Restore My Files : Information & Data Recovery

My Vista install cannot boot. I’m attempting to recover data from a RAID 0 array. I can boot other OS’s off of USB keys, and I have done so easily. I need an OS, presumably a Linux environment with a GUI, that can read the array. It is an Nvidia "fakeraid", that was made in the BIOS of my 750i chipset motherboard.

So, if anyone has such a distro that can recognize RAID0 arrays that has a GUI, I’d greatly appreciate the help!!!

Take a look at running Knoppix from a LiveCD which should allow you to access your data
http://www.knoppix.net/

LUg.

I cannot login to Win XP because it says a system/file is missing. It won’t let me get into Windows recovery mode using the WinXP install CD either (when i try it asks to select a hard drive and then doesn’t do anything).

I have tried using knoppix linux live cd to retrieve the files of the hard drive, however it wont let me open the hd (i have tried to mount it via the terminal as well but no luck there either). I have heard that knoppix does not support SATA (raid) hard drives so this would explain why that doesn’t work.

Im pretty sure the hard drive is ok (it is picked up in the system check on start up and also in knoppix as a storage medium). Any ideas would be much appreciated!
I cannot login to Win XP because it says a system/file is missing. It won’t let me get into Windows recovery mode using the WinXP install CD either (when i try it asks to select a hard drive and then doesn’t do anything).

I have tried using knoppix linux live cd to retrieve the files of the hard drive, however it wont let me open the hd (i have tried to mount it via the terminal as well but no luck there either). I have heard that knoppix does not support SATA (raid) hard drives so this would explain why that doesn’t work.

Im pretty sure the hard drive is ok (it is picked up in the system check on start up and also in knoppix as a storage medium). Any ideas would be much appreciated!

– Knoppix does not work and i cannot change the hd to a slave because their are two that act as one (when one fails the other takes over) and there don’t seem to be jumper setting like on ATA drives.

– I have downloaded an ISO of slax linux but im not sure if that has SATA Raid hd support either.

I know there is a device that will let you connect your sata hard drive to a fully operational pc via usb cable. The way it works is by (in layman’s terms) turns your hard drive into a thumb drive through the sata to usb converter. I’ve used one before and it worked like a charm. Check out this site on ebay you can get the converter for as little as $8 or less:

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=sata+to+usb&category0=

You may want to get one that has 2 usb ends attached to it or hot wire another usb end if you feel comfortable doing so. So you can be sure that you will have the extra power needed to run the hard drive. If you cant find one then using one that only has 1 usb end should work just as well.

If you dont want to spend the money you could always try making that hard drive a slave and putting it into another computer that supports sata and then pull of the information from there.

One of my internal hard disk went out. They were set up in RAID 0 and lost all data. Got a new hard drive and re-installed Windows XP. Had to start from "scratch" as I could run the Acronis Recovery for some reason.

I still have the backup material. Only thing I want are my family pictures and videos. Any ideas on how to get it back?

I know it’s there somewhere.

if it is in a floppy then insert it into the computer and copy your picture or whatever or if they are in a CD or DVD then insert the disk and again copy it to your computer or if its in a hardisk than use that hardisk instead of one u are using now

I have a Dell M1730 with 400 GB of storage (2 x 200). I have bought 2 larger (500GB) hard drives and want to copy an exact image of the old disks to the new disks. The tricky part is that Dell has a recovery partition I would like to keep and also a hidden partition for their media direct software. I have tried Aesus Disk Copy and it didn’t work out. I had a "No OS" error when I started up my laptop with the new hard drives… Any suggestions? I would prefer to not pay for software (the Easus program is freeware), but will if I absolutely must…

You need a program that will make in image of your hard drive.
…. maybe something like nLite or WinISO.
I think Roxio can create drive images too.

The reason you are getting a ‘No OS’ error is because unless it says otherwise, hard drives generally come unformatted.
To format a hard drive, you need an OS disc (windows, mac, linux, etc).
Turn on your computer with the disc in and select ‘boot from disc’

Hi
I am working as a system admin on a server system(RAID).
I am the admin.
So some times i used to watch,edit my personal pictures.
Recently i found one recovery software.
when i am using that software i found plenty of personal pictures of mine.
How can i delete the pictures with out any problem to my system.
Plz help me.
Thank you .

Use File Shredder. it will completely delete unwanted files in to peaces permanently from your hard disc beyond recovery.

Download from cnet free
http://download.cnet.com/File-Shredder/3000-2144_4-10662831.html

my Motherboard went bad on my desktop (P4SD-LA) so i got another one off of ebay it looks exactly the same, same (P4SD-LA) same numbers and everything nothing is different. so i put it in and booted up but first off noticed the HP logo boot up screen that covers the POST is different it looks older my current (broken) board is all blue with the hp logo in the middle and the new boot screen is white with some blue i believe, second problem is that the mobo is not seeing my PCI Raid controller so it says it has no HD’s so i cannot even use my recovery disks or anything to TRY to figure out what the hell is going on, I am NEVER buying a OEM already made computer again from now on i am building them myself :\ Can anyone help me???
Same Chipset Intel Breed Hill MCH
Intel ICH5 on both motherboard, Same P4SD LA Rev. 1.06 all the specs from the hp site and the Manual that came with the new board are the same
I have been trying to work with the Bios with a floppy but everything i put in the floppy drive says non-system disk with both the new and old motherboard
Updated Bios to current HP version it fixed the Boot screen but still no RAID PCI card is being seen

Not sure exactly what your question is. Motherboard manufacturers will have several runs of the same board but label them the same. Or use different chip sets. They might have the same Model number but a different Rev #. (Revision)

Try on their web site for a manual.

Ok i have tried this a few times so i know i am right.

If someone has a compaq desktop say and you need into the RC but they DON’T have any compaq disks, so you try booting from an ordinary XP CD, then the option to use the recovery console, after the sata / raid driver thing at the start, is not there, nether is the option on the next screen to do a repair install?

Generally there is recovery drive made in DELL system, go to my computer and check weather there is a recovery drive or not.

My Gateway Laptop was working fine and then the next day when I went to boot it up I got the message unamountable_boot_volume. So from there I decided to insert my Windows XP Disc to do a system recovery. When I tried that I received a message saying Setup did not find any hard disk drives. From there I looked into how would I go about getting windows to recognize that I have the drivers. It seems that I need the floppy disk that has the SCSI Raid drivers on it. However, I cannot find this disk, what is left for me to do?

Is there anyway I can download these drivers, install them on a USB stick, and then run it from there? Any helpful suggestions would be great, I’m running out of idea’s Last resort is to run my laptop over to Bestbuy and have their Geek Squad check it out. But if I can’t locate the floppy disk with the Raid drivers, what would they be able to do for me? Thanks, hope I can get this problem resolved!

You won’t need RAID drivers to access your floppy disk.

It is very unlikely that you have a SCSI RAID in your laptop computer. For most applications, when you have a RAID controller you also have multiple hard disks.

My guess is that your hard disk is fried. Either you open the laptop computer yourself if you find some instructions how to open it. There are tons of instructions on how to open laptop computers, and if you tell me exactly what model you have I can try to find one for you.

In any case, if you don’t want to open the laptop computer by yourself (which should not be rocket science), you should have your laptop computer looked at by the store you mentioned.

[1] ALX® X58

Processor: Overclocked Intel® Core™ i7-965 Extreme 3.86 GHz 8MB Cache
Alienware P2 Chassis: Alienware® P2 ALX Chassis with AlienIce™ 3.0 Video Cooling – Space Black
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Motherboard: Alienware® Approved Intel® X-58 Motherboard- Socket 1366 Core i7 Ready, Dual Triple Channel DDR3 Memory
Operating System (Office software not included): Genuine Windows Vista® Ultimate (64-bit Edition) with Service Pack 1
System Drive: Extreme Performance (RAID 0) – 2TB (2 x 1TB) SATA 3Gb/s 7,200RPM 2 x 32MB Cache
Optical Drives : Single Drive Configuration – 4x Dual Layer Blu-ray Burner (BD-RE, DVD±RW, CD-RW)
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Mac Pro
Two 2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
32GB (8×4GB)
Mac Pro RAID Card
1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
4x NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512MB
One 18x SuperDrive
Apple Cinema HD Display (30" flat panel)
Apple Wireless Mighty Mouse
Apple Wireless Keyboard (English) and User’s Guide
AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi Card with 802.11n

If you are asking this question I believe that you would be more suited to a windows PC. So forget about the Mac Pro. The Mac Pro is a hardcore work machine used to run lengthy code, work with huge matrices and blah blah…

The i7 is by far one of the best processors available today. If I may ask why are you buying a PC? If you want the best PC on the market that will not become obsolete in a couple of years than i m sorry to say that the PC you are looking for is not on the market yet.

If you are a gamer, than I strongly suggest the Alienware PC. If you are not a hardcore gamer and are rather looking for a fast PC that will not give you any problems in terms of compatibility etc. I suggest you look for a high-end Dell or HP.

To save you some cost, I suggest downgrading from the 12GB to about 4-6GB. I use a 4GB PC and have only 3 programs (Matlab, TurbSim and AutoCAD) that actually use all that memory.

I personally prefer Windows XP Pro. If there is a downgrade to that I suggest you take it. If it happens that Windows 7 is released by the time you buy your PC, I suggest you take Windows 7 Ultimate.

I notice that you have a Blue-ray Burner! I haven’t seen any individual with so much data that they needed to start using Blue Ray Disc’s to transfer/store data. If you feel you have alot of movies songs pictures etc, buy a couple of external HDs. I like the ones that apple provides since its wireless back up. You don’t have to even press a button and all your files will be backed up.

Oh ya. And as far as processor speed goes. 2.1 – 2.6 GHz should be good unless ofcourse you are an engineering student or something and need that kind of processing power.

It might be worthy to note that most of your programs (Internet Browsers, Messengers, Some games, are not set up to use a 64-bit configuration and therefore cannot use more than 2 GB ram even if you have 12GB ram on your computer. So Again I suggest that you could downgrade your ram too.

Best of luck. I wish I could afford one of these PCs.

I have an HP Pavilion with a RAID drive setup. The drive in port 2 (which I presume to be the redundant drive) has failed. The system is operating normally, but I need to replace the drive, of course.

My question: Once I’ve installed a replacement drive, do I need to do a system restore? I’m running Windows Vista Home Premium.

Any and all help appreciated!
Thank you!!! That’s what I needed to know. The utility does indeed show the drive as degraded, and says that I need to replace it (which of course I assumed), but it doesn’t tell me anything past that point. Might be nice if it gave me a process, no??? LOL Thanks again!
And yes – it is RAID 1 – simply mirroring

no, no, no…..
presuming that you have RAID 1 (mirroring), you have to install the new drive, than
INITILIZE IT,
than "REBUILD THE ARRAY"
all are done WITHIN the raid utility!
when you open this utility BEFORE the new hdd is installed, it will show the status of the ARRAY as "degraded" and point out the specific drive!