Recently, my hard drive crashed. I am running 2 hdd's, a hispeed 40gig & a 200gig pig. I want to transfer that 40gig to the 200gig and am just looking for direction on how to specify which files/folders to transfer and which program does it best in the Ultimate Boot CD. This is a wonderful tool and would be glad to donate a little (don't have much but it's a little) so please forward me to a paypal donation center if there is one. Thanks.

I can't recall the error because now it boots up and just shuts off out of nowhere after logging in. Won't even get to the desktop, freezes on the bootscreen while loading a user. I'm running an AMD 3000+xp @2.2ghz. The original error said something about the System32 folder being corrupt but I'd rather reformat than go through the entire process of copying and pasting in the recovery console and hope I get all the corrupt files. No thanks. If you guys can offer some help I'd be very greatful. If you guys are in need of a logo maybe I can help come up with something. I am just trying to give back, thanks.

If you want to rescue the data there are various file explorers which will allow you to select the files you want to recover.

You may also need to run chkdsk, this may also correct whatever the problem is and fix it.

Can you boot into safe mode?

how to get to safe mode

Have you tried doing a Windows XP repair install this may correct the problem and woulnd't require a format, providing chkdsk doesn't report any errors.

Have you tested your hdd's drive fitness, the crash could be a sign of a failing hdd.

You may also be infected with a virus, make sure you run at least to scanners to ensure your system is clean.

I have to say that from reading the tittle of your thread, I thought we were being blamed for hosing your system32 folder.I'm glad that's not the case & I don't have to post the "Disclaimer" that is included on the download.

Some questions:
What version of ubcd4win are you using?
What source did you use?

There used to be a couple programs strictly for copying data, copy handler was one, but it never really worked & was dumped when my systemcore was introduced in 3.0.

There are several file managers in the build so it's really your choice on what to use. Windows explorer seems to work just fine for this, unless there is an error somewhere & it stops before finishing.

Are the files you need to recover encrypted? this might be a problem. If there not encrypted then you can use whatever you like to transfer the files to the second hard drive. I'm sure you will get a few opinions on what to use & how to proceed so I'm not going to give any more detailed than I already was.

You can easaily add something like robocopy.exe to the build if you are more familiar with cmd line tools.
There are also some gui's availble for programs like this, but none that I know of are freely re-distributable so they are not included in the project.

Remember, there is no requirement to donate, but we won't turn down the offer either.
http://www.ubcd4win.com/donations.htm
Interesting that you use photoshop....
I can supply you with the psp files for the rocketdock icons if you have any interest in fixing them for us. Like I've said many time, there are a number of ways to donate to this project & they don't always include money.

@ one point I ran what I'd call a large forum (around 3k members) for a Half-Life 2 mod. I skinned and designed the forum around IPB 2.0, started at around 1.3 until they updated. We were using a hacked version of IPB and were threatened to be taken down by them, we ignored and were hacked [by them we assume] removing our database, skins, etc. It was a great skin but I doubt I'd ever go through that process again. There were countless small icons I had to edit but I prefer working with larger images. Go ahead and send me the psd's and I'll see what I can do with them. Let me know what I will need to know ahead of time (i.e. resolution, bit depth, image format, etc).


Misc work: 1,2,3,4, etc.

I designed the forum around my website above. Hope I can help your project some.

Now regarding my problem. My hard drive is running incredibly slow (when in the windows GUI, well bootup menu...never really gets passed that without shutting off) and just shuts off and is unable to turn on for at least 5 minutes, it's really odd. I am really just focused on backing up my . It shuts off yet the status light stays lit until I hold down the power button and shut it off myself. Seems like the HDD might be going out, possibly the mobo or even the PSU. I am unsure but hopefully someone is. The other pc is locked up right now and won't turn on (like I mentioned before, gotta wait) so the cd is in there. I need to check which build I have of UBCD4Win. I have already tried chkdisk and it said it fixed a number of things but had no report at the end so I did not really pay attention. Had hopes that it was fixed and rebooted...nothing. Anyways, I can boot up in UBCD4Win and everything works great, runs well. I have been leaving this computer alone as I am not in the mood to fix it but I know I've tried Safe mode but do not remember if it worked or shut me down. I should try again, I'll try safemode again and see if I can move the content to the other hdd but I doubt safemode was working or I'd have remembered. If you can shed any light on this let me know. As said before I appreciate the time and effort that went into this project.

From what you are describing (hdd running slow) it sounds like you have bad sectors on your hdd.

HDD Regenerator may get your hdd back into a condition to get the data off, however it isn't cheap $59.99 but the trial version will highlight any back sectors so you will get a good idea if it's worth getting.

MHDD is freeware and may also help (scroll down the page to locate)



UltimateBootCD also has loads of good diagnostic tools which you may find useful in the recovery process.

But as I said originally what you are describing sounds like bad sectors and you may need a new hdd. However a low level format (NOT a standard format ie creating a FATS/NTFS partition) writing zeros may rescue the drive although I wouldn't keep any valuable data on it.

The "slowness" you describe pretty much points me to the hard drive.

I would use HDTune and take a look at the information in the health tab. My laptop started getting really slow so I checked a few things and it ended up being the HDD, HDTune reported one bad attribute.

Backup your data and use that HDD as little as possible. Hopefully it will be able to copy your data over to a new drive without crashing.

Thanks a lot for the help, and I've put it off long enough. I would like to do this today, I work @ Ford and my schedule doesn't allow much time off but I have that now. My main question is can you just drag and drop files from the hard drives (I have 2 connected on the computer) via UBCD4win, regardless of what version I have atm let me know if the latest UBCD4win has a tool that will allow me to backup the hdd's files (I'd like to select specific folders) to the other hdd. Let me know, thanks. I'm going to run ubcd4win right now, hopefully I can access the internet while booted into ubcd on the bad computer (it runs fine when booted into ubcd4win).

There are several "explorers" included in the project so you should not have any problems moving your files. Unless the HDD is heavily damaged, then you may have to use some of the "recovery" tools included in the project. Hopefully your NIC is supported so you may be able to have internet access while booted in the project, I would assume that there is about a 85-90% success rate for getting online with the project??

Your posts have basically been asking for us to walk you step by step, which is not possible. I think you need to explore the project a little and before doing something you are unsure of, then ask a question.

One other possible option for you, if the HDD is failing and has your OS install on it. You can attempt to clone that drive to another and possibly save the hassle of reinstalling Windows.

It could also be possible that you need to run a "repair" for your OS install.

The current version has windows explorer, so drag & drop is not a problem.

There are plenty of programs for copying files so I'm not really sure what you need.

Personally I add robocopy to the build & use it because if there is an error you can start up where you left off.

You may want to take additional steps to keep the hard drive COOL for the data recovery since heat is always an issue on an almost dead HD. Sometimes just removing the cover & pointing a large house fan at the open case will work. It would be best to do this in an air conditioned room, as cold as it will get to prolong the life of the drive.

I focus on heat because it was 96 here today & even a good hard drive would not be verry happy with the temperature inside my house today.

Todays High ~101 F
Current evening temp outside: 86, (feels like 90)
current room temp: 95 F (no a/c)


Current pc temp (from drivesmart)
primary 42 C (107.6F)
secondary 38 C(... a little lower, compared to above)

..cooling fans are screaming... oh, well.
-always gotta watch the thermometer

I feel bad for you guys!!

We had a heat advisory on Monday, but luckily the "heat dome" lost it's grip over NW Ohio Monday night and it looks to be getting better for my area. I know I've sweat my butt off at work this week (AC sucks there)!! However, I do NOT want to see my electric bill for this month!! I know those bastards are getting rich off my central air, keeping my house a comfortable 70 degrees. I wish I could do more work out of the house!! I'm going to have to find something anyways........when I get my $200-$300 electric bill!!!!

Yea, been hot as hell here, probably around 95-100 most of the time, but I don't see much as at work, it's always cool around 70 degrees at all times. So I don't even know it's hot until I leave for the day, and then it's like walking into a sauna, lol. Otherwise, I keep the thermastat at 75 degrees at home as otherwise it's too much money for electricity, lol.

Is there anyway I can install windows without partitioning the corrupt hdd. I'd like to give it a shot and just make sure the damn thing is going out, but I don't want to lose the information on there. I know what you mean about the heat, it's insane here and my room is the worst (computer is on all the time). Also, I've tried "repairing" windows and I get thrown to the command prompt. I know you have to skip the first window and then do the repair but for one reason or another that didn't work. I'll try it again and hope you guys have the correct formula to repair when I return.

You keep seeming to ask for a magic wand that you can wave over your drive and just have it work... but I'm afraid it just doesn't work like that... Drive recovery/repair IS AN ART... it isn't something that can just have some "formula" provided to someone that isn't experienced at performing the required steps because even an expert must work at success in these issues. Now, I'm not trying to discourage you in your endeavor... but I do want you to be realistic and realize that it isn't always a simple step by step process either. Every situation is unique and there is no guarantee that anything will help... but there is still a chance of this helping still.

I'm assuming that you have already done what was previously recommended... if you didn't.. what are we doing here... you MUST follow the directions that are given or we are just wasting our time.

You should also state exactly what steps you take and their results so if you make a mistake or miss a step we may be able to find it.

Here is what I would do for a basic recovery/repair steps...

1. Attach another hard drive to the system boot the system with UBCD4Win, partition and format it so I can save what files I can retrieve to it.

2. Create a directory on the backup drive to copy what files I could to the backup drive/directory that was attached earlier. I would first probably use UNSTOPABLE COPIER to do this with.

3. Now run the CHKDSK repair utility on the drive that is having trouble... when asked what options to take.. select Y on all of them.

4. When it finishes... repeat step 2 again into an different backup directory... this way any files that may have been repaired during the last step but may have still been corrupted in the first copy... will get backed up.

Now you may try anything you wish from this point on... you've done what you could to recover and backup ( even if late ) and thing can't get worse. We can't say if you can re-install XP over what you have because we won't know if the format/partition/disk is any good or not... but at least you should have a portion if not all of your files backed up.


PS.... weather report for my local area

Yesterday's official high 105°F ( mine showed 108°F but that was in the middle of town )
Today's official was 104°F ( didn't check mine, but didn't want to know either )
Tommorrows forcasts range from 107°F to 109°F depending on which forcaster is doing it.

All I need is some sand, water... and maybe a few cold ones to help forget about it ... lol ( I guess sunglasses and sunscreen may be good ideas also )

Have you read the faq on data recovery?

Not quite as hot here, but for the UK it's very warm.

BBC

Is this included with the newest release of UBCD4win or was it something you had to add to the build yourself. I just ran a build and ran it on the computer. I'm going to try rebuilding and burning again, I ran into errors while booting with the cd. I think the reason it did not work was because I had to delete files as this computers hdd was getting full during the build (not burn process), and there was 1 warning (no errors). When I was booted it said at various times was "cannot find E:\UBCD4win\system32\profiles.exe". Later it also said it couldn't find "\UBCD4win\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\" or something to that effect. It booted fine and most apps ran but some wouldn't and halted with those particular errors. I also could not copy and paste files while in MS explorer (I could copy but the paste option would never be enabled, almost as if the clipboard did not exist, I tried copying any file on any hdd, cd, etc once again to no avail.), I tried many methods of copying files. Everything you said above I am very capable of so I'm going to try again, thanks for helping me through but until I am able to copy and paste I can't get anywhere. I know how to use a good percentage of the utilities in UBCD4win but I'm not completely familiar with every one of them, so I learn quickly as I go.

And yes I've read the FAQ but there isn't a ton of information available for my problem. I hope I can get these files, a lot of projects depend on this to keep their sites updated, etc. I also have irreplaceable folders of a family member who has passed, I'm praying those are untouched. I can physically access the files in UBCD4win but I can't copy and paste them, I'll rebuild and try burning as well next time. If you have any advice please help.

Of course since this forum's users are from around the world.. we can't in all fairness have a contest for hottest temps because the southern most areas will alway win most of the time.. It is stll interesting that in the locations around the world there are a lot of hot weather being reported. Currently we've been seeing temps that are about 10 degree's, give or take, more than average for this time of year... we normally don't see 3 digit temps until at least next month and then 103F-ish would still be high.

Another tip can be found here with controller card

Is your hdd making any loud scraping noise's? If so stop using the drive immediately you need professional help.

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

You may also want to consider downloading this, as all the hdd diagnostic tools are included the ubcd4win has a few but not all.

What do the hdd diagnostic tools say about your hdd physical state? Is OK or not? With you saying the files/folders can't be copied this seems to suggest something is wrong with the drive.

You may have serious problems and continually working on the drive may damage the data beyond recovery even for the experts. If it is a physical fault you need to make a decision on how valuable the data is and whether professional recovery is the best option.

If the drive is OK than it's more than likely a mbr/partition problem.

Testdisk/MBRFix/MBRWiz need to be run to get the data off.

If this fails try Active Partition Recovery I've used this in the past to recover my data, there is a free demo which will show you if the data can be recovered before you decide if you want to buy the software.

GetDataBack NTFS I assume it's a NTFS drive? Webmedic who used to be quite active here swore by this product and used it in his shop, again you need to buy the software if none of the freeware tools we have can't help. However it's not cheap but then again it goes back to the question how valuable is your data.

Data recovery is an art form, we can only hint at what to do as we don't have the drive in front of us it's up to you to make a decision but remember you may make the wrong one and then nothing will get your data back.

Also you may want to add a cooling hdd fan to keep the temp down on the hdd. All my hdd's are fitted with these. Heat is the biggest killer of hdd's.

Nope and I've had that problem before, ruined it completely.


I'll find out, I've ran chkdisk and said what it revealed above, can't remember atm but will run it again. I will try any tool that sounds like it might work and fits in the category, always exploring something.


I'll try these mbrfixes, printing this information for my use. Unfortunately the damn internet wouldn't work, but maybe I need to custom configure it (usually don't, automatic settings have always worked). It recognizes my nic card however.

I actually thought you and ultimatebootcd.com were the same, I have been using a copy of an older UBCD4win (within the past 4 months, it had a purplish desktop). I am guessing you are 2 different "builds" with different tools, similar interface? I really like the version 3.0 of ubcd4win. I'm going to go back in with my new cd and see if I can copy and paste now. You've been a great help tidy, as well as you rdsok.

UBCD4Win is based on Win XP (and above) and requires that you build the CD as for legal reasons we can't supply MS code and have a working CD.

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ is a completely different project and we have nothing to do with it, the main difference being this CD is based on DOS and a working ISO can be distributed as it doesn't use MS code.

Neither is better than the other as the Ultimatebootcd can do things the UBCD4Win can't and vice versa. No serious tech should be without both as they are both very useful and powerful tools.

To address the errors that you mentioned ( but they appear to be incorrectly written, next time get the exact wording since that may provide more clues )...

The error about a missing file has been mentioned many times on the forum and usually is caused by an antivirus program blocking or quarantining the file... while the project DOESN'T contain any malware it does contain programs that protection softwares often classify as "riskware" ( this is covered well in the FAQ's if you want more info )... disconnect from the internet, disable the on-access antivirus scanners or other protection programs and rebuild but you will need to start over from scratch since the files are likely quarantined. Just to make sure you are building correctly here is the how to build page http://www.ubcd4win.com/howto.htm

UNSTOPABLE COPIER is found in the File utils - Recovery tools area.

You are correct, incorrectly written and will carry a pen and pad next time but tried to get the point accross. I am not running any 3rd party software for antivirus, but will try to rebuild again. For some reason last night I rebuilt it and it would not boot up, going to reburn.

Thanks to the both of you.

By the way, I found a way around the copying issue. I booted with Joshua's into explorer, if that makes sense. The first screen (while in the gui) it has a dropdown list for skins, etc. Anyways, I was able to copy most of the files, where are the outlook express archives held (namely the messages in the inbox). I also need to know where the settings file lies, the file with the accounts (I use outlook express for multiple email accounts and can't recall the smtp & pop3 addresses), hopefully I can find this file. I'd rather have it than the messages, thanks.

Use FAB's Autobackup to rescue Outlook Express emails/address lists.

This program copy's user settings etc.... a very nifty little tool. It will also allow you to copy back the data to correct locations.