Disk Read Error

[Thorn]

Probably a bad sector or something, I'm just going to do a wipe and a reinstall.

My problem is I am trying to use the command line (Recovery console) to copy my documents to another drive, and I am getting an access denied error when I try to copy C:\Users\James, and a file not found when I try to do C:\Users. Is there any way around this? The files are under a password protected administrator account. I ran chkdsk /r to try to fix the drive, but I am only doing that to try to get my files onto another drive. Right now I'm stuck at wanting to fix my computer, but I also kinda want to just do a fresh install after getting my needed files.

 

[office politics]

can you boot to windows? if so, login as admin and copy the files.

otherwise you need to yank the drive and install it into another computer as a slave drive. login to that box as admin, take ownership of the files, and copy the files.


there maybe a way to copy the files with a linux boot cd, but i don't know procedures. also writing files in linux to a ntfs partition is trivial

 

[KSoD]

The reason you are getting this is because the user account was password protected. At least that is what it is saying. The account you are using to try and get those files does not have the rights to those files. You will have to take ownership of them.

 

[Thorn]

Is there any way to get them from the command prompt I have?

 

[KSoD]

Vista: How To Take Ownership of a System File | Microsoft Vista | Tech-Recipes

try that.

 

[Thorn]

Sweet, thanks a lot.


So, the actual problem. I'm on a live CD of Ubuntu, and I look at my other drives (my C:\ drive doesn't show up for some reason, so I can't copy the files) I have my boot.ini, ntldr, and NTDETECT.COM files there (as well as the chkdsk log). I've noticed this before, several times. These files SHOULD be on my C:\ drive, right?

And if they aren't, but I somehow got my computer to boot properly for a few months, than attempting to wipe my C: drive and install Vista could throw off whatever balance I had to make it work? Would fixboot/fixmbr help here, and if so, is there anything I need to know?

 

[KSoD]

Not necessarily. Your C:\ Drive isnt necessarily your boot drive where that information is located. IT could be any drive or partition that can contain your boot info. I have had it stored on my 2nd partition on my 2nd drive before.

If you are attempting to fix a Vista boot then the fixboot and fixmbr commands wont work. That was for XP and boot.ini which Vista doesnt use. It uses BCD. Try this to fix the Vista boot.

Repairing the Windows Vista Bootloader - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki

 

[Thorn]

So I don't even need those files since I don't use XP anymore?

So when I used GParted, it said that it was unable to read the file system on the disc (both partitions).
Is it likely I could ever get my files back? I was able to find my linux drive, so now I have access to download and use stuff. Is there anything I can use with linux that might allow me to recover some files?


(And Mak, thanks a lot man. You've always helped me out pretty well, and you do so much here)

 

[KSoD]

You dont need the boot.ini that is for sure. But the NTLDR and NTDETECT could still be in use.

As for the file system. Create a new partition and you might even have to format and then use recovery software to try and recover the data. That might be your best solution.

 

[Thorn]

So my only option is to delete the files I want to recover?

Eh...