My laptop's boot options are screwed up, so i can't boot it, it just says non-system disk error or something upon bootup. Putting in the windows XP does nothing.
I want to salvage my files and if possible reformat.
Any help?
[editline]09:14AM[/editline]
i have a 4gb sandisk cruzer USB.
[editline]09:14AM[/editline]
my laptop is a HP Compaq nx8220.
My current desktop uses vista.
Why don't you just remove the hard drive, and plug it into your desktop and recover/manipulate your files there instead?
On the other hand, check the BIOS configuration, and set CDROM to be a higher boot priority than HDD0
You can put a laptop's harddrive into a desktop? :raise: i don't have an external adapter...
i set the boot settings (my laptop doesn't allow direct BIOS access i think) to boot from "USB Hard Drive" as top priority. I think set Notebook hard drive to last priority.
Even if putting in the Windows XP disk works, won't it only prompt me to install XP? :raise:
i want to salvage my files before i do anything.
[editline]02:10PM[/editline]
i'm using BartPE, but i noticed the folder doesn't have a boot.ini, and i have no idea how to create it.
[img]http://imgkk.com/i/bnzrjQ.jpg[/img]
[editline]02:13PM[/editline]
i'm not sure if this is warez or not though... if it is, i'll snip it and use another method.
BartPE isn't warez, it creates a lightweight version of windows xp from a existing XP install disk. It essentially just strips anything that is not required for basic file recovery and creates a boot image. Though it does require a windows xp install cd, whether the cd is legal or not is your decision and really isn't anybody elses business.
I'm pretty sure BartPE is the only easy way to make a live windows xp disk.
If you have no windows xp install cd, and you would prefer not to pirate a copy, then you could use a live Ubuntu cd (ubuntu is a linux os), which is straightforward to get set up, you just burn the downloadable disk image (.iso) to a disk using whatever cd/dvd creation utility you wish, and boot from the cd.
Ubuntu is a no brainer to use, while it may not look the same as windows xp, it's very easy to figure out. And the latest version Ubuntu is completely capable of reading from a NTFS/fat32/fat16 hard drive, though I'm not sure about writing data to it. You could for sure copy all the files you want to recover to a usb using it though, but if you want to write any data to the windows hard drive, you may need to download a seperate NTFS kernel patch.
BartPE tutorial:
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78gKzcuq-dw[/url]
Ubuntu's Homepage: [url]http://www.ubuntu.com[/url]
[QUOTE=ashxu;19840906]You can put a laptop's harddrive into a desktop? :raise: i don't have an external adapter...[/QUOTE]
Please tell me that you are trolling me
Assuming that your laptop uses SATA drive, the interface connectors are the same between a 2.5 inch and 3.5 inch SATA hard drive.
[QUOTE=B1N4RY!;19843514]Please tell me that you are trolling me
Assuming that your laptop uses SATA drive, the interface connectors are the same between a 2.5 inch and 3.5 inch SATA hard drive.[/QUOTE]
They're not. They use ATA/IDE.
[url]http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/12139_div/12139_div.HTML#Storage[/url]
[QUOTE=GetOutOfBox;19846022]They're not. They use ATA/IDE.
[url]http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/12139_div/12139_div.HTML#Storage[/url][/QUOTE]
ding ding ding, we have a winner!
I'll do your method of using ubuntu or bartpe soon, i'm slow with getting around to doing these things :colbert:
when i do it, i'll bump the thread.
thanks for your help, i'm not computer illiterate, but when it comes down to the technical stuff, i need to resort to assistance.
Sure, no problem. PM me if you have any questions.
They sell adapters to usb that handle all of those. I have one so I can use a standard desktop DVD drive for installing OS on netbooks.
I also recommend trying trinity rescue kit. You will be able to salvage your files and also can stream them to another computer on the network or just do it through USB.
[url]http://cgi.ebay.ca/Laptop-2-5-to-3-5-IDE-PC-Hard-Drive-Adapter-Converter_W0QQitemZ200379240812QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item2ea788916c[/url]
I'm pretty sure you wouldn't mind spending a dollar buying an adapter at least
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