Free Software, What do you know?

I just had a hard drive burn up and moved the drives from the old box to a new one. It seems the the FAT file allocation table, is screwed up on the old "C drive" and I am asking if you guys know how to recover this data.

The data shows but the computer tech guy said that Windows XP SP2 could not read it because it seems the FAT is in disarray.

Also, does anyone know of a free office software package with a word processor that will work with XP Pro or any other free software that I could use that will help here as this box came with nothing but the OS.

 

Not sure if this will help, but if you can put your windows cd in and boot from windows, you have the option to "repair" a volume and go to the console recovery screen. From there you could try to use chkdsk /f

According to this article:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;62048

the chkdsk /f command should fix this type of error.

Bummer you lost your drive

 

Bummer for you, Tony babe.

I think you have to re-boot it and DOS that baby up. pr7 x seo = seo7 that should help somewhat.

Ps: who is the dude in your avatar Gtech. worrying......

 

You can always try OpenOffice. It's very good.

Don't know abou the drive though. sorry.

 

In english?

 

Oh thank god im not the only one that didn't get it.

It could have been written in chinese for all iunderstood...

 

G-tech, this thing will not even go into drive "E" in DOS to run the disk check, windows will not read it anymore and asks me if I want to format it.

Hell no I will not format it, I will get the data off of that drive by hook or crook somehow.

Believe it or not M$ is providing "FREE" tech support for SP2 issues and I am communicating with them on this.

It seems that an ADOBE software download conflicted with SP2 and that blew the drive somehow so M$ is providing support because they know the OS has major flaws and they will be in court soon in a class action with or without the free support.

 

Anthony,

favour free software, install linux !

You will get all those needed things with any distribution. If you still want the feel of windows, then I suggest you to install SUSE Linux as a second boot option.

Regards,
Tuning

 

Anthony, I had a similar problem a while back, I cant remember the name of the recovery software, but I managed to get about 90%+ of my stuff back. Ill pm you if I manage to find it meanwhile you might want to try one of these http://www.download.com/3120-20_4-0.html?qt=fat+recovery&tg=dl-20&search.x=18&search.y=8

 

Tuning if I had more than one internet ready box I would have a linux box and an Apple Powerbook, but poor boy's can only have one box because they do not have the extra money.

Most of my work files are on this old "C" drive that I can not open up because of the FAT on the disk is screwed up.

I just read an article that the Microsoft "Antispyware" program could mess up Hard Drives and this may have been what caused it because I had the program running when downloading software.

Microsoft is a bad OS and when you add all these new layers of anti-malware and SP2 it screws up a lot of machines.

I just do not trust the bastards with my data anymore and know that in some way they are responsible for my current problem, but they will never tell, you will find out from the press reports as I just did about the "problem" with the "Antispyware" bug that screws up Hard Drives.

In their EULA they offer $5.00 for anyone's hard drive that is screwed up by the M$ anti-spyware program.

Microsoft Windows SUCKS folks.Get a MAC or Linux and be SURE to back up your hard drives or you will be in trouble also.

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Thanks Rounde, I will look at your links and the software.

You know, I just wonder if Windows will ever be an OS that folks can use without being security experts.

It seems that you patch and update more than compute with this crap OS, the data security risks are considerable and the data is where the value is not the damned computer.

 

Anthony, you dont need to have an extra box fo linux. You could install them side by side on same hard drive. Also there will an option to switch between two. Only thing that you wont get is readin files of linux partition from windows. But you will be able to read windows from linux.

I strongly suggest installing SUSE. As these people asks only a small amount as license fees, you might even get them installed by your computer guy for free.

Regards,
Tuning

 

Tuning, thanks for the advice, I will look into it as I am really kind of tired of Microsoft and the never ending updates, this new box has been updating constantly for the last two days.

Who in the hell knows what Microsoft even downloads anymore with these updates, users are NOT in control nor do they know what the hell is going on with all of these patches and the SP2 patch (really it is a new OS).

Plus all of this new anti-malware and next M$ AV on top of the flawed code in the OS is going to drive all Windows users insane, that is the only sure thing with M$

The other sure thing is that software made for Windows is not downloadable with the SP2 update and screws up the FAT rendering the hard drive useless.

 

http://www.runtime.org/ was the one I used..

 

Thanks for the help Rounde, I will check it out as soon as the 666 automatic updates are done loading sometime tomorrow

I registered this XPpro OS last night and had to enter a series of numbers like,
2233333 88888233 2220000 22998888 2288877 22299999 3377666


What the hell do these geeks want from us all????? They should just get it over with and plant the damned microchip under the skin, damn these bastards make me sick.

Soon you will not be able to buy or sell anything online without M$ software if they get their way.

Open source is the way folks, not M$

 

if you have xp, you should install xp antispy http://www.xp-antispy.org/

 

Don't use any automatic repair tools on your own - you may entirely lose your data. Usually, there are two copies of FAT table on a hard drive. Talk to a professional (there are companies that do this kind of thing) and they may be able to recover your data. If it's just FAT, no hardware failure, it may cost you under $500 or so.

J.D.

 

JD, the software that Rounde posted in post # 13 looks like it is what I am looking for.

It mentions to install it on another computer, not the drive that you are trying to recover, does this mean that I can not install it on the "C" drive of the new machine with the "defective E drive" on the same box, why would this be a conflict, seems like the software maker says that the best way is to install the software on a different box.

What did you do Rounde?

 

it was along time ago, i even think when i used it it may have been a free download at the time, my best advice would be follow their instructions.. thats what I probably did.. I'm providing no guarentees. I remember it renaming some files all caps or something strange like that, but it saved my life at the time. Their faq should tell you answers to your questions.. or email them. Now i use a powerbook - makes you lazy with the backups though!

 

That sounds about right - don't install anything on the broken drive, even on a different partition. I never used this tool, but some of them can be just launched off a diskette or a CD. See if this is a possibility (in general, it's always better to follow the instructions that come with the tool).

J.D.

 

Anytime we have master hard drive issues; we've always installed a new hard drive and installed the master as slave. I've always recovered my stuff this way. I don't use xp; but it works beautifully up to 2000.