Computer Crashing And Rebooting/Data Recovery

[vikik]

Hi, I have a Sony Vaio which crashed after the power was pulled out before it had finished shutting down. It keeps rebooting but doesn't respond to any choice of option to restart in safe mode etc, just reboots. Of course there is data on there I need. Not sure what to do and not at all technological. Wondering where to take it in Chiang Mai?

[JackA]

First you need to make sure that the system is really OFF - before anything remove power supply cable and remove the battery from the notebook (VAIO - presumed it is a notebook?) - and then put back the battery and start - it that works, great - if not then - the "procedure" to get it running again is pretty simple.

You will need the original windows cd - open up the recovery console and delete the pagefile.

Once you have done that - run a chkdsk /r (also in recovery console, let it complete) - then perform a reboot.

Good luck.

(Don't worry your data will be okay - but try deleting the pagefile first.)

Edited June 20, 2010 by JackA

[vikik]

First you need to make sure that the system is really OFF - before anything remove power supply cable and remove the battery from the notebook (VAIO - presumed it is a notebook?) - and then put back the battery and start - it that works, great - if not then - the "procedure" to get it running again is pretty simple.

You will need the original windows cd - open up the recovery console and delete the pagefile.

Once you have done that - run a chkdsk /r (also in recovery console, let it complete) - then perform a reboot.

Good luck.

(Don't worry your data will be okay - but try deleting the pagefile first.)

Thanks. But I think I need advice on getting someone in Chiang Mai to do that for me as I don't have the windows CD, don't know what a 'recovery console' is or which 'pagefile' I will be deleting. I'm just worried about giving it to someone who will fix the computer for me and give it back as new with no original data at all as happened to a friend of mine.

[siamect]

You will need the original windows cd - open up the recovery console and delete the pagefile.

Once you have done that - run a chkdsk /r (also in recovery console, let it complete) - then perform a reboot.

Good luck.

(Don't worry your data will be okay - but try deleting the pagefile first.)

JackA!

What is the point of deleting the pagefile and why do you propose to do that and run chkdsk /r before you make a backup?

You need to be careful with other peoples data!!! It may be important!!!

I wouldn't touch the drive at all, without first backing it up.

Obviously there are no other backups... so backup is the first priority.

When the data is safe somewhere else, then you can play around as much as you like...

Martin

Edited June 21, 2010 by siamect

[Royk]

Hi,

You can try using Ubuntu CD to access the drive in order to back up the data before sending it in for a repair. Find an Ubuntu user and ask the person to assist you in doing so. Ubuntu can boot directly from the CD. It doesn't have to be installed onto the hard drive so it won't modify anything on the drive and corrupt it further. It also comes bundled with CD/DVD burning software. If your machine has a writer, you can back up all your data to CDs or DVDs before attempting to fix the machine.

Best regards,

Roy

[JackA]

You will need the original windows cd - open up the recovery console and delete the pagefile.

Once you have done that - run a chkdsk /r (also in recovery console, let it complete) - then perform a reboot.

Good luck.

(Don't worry your data will be okay - but try deleting the pagefile first.)

JackA!

What is the point of deleting the pagefile and why do you propose to do that and run chkdsk /r before you make a backup?

You need to be careful with other peoples data!!! It may be important!!!

I wouldn't touch the drive at all, without first backing it up.

Obviously there are no other backups... so backup is the first priority.

When the data is safe somewhere else, then you can play around as much as you like...

Martin

Well of course you're right, but when a pc is prematurely losing power while shutting down the pagefile is usually the last thing written to -

and if the pagefile is corrupt, your computer might not be able to start at all, and please inform me - since we have no information on error messages

or anything else for that matter if a drive is "unmountable" - due to shutdown error - how are you going to backup that drive?

But the easiest way is to remove the drive - buy a new drive install windows on that new drive and use the old drive as an external USB drive -

where you can safely access your data - presuming the drive is intact as suggested - no need to backup - you leave the original untouched.

[vikik]

Thanks everybody. Ubuntu sounds interesting. It is impossible to do back up at the moment or anything and if there is an error message it flashes up too quickly to read before rebooting. Think will go down the line of removing the drive then using it as an external to retrieve important information...

[Royk]

Thanks everybody. Ubuntu sounds interesting. It is impossible to do back up at the moment or anything and if there is an error message it flashes up too quickly to read before rebooting. Think will go down the line of removing the drive then using it as an external to retrieve important information...

I use Windows 7 but keep Ubuntu as the rescue/utility disk. It's saved my skin on many occasions. It's pretty useful to have file manager, partition manager, CD burning, Internet Access and Office Suite capabilities handy in case of emergency. I don't have to mess around with creating a bootable CD with the NTFS4DOS driver to access NTFS partitions.

Best regards,

Roy

[siamect]

Well of course you're right, but when a pc is prematurely losing power while shutting down the pagefile is usually the last thing written to -

and if the pagefile is corrupt, your computer might not be able to start at all, and please inform me - since we have no information on error messages

or anything else for that matter if a drive is "unmountable" - due to shutdown error - how are you going to backup that drive?

But the easiest way is to remove the drive - buy a new drive install windows on that new drive and use the old drive as an external USB drive -

where you can safely access your data - presuming the drive is intact as suggested - no need to backup - you leave the original untouched.

I'm not sure about If I think the last thing to be written is the pagefile... and I think if that is the case, then it takes what ... 200mS... the rest are disk accesses that are distributed among those files that are open or needed for the shutdown of applications and the OS itself...

Backing up an unbootable drive can only be done by booting from something else.

Either move to a different computer or boot a live CD or USB as suggested earlier.

Don't even think of just letting it go with a "no need to backup". You have no idea what was the reason for the crash in the first place. It just happened to take place during shutdown, but the reason may be that the disk is screwed and it may be even more screwed the longer you play around with it. Heads scratching the disk surface and creating dust contaminating the thing. Life is better off without it...

So Priority one: Back up the data on something that you trust... do it right, verify the data and get rid of the faulty disk... You will sleep better, I promise.

After that you can start thinking how to get your computer up and running again.

You data has a value.

OS and applications can be reinstalled relatively easily...

Get some, at least daily, backup routine running...

Martin