As long as the OS is the same (Windows XP, XP Pro, Vista, etc.) as what you had originally installed, and you have the key (found on the Microsoft Windows tag on your pc), you can use any disks from any pc. The key (literally) is to have the code that is on your pc.

You will need the driver disk from your pc to get all of your hardware running.

So, any CD that has the same version of your OS will work, but you will need the driver CD from your specific machine.

when your laptop boots, you may temporarily see a menu for windows, or the recovery partition, although it may be set to move straight into windows without waiting for an answer. All i could suggest for that is to keep an eye out when you boot, and if you do see it, quickly use the arrow keys to choose it.

According to a toshiba forum, looks you might need a CD that came with your laptop to activate the recovery partition, have a look for one, or download a replacement!

Hope this was of remote help

I have a slightly stupid question to ask. One of our staff is having persistent issues with what seems to be a corrupt installation of Windows XP. We wanted to use an HDD imaging program to backup all files, settings and 3rd party software. My only concern is that since there are issues with the current XP installation, if we take an image now, would those issues return after the image is loaded on another PC? Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Max

do a repair with the original disc 1st…

I don’t have a vista cd bcuz my laptop came with none. I ordered a copy of windows hdd recovery and vista but how am I supposed to install it without the product key? Where do I find this now?

Try this key. TCV33-CH82D-VC8KY-4YW8F-3VKH

Can I get my data back when the hdd is formated? i actually installed windows again by using hdd recovery disk.i thought my recovery partition will be not be affected and my data will remain their but even that partition is being formated i guess.Can I get my data back?

Please tell me some way to get this data back any software something! I would be really thankful to you guys.

Thanks in advance

Regards

If you’d just reformatted the drive, but not written any new files to the disk, your chances of reovery would have been excellent. All the format really does is mark everything as usable.

But when Windows is reinstalled, that overwrites any earlier data on those areas of the disk. Anything overwritten is gone.

You could try some of the undelete utilities from download.com to see if they can salvage anything from areas that didn’t get blasted by the new install, or go with a professional data recovery service for best results… but they are expensive.

A hard disk can fail any time, taking the recovery partition with it. However, you could use Acronis True Image 2010 to create a new partition on either an internal or external drive and then make it a recovery partition. It provides you many more options, to backup your recovery partition to DVDs or USB sticks.

Using Ghost is easy, but it may not serve your specific need to run the recovery wizard using the BIOS post screen. Anyway, here is the details to do it, if you get interested
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2014353,00.asp

Just in case, if you have windows 7, you have got one more option. Windows 7 when installed as the only operating system to it’s own hard drive creates a small separate System partition. On this partition it places the boot system files and access to a complete set of recovery tools, including Startup Repair, System Restore, Complete PC Restore and the Command Prompt. These and more recovery options are available WITHOUT having to insert and boot to a Windows 7 installation DVD. (Note: If one pre-creates and pre-formats the Windows 7 installation drive/partition and then on running Windows 7 setup, select the partition and press Next, this small separate System partition is NOT created.)

Or with windows 7 DVD, you can create your own recovery partition, but you may need a separate HDD!
Check this link for details:
http://en.kioskea.net/faq/4093-windows-7-create-a-recovery-partition

I’d scrap it and get a new one if I’d backed up my data, which I didn’t. So I used the drive a a slave in my pc, hoping to retrieve my data that way. When I booted up, the drive appeared as raw. 100% free and in need of formatting! I tried doing a diskcheck but windows can’t access the drive.

Can somebody give me any fresh ideas. I’m pretty able-bodied when it comes to PC repair as I studied it for 2yrs so please don’t say "take it to the shop".

Thanks guys

Firstly you got to understand that data recovery is delicate especially in your case because you want to have the lowest amount of activity on the drive you wish to recover data from as much as possible. Any activity such as reading can reduce the chance of data recovery and writing will definitely reduce the chance of recovery. So I Guess you can try " Recuva ", it’s a simple to use, lite data recovery software. Juts point it to which drive to attempt recover and it will pick up all that it can from impossible to possible to recover. And remember, keep the amount of activity down as much as possible on the drive you recovering data from. Good luck

for more Information visit these articles.
http://www.computing.net/answers/hardware/zero-fill/12156.html
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/225193.html

"How to recover data? / logical hard drive failure on previous PC?

My old PC had a virus slip by the free AVG antivirus protection program. The PC started acting extremelly odd with web pages opening all on there own, programs and windows becoming un-responsive. Even the task manager started denying my access as though I was no longer the system administrator. In my attempts to correct the issue I wound up wanting to try re-installing the operating system in an overlay install. Because of updates having been installed, when I went to install from my OS cd it would not let me indicating my current operating system was newer. I mistakenly thought I’d just remove the updates and then go from there. Once I did that it was an obvious wrong move and now the PC wouldn’t even boot up properly. Now, when I tried to run the OS install cd it was not going to offer an overlay install option. It wanted to start clean and erase all the old data. I did not have anything business related of huge importance, but I did have some pictures of sentimental value so I did not choose to proceed any further at that time.

My PC was fairly old and quite slow so to immediately solve the issue and allow me to continue some internet business I had been in the middle of at the time, I actually just went out and bought a new desktop. I had been overdue on buying a new one so no biggie there, and I’m extremelly happy with the upgrade to the new desktop I chose.

From looking into the hard drive issue it appears if I’m understanding correctly, and from communication with a local data dr location, that I’m dealing with a logical hard drive failure due to a possible worm virus and then my negative impact as well.

Is there a reasonably priced recovery software I could try???? Or could I perhaps take the hard drive out of my old desktop and plug it in as a second one on my new desktop and recover the data that way???? Ofcourse avoiding the virus jumping to my new hard drive. My new desktop has up to date Norton Internet Security 2008.

Any advice / help / input would really be appreciated. I’d love to be able to retrieve all my old pictures, and if possible I’m wondering if I could retrieve webpages I had saved to my IE favorites. I had not dealt with any issues with that computer in a long long time so now that I think of it there was also a ton of personally important research oriented info in there.

The hard drive I’d like to do a recovery from had Windows XP Home, and my newer desk top has Vista.

Thanks so much for any help, or pointing me in the right direction.

Laurence"

Here was the first answer that I didn’t quite follow, and I never did see clarification on it. Though it sounds like the easiest solution I should pursue.

Quote from jethrohoyt

"I really doubt that this is as big a problem as your advisers make out.

If you have bought a new PC and the old one was ‘an old one’, then you will have SATA drives on new PC and IDE drives on old PC. This shouldn’t stop you as you might have an IDE slot on new PC MoBo, but complications may ensue.

For $15 to $25 there is a better way.

Buy a IDE to USB (or even a SATA or IDE to USB) adapter. These are simple to use, just make sure IDE drive is master, plug in new device to IDE socket on HDD first (indicator towards power socket) then plug in power from wall power supply provided into IDE drive (in the $25), then plug USB from device into new PC and browse the old drive. The old drive comes up just like a USB external HDD (which it now is) in Windows Explorer and you drag and drop the files you want.

Clean it up with Norton and your old PC can then be salvaged.

I can see no pitfalls – I do this as a kind of second job. Its straightforward and it is regardless of the state of the MBR of the old drive.

Good luck

Source(s):
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/…
"

Here was my reply that never was replied back to.

"Additional Details

Thanks very much for the prompt reply, and help.

The old PC is a 4 year old Dell Dimension 4600.

OK, I’m halfway following you, but not 100%.

Off the top of my head I don’t know how to ID an IDE plug/slot or a SATA. So, I’ll have to do a Google search there so I know what we are talking about. Then, I’ll pop the cover off the Dell to see what I have there.

So, the I’m not following you here. Am I going to physically remove the hard drive from the old PC, and then hopefully have an extra plug on the ribbon cable that is on the new PC’s HDD that I can also then jump over to the HDD from the old PC. Then, hopefully also have an extra unused plug from the power supply and plug that into the old PC’s HDD to power it up. Then, isn’t there a little jumper plug that has to be moved on the old HDD to make it a slave and not think it’s the master????

More I think about it, I guess I’m not following you. As the above is what I was invisioning."

Anybody cap
OK, thanks much guys. Really appreciate the info/help.

Possibly the easiest answer would be to get a USB to IDE/SATA cable, or a USB hard drive caddy. Either option will be cheap, you’ll find tons of them on eBay, and many good computer shops will sell them too. That way you can plug the drive into a spare USB port, rather than opening your computer. The cable is probably the best option – they usually have connections for 2.5" laptop drives, 3.5" desktop drives and SATA drives.

IDE connectors have 40 pins in 2 rows of 20, while SATA is small, black, L-shaped and easily broken!

If the data was deleted off the drive, then you can download software to "undelete" files. If the drive cannot be read at all, then a data recovery company would probably charge around £600. Costs in other currencies will vary.