I borked my friends computer

[atlanticjim]

So my friend has a non-starting HP desktop and asks me to look at it since it wont start and HP said he should send it back to them. I take a look and agree with HP that the motherboard is shot. He pulls the drive "I dont want to send them all my data" and asks if I can back it up. "Sure" I say and pull out my laptop and usb/sata link and begin to back it up. Somewhere along the way with the backup, it fails and after that I cannot access the hd "data corrupted" it says.

I take the drive while he sends the box away for a new MB and back up the data. But the system partition only has two folders in it and his data is all gone (or inaccessible). I use some recovery software and get everything back. So far I am safe.

The box comes back with a new mobo and when I reinstall the drive I get the "bootmgr is missng" error. No problem I think and pop in a win7 disk to get to the recovery console. Of course it says that there is no operating system on the HD since the system partition got corrupted, and since it cannot see the OS. It cannot rebuild the bcd with bootrec.exe.

Ok, I will just access the Recovery Partition using the F11 command. But it wont respond and sends me the bootmgr is missing error. This alone is a little odd because I can get to the HP diagnostic partition with F9.

I know I have two options:
1. Reload Win7 in the system partition knowing that the recovery partition will then be inaccessible.
2. Get the HP recovery disks and rebuild it that way.

First question: Is there a way to get this box to boot to the recovery partition? I know this guy well, and he will want me to return it to him like it came from the factory.

Second question: Will the HP recovery disks also rebuild the boot sectors and make the recovery partition accessible?

 

[dgiles79]

In my experience, the recovery discs will also restore the recovery partition. I assume he didn't make a set of recovery discs? If he doesn't want to pay for the discs, the like you mentioned, you can just install Windows and lose access to the recovery partition.

If you cant see the partitions, and set the recovery one to active, I don't think you will be able to boot to it.

 

[atlanticjim]

I already asked and he didn't make recovery disks

 

[Vicenarian]

So my friend has a non-starting HP desktop and asks me to look at it since it wont start and HP said he should send it back to them. I take a look and agree with HP that the motherboard is shot. He pulls the drive "I dont want to send them all my data" and asks if I can back it up. "Sure" I say and pull out my laptop and usb/sata link and begin to back it up. Somewhere along the way with the backup, it fails and after that I cannot access the hd "data corrupted" it says.

I take the drive while he sends the box away for a new MB and back up the data. But the system partition only has two folders in it and his data is all gone (or inaccessible). I use some recovery software and get everything back. So far I am safe.

The box comes back with a new mobo and when I reinstall the drive I get the "bootmgr is missng" error. No problem I think and pop in a win7 disk to get to the recovery console. Of course it says that there is no operating system on the HD since the system partition got corrupted, and since it cannot see the OS. It cannot rebuild the bcd with bootrec.exe.

Ok, I will just access the Recovery Partition using the F11 command. But it wont respond and sends me the bootmgr is missing error. This alone is a little odd because I can get to the HP diagnostic partition with F9.

I know I have two options:
1. Reload Win7 in the system partition knowing that the recovery partition will then be inaccessible.
2. Get the HP recovery disks and rebuild it that way.

First question: Is there a way to get this box to boot to the recovery partition? I know this guy well, and he will want me to return it to him like it came from the factory.

Second question: Will the HP recovery disks also rebuild the boot sectors and make the recovery partition accessible?

Re: First question, you might just need to mark that recovery partition as the bootable partition...not totally sure, but it's easy enough to do.

 

[TLE]

Mark the recovery partition as active, when you next boot the PC it should boot straight into the recovery partition. I use this technique all the time.

 

[sassenach]

The HP original discs restore the recovery partition on the 2 XP machines that my partner aqnd her son have.

We had to buy a set for the lad's machine a couple of years ago as he had managed to fully trash it and hadn't made a rescue disc. Trying to get the correct drivers was an absolute nightmare so we made him pay for a set of discs as I was fed up wasting my time chasing round for him.

HP's customer service on domestic equipment can be atrocious at times. The HP discs might well be labelled in a different language - ours were in Hungarian but worked perfectly for an English set-up

 

[phaZed]

Mark the recovery partition as active, when you next boot the PC it should boot straight into the recovery partition. I use this technique all the time.

^^^ This! I use Parted Magic on UBCD then go to TestDisk.

 

[Encrypted Existence]

I have an HP W7 machine that I just recently did a wipe/reinstall on from the recovery disks. It did restore the recovery partition.

 

[dk564]

Try using a recovery USB...I did the same thing and it worked with the fixMBR command

 

[atlanticjim]

Update:
He has ordered the recovery disks at his expense. He said that they gave him a HUGE hard time about it and kept telling him how to access the recovery partition. So I will get the disks in a few days.

In the mean time I told him that I am going to mess around with all different ways to get it to work. He was totally ok with that since I have his data and a plan to restore everything.

I took the HD out and set the recovery partition to active via windows computer management but it still gave the bootmgr error. I don't suppose that doing it with a live disk will make any difference . . but I will try.

 

[Xander]

Sounds like you've got things well in hand.

In the meantime,

 

[atlanticjim]

Sounds like you've got things well in hand.

In the meantime,

Thanks for the memory and the laugh.

My other job is in healthcare and we use that term all the time e.g. "Dr. Schwartz really borked that craniotomy yesterday".

 

[Elemdee]

Thanks for the memory and the laugh.

My other job is in healthcare and we use that term all the time e.g. "Dr. Schwartz really borked that craniotomy yesterday".

LMAO I hope "Dr. Schwartz" has excellent insurance.

 

[parker.casey]

Pull the drive from the system, plug it into your trusty bench system, and use imagex to directly re-image it from the WIMs on the recovery partition. At least, that's what I do.

 

[citizensmith]

+1 mr casey for imagex

 

[732914TECH]

i believe theres an issue with the hard drive, did you run crystal disk to check the status of the drive first?

 

[atlanticjim]

Pull the drive from the system, plug it into your trusty bench system, and use imagex to directly re-image it from the WIMs on the recovery partition. At least, that's what I do.

Thanks, I knew that someone would share a workable technique that I was not familiar with. What would I do without TN?

i believe theres an issue with the hard drive, did you run crystal disk to check the status of the drive first?

Absolutely right to do that and it is my next step. But have you ever heard of Seagate drives failing? (<- sarcasm here, no need to respond)

 

[atlanticjim]

Where is the Mail

Uh oh.
After retrieving the data to an external drive I asked the owner what he was particularly worried about getting back.
Photos and Mail.

I got the photos but I cannot find his Windows Mail in Win 7. Can you provide any help to locate it?

 

[Vicenarian]

Appdata/Microsoft/Windows Live Mail

At least that's what I remember off-hand?