My girlfriend dropped her computer, and now when it goes to boot it says "Disk Read Error, Press ctrl alt del to restart." I googled the error and came on a couple of threads in this forum. The only solid advice was to reinstall windows 7 to get it to boot at all. If I reinstall, am I going to lose all the data on the hard drive? She is a photographer, and MUST have the photos and contracts saved on her hard drive.
dropped computer, sensitive information
- Thread starter zyphrinel
- Start date
Solution
getochkn
Polypheme
- Jul 2, 2006
- 12,407
- 54
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you might get lucky and be able to pull out the harddrive and hook it up to another pc and get the info off it, but the disk read error leads me to believe that there is physcial damage that may not be recoverable or at least not for less than a $1000 from a recovery company. IF you reinstall windows, yes it will reformat and you will loose everything but I doubt you could even reinstall considering the disk read error.
Small chance the hard drive just came loose from the cariage but usually they are screwed in and don't move. that's the first thing i would do, take off the hard drive door off the bottom and confirm the harddrive is plugged in all the way.
Small chance the hard drive just came loose from the cariage but usually they are screwed in and don't move. that's the first thing i would do, take off the hard drive door off the bottom and confirm the harddrive is plugged in all the way.
ThatVietGuy
Titan
- Nov 6, 2007
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You can use free programs out there (like http://www.piriform.com/recuva/download) or send it out to be professionally done (which will probably cost hundreds of dollars).
But whatever you do, stop using the hard drive and remove it if you want a chance at recovering anything.
But whatever you do, stop using the hard drive and remove it if you want a chance at recovering anything.
That was my initial thought, so I immediately checked it. The only thing securing the hard drive to the laptop is a rubber sleeve inside the panel. I suppose it isn't possible to try an recover the data ona usb hard drive adapter through the computer I'm currently using?
ThatVietGuy
Titan
- Nov 6, 2007
- 11,718
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You can try to hook it up, but the fact that you get the error message that you do likely means there's physical damage to the drive and makes it hard to recover without spending a lot of money.
- Mar 16, 2013
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ooo. This is not good. I hate to be 'that guy', but this is why backups are always recommended. Especially with money making/business data.
Moving on though - remove the drive and connect it to something else with a USB dock or cable. See if that works. If not...
Moving on though - remove the drive and connect it to something else with a USB dock or cable. See if that works. If not...
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