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Cool and quite useful tutorial I found browsing the web. Tried it myself and recovered almost all photos of my parents` crashed HDD.
The Problem
My hard drive crashed, Windows will not boot - I lost all of my picture and my documents. How do I get them back?
One of the easier ways to recovery data from a computer that will not boot is to use a Live CD. A live CD is a CD with an operating system on it completely independent of your hard drive. Since Live CD's do not depend on your computer's operating system they are a good way to rescue data when the OS stops working. Don't worry, its not as complicated as it sounds. This guide focuses on recovering specific types of files (pictures, documents etc) from a damaged hard drive that had any version of Windows on it. We will be using a program called PhotoRec running from an Ubuntu Live CD.
Step 1 - Downloading Ubuntu
Ubuntu is free, all you need to do is download it. To download it go to http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download This tutorial uses Ubuntu version 10.10. If that version is not available do not worry, it will not make a big difference. You will need to select whether your computer is 32 bit or 64 bit. The best way to tell this is by look at the stickers on the outside of your computer. Most likely you will see 32 or 64 on one of them. If you cannot find either number download the 32 bit version.
Using the wrong version will not harm your computer, but it may cause the CD to not work - meaning only you may have to download the other version and burn another CD.
Step 2 - Burning the Ubuntu Live CD
If you downloaded Ubuntu to a computer with Windows 7 this step will be simple.Simply put a blank CD in your computer and right click on the Ubuntu file, selecting "Burn Disk Image". Click "Burn".
Windows XP and Vista users will need to download a seperate program to do this. If you are not sure how to burn an ISO, just follow this tutorial to see how to do it using free software: How to burn an ISO to a CD
Step 3 - Starting Ubuntu
Image 1
With a pen drive in your computer and your Ubuntu Live CD in your cd-rom restart your computer. If you will be recovering a lot of data you may want to use a large pen drive or an external hard drive. If your computer prompts you, you DO want to boot from a cd. Your computer will now begin to start Ubuntu.A screen will appear asking if you would like to "Try Ubuntu" or install it. Click "Try Ubuntu". (Image 1)
Step 4 - Connecting to the Internet
Image 1
Ubuntu does not come with PhotoRec, the program this tutorial uses to recover files. However it is easy to download and install.
The first thing you will need to do is setup an internet connection. If you are using a wired connection Ubuntu should already be connected to the internet. If you are using a wireless connection you will need to connect to your network. Just click on the wireless symbol from the right side of the bar on the top of the screen. (Image 1) Select your wireless connection from the drop down menu that appears.
Step 5 - Installing PhotoRec Part 1
Image 3
Image 2
Image 1
Now that you are connected you can install PhotoRec.
First, click on "System" from the bar on the top of the screen and select "Administration" and then "Synaptic Package Manager" (Image 1) Click "Close" if the introduction dialog appears. Then click "Settings" from the menu bar and select "Repositories" (Image 2) Check the box next to "Community-Maintained Open Source Software" and click close (Image 3)
You will then be prompted that you need to reload, just click "Close" and then click "Reload" from the top left of the Synaptic Package Manager window.
Now a window should pop up saying "Downloading Package Information".
Step 6 - Installing PhotoRec Part 2
Image 2
Image 1
Once it is finished downloading the updates type "Testdisk" (without quotes) into the search box. (PhotoRec comes packaged with the test disk software.) It may take a few seconds for the search results to appear.
Once the results appear (Image 1) click on the star to the left of Testdisk in the search results and select "Mark for Installation" (Image 2). Now click "Apply", a Summary window will appear and click "Apply" in that window. A window will pop up showing the Download progress of the Testdisk files. Once Testdisk (and PhotoRec) are installed a window will pop up telling you that the changes were applied. Click close and then click the red x in the top left corner of the "Synaptic Package Manager" window to close it.
Step 7 - Starting PhotoRec
Image 2
Image 1
To start PhotoRec click "Applications" from the bar at the top of the screen, then select Accessories, then select Terminal. (Image 1)
In the Terminal window type "sudo photorec" (without quotes). (Image 2) This will start the PhotoRec program.
Step 8 - Selecting your Hard Drive
Image 2
Image 1
When you start PhotoRec it will first ask you which drive you would like to recover files from. (Image 1) The list of drives will include Hard Drives, CD-Roms, External Hard Drives, Pen Drives, basically any storage device that is connected to your computer.
You will need to select your hard drive using the up and down arrows on your key board. When you have selected your hard drive hit enter. See below if you are having trouble figuring out which is your Hard Drive. PhotoRec will now ask you for information about your hard drive: "Please select the partition table type" (Image 2) Select "[Intel] Intel/PC partition" and hit enter. If you having trouble figuring out which is your hard drive here are some clues:
Your hard drive will look something like this:
Disk /dev/sdb - 250 GB / 232 GiB (RO) - ATA WDC WD2500BB-55G
Look for a larger drive, this particular one is 250 gigabytes, your hard drive will most likely be the largest drive listed.
Notice the ATA, most likely your hard drive will be the one marked ATA
Flash Drives are not hard drives, they are usually pen drives.
Step 9 - Choosing which file type to recover
Image 2
Image 1
On the bottom of the screen you should see: (Image 1)
[ Search ] [Options ] [File Opt] [ Quit ] Use the right arrow key to select "File Opt". This will take you to a list of file types. (Image 2) By default PhotoRec will recover many different kinds of files. If you were to recover all of them you would have to weed through thousands of files to find the ones you are looking for. First hit the "s" button on your keyboard, this will deselect all of the file types.
Now, using the up and down arrow scroll through the list using the list using the space bar to select the following file types. (Selecting these should recover Word documents, pictures and videos from digital cameras, movies made in Windows Movie Maker)
* asf
* bmp
* doc
* jpg
* mov
* riff
Other file types you may want to consider:
* To recover Zip files select zip
* To recover Gif files select gif
* To recover Autocad files select dwg
* To recover an Access database select accdb and mdb
* To recover an Exchange database select edb
* To recover Photoshop files select psp
* To recover Turbo Tax files select tax
* To recove Notepad files select txt (Note: this will recover a lot of files that you may not want to recover)
Step 10 - Providing Information About your Hard Drive
Next it will ask which Partion you would like PhotoRec to scan. (Image 1) If you are not sure simply select "No Partition". By doing this PhotoRec will scan your entire hard drive. Partitions are divisions inside a hard drive. For example, if your laptop has a C: hard drive and a D: hard drive, it most likely has 1 hard drive that has 2 parititions. By scanning the entire drive the process will take more time but it will not miss anything.
If you know which Partition you would like to scan, select it and hit enter. Now PhotoRec will ask you what kind of file system was on your hard drive. Select "[Other]" and hit enter. (Image 2)
Step 11 - Deciding Where to Search
PhotoRec will now ask you whether you would like to search just the free space on your hard drive or the whole hard drive. Select "[Whole]". (Image 1)
Note: If ever you would like to undelete a file, you can use this tutorial and at this step select "[Free]". This will search for files that have been deleted.
Step 12 - Telling PhotoRec where to Save your Files
If you have not already put a pen drive, or an external hard drive into your computer, now is the time to do it.
Now you need to tell PhotoRec where you would like it to save the files that you recover. (Image 1) To do so, hit the left arrow button on the key board 2 times. You should now see a list of directories on the right, starting with bin, boot, cdrom, etc (Image 2) Use the down arrow to select "Media". You should now see a list that includes the Pen Drive or Removable Hard Drive you connected to your computer and the "apt". On the right side are the labels of the drives. They should be the same as the labels that you are used to seeing in Windows. (Image 3) In this image, my pen drive is labeled JAKE in windows and my external hard drive is labeled Elements
Scroll down to the drive you would like to use and hit enter. You should now see the folders/files that are on your drive. You can now hit "y" on your keyboard confirming that you would like to recover your files to that drive, or you can navigate to a folder and then hit "y".
Step 13 - Recovering your Files
As soon as you hit "y" PhotoRec should have started recovering your files! (Image 1) This will take a long time. It depends on the size of your hard drive, but you should expect it to take a few hours minimum.
When the recovery is complete you can click the Power button in the top right corner of the screen and select shut down.
Step 14 - Seeing your Files in Windows
Go to My Computer and open your pen drive or external hard drive. You should see some folders called recup_dir.1, recup_dir.2, recup_dir.3 etc. Inside those folders you should find files with names like f142864688.jpg and f151466048.jpg. Those are you recovered files. Their names are not the same and they will be spread out inside the various "recup" folders. The naming information was lost and PhotoRec was not able to recover it. This will require some sorting and renaming, but at least you have your memories and documents back!
The Problem
My hard drive crashed, Windows will not boot - I lost all of my picture and my documents. How do I get them back?
One of the easier ways to recovery data from a computer that will not boot is to use a Live CD. A live CD is a CD with an operating system on it completely independent of your hard drive. Since Live CD's do not depend on your computer's operating system they are a good way to rescue data when the OS stops working. Don't worry, its not as complicated as it sounds. This guide focuses on recovering specific types of files (pictures, documents etc) from a damaged hard drive that had any version of Windows on it. We will be using a program called PhotoRec running from an Ubuntu Live CD.
Step 1 - Downloading Ubuntu
Ubuntu is free, all you need to do is download it. To download it go to http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download This tutorial uses Ubuntu version 10.10. If that version is not available do not worry, it will not make a big difference. You will need to select whether your computer is 32 bit or 64 bit. The best way to tell this is by look at the stickers on the outside of your computer. Most likely you will see 32 or 64 on one of them. If you cannot find either number download the 32 bit version.
Using the wrong version will not harm your computer, but it may cause the CD to not work - meaning only you may have to download the other version and burn another CD.
Step 2 - Burning the Ubuntu Live CD
If you downloaded Ubuntu to a computer with Windows 7 this step will be simple.Simply put a blank CD in your computer and right click on the Ubuntu file, selecting "Burn Disk Image". Click "Burn".
Windows XP and Vista users will need to download a seperate program to do this. If you are not sure how to burn an ISO, just follow this tutorial to see how to do it using free software: How to burn an ISO to a CD
Step 3 - Starting Ubuntu
Image 1
With a pen drive in your computer and your Ubuntu Live CD in your cd-rom restart your computer. If you will be recovering a lot of data you may want to use a large pen drive or an external hard drive. If your computer prompts you, you DO want to boot from a cd. Your computer will now begin to start Ubuntu.A screen will appear asking if you would like to "Try Ubuntu" or install it. Click "Try Ubuntu". (Image 1)
Step 4 - Connecting to the Internet
Image 1
Ubuntu does not come with PhotoRec, the program this tutorial uses to recover files. However it is easy to download and install.
The first thing you will need to do is setup an internet connection. If you are using a wired connection Ubuntu should already be connected to the internet. If you are using a wireless connection you will need to connect to your network. Just click on the wireless symbol from the right side of the bar on the top of the screen. (Image 1) Select your wireless connection from the drop down menu that appears.
Step 5 - Installing PhotoRec Part 1
Image 3
Image 2
Image 1
Now that you are connected you can install PhotoRec.
First, click on "System" from the bar on the top of the screen and select "Administration" and then "Synaptic Package Manager" (Image 1) Click "Close" if the introduction dialog appears. Then click "Settings" from the menu bar and select "Repositories" (Image 2) Check the box next to "Community-Maintained Open Source Software" and click close (Image 3)
You will then be prompted that you need to reload, just click "Close" and then click "Reload" from the top left of the Synaptic Package Manager window.
Now a window should pop up saying "Downloading Package Information".
Step 6 - Installing PhotoRec Part 2
Image 2
Image 1
Once it is finished downloading the updates type "Testdisk" (without quotes) into the search box. (PhotoRec comes packaged with the test disk software.) It may take a few seconds for the search results to appear.
Once the results appear (Image 1) click on the star to the left of Testdisk in the search results and select "Mark for Installation" (Image 2). Now click "Apply", a Summary window will appear and click "Apply" in that window. A window will pop up showing the Download progress of the Testdisk files. Once Testdisk (and PhotoRec) are installed a window will pop up telling you that the changes were applied. Click close and then click the red x in the top left corner of the "Synaptic Package Manager" window to close it.
Step 7 - Starting PhotoRec
Image 2
Image 1
To start PhotoRec click "Applications" from the bar at the top of the screen, then select Accessories, then select Terminal. (Image 1)
In the Terminal window type "sudo photorec" (without quotes). (Image 2) This will start the PhotoRec program.
Step 8 - Selecting your Hard Drive
Image 2
Image 1
When you start PhotoRec it will first ask you which drive you would like to recover files from. (Image 1) The list of drives will include Hard Drives, CD-Roms, External Hard Drives, Pen Drives, basically any storage device that is connected to your computer.
You will need to select your hard drive using the up and down arrows on your key board. When you have selected your hard drive hit enter. See below if you are having trouble figuring out which is your Hard Drive. PhotoRec will now ask you for information about your hard drive: "Please select the partition table type" (Image 2) Select "[Intel] Intel/PC partition" and hit enter. If you having trouble figuring out which is your hard drive here are some clues:
Your hard drive will look something like this:
Disk /dev/sdb - 250 GB / 232 GiB (RO) - ATA WDC WD2500BB-55G
Look for a larger drive, this particular one is 250 gigabytes, your hard drive will most likely be the largest drive listed.
Notice the ATA, most likely your hard drive will be the one marked ATA
Flash Drives are not hard drives, they are usually pen drives.
Step 9 - Choosing which file type to recover
Image 2
Image 1
On the bottom of the screen you should see: (Image 1)
[ Search ] [Options ] [File Opt] [ Quit ] Use the right arrow key to select "File Opt". This will take you to a list of file types. (Image 2) By default PhotoRec will recover many different kinds of files. If you were to recover all of them you would have to weed through thousands of files to find the ones you are looking for. First hit the "s" button on your keyboard, this will deselect all of the file types.
Now, using the up and down arrow scroll through the list using the list using the space bar to select the following file types. (Selecting these should recover Word documents, pictures and videos from digital cameras, movies made in Windows Movie Maker)
* asf
* bmp
* doc
* jpg
* mov
* riff
Other file types you may want to consider:
* To recover Zip files select zip
* To recover Gif files select gif
* To recover Autocad files select dwg
* To recover an Access database select accdb and mdb
* To recover an Exchange database select edb
* To recover Photoshop files select psp
* To recover Turbo Tax files select tax
* To recove Notepad files select txt (Note: this will recover a lot of files that you may not want to recover)
Step 10 - Providing Information About your Hard Drive
Next it will ask which Partion you would like PhotoRec to scan. (Image 1) If you are not sure simply select "No Partition". By doing this PhotoRec will scan your entire hard drive. Partitions are divisions inside a hard drive. For example, if your laptop has a C: hard drive and a D: hard drive, it most likely has 1 hard drive that has 2 parititions. By scanning the entire drive the process will take more time but it will not miss anything.
If you know which Partition you would like to scan, select it and hit enter. Now PhotoRec will ask you what kind of file system was on your hard drive. Select "[Other]" and hit enter. (Image 2)
Step 11 - Deciding Where to Search
PhotoRec will now ask you whether you would like to search just the free space on your hard drive or the whole hard drive. Select "[Whole]". (Image 1)
Note: If ever you would like to undelete a file, you can use this tutorial and at this step select "[Free]". This will search for files that have been deleted.
Step 12 - Telling PhotoRec where to Save your Files
If you have not already put a pen drive, or an external hard drive into your computer, now is the time to do it.
Now you need to tell PhotoRec where you would like it to save the files that you recover. (Image 1) To do so, hit the left arrow button on the key board 2 times. You should now see a list of directories on the right, starting with bin, boot, cdrom, etc (Image 2) Use the down arrow to select "Media". You should now see a list that includes the Pen Drive or Removable Hard Drive you connected to your computer and the "apt". On the right side are the labels of the drives. They should be the same as the labels that you are used to seeing in Windows. (Image 3) In this image, my pen drive is labeled JAKE in windows and my external hard drive is labeled Elements
Scroll down to the drive you would like to use and hit enter. You should now see the folders/files that are on your drive. You can now hit "y" on your keyboard confirming that you would like to recover your files to that drive, or you can navigate to a folder and then hit "y".
Step 13 - Recovering your Files
As soon as you hit "y" PhotoRec should have started recovering your files! (Image 1) This will take a long time. It depends on the size of your hard drive, but you should expect it to take a few hours minimum.
When the recovery is complete you can click the Power button in the top right corner of the screen and select shut down.
Step 14 - Seeing your Files in Windows
Go to My Computer and open your pen drive or external hard drive. You should see some folders called recup_dir.1, recup_dir.2, recup_dir.3 etc. Inside those folders you should find files with names like f142864688.jpg and f151466048.jpg. Those are you recovered files. Their names are not the same and they will be spread out inside the various "recup" folders. The naming information was lost and PhotoRec was not able to recover it. This will require some sorting and renaming, but at least you have your memories and documents back!
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