Any windoze experts kicking around - major problem!!!

22 Oct 2007

Hi all....hope someone can help!!
Yesterday, my daughter was playing on my machine when she paddy'd and kicked it, after a few minutes it rebooted itself into windows and carried on running....then rebooted again. I shut it down and left it til she went to bed then tried booting it up again, each time it got just after POST then rebooted, i did this a few times before checking the BIOS where i noticed the chip temp was at 120 degrees :shock: as the fan was not spinning. When she booted it she dislodged the cable loom and it jammed in the fan!!
Anyway, i got a new fan today, installed it and went to boot up, it got past the XP splashscreen then locked up with my mouse cursor in the middle of a black screen but with no power to the mouse or keyboard. I messed around with the BIOS and reset the CMOS and tried safemode but nothing worked sad

After a while messing i reformated a small 20gb drive that i use to share files between the 3 machines we have in our house and installed XP onto that hoping to get onto my C drive and rescue all my personal files (photos, work stuff etc) but i cant do it. I can see all 3 partitions on the drive (its a 250gb SATA) and i can access them all except for 'my documents' on the old windows drive, it says it is inaccessable when i try. Also, the folder is listed as empty when it shoud have about 20gb of stuff on it.
My question is this:
How can i access this folder to rescue whats on there? And if i cant, if i run setup on that partition but choose to leave the partition intact (do not format it etc) will my docs still be there after setup?
Please help anyone!!!
Cheers

22 Oct 2007

:shock: Sorry, can't help you but if my daughter had done that she'd be in major shit. How old is she?

22 Oct 2007

aw bless dont ya just love children?
i think every family needs at least 4! rofl

22 Oct 2007

Quote by Freckledbird
:shock: Sorry, can't help you but if my daughter had done that she'd be in major shit. How old is she?

She's 4 going on 14 and she was, and still is, in deep shit mad

22 Oct 2007

Hey, I'm wondering if the kick has damaged the surface of the hard-drive disc surface, so you're loosing the directory for that part of the drive. dunno

Might be worth downloading something to try and recover the data without looking at the directory, maybe like this.....

Never used this software or done anything like this, so I can't offer any tips about doing it. Sorry. smile

Then again my knowledge is limited to what I've taught myself, so wait and see what others say before trying anything. ;)

22 Oct 2007

Quote by easy
Hey, I'm wondering if the kick has damaged the surface of the hard-drive disc surface, so you're loosing the directory for that part of the drive.

Dont think so as i've ran chkdsk on it and its not throwing up any errors at all.
Ta for the link tho, i'll give it a crack smile

22 Oct 2007

Quote by Mrcoupleseekfun
:shock: Sorry, can't help you but if my daughter had done that she'd be in major shit. How old is she?

She's 4 going on 14 and she was, and still is, in deep shit mad

You'll need help when she's 14 then! :giggle:

22 Oct 2007

Quote by Freckledbird
:shock: Sorry, can't help you but if my daughter had done that she'd be in major shit. How old is she?

She's 4 going on 14 and she was, and still is, in deep shit mad

You'll need help when she's 14 then! :giggle:
She'll be moving out by her 7th birthday if she carries this on!

22 Oct 2007

Sounds like one of two things might have happened...
1) the processor got damaged when the fan was jammed (it doesnt take long for these modern processors to melt without the correct cooling)
2) the harddrive could have been damaged when our daughter kicked it (they dont react well to impacts)
I would suggest you try first booting into safe mode if you havent already (hold down f8 after the post check). If that fails to work, see if you can get someone else to let you try and hook the hdd up to their computer as a secondary drive. You might find you are able to access it. Failing that - there are people who can access damaged drives, but they arent cheap.
Hope some of this helps...
Carf x

22 Oct 2007

Quote by carfunster
Sounds like one of two things might have happened...
1) the processor got damaged when the fan was jammed (it doesnt take long for these modern processors to melt without the correct cooling)
2) the harddrive could have been damaged when our daughter kicked it (they dont react well to impacts)
I would suggest you try first booting into safe mode if you havent already (hold down f8 after the post check). If that fails to work, see if you can get someone else to let you try and hook the hdd up to their computer as a secondary drive. You might find you are able to access it. Failing that - there are people who can access damaged drives, but they arent cheap.
Hope some of this helps...
Carf x

Ta mate, but its deffo not hardware related. As i said originally i've got the machine working but using my old 20gb drive for windows. I can still see the 250gb main drive and all its partitions and files....except for the files i need to get at!

22 Oct 2007

Quote by Mrcoupleseekfun
:shock: Sorry, can't help you but if my daughter had done that she'd be in major shit. How old is she?

She's 4 going on 14 and she was, and still is, in deep shit mad

:rotflmao: :rotflmao: :rotflmao:
Oh it gets better - mines now hit 15 ......... and has spent the last 11 years in deep shit!! :shock:
Trouble is they get taller, so the shit gets deeper!! :shock:
Tis a good job she's so loved I can tell ya!!
Good luck btw - sorry I can't offer any sage advice, and only come in here to point and laff I can be smug at the mo, cos my little angel is being everso extra double good with sprinkles on top :smug: but that's only cos she's grounded for a week and wants to go out on Thurs! rolleyes

Hope you get it all sorted :thumbup:

22 Oct 2007

put it in the fridge....... cool

22 Oct 2007

You need to take ownership of the 'my documents' folder. First open windows explorer, then on the menu bar click on 'tools' then 'folder options...' then the 'view' tab, go to the bottom and uncheck 'use simple file sharing' and click ok.
Then right click on the my documents folder you want to access and click on 'properties' select the 'security' tab and click the 'advanced' button then the 'owner' tab, under change owner select your current username and check the 'replace owner on subcontainers and objects' and click apply.
Once it's finished you should be able to access the files

23 Oct 2007

Quote by sussexguy
You need to take ownership of the 'my documents' folder. First open windows explorer, then on the menu bar click on 'tools' then 'folder options...' then the 'view' tab, go to the bottom and uncheck 'use simple file sharing' and click ok.
Then right click on the my documents folder you want to access and click on 'properties' select the 'security' tab and click the 'advanced' button then the 'owner' tab, under change owner select your current username and check the 'replace owner on subcontainers and objects' and click apply.
Once it's finished you should be able to access the files

Clever!
This sounds like Windows version of permissions which is used on Unix platforms. I suspect this is the correct solution as you're able to see the disk and all other files except your own. This is definitely a problem with file access rather than there being anything wrong with the disk, so assigning the right permissions should solve the problem.
Why this was caused in the way it was is a puzzle, but hopefully sussexguy has correctly sussed out a solution.

23 Oct 2007

hmmmmmmm....tried the ownership thing last night but it didnt seem to work.
The disk is definately intact as i can see all the files in there when looking through the 'files & settings transfer wizard', it just wont let me copy the files from one partition to the other.
At least i know they're all still there, i'll have another crack at the ownership thing later and see how i get on. Cheers sussex smile

23 Oct 2007

Quote by markz
put it in the fridge.......

Thats for stolen car radio's markz.......... rolleyes

23 Oct 2007

Quote by lilacgem_vert2go
put it in the fridge.......

Thats for stolen car radio's markz.......... rolleyes

And just how do you know this? :huh:
:lol2:

23 Oct 2007

Quote by easy
put it in the fridge.......

Thats for stolen car radio's markz.......... rolleyes

And just how do you know this? :huh:
:lol2:
So that is where my missing radio is! and now I know who to blame...... lol

23 Oct 2007

Mrcoupleseekfun
If you have the full xp install disk you can install xp over the top of your corrupt version, as long as you don't pick "clean install" it will leave your previous documents intact.
failing that or any other help you get from here i will give you my address to post your drive to if what you have on it isn't to personal.
I used to do a little data recovery when i had my pc shop in derbyshire so know the ins and outs.
I could recover what i could, stick it on dvd's then post you the lot back, no charge.
I don't mind doing the odd one for people, its just when someone sends you a drive with like 200 gig of files on it, it can take several hours just for a small one so imagine doing a 200 gig drive :shock: lol

Tony

23 Oct 2007

Maybe the kick damaged the data structure and the drive no longer thinks there should be anything in the folder. Or another scenario would be that when the cpu fan stopped working the drive's file structure was corrupted, again resulting in data loss.
You've a few options, but if you deff need data from the drive you need to stop using it asap. Once you've done that either send it of to someone to take a look at it which is usually quite costly. Otherwise you need to have a bash with some software on your own.
HTH
romprod

23 Oct 2007

It certainly could be an Ownership (permissions) problem but that is only likely if your machine is either networked or has multiple users on it. But it is worth looking at again if you haven't yet.
I would definitely try reinstalling windows (leaving the current file system intact.) Your old "My Documents" files will still be there - though not under "My Documents" any more. You can find them at
C biggrin

ocuments and Settings<your username>My Documents
This is the easiest next thing to try in my opinion, then if you still can't get them then go down the data recovery route.
Russell
(I.T. Technician)

23 Oct 2007

Quote by swing_fun_cpl
I would definitely try reinstalling windows (leaving the current file system intact.) Your old "My Documents" files will still be there - though not under "My Documents" any more. You can find them at
Cocuments and Settings<your username>My Documents
This is the easiest next thing to try in my opinion, then if you still can't get them then go down the data recovery route.
Russell
(I.T. Technician)

Just what i said lol

Tony

23 Oct 2007

All sorted ta folks!
Gave myself ownership of the folder, transferred all my files over to one of the other partitions, formatted that partition and re-installed windoze
All is well in MrC's world again biggrin

Again, thanks for the help!

24 Oct 2007

Quote by Mrcoupleseekfun
All sorted ta folks!
Gave myself ownership of the folder, transferred all my files over to one of the other partitions, formatted that partition and re-installed windoze
All is well in MrC's world again
Again, thanks for the help!

thats just great hunni lol

24 Oct 2007

Quote by Mrcoupleseekfun
All sorted ta folks!
Gave myself ownership of the folder, transferred all my files over to one of the other partitions, formatted that partition and re-installed windoze
All is well in MrC's world again
Again, thanks for the help!

:thumbup:
Excellent!

24 Oct 2007

Well done Mr C.
I would like to take this opportunity to present you with your honorary I.T. Technician's certificate - congratulations!
:small-print:
:grin:
Russell

24 Oct 2007

Quote by northeastcoupleuk
All sorted ta folks!
Gave myself ownership of the folder, transferred all my files over to one of the other partitions, formatted that partition and re-installed windoze
All is well in MrC's world again
Again, thanks for the help!

thats just great hunni lol

piss taking twat :lol: