 AM.
    Cheers, Tiny
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    hell its not hard . download ubuntu distro bootable on to a usb stick
    change your boot order to usb first
    reboot from the stick go to where you want to and move copy or whatever then job done

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    Jma and Hinekadon are on the money! Go with a live distro - if you need a good suite of tools I've also used to good effect. Apparently "UBCD for Windows" is no longer which is sad as it was another useful tool
    I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message...

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    Quote Originally Posted by hinekadon View Post
    hell its not hard . download ubuntu distro bootable on to a usb stick
    change your boot order to usb first
    reboot from the stick go to where you want to and move copy or whatever then job done
    well may not be hard if you're an expert.

    Anyway Linux Live based USB with Hirens Boot CD ISO on it retrieved the files real easy.

    Problem is I made a rookie error & still had my new system HDD connected at the same time & the USB booted OS took ownership as C: drive & changed the drive letters on all other partitions, which made it real easy to retrieve the files, but prevented my new HDD from booting into windows when I was finished.

    So I've just reformatted & redoing the System Image Replacement.

    So a tip for novice recovery; is don't have your primary system drive, that doesn't need fixing or recovering, connected when recovering an old drive with another OS.

    Thanks to all for your input.
    Cheers, Tiny
    "You can lead a person to knowledge, but you can't make them think? If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.
    The information is out there; you just have to let it in."

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    I've never used Hiren's or bothered researching it, but it looks like an ISO'd bootable version of Windows from the screenshots on it's site, probably why it messed with the ownership/drive letters.
    A live Linux distro will never frig with drive letters and such unless you force it to, what that means is it doesn't matter what drives are plugged in when you boot from the live USB/CD/DVD, after you've finished doing whatever using the live system & it's shut down correctly, everything should be as it was before & the internal OS should boot.

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    once you boot to ubuntu there is a hurrendous lot of free programs available to you to do whatever you want and then if you push the shutdown button and remove the usb stick everything will be as you left it no change except the files you play with

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jma View Post
    I've never used Hiren's or bothered researching it, but it looks like an ISO'd bootable version of Windows from the screenshots on it's site, probably why it messed with the ownership/drive letters.
    A live Linux distro will never frig with drive letters and such unless you force it to, what that means is it doesn't matter what drives are plugged in when you boot from the live USB/CD/DVD, after you've finished doing whatever using the live system & it's shut down correctly, everything should be as it was before & the internal OS should boot.
    I always use an old version of Hirens Boot CD, e.g. v9 or v10.

    It's still available on the 'net (hiren.info), but not (due to a copyright dispute) from the current Hirens (hirensbootcd.org) website .

    If I remember correctly, the early versions of Hirens (e.g. 9 and 10 and earlier) are Linux-based with a menu-selectable option to load a 'mini' version of Windows.

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    Hirens is not UEFI bootable, which is a requirement for most modern PCs.
    Same for my all time favourite which has the lot including MiniXP and MiniLinux which boots much faster than a Live distro and loaded with the actual tools you need.
    Some BIOS have a legacy boot option to bypass this though.
    Last edited by Uncle Fester; 14-05-19 at 10:53 PM.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jma View Post
    I've never used Hiren's or bothered researching it, but it looks like an ISO'd bootable version of Windows from the screenshots on it's site, probably why it messed with the ownership/drive letters.
    A live Linux distro will never frig with drive letters and such unless you force it to, what that means is it doesn't matter what drives are plugged in when you boot from the live USB/CD/DVD, after you've finished doing whatever using the live system & it's shut down correctly, everything should be as it was before & the internal OS should boot.
    Yes Hirens boots up & offers a windows version called Mini XP which has most of the tools in it.
    There are some tools in a linux environment & some in a DOS environment.
    I had intended to just use linux, but when creating the Live USB with LinuxLive USB creator, in the list of Linux OS at the bottom were recovery options including Hiren's, which I had heard of a few people using, so I went with that.

    I'm pretty sure the problem was that the 2 drives were of identical config with identical drive letters, so to see Partitions, folders & files the OS needed a drive path with no conflicts & the Mini XP OS must have automatically assigned the new letters.

    Anyway, I'm not game to connect the 2 drives at the same time again to see what happens if I only use Linux or Ubuntu.

    The end result is the files were recovered, the new drive is re-imaged & up to date with a little effort.
    Cheers, Tiny
    "You can lead a person to knowledge, but you can't make them think? If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.
    The information is out there; you just have to let it in."

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    Quote Originally Posted by nomeat View Post
    Hirens is not UEFI bootable, which is a requirement for most modern PCs.
    Same for my all time favourite which has the lot including MiniXP and MiniLinux which boots much faster than a Live distro and loaded with the actual tools you need.
    Some BIOS have a legacy boot option to bypass this though.
    Yes my BIOS has a legacy boot option as well UEFI.
    The MoBo is a Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H, it's about 6 years old.

    The USB Live Linux booted quite quickly, which is way better than the Windows 10 Repair disc, that was like forever waiting for it to bootup. For some reason I also had a W10 recovery USB, but my BIOS wouldn't open it, said it was a corrupted image. I tried it in Lagacy & UEFI, but no go.

    Anyway, as I said, it's all fixed.
    All's well that ends well.
    Last edited by Tiny; 15-05-19 at 10:46 AM.
    Cheers, Tiny
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    Yes Linux has so many useful tools that I haven't needed Hiren or UBCD for a few years. Actually, since moving to Linux, I haven't needed ANY recovery tools.
    I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message...

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    Quote Originally Posted by lsemmens View Post
    Yes Linux has so many useful tools that I haven't needed Hiren or UBCD for a few years. Actually, since moving to Linux, I haven't needed ANY recovery tools.
    Until you have a hard drive fail.

    This 2TB Seagate Barracuda was only 6 years old, it was making some seriously loud noises just before it was dying & during recovery.
    Thanks to Seagate SeaTools for repairing the damaged sectors well enough to read the files.

    Luckily I had backups, but what I needed to recover were a couple of recent emails regarding flight bookings. That's the only reason I wanted to recover files.
    Sure I could just contact Virgin & explain the predicament & identify myself to get the flight booking numbers, but it was info I knew I had on the cactus drive.

    & as I know, Linux won't run all the programs that I require to be effective for my purposes.
    Cheers, Tiny
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    The information is out there; you just have to let it in."

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    Hardware failure affects all operating systems. I heard a loud bang whilst watching TV last week, The PSU on the media server (which is a computer built into the bookshelf below the TV) decided to let out it's puff of smoke. Despite the fact that I was using it to watch a movie at the time, there was no data loss, just an inconvenience of having to find a new PSU. Sadly, with Windwoes, I have seen data loss with a lot less - read: windwoes update.
    I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message...

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