Yesterday, my wife said our desktop kept freezing up on her. I went to start it up tonight and it went into System Repair mode. It could not apparently repair itself nor would it restore itself. Now, I just get a black screen that says BOOTMGR MISSING PRESS CTRL+ALT+DEL TO RESTART It won't get past that point. Is it fried and what are the odds someone can recover data (mostly just pictures)...and how much can I expect that to cost?
Thanks. Any idea, though, if everything will be gone if I do this? The wife is more concerned about getting pics/videos back and I'd like my music back.
If worse comes to worst, you can always slave your current HD to an external casing, pick up a new one and load windows on that. Although fixing the master boot should ususally do the trick.
Here's the problem, though... I had the System Recovery Options screen before this happened. I attempted to run the Startup Repair and it could not fix itself. Then I attempted System Restore and I got nothing. It basically devolved into this mess. Of course, I'd know if this fix works if I could find the damn Vista disc.
you saved all your pictures and videos on the main partition? tsk...all you need is your os disc and your good to go, i didnt read that link but im assuming its just a repair, which will keep your files intact. Only use your main drive for system files.
So the HD is dead, but I was able to have the things I wanted recovered. I'm now looking to replace the HD. Any suggestions for something that's good, but not too expensive? I had 250 GB and don't really need much more than that, but if the price is right, I'll upgrade. Yes...I've learned my lesson about not having a proper backup. I'll be purchasing an external hd, too. Any suggestions for those would be useful as well...
First of all, don't buy a Western Digital. In my experience, two have broken down on me. Second, how did you recover WITHOUT losing the hard drive and it dying as you said? Inquiring minds want to know.
If you can do around $50-$60, get a 500 GB drive. Try this one : http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16822152181 Stay away from Seagates. They've had all kinds of firmware issues lately and were dropping dead like fruit flies about a year or two ago. As for which is truly the best, there's no telling because everybody gets unlucky. I had one of the above Samsung drives die on me within 3 weeks. I attribute it to just bad luck. I've had about 4 or 5 other Samsung drives give me no issues after using them for 3 years and running up to 12 hours a day. Make sure your PC supports the drive before buying the above.
Ok...thanks. Took it to these guys. $99 for data recovery services. From the research I've done, that's a pretty good bargain...especially for someone that doesn't know the first thing about this stuff. Thanks...I'll check it out.
