Corrupt Hard drive? - Cannot recognize Windows 7

Question

Hello. One day my computer couldn't boot into Windows. On the screen it kept telling me "Disk read error. Reboot your PC.". I tried using the repair options from the Windows 7 install CD, but the operating system isn't even listed. I have files I need to recover before doing a clean install on the corrupt hard drive. Is there some way I can run a "chkdsk" command on the corrupt hard drive from the install CD? Or something else I can do? Any help is welcome. Thank you.

Answer 1

Hello. Sorry for the late reply. Since my hdd wouldn't boot into Windows I had to use my backup hdd that is currently running FreeBSD. I then connected my Windows hdd as a secondary. If you have the time to check out my post on the FreeBSD forums to get an idea of what I tried to mount the Windows hdd: https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/61657/

I have not tried anything yet on a Windows system except what I tried doing with chkdsk. I'm curious what will be the difference between what I did and what you're suggesting, hooking the Windows hdd up to a USB? Thank you for your time.

Answer 2

There is a physical way.  Remove the failing (ed) drive.  Temporarily install it in an external drive housing.  Connect via USB to a different computer.  There is a good chance you can find the files you want and copy them off that drive.

BEFORE you do a re-install on that drive, check to ensure the drive hardware is not in the process of failing. Download and run the drive manufacturers drive tester software.  If you will supply the drive model number (device manager), I can provide a link.

Answer 3

Hello. I was able to run the command prompt from the installation CD. When trying to run "chkdsk /r /b C:" I get a error message, "The type of the file system is NTFS. Unable to determine volume version and state. CHKDSK aborted." I'm not sure what else I can do to try and recover my files before doing a clean install. I can't boot into safe mode because I can't get Windows to load in the first place. Any ideas?

Answer 4

Well try simple fixes.1st,on pc start-up,tap the F8 key,select safe-mode in cmd.In cmd,type: Sfc /Scannow

Once its thru,type:  CHKDSK C: /F  agree to restart,type: EXIT  restart pc.Sfc runs on restart,look at the last detail

page,look at bad sectors,if any data exists,then the HD is corrupted,install new OS on new HD

Answer 5

In worse case, if you reinstall Windows it will put your files into Windows.old folder which you may retrieve them later but you need to reinstall your applications. Are you able to run command prompt from Windows installer disk?