Crash on Update.... Restore

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ninjahedge

ninjahedge

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Aug 3, 2006
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OK,

Basic story, my wife decided the update was taking too long, so she interrupted it and rebooted it on her laptop.

CRASH

The only option that kept coming up was an ASUS reconstruct. I (erroneously) chose to install Windows on "1 partition" thinking it knew the partition and would just overwrite windows on it (keeping much data on the other partition).

No. It borked it. I will have to double check to make sure that it did repartition and just did not MAP the other partition, but still.


Now, the questions I have are like this:

1. Is there any way to make a recovery-stick for the USB port? I know there are ways, but I do not know how to make one. I am not sure my wife got a W7 disk with her machine that could make one.

2. Will making a full backup of the drive (on the server) help prevent this in the future? Is there a way to ghost it and reconstruct it after-crash?

3. Is there any way to check for the data that may have been de-mapped but not lost?

4. Was there any way to avoid this bork (short of NOT REBOOTING MID-UPDATE!)?


TiA
 
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house70

house70

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Apr 21, 2010
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You can go into Control Panel> Backup and Restore and create a system image, also create a system backup disk. This is useful as long as you create them on external media (server/ USB memory/external HDD etc). Make sure the system's BIOS can be setup to boot from an external USB source, otherwise you'll need to create a DVD for the backup.
I don't know about data de-mapped, you could try to mount the HDD as an external drive on another system and see if any files/folders can be accessed.
AAFAIK, to avoid this bork you'll need a Windows installation media (disk or USB), boot from it and choose to repair an existing installation, if it recognizes it and gives you that option (might not be available if the system's corruption was too bad), in that case you'll lose all the updates, but keep your files/programs. Not sure, as I have never done it in this context (aborted update), but worth a try if available.
 
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ninjahedge

ninjahedge

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Thanks.

One of the big problems is that she got a slim-line laptop, so there are no media drives (why do we need them?, right? :p).

So if there was a way to get a 4G stick form Costco and put it all on the money, that would be handy... If not that, I am just trying to figure out how I can connect to this thing so I can get the needed OS running to access the damaged data.

Is there an easy way to set an external drive up as a boot disk if needed? (I believe I can get to her bios to change the boot order... if I remember the function key combo...)
 
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house70

house70

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The BIOS always has a menu available where you can select the boot order, all you need to do is enter it (with the right key combo). Usually the key combos are easy to find, either by trial and error or by doing a quick search online about that particular make/model of laptop.
In order to mount the HDD on another system as an external drive, the easiest way is to use a docking solution for the HDD (that connects to the other PC via USB, turning the HDD into an external drive) or an external enclosure (more elaborate, needs to fit the HDD size requirements, etc). I use a BlacX by Thermaltake dock, if fits 2 SATA HDDs nicely. There are others out there, pick your "poison"...
 
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house70

house70

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I was talking about physically removing the HDD from the laptop and using an external dock to mount it as an external drive on another PC.
There must be a hidden partition that houses the recovery files, although 300 GB seems quite large for that.
You can use Disk manager to adjust partitions, make sure you don't mess with the system partition's properties. To recover unused partitions, you can usually resize them (decrease the size of the unused one to 0, then increase the system partition's size to engulf the free space that formed that way.
 
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